Page 27 of Cocky Nerd
Her brow furrows. “No. Painfully honest I can deal with. I guess I just don’t see why you can’t you act like that all thetime.”
I laugh. It’s a surprisingly naïve thing for her to say. “Nobody acts like the perfect boyfriend all the time. I like you even when I’m not acting like that. There are plenty of guys who behave like the perfect boyfriend who are by definition terrible boyfriends in that they lie, cheat, insult their women all while putting on a publicfaçade.”
“Sure, agreed, but why can’t you act like the perfect boyfriend even fifteen percent of thetime?”
I smile and take her hand. “Fifteen percent of all time, or fifteen percent of the time I spend with you?” I kiss her hand. “It wouldn’t be feasible for me to devote fifteen percent of every waking hour acting like the perfect boyfriend, but it might be possible for me to spend ten percent of my time with you behaving in a way that’s compliant with your expectations for the mythical perfectboyfriend.”
“It’s not a negotiation. I’m giving up one hundred percent of my time to be with you for a month—you should be able to manage to be a pretend perfect boyfriend for fifteen percent of that time.” Her eyes widen and she covers her mouth, looking towards Richard. “Sorry!” shewhispers.
“It’s okay. Richard has signed a non-disclosure agreement too. He overhears a lot of business calls while he’s drivingme.”
“Oh.” She pulls her hand from mine and looks out thewindow.
“What’s wrong? I’ll agree to yourdemand.”
She shakes her head, looking out the window, then turns to face me again. “Was Montana Reed an arrangementtoo?”
She’s Googled me. That’s not surprising, but it is somewhatdisappointing.
“My roommate Googled you and told me you dated a supermodel last year. What kind of term sheet did you have with her? I’m assuming it was a similar kind of arrangement.” She lifts her chin,defiantly.
I smirk. “Why would you assumethat?”
“Because I’ve metyou.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Have you metMontana?”
“The state or themodel?”
“I happen to know that you’ve never been to Montana thestate.”
“Yeah I haven’t met either of them. But she looks…nice.”
“She was. Is. Nice. But our conversations weren’t stimulating, so I endedit.”
She scoffs. “You ended it withher?”
I shift around in the seat. I hadn’t thought of Montana in a while. It makes me uncomfortable. “Yes. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. She was…more hung up on me than I’drealized.”
“Right. I’msure.”
I shrug. “It makes no difference to me if you believe me ornot.”
“Wait—if you had an arrangement with her you wouldn’t tell me anyway, right? Because of the non-disclosureagreement.”
“If we had a non-disclosure agreement I wouldn’t be telling you she was hung-up onme.”
“Oh. Well what are you going to say when we ‘breakup?’”
I look down. That’s not a question I’m willing to answer. I scratch my cheek stubble and ask: “Are you still hungry? You didn’t eat much at therestaurant.”
She looks at me like I just asked her if she’s crazy. I’m quite sure I didn’t. “Answer myquestion.”
“How about I answer it after you’ve eaten? You’ve always been exceedingly short-tempered when you’rehungry.”
“I’m not short tempered!” shesnaps.
I smile. “My mistake.” There’s that scowl that Ilove.
