Paid To Love

Episode 26

Paid To Love EPISODE 26

Victoria’s POV

After the incident with Henry’s father, I couldn’t sit still. I wandered around the kitchen, pressed my face against the glass wall in the living room, walked up and down the steps to the balcony at least twenty times, and checked my phone at least one hundred times. I was waiting for it. Waiting for the text from Henry telling me to get out of his house and give him his money back. He’d told me to be careful around his father, but I’d ended up lying to him that we had s*x on his couch and the kitchen counter.

“Augh!” I cried suddenly, stopping on the middle step in the staircase.

James sat there giving me a concerned look from the living room. “Victoria, come sit down. Henry’s probably going to be here any second.”

I pressed my hands to my cheeks, giving him a horrified look. “Do you think his father will get me arrested for fraud or something?”

“I doubt it—”

“She’s probably doing a background check on me right now. Do you think she’s going to put a tail on me? She wouldn’t be able to figure out who I am. Wait! I told her my full name! I'm on social media! Oh man, oh man. I have to delete everything, and what about Antoine hotels? Does that even exist?.”

James stood up and came over to the staircase and climbed up the stairs to where I was. I backed up a little, pressing my back against the railing. He reached out and held my forearm, holding my gaze. “You’re fine.”

“He thinks I’m not good enough for Henry, huh?” I spoke in a hush tone, low enough so James wouldn’t hear. Why else would he have made those remarks? I guess anyone with eyes could see the difference between Henry and myself. Even if I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t.

“Stop thinking and clam down.”

I sucked in my lips and made a sour face. “I am the essence of calm. Except for the fact that I breached the contract between Henry and myself and he’s so going to kill me— or worse, take his money back.”

A crease appeared in James’s eyebrows. “How is that worse—”

Suddenly the front door opened and I let out a terrified squeak. What if it was Henry’s father again? Or Henry? I didn’t know which would be worse so I got up and made the run for the room upstairs but slipped on the smooth floor and lost my balance. I felt myself fall for about three seconds until firm arms wrapped around my waist. With my head about two inches from the stairs, I was pulled up. I looked back and I saw Henry standing there, looking absolutely confused.

“What are you two doing...?” he asked.

In a swift motion, James helped me straighten out my back. My head spun for a second and I held onto his arm. “Henry,” I started. “I’m sorry. It’s okay if you want to end the contract.”

“What are you two doing?” he repeated, jaw tensing.

“It just happened this way. I’m really sorry. I couldn’t help it.”

“Help what? Fooling around with my best friend while I was at work?” he snapped.

I paused. “What?”

He gestured toward James and I. “I wasn’t aware you two were so close.”

“I think you’re getting the wrong idea, Henry,” James said, grinning a bit. “We’re not doing anything bad here.”

Henry’s suspicious expression didn’t disappear. “Why do you want to end the contract?”

“Don’t you want to?”

“Why would I want to?”

“Your father...”

“My father?” he repeated. Then his eyes widened. “Did he come here while I was away?”

I nodded.

“When? What happened? Were you dressed like that?”

Of course, he would mention my outfit. “Yes,” I grit out.

He ran a hand through his hair, closing his eyes. “I should’ve expected this. What happened? Did he find everything out?”

“No,” James answered before I could. “I told him Victoria was a family friend visiting from Madrid and I’d set the two of you up.”

“Did he believe you?”

“I’m not sure. He didn’t attempt to kick Victoria out, if that counts for anything.”

Henry covered his mouth with his hand, looking out toward the lake. “Why would he come directly here?”

“He did insinuate that he thought I was robbing you,” I told him. He didn’t need to know about him also insulting my looks.

He groaned. “It’s because you’re wearing my shirt— hold on, why are you wearing my shirt?”

“I don’t have any clean clothing here, remember?”

He raked his eyes over me slowly and then cleared his throat. “Oh, right. That’s fine then.”

James coughed into his hand and I swear it sounded like a laugh.

“Can you speak Spanish, Victoria? Eventually you’re going to have to meet with my father again now that he’s met you once. I’ll speak to him myself before that then, but just in case.”

