“Did you?”
“Oh goodness, of course. I ate anything back then on a dare--dirt, leaves, cat food. I can’t think of any dare I walked away from, even pigeon poop.”
Lucy’s eyes popped open. “This is possibly the most nauseating confession anyone has ever told me. So what did the squirrel leg taste like?”
“It tasted like chicken.”
“That’s horrific and yet interesting.”
“Do you ever wonder how we taste? I’ll bet an alien would come down and say we taste like chicken.”
She laughed. “I think that is probably a good time to change the subject. So why are you saying no to us?”
“You mean besides the obvious reasons?” I shook my head. “Like the fact that you can’t date other men, but he can date other women. I mean, that is seriously barbaric, sexist, and assholist.”
“I don’t think assholist is a word,” she pointed out.
“Well, it should be.” I shrugged. “There is also no future in this situation with Chase. I like to be in relationships that are heading towards something more. You know what I mean, right? Marriage, children, and the two of us old and rocking in a chair on the porch of our retirement home. There’s no way I’m raising children in a situation where I have scheduled evenings with their father. And what would our kids call you all anyway, aunts or harem mates?”
“Wow. You’ve really taken some time to think about this.”
It was all I’d thought about for the plane ride once I’d fled from his lounge. The very idea of me joining his arrangement was crazy. No matter how I looked at it, I just kept returning to how out-of-the-box it seemed to my ideas of love and commitment. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to stray away from my views just to spend time with one desirable man.
“Okay. I see your point on the kids argument,” Lucy said, “but you’re only twenty-two.”
“How old are you?” I raised my eyebrows.
“Twenty-eight.”
“You don’t want kids or marriage?”
“No way.” She waved her hands. “Never happening for me.”
“Why not?”
She placed her glasses back on her eyes and ignored my question. “So let’s grab these orange things.”
We waited in line beside a few people. I concentrated on the smells and guessed there could have been some honey in the sticky stuff the woman poured onto the dough once she fried it. Anticipation sped up my pulse.
“You do have several years before you would actually have kids, right?” Lucy turned to me.
I considered the question for a few minutes. “Probably. I wouldn’t want kids until I’m thirty. Hopefully I’m better at taking care of myself by then. I’ve heard the thirties are when you truly know yourself.”
“Goodie. I can’t wait for that to happen for me.” Lucy dove her hand into her purse. “Since you’re not about to rush off and have a litter of little Jasmines, and Chase is pretty desperate right now, maybe you can compromise with him.”
“I doubt he’s desperate.” I replayed what he’d said on the plane, how being with him would happen eventually.
What an overconfident caveman.
“He’s definitely desperate.” She held her free hand out. “Let’s not overlook that he flew us all to India just so he could talk you into being with him.”
I paused and pondered that fact. “Well, he’ll get the picture soon.”
“I’ve known him since I was five. He never gives up. Right now he’s playing fair, soon he’ll go overboard.”
“A trip to India isn’t overboard?”
“No. This is normal Chase.” She shook her head. “Just try to compromise with him. Think of all the things you want and don’t want in this situation and then sit him down to discuss it. He’ll work with you because he wants you that much.”
I rubbed my eyes. “I don’t know.”
“If he was a single guy would you have dated him?”
“Yeah,” I said as we advanced in the line.
“If you were both just dating he would probably be dating other women anyway, right? Why not just try it out for a few weeks, and if you don’t like it, then walk away.”
“I’m not sure I could do that.” I blew out a loud breath. It would be easy to spend time and date him.
But what if I fall for him?
It would be so hard to walk away.
This is such a hard decision.
Part of me thought the arrangement was abrasive. The other part enjoyed the fun moments I had with him and was interested in experiencing what it meant to date a gorgeous man of his prestige and wealth.
“Jasmine, just give him a few weeks.”
“Well, maybe I’ll do a trial period if he meets me with my own rules.” And there would be a bunch of them. I had to try my best to guarantee I wasn’t putting myself in a situation that would destroy me physically, emotionally, or even mentally. The last thing I needed was a stressful relationship that shoved me into depression.
“Yes!” Lucy did a fist pump into the air. “Oh yeah! We’re sisters now. And did you see the dresses he bought for us to wear tonight? They’re so gorgeous.”
“No.” I turned so she couldn’t see me and rolled my eyes.
First rule: I date who I want. Second: no more dressing me.
“So do you have any questions for me?” Lucy asked.
“What is your relationship with him? He told me you don’t have sex.”
“Nope. I’m not a sexual person. At least, not like what people conceive a sexual person to be.”
“Huh?”
“I’m complicated. Basically I don’t have sex at all. So what Chase and I have is mainly companionship. We’re never intimate or touchy in any way.” She tossed her red hair over her shoulder.
I cleared my throat. “Why aren’t you intimate?”
She paused for a few seconds and looked away. “Some things happened to me when I was young. Not to darken our great day, but I’ll just say that Chase saved me when we were young. I don’t feel safe around any man but him.”
“He saved you?”
“He stopped some bad things from continuing.” A weak smile appeared on her face. “I don’t have sex. I can’t stand to be touched in an intimate way. When it’s Chase’s and my date night, we just do fun stuff.”
My interest in the situation was so piqued I barely realized we had moved up in a line. “So, give me an example of what you do.”
“He’s a part of my chick-lit reading group. He comes to the meetings and discusses the required reading for the month.”
“Hilarious.” I covered my mouth with my hand. “Please snap a picture next time you do a meeting.”
“It’s rather adorable to watch him with his legs crossed on the carpet, eating little pink cookies and sipping raspberry tea as he breaks down the heroine’s motivations in a story.” She leaned my way and whispered, “But between you and me, I think he pays someone to read the books and type up answers to the discussion questions. Every time our group leader asks him a question he always just looks down at his sheet of answers and reads it out word for word.”
“Oh my god.” I grinned.
“But it’s the thought that counts, right?”
“Definitely.”
We made it to the head of the line. Lucy spoke in a foreign language to the woman. I was pretty impressed. The woman stopped stirring the fry oil, cupped two of the orange balls with a copper spoon, and dropped them in a paper bag. A sweet aroma drifted from the treats. It took all of my restraint not to wrench it away from Lucy’s hands. After Lucy paid her, we walked off.
“She said to wait a minute because they’re hot,” Lucy said.
“Did she say what they were?”
“Doughnuts.”
I sucked my teeth. “Cool, but I wanted to try something different.” I scanned the market, clasped her wrist, and dragged her to a new stand. “We need to find something freaky looking. Something with crazy eyes or a wild color.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” I scanned the area.
Lucy chuckled. “No wonder Chase is crazy about you. It’ll be a breath of fresh air having you at Willow Park. It gets real boring sometimes.”
“That’s shocking, but I must let you know something. Even if I do try this, I won’t be living with you.”
“Dawn won’t allow that.”
Then Dawn won’t like me. I’m not living in Chase’s harem dormitories.
I could never invite Vivian, Benny, or Troy to my place. It would be so embarrassing.
“At least think about it,” Lucy offered.
“Sure,” I said. “On another topic, tell me about Dawn and Wendy.”
“Dawn is a stickler for rules. She goes insane about the scheduled times for our dates and she just created a sort of fine system for when we break any of the rules.”
“Fines?”
“Yeah. She takes money from the bank accounts Chase has for us and gives us a budget on our living expenses. Dawn’s an accountant for Baker & Smith. Her dad’s firm.” Lucy pulled out a doughnut and gave it to me. “She gets delirious with numbers, always counting the hours we’ve been on dates. Calculating how much we spend on the dates or when we’re by ourselves. Every detail is scrutinized. She logs everything.”
The warm, fried dough warmed my fingers. I tossed it in my mouth. Sweet honeyed bread captured my taste buds and heated my tongue. Its sugary perfume lingered in the air well after it slid down my throat.
“Perfect.” I licked my fingers. “The outside has a nice crisp, but the inside is warm and mushy. Very good blend of textures and packed with flavor. It goes on my top ten list for doughnuts.”
She smiled at me. “Are you a foodie?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my hands together and searched the rest of the market with my eyes. “So Dawn is a sadistic rule maker. What else?”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. Dawn is sweet, but only if you follow the rules.”
“And Wendy?”
