Read Online Choose Me (The Me Novellas) by Liz Appel - Free Book Online

to blow off his offer to help. More than anything, I was paralyzed by the choice.
    “OK,” he said. “I’ll let you figure it out on your own, then.”
    He said a quick I love you and the phone went dead before I could respond.
    There was a knock at the door.
    “Everything OK?” Lance asked from the hallway.
    I sat up and straightened the comforter. “Yeah, fine.”
    He pushed the door open and peeked inside. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
    I raised my eyebrows. “Uh, I’m alone.”
    He nodded at my phone. “Only as alone as you’ll let yourself be.” He grinned. “You can do some kinky things with cell phones these days. Trust me, I’ve written about them.”
    I tried to fight back a smile but it was useless. “You’re terrible.”
    “You have no idea,” he said. He plopped down on the bed next to me. “How did it go at the gallery?”
    For some reason, it was easier to tell Lance.
    He settled back on the bed as he listened, legs crossed, his elbows propped behind his head.
    He let out a low whistle when I finished. “So she wants you to be her artistic, indentured servant?”
    “What?”
    “You know, pay you for service. Six months of painting. Five paintings. And then she’ll release you.”
    Put that way, it sounded horrific. “Essentially, yes.”
    He nodded. “For a hundred grand, though? Right? It’s not based on quality, just quantity. You produce five paintings. Period.”
    I nodded.
    He closed his eyes, thinking. “That’s a shitload of money, Meg. More than I make in six months. Even writing porn.”
    “I know it is,” I said. “But … ”
    “But what?” he asked, opening his eyes. “Six months and you’ve made more than most people make in a year. Oh, and it’s doing something you like to do. Not like she’s asking you to swim with sharks or clean prison toilets.”
    “I know, I know.” I rolled my eyes. “But there’s something you’re forgetting.”
    “What? That you don’t like money as much as I do?”
    “No,” I said. “Something else.”
    “What?”
    “Andy.”
     

TWELVE
     
     
    Lance considered this. “Yeah, that’s sort of a problem.”
    “Yes. It is.” I shifted on the bed, focusing my gaze on the photos mounted on his walls. I wondered what had happened to the dark-haired guy in the pictures. Lance hadn't mentioned a significant other.
    “And you two are serious, right?”
    I turned to stare at him. “We’ve been together for two years. We share a house. Yes, it’s serious.”
    “Like long-term-commitment-possibly-marriage serious?”
    I nodded. I knew we were close, closer than we’d ever been to making the commitment. And part of that was because of the steps I’d just taken in the last week, with the art show in Minneapolis and then coming to DC. Hitting those milestones. And the step Andy had just taken. Buying the house.
    “OK,” he said. He thought for a minute. “So maybe he can move out here? For six months. You’ll have enough to support both of you, especially if she pays you up front.”
    I pictured the check Katya had slid across the desk. I was getting every last penny up front if I agreed to the arrangement.
    “It’s not that simple, though,” I said.
    “Why not?”
    I explained what Andy did. Managing properties wasn’t a job he could telecommute to.
    “And he just bought a house,” I said. “Like, literally just bought it. Today. There’s no way he’s going to be able to juggle getting that in the shape he wants, managing properties, and flying out to visit me. You know?”
    Lance sighed. “Well, I guess that’s out.” He closed his eyes again.
    “Well?” I asked. “What else?”
    “What else what?”
    “What else can I do? What angle haven’t I considered?”
    He cocked one eye open and looked at me. “There aren’t any other angles. There are no shades of gray. God, I hated that book.” He shook his head in disgust.
    “We’re not talking about a book, Lance,” I said, frowning.