I grimaced sheepishly. “Well. No. I can’t speak Spanish. At all.”

He didn’t seem put off by my answer, so I assumed he hadn’t expected me to be able to. “I figured as much,” he said unnecessarily.

“That was my fault,” James told him. “It was the first thing that came to mind.”

“Did anything else happen?”

I felt my cheeks warm up and I gave him an innocent smile. “Well, um.”

His face fell and he braced himself. “Yes?”

“I might’ve told your father we had s*x on the kitchen counter and the couch... sort of. Ha ha.”

His ears tinted pink and he opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “We’re both adults, why does it matter? And he’s basically told me not to be a slut so I had to say something back. Not that being a slut is even a bad thing. It’s okay to like s*x. He shouldn’t be interfering in our s*x life anyway.” I bit my tongue, realizing I was saying too much. Our s*x life?! We didn’t have one!

This time James did laugh and I shot him a dirty look. “In Victoria’s defence, her provocative words were in your defence,” he said.

“That’s not something my father would ever need to know,” he muttered.

I scuffed my feet on the floor. Awkward.

“Well, we can work on the lie you told him. Victoria can learn a few simple phrases in Spanish and we’ll get her a proper wardrobe. We’ll just have to come up with a concrete background. Maybe create a fake profile for her family online. Find out what the top colleges are and maybe we can create a fake degree,” he continued, frowning in thought. “Maybe fix her hair a bit, too. Good thing your car wasn’t here.”

“Yeah, yeah. No problem. I’ll just change my whole life. Just for you,” I said, nodding my head along to his suggestions.

He pressed his lips together. “Are you upset?”

“No. I mean I guess I should’ve known not even a part of me is good enough to date you.”

“It’s not...” Henry started but trailed off because yes. Yes, it was.

I bit my lip to keep from retorting. I’d already known I would have to lie to his father about who I was, but hearing just exactly what I’d have to change, I felt a little hurt. A part of me looked inwards at my car, clothing, education, family and even my lifestyle and I thought none of it — not even one thing was good enough. Was I really that worthless to these people? Were they really on such a different level than me? Did I really look so trashy to them?

“I’m sorry,” Henry said.

He was apologizing? I didn’t know what to say.

“Wow, impressive,” James said instead, giving him a small round of applause. “Never thought I’d see the day Henry acted considerate without someone telling him to.”

Henry shot him a dirty look, obviously embarrassed. “I’m generally considerate.”

“I beg to differ,” I said.

“If this is too uncomfortable for you, I’ll understand if you don’t want to continue with our contract,” Henry told me. “My father isn’t pleasant. The women he suggests to me are comparable to rich snubs who have been trained in running a family business all their lives and that’s why I don’t want to be anywhere near them.”

Part of me really, really wanted to tell Henry good riddance and hightail it out, but my kinder side fought with that part. If this was what Henry was faced with, it was no wonder he didn’t want to be forced into a relationship with someone his father chose. His father seemed to think he owned the world. He’d even had the audacity to accuse me of stealing Henry’s stuff and attack my appearance. Who did he think he was? Was I really going to get scared off by him? I was stronger, than that, wasn’t I?

“I’m still going to help you,” I said.

Henry looked relieved. “Thank you, Victoria.”

“But if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this right. He thinks I’m not good enough for you? Make me good enough for you,” I continued, feeling my pulse begin to rise. “Your father’s pretty intimidating. So I guess I’ll have to become intimidating too.”

My words seemed to surprise him. “You want me to make you good enough for me...?” he repeated.

I nodded, squaring my shoulders. “Yes.”

James hummed. “Then it appears we have some shopping to do.”

I turned to him. “You’ll help?”

“Of course. If that’s okay with Henry.”

Henry stared at me, eyebrows crinkled. “I suppose so, but—”

“Then I’ll go get ready.” I started down the stairs and then stopped, suddenly remembering something. James and Henry were both boys... I’d need a girl for this. Looking over my shoulder, I smiled innocently at Henry. “We’re just going to have to pick up one thing.”