Page 1 of The Arrangement

Chapter One

AINSLEY

My husband had a tell like no other. When he lied to me, his skin flushed bright red. Not the slightest blush red, but I’ve just run a marathon red. It was also the color he became when he was embarrassed.

It was that shade of red I was staring at that night across the dinner table as we discussed our new arrangement.

“So, no questions at all?” he asked, rubbing his thumb over his palm.

“None,” I agreed. “It’s the only way we can be sure it will work. We aren’t accountable to each other for what happens when we’re out. We’ll each have total freedom.”

“Okay.” He was breathless, doing everything he could to avoid meeting my eyes.

“But we should have some other rules.”

That piqued his curiosity. His gaze found mine.

“Other rules… Like what?”

I tapped my finger against my lips, though I already knew what rules I would require.

“First of all, you can only make connections for your given day. You have Thursdays, I’ll do Tuesdays. Every other day of the week, our life has to continue as normal. There are to be no connections made outside of the app at all. We won’t give out our phone numbers, no phone calls or texts, etc. And, whoever you’re with, whatever you do…protection is a must. We’ll each need to get tested after every encounter.”

“Of course,” he said, nodding in agreement.

“This is just for fun, so I think we should also make a rule that we shouldn’t see anyone we’re immensely attracted to. We don’t want either of us to start making genuine connections. It’s all physical.”

He nodded again, swallowing.

“Okay, yeah. Agreed.”

“And the kids can never know,” I said, lowering my voice. “As far as they’re concerned, nothing can change. You’ll be working late on Thursdays, I’ll be working late on Tuesdays. Simple as that.”

He ran his fingers across his lips.

“Are you sure we can do this?”

I looked down at the table as the sickly feeling washed over me—the one that had been ever-present since the arrangement was proposed a week ago.

“I don’t think we have any choice.”

“You know I love you, right?” he asked, the tremble in his voice more noticeable than ever.

“I love you too, Peter. This isn’t about that. We both agree that things aren’t working as they are, and we can either give up and walk away, or we can try something new.” I paused, watching his facial expression harden. “I’m trying here.”

“I know. I know you are… I don’t want to lose you. Okay,” he said, very matter-of-factly. “So when do we start?”

“We can both set up our profiles on the app tonight and start connecting right away.” I held up a finger, jaw dropping. “Oh, I almost forgot. I think we should use fake names. It will be easier to keep it all quiet that way. We don’t want anyone to find out who we are, or that we’re married, or where we work…”

“Yeah, you’re right. I like that idea,” he said, running his palm over his face.

“Okay, great, so I’ll be Annie Green?” I said. A version of my first name and a portion of our last name—Greenburg. “And you can be—”

“Pete Patterson,” he answered quickly. Apparently, he’d already given it some thought. “I’ve always wanted that last name. Like James.” He flushed red again as he mentioned his favorite author. I nodded.

“Okay. And we need to make sure we put that we’re only looking for something casual. I don’t want anyone to get hurt in this process—us or them.”

“We’re going to end up with a lot of married people doing the same thing, I’d say,” he said then laughed. “If only there was an option to just put that as your status.”

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