Page 13 of Mine

“Okay,” I said, eyeing the cash. “Now what?”

“Here. This is half of the money up front. You’ll get the rest at the end of today.”

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head at how casually he flicked five hundred dollars toward me.

“Great,” I said, stuffing the money into the bag with all my stuff. “What next?”

“Next, I need you to pretend to be my wife.”

“Susan Steadhill. Right. Why, exactly?”

Gary coughed into his hand and looked out of the tinted window.

“It’s a long story,” he said. “Remember, you’re bound to secrecy.”

“Cross my heart and hope to die,” I said, a finger over my lips.

“My wife and I were…arevery public personages. We co-own the business. And recently we’ve been fighting. Naturally, I can’t let the details of our relationship leak to the public.”

“Naturally.”

“I’m supposed to have a bit of plastic surgery today,” he said, shifting uneasily in his chair.

“Surgery?”

“It isn’t anything big, I’m getting some moles removed and a bit of a facelift. Susan is supposed to be there, you understand, for liability. She’s my medical trustee. And since they’re putting me under general anesthesia, she has to be there in case anything goes wrong.”

“And your wife can’t be there because…?”

“We’re not—ah—currently speaking to each other,” Gary said, his skin flushing a bit red at his shirt collar.

“You’re fighting.”

“In a manner of speaking.”

“What about?” I wanted to know exactly what it took to make Susan mad.

“That’s not—ah—necessary for you to know about.”

“I want to get the character right, Mr. Steadhill,” I said firmly.

“Yes. Yes, of course you do. Well, I took her to the Santa Monica pier for our anniversary. It was where we first met, you see. And she balked at my idea for our –our vacation. She didn’t want to do things my way.”

“Hmm.” Susan’s husband was a bit of a control freak. And Susan was a bit stubborn. Okay, I could do that.

“And I couldn’t convince her, and she got mad and we fought.” He looked away, obviously embarrassed to be talking about it.

“That’s fine. Okay. You couldn’t make up before this appointment, though?”

“She’s so stubborn,” Mr. Steadhill said, frustration running along his browline. “I can’t reschedule the procedure; it takes forever to get on this guy’s list. So I thought that I would hire someone who looks like Susan to come along.”

“Can’t you get another person to be your medical… whatever?” I asked. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I want the part. It’s just that…what if something does go wrong during the surgery?”

“Nothing will go wrong, of course,” he said quickly. “It’s a very standard procedure. All you’ll have to do is sit in the waiting room until the surgery is done, and then we’ll leave together. But I don’t want anyone knowing that my wife and I are having trouble. Especially a private surgeon… I’ve heard horror stories about rumors leaking from medical staff.”

“It’s easier to just pretend that everything’s okay between you two.”

“Exactly. Not perfect; we don’t have a perfect relationship, but...”

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