“Not much trouble when she’s sober, but toxic when she’s drunk.” Lucy popped her doughnut in her mouth. “I’ve gone to Chase and Dawn and told them I think she’s an alcoholic. We’ll probably do an intervention with her if things continue.”
“You’re being real truthful.”
“Dawn wanted you to be prepared and I really want you to join. Dawn and Wendy pretty much always hang out together,” Lucy said. “Sometimes they invite me to do things with them, but I always feel like a third wheel. They’re more like lovers than friends.”
“Awww.” I nodded my head.
This whole situation is mind-blowing!
“Well, we can hang together if I do this arrangement and if I don’t then we’re kicking it.” I spotted some dead animals hanging from a wire where a guy was throwing things onto a grill. “So is there any other stuff I should know?”
“We have monthly get-togethers, just us girls, where we eat, discuss any problems with Chase, and complain about things that didn’t work last month.”
“Is attendance required?” I sucked my teeth.
“Absolutely.”
I won’t be doing that either. I don’t want to join the Chase Hump Club. I only want to get to know him.
“Do we have to take notes and hug each other?” I joked. “And at the end of the meeting is there a club song and a statue of Chase where we get on our knees and kiss its toes?”
“Whoa.” She doubled over and laughed. “You and Dawn are really going to go at it. I’m pretty excited for you to meet.”
“Clearly Chase didn’t consider our personalities when he decided to go after me.”
“Nope. Oh yeah. We also have to go to an assigned therapist weekly and Dawn’s gynecologist monthly for checkups.”
“Not happening. I have my own therapist and gynecologist, thank you very much. Is it not enough that we’ll all be living together? If I do plan to live in Willow Park.”
Lucy shook her head.
“Hey, there’s some green stew thing over there. Let’s check that out.” I pointed that way.
“Okay,” Lucy said, but the expression on her face seemed concerned, as if we were heading toward poisonous slush. “Jasmine, the therapist and gynecologist are important. I don’t think you should fight that.”
“Well, I get the gynecologist, but why a therapist?”
Lucy remained silent and began to bite her thumbnail.
“What?” I nudged her with my hip.
“The therapist appointments started once Vickie committed suicide.”
I stopped walking. “Who’s Vickie?”
“She’s the first woman to hold your position.”
My position? They’re insane.
People marched by us. Someone chattered. Others carried kids or bags.
“Why did she kill herself?” I asked.
“I don’t want to talk about any of the three.”
“The three?” I quirked my eyebrows.
“That’s what we say instead of saying their names.” She headed off.
I hurried to get back to her side. “I would think knowing about them is significant to me being with you all. I mean, why did they–”
“No, Jasmine.” She combed her hair with her fingers. “The threes’ situation won’t happen to you.”
“But how do I know that?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
Lucy released an exasperated breath. “Vickie was bipolar and suicidal. We had no idea beforehand. Vickie never took the arrangement well.”
I don’t imagine so. How would I handle it?
I hugged myself. “And the other two?”
“I told you how they died.”
“But—”
“Please, Jasmine.” Lucy gazed at her feet. “Wendy and Dawn are close and always have been. When there is a new girl, I end up being her friend. We almost always become confidants. And when they die, they take a part of me with them.”
“I’m sorry.” I grabbed her hand and held it.
“Those three deaths seem weird, but trust me. It’s not some big murder conspiracy.” She looked at me. “Vickie had mental problems. A normal person, even a mentally stable person, would be stressed out if they were in this arrangement. It’s why we made you go through a mental evaluation.”
“True.” I wondered if they knew about my anxiety problems.
“Evelyn really drowned in the pool on our estates. She wasn’t electrocuted. What no one said in the papers is that she did lots of cocaine and other drugs.”
“So she really overdosed in the pool?” I raised my eyebrows.
“Yes,Yancy was the final girlfriend. She owed lots of money to some very vile people. She’d latched onto our arrangement for the money side.”
“How much money do we get?” I scrunched my face up in confusion.
“Way more than we ever need. Chase gives us an ample allowance, plus our own car, credit cards, an apartment in Willow Park, as well as anything else we want. Yancy was a gold digger. When it wasn’t her date night with Chase, she flew to Vegas and gambled. We think she owed people money and they killed her when Dawn cut off her allowance.”