Page 41 of Pretend Girl (The Lucky Girls 4)

“Sorry,” I say. “I just have a lot on my mind. This project… I want to do it right the first time so it can kickstart my career, you know?”

“I think your career will be just fine,” Michelle says. “As long as you stick to it, don’t give up, Raven and I will send who we can your way.”

I nod. “Thanks.”

“So, what’s he like?” Michelle asks.

“Who?”

“Blake Ford!” Michelle cries out. “It’s not every day you get to work with a mogul like him, no matter who you are. The guy’s loaded, and he’s a terror in the boardroom, they say. Is he a hardass?”

“He can be,” I say carefully. I have to pick my words right. “But he’s also fair and understanding. He’s a good client to work with and he doesn’t fight about pricing at all. When I send him invoices, he pays it, no questions asked.”

“That’s a big deal,” Michelle says, nodding.

Our sandwiches arrive, and Michelle picks hers up, studying every angle for the perfect first bite.

“You want to keep a client like that when you find him. It helps that he has more money than he’ll ever know what to do with. I hate those who fight about every cent they have to spend because they don’t really want to part with their money.”

“Yeah, I can imagine,” I say, nodding.

We eat in silence for a while, biting and chewing. My mind keeps drifting to Blake. I know we’re supposed to just work together, but I can’t stop thinking about the night we had together. Everything about Blake is amazing. He’s a nice guy, and he treats me like a princess.

Most of the time, anyway. Now that I know he just wanted to sleep with me and it doesn’t mean anything, that changed my mind about him a little.

But not so much that I lost respect for him.

“Do you believe in psychics?” I ask Michelle.

“Like fortune tellers and card readers and stuff?”

“Yeah,” I say.

Michelle thinks about it. “I don’t know. I mean, sometimes I think it’s all for show. Because they’re always saying things they already know, so you think they’re doing a good job. Or they say things halfway and when you fill in the blanks, you think they came up with it all on their own.” She shrugs. “But I don’t think they’re always wrong. Some do it for show, but some, I think, are real.”

“How can you tell?”

Michelle laughs. “I have no idea. I stay away from stuff like that as a rule. It scares me.”

I nod. It scares me, too. Now and then, I catch myself thinking about the words Madame Dorota said. I think about how she thought Blake and I were together.

When wearetogether, it feels right. Perfect. And when we slept together, it felt like coming home.

But Blake doesn’t do love. And he doesn’t want to do me. Not again, anyway. How can she have been right about him if he doesn’t want anything resembling a relationship?

Maybe I just read way too much into it. Maybe I keep waiting for happy endings when it’s not guaranteed to come.

The best way to deal with this would be to call things off with Blake for good. To kill the contract and be done with him so I won’t have to see him again.

He’s already made such an impression on me, I’m hooked.

But I don’t want to do that. I want to see him again. I want to know what this thing is between us if it’s not something that’s meant to be.

And I need him for my career—I need the name if I want to go somewhere. Having Blake Ford as a client could catapult me into my future. ButlosingBlake Ford as a client could sink me.

But work aside, I just want to see him again.

Why, if it’s so wrong, does it feel so right?

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