Commitment Contract

After my divine grilled cheese sandwich, I returned to my place and spent a calm weekend mostly alone other then drinks with Tony for a little catch up. He made it very clear how very jealous he was of my life this past week.

I arrive back in the office on Monday morning and it takes me some time to get into a normal rhythm, just like it does after going on vacation for a week. 

Cass is out for a morning meeting so he won't be in until 10:00am. I take that time to get myself arranged and catch up with the receptionist who was helping Cass in my absence.

I know when Cass gets into work because the atmosphere always becomes more tense. The sound of people chatting turns to the sound of keyboards and printers. I give myself a quick talk, reminding myself to go back to calling him Mr. Conti now that we are back in the office, strictly boss and employee again. A sense of calm comes over me when I remember our former dynamic and by the time he arrives to his office I am ready to take Monday notes like Jessica used