Page 28 of Great Pretender
“Never mind, Piper. I can’t go down that road today. I really need your help, if you’ll help me.”
“Why me, Chad?” My voice comes out in a hush.
“It would be more believable if we got together.”
I’m surprised he can say such a thing. I have the urge to laugh again. This time there’s something in his eyes that stops me. It’s a look. A fleeting spark of a look that tells me it would be believable to him too.
“Why the hell would that be believable? I’m nothing like the skank whores you hook up with. People know me as thebest friend.”
“Yes, exactly. And that’s why it’s believable. I’d make it worth it by giving you a million dollars and whatever you need.”
My mouth falls open, and now all I can do is stare back at him. Desperation really must be riding his back for him to offer me so much money.
A million dollars.
One million dollars.
Jesus, I’d be a millionaire. I could set my life back on track to what it was before Dad got in so much debt.
I’ve only paid back fifty grand of the four hundred thousand Dad owed some seriously dangerous guys—men who threatened to kill him.
The first ten thousand I paid was to stop them from killing him. Then every cent earned over the last two years went to Dad. His debt and rehab. His addiction problems were so bad he had to stay in for ninety days. I had to pay for all of that, and I couldn’t ask for help. He begged me not to or tell anyone, and with the type of money Chad and his family forked out for Mom, it would have been unconscionable to ask for more help.
One million dollars.
I’ve calculated that it’s going to take me many, many, many years to pay off the debt.
One million dollars would make it all go away.
My God… but what would I lose?
I look at Chad standing before me. Tall, dark, and handsome. Even in his lack of sleep state, he looks like he just stepped off the cover of a magazine.
I have this feeling it would be the end of us if I agreed to this. Those feelings I had for him outside of our friendship are there. If I did this, I would open the door to something else. Something more. And he would hurt me.
He would break me.
If I can admit that every guy I’ve been with were just shimmers of the parts I love about him, what would happen to me if I got the real thing? The real Chad Holdsworth.
It wouldn’t be fake to me.
“I don’t want to be with another guy who doesn’t want me,” I hear myself say, and a tear tracks down my cheek. “It would be worse with you.”
I turn and walk away, leaving him in silence and whatever meaning he’ll take from my words. I said too much there. I know that.
At this point, though, I’m sure I’ve lost my mind, so I no longer care what I say.
As I jump in my car, the only thought in my mind is that I can't stay with him anymore.
I have to leave.
10
Chad
It would be worse with me.
Her words ring through my mind like the bells on a siren, blaring, screaming at me with a warning.
