Page 28 of Personal Escort

He’s not real. It doesn’t matter what she tells her grandmother. He’s a figment of her imagination, a prop to keep her independence.

But she still hasn’t asked me to hire an escort to play him for a staged wedding.

I start to message her back that maybe she can buy some time with casual dating, when she sends the text I’ve been dreading for weeks now.

Cara: Now she’s talking about the matchmaking service again. Time to get serious. What do you need from me for the escort?

I take a deep breath and remind myself this doesn’t matter, it’s not the end of the world.

Toby: Time, date, place. An email address you don’t mind him using to coordinate further with you.

Cara: Okay. I’ll let you know once I’m home again.

Cara: Thank you. You’re the best.

Hardly.

I slam my fist down on the steel work bench before I remember I’m holding my phone. The sharp crunch of glass is a fitting coda to a conversation IknewI was going to have at some point.

What did you think your free little bird was going to do, fly back to Palo Alto again?

She wants to live her life. Move to Australia. Have nothing to do with men or business or family…

She wants nothing to do with me beyond our growing friendship.

I need some fucking perspective.

I need to help her out, exactly as she’s asked me to, and get over my ridiculous, possessive affection for her.

I stalk out of the lab and across the bright atrium-style walkway to the executive offices. My assistant is at his desk, his new puppy at his feet.

“I need a new phone,” I tell him. “And then you should go home because life is short.”

He raises one eyebrow at me. “What exactly happened in the lab? Did you discover the secret to work-life balance?”

Something like that. Instead of an answer, I hand him my phone, the cracked screen mocking me silently from where he sets it on his desk. Everything syncs to our cloud storage. I’ve lost or damaged enough phones to know it really can only be a SIM-card transportation device.

By the time I’m settled behind my desk, he’s in front of me, holding out a brand-new phone. No cracks, no sign I lost my temper.

“Thank you.”

“That was the last one I had in my desk. Don’t break this one until Monday.”

I give him a tight, acknowledging smile. “I’ll do my best. Now go home.”

I spend the next hour poking around the internet, trying to figure out the best way to safely hire an escort I’d trust with Cara, before I give up and call my friends.

Ben doesn’t answer, so I try Jake next.

He’s busy, too.

It’s for the best. When they ask why I want to hire an escort, I won’t be able to tell them.

No, I’m on my own with this.

I take a deep breath and go back to Google.

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

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