The Arrangement 2 Read Online Free Page B

you’re all by yourself, but you don’t have to be. I’m here and so is Mel. You shut us out, Avery. When things get hard, you retreat into yourself and no one can get through those walls you put up. It doesn’t have to be that way. Friends are your family now. I know that I’d do anything for you, you don’t even have to ask.”
    Awh fuck. His words trigger the tears and they rush down my face. Marty smiles at me, like he knows better. Maybe he does. Maybe I’m the one who’s fucked up. Maybe I don’t have to do everything by myself, but I don’t know what that world looks like. The only people that I could depend on through thick and thin were my parents. Family was everything to them, to me. Now that I don’t have one, I feel lost, like I don’t belong anywhere, like I can’t fully trust anyone.
    I wipe the tears from my face with the back of my hand.
    Marty reaches into his pocket and hands me a clean, white hanky. It’s perfectly folded into quarters and creased like he ironed it. He holds it out to me.
    I laugh, half choking on the phlegm in my throat. I take the hanky and dab my eyes before wiping my nose. “You made me cry. No one makes me cry.”
    “Really?” he asks wryly. “Everything makes me cry. Why do you think I walk around with a hanky?” He grins at me.
    I look down at the white cloth in my hands, damp with tears. The confession spills out of my mouth. “I was offered a position as a high dollar call girl. If I take it, it solves my m oney problems. I can finish school and move on with my life.”
    “But…” he prompts, assuming nothing. Marty’s great like that. He doesn’t condemn me.
    “But the obvious. But I’d be selling my body. But I’d be letting some stranger have sex with me. But, I’d be giving away my virginity to some freak…” my voice fades as I say the word, thinkin g of Sean.
    Marty smiles softly and adds, “But you like someone else.”
    I look up at him. “How’d you know?”
    He shrugs, “Just a hunch. Something about the way your voice sounds, like there’s more there than you’re saying. So who is this guy?”
    I look at my hands as I speak. “No one. I don’t even know. He helped me when my car got jacked. I’ve seen him a few times, and then I got the job offer. After talking to you the other day, I too k it… I took the job because he was the client . Then , things got messed up, and now I can’t have him.” My voice hitches in my throat as I speak. Shaking my head, I ask, “What’s wrong with me? How can I like a guy who’ s that twisted? He ordered a virgin call girl.”
    “And you showed up,” Marty says, patting my knee. “Listen, life doesn’t always make sense. Maybe this whole thing ’s fate, m aybe you’re supposed to be with this guy in the end—I don’t know—b ut it seems to me that’s what’s holding you back. ”
    “What is?”
    “That fucked up guy. You’re totally sure that there is no way for him to be a client again?”
    My eyes flick to his. I shake my head. “No, the madam was really pissed.”
    “Then, raise the stakes. Tell her that it’s him or nothing.”
    “And what if she says no?” I’m screwed if she says no.
    “Then , you’re no worse off than you are now. Why not try to get the money and the man? Go for the gold, girlie. You’re only young once.” He bumps his shoulder into mine and smiles at me.
    “Got any more clichés that you’re dying to use?”
    “Nah, I just know how much they irritate you. Go find your boss, call girl. And if you work things o ut, I’m taking you shopping.” Marty gets a giddy look in his eye. “I saw this perfect little dress at Black Label. Any guy would love to rip it right off of you.”
    I laugh and lean into his shoulder. The whole in the center of my chest, that painful ache that was consuming me , withers and I feel like maybe I can do this. I have to convince Miss Black to get Sean back. I can do that.
    I think.
     

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER