Page 69 of Fakers with Benefits

“Look at you setting a boundary. And you didn’t die!”

He went to tuck his phone away. It rang again.

“Oh hell no.” I held out my hand. “Lemme answer it.”

He checked the screen.

“I’m serious. Give me the phone and I’ll deal with it.”

The corner of his lips twitched. “This is either the best, or the worst idea I’ve ever had.” He handed me the phone.

“Is it the same person?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Hello, Evan’s phone.”

“Evan?” A booming male voice came blasting over the speaker.

“I’m sorry, Evan is busy right now. Can I take a message?”

“Who’s this? Why do you have Evan’s phone?”

“This is his boyfriend. I have his phone because Evan is busy.”

“Put him on the phone. I don’t have time for this.”

“One moment please.” I held the phone a few inches from my face. “Honey, someone needs to speak to you. Should I get the keys and uncuff you, or do you want me to just hold it while you talk?”

Evan made a grab for the phone. I jumped off the counter and darted away. “Oh, silly me. Better take the gag out so you can answer!”

“Nick!” Evan made another grab for me, but I danced out of his way and pressed the phone to my ear. The line was dead.

“Told you I’d handle it.” I wiggled the phone at him. “They hung up.”

“I’m never going to be able to look Arnold in the face again.” He sighed.

“Why not? You’re a young, healthy man. If he’s all icked out by you getting your bondage on, that’s a him problem for bugging you at hookup o’clock.”

“At least he’s retiring soon. Maybe next time you could just tell whoever calls that I’m occupied and leave it at that?”

“That won’t work because they’ll just keep calling until they annoy you into becoming unoccupied. This way he knows you’re tied up.” I snickered. “Get it? Tied up?”

“I got it.” He smiled affectionately.

“Are you mad? I’m sorry. I didn’t think things through and just—”

“I’m not mad. I knew the risk when I let you answer it. And it was effective, I’ll give you that.”

I handed him back the phone and pulled mine out. “You know what we need, some music.”

“Music?”

“Yeah, you know, that stuff that sounds nice and makes people happy?”

“I’ve never heard anyone describe music that way.”

“My brain is weird.” I scrolled through my current playlist. “We should dance.”

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