Page 29 of Am I the Only One

I pause, realizing that I’m a little more relaxed talking to her, and admit, “That day at the coffee shop ... that wasn’t the first time I’d seen him with that girl. She actually works on his campaign team. Honestly, I’ve suspected him of cheating on me for quite some time now.”

“Have you said anything to him? Does he know that you know?”

“I have, and the conversation always ends with us fighting and him accusing me of being insecure.” I wave my hand. “It’s classic deflection. He doesn’t care enough to be honest with me, and it’s turned our marriage into a sham.”

“So why are you still with him?”

“Because before I married him ... I signed a prenuptial agreement. If I walk, I get nothing. I’m right back to where I started, but worse. He’s in the middle of his campaign. If I divorce him, I’ll be left with nothing. Since his parents donate heavily to the school, I’ll probably lose my job and my reputation along with it.”

“They’re really that bad?”

“It’s a crazy world I live in. One day you can be on top of the world, and the next? Banished entirely.”

She leans back into the cushions, shaking her head with a mumbled, “That’s fucked up.”

I watch her as she digests everything I just told her as she continues to shake her head in disbelief. Story time is over the moment she asks, “So, why are you telling me all this?”

“I’m telling you because I hope you might be able to help me. In return, I can help you get back into Georgetown.”

Her eyes lift. “How?”

Here goes nothing.

“I’m offering you fifty thousand dollars.”

Sitting up, she straightens her back with her mouth agape. She doesn’t speak, only stares in utter disbelief. Silence stretches between us, and I grow more nervous with each second that ticks by.

Then she asks the fifty-thousand-dollar question.

“What would I have to do?”

Biting my lip with more fear than I’ve ever felt in my life, I clench my hands together as ice washes through every inch of my body. With my heart slamming into my ribs, I take the hardest breath of my life and answer.

“I want you to seduce my husband.”

Emma

I wait for the punchline to come, but it never does. This woman is dead serious and bat-shit crazy.

Did she seriously just ask me to seduce her husband?

I open my mouth to speak, but I can’t find my words. Dropping my eyes from hers to her anxiously bouncing knee, my stomach sinks.

Yeah, she’s serious, all right, and clearly scared to death.

“I-I’m sorry. Umm ... did you say you wanted me to—”

“Seduce my husband.”

Holy shit. Has she lost her mind?

“It’s my word against his at this point,” she says. “I have no proof of his affairs, nothing tangible that I can take to court to nullify the prenup. But if you help me—”

“Wait ... you want me to have sex with him?” I just really need her to spell this one out.

It takes a moment, but she eventually nods.

With my jaw practically on the floor, I stare at her. A part of me wants to ask if this is some sort of joke, but her demeanor tells me she isn’t joking at all.

---