Page 8 of The Fake Dating War

“Oh, no. Don’t stop. This is so good for me,” Patel deadpans. “I’m sure you get that a lot and that it’s allsogenuine.”

I’m now holding onto the edge of her desk and leaning over it. She’s shorter than me. Most people in this office are, but the difference is stark with her sitting down. I’m bigger and taking up space above her. I should back off. What am I doing? This isn’t why I came over. I’m close enough to smell the perfume on her skin. “Hate to break up your little fantasy.”

Again, I wait until she gives in and looks at me.

“When you do it right, they can’t speak coherently. They start trembling all over. And this might be a foreign concept, Patel, but if you’re not begging for it, I haven’t done my job properly.”

Her eyes squeeze shut briefly. I wonder if I’ve taken it too far. But then she opens them, and everything about her expression is drenched with fire. “Did you really come over here to talk about your dick?”

That word from her mouth. Blood leaves my head. I don’t want to know where it goes, even though I know.

Get a fucking grip, it’s Patel,I chant to myself.This isn’t why you came here.

“Look in your inbox,” I snap. “I flipped Aron Holdings. I want the client transfer form returned to me before the end of the day.”

Her teeth grind. “How?”

“Upsell.”

She swears, profusely. The sound is nirvana. It’s fucking satisfying. There is no poaching between agents as soon as a contract is signed, but one point of weakness exists. If a client stays with our firm for two years, at the second year mark, they can move to another agent’s portfolio if they are upsold more services by that other agent. Unofficially, we call it Mutiny.

Right on time, the scoreboard above us changes. The number beside my name is twenty-two point three million. Hers stays at twenty-one. I wait for Patel to look worried, but her body language doesn’t shift. If anything, her spine straightens.

“The bonus is mine,” she swears.

“Keep dreaming.”

With nothing more to say, I go back to my desk. I appear unfazed and to be in no rush, even if my mind is crunching information. Her reaction… It’s bothering me. Two weeks until the deadline, and she isn’t concerned. Not only that, but I checked, and she’s blocked off next week for vacation. Unless she’s gone and had a personality transplant, none of that makes sense. What is she hiding? A whale? Has she got the kind of client whose net worth will shoot up the value of her portfolio all at once? How big could they be? Three million? Four?

That’s still not more than the value of clients I’ve been stockpiling. Five million dollars haven’t been entered under my name. That’s my trump card. She’s not going to see it coming. It’s a trick I can only use once because Mr.Davies will be pissed if he finds out. When clients aren’t entered correctly in the system, his forecasting data isn’t accurate.

My mother’s house.

It’s worth the risk. I can’t have it sold to anyone else.

I put my headphones on. I’m about to turn on my music, but then I see Leo rolling his chair over to Patel across the aisle. Something is going on there, my gut tells me.

Leo is regularly loud, but today his voice carries more than usual. He’s… groveling?

My eyes stay on my screen, and I start typing, pretending I’m not listening in. Their whole conversation is not completely audible, but enough of it is.

Is this a joke?

Is this what Patel is so distracted with?

6

REEMA

If you’re not begging for it, I haven’t done my job properly.

There’s no reason for that sentence to make me squirm in my seat. Coleman’s words can’t be the filthy promise I am making them out to be. No combination ofbig, penis,andbedshould repeat in my head.

There’s a simple answer as to why it does.

I’ve not been railed in so long that the boasting of a work enemy is doing something tingly for me. My vagina is a sad vagina. The whisper of a good time is apparently good enough to perk it up again.My name Igor, and I’ve been brought back to life.

Don’t ask me why I’ve named my vagina, Igor. Maybe because it’s the most unsexy name I could think of, and that’s exactly how I feel about that region of my body at the moment. It’s veryIgor.

---