Page 41 of Fluke
From: Pippa Plum
Re: SEEKING AN EX-HUSBAND
I need afake ex-husband.
Let me explain …
I may have let it slip to my new coworkers that I have an ex-husband. Now they’re fascinated with the details, specifically with him.
Why wouldn’t they be? He’s gorgeous, has exceptional skills in the bedroom, and is determined to win me back.
But there’s a problem.He doesn’t exist.
The bigger problem? I have to produce him to save my job.
This is where you come in.
I’m seeking someone to play a smitten ex-husband for two weeks. You’ll need to remember our love story—details matter when it comes to romance! I need you to be prepared to travel in-state at a moment’s notice. We may be in close proximity; sharing a bed may be required.
One more thing—kisses are essential for optics as necessary.
If this sounds interesting or, at the very least, entertaining, let me know.
Signed,
Your Future Ex-Wife
I hit send.
10
JESS
“Are you still here?” Dad’s voice makes me jump.
“Fucking hell. You scared the shit out of me.”
Dad chuckles as he moseys through the house that I’ve been working on all day.
The three-bedroom, three-bathroom home is one of my parents’ best finds. It’s barely outside of the city limits and is surrounded by vegetation, so you can’t see it from the road. But once you turn onto the driveway and pull through the row of bushes and trees, the lawn opens, and the neatest little house sits in the middle of half an acre.
Moss and I each run a team of construction workers and a designer that completely transforms properties for Laguna Homes. Mom and Dad buy them, we fix them up, and then our parents work with Maddox to sell for a profit.
It’s a nice thing we have going. And through the years, Moss and I have never argued over who gets to work on a project. But I would’ve fought him over this one.
I grab a broom and sweep up the dust and debris from today’s work on the floor.
“Yeah, I’m about done,” I say. “I didn’t have anything else to do, so I thought I’d get a jump start on this. At least get some of the kitchen gutted so we can see what we’re working with on Monday.”
Dad stops next to the window and takes in the open space. “There’s a lot of potential here.”
“I know. I’m really excited to see what we can do with this.” I brush the dust into a pan and then dump it in a trash bag I stretched over an empty box. “Now that I’ve spent a little time in here, I think we consider taking the laundry room out of the hallway and using that for storage. And I don’t think it would be that expensive or difficult to build out a butler’s pantry thing here leading into the dining room.”
“Where are you going to put the laundry?”
“Garage. We can fashion a mudroom out there. There’s plenty of space in the back because the bays are so deep.”
Dad mulls it over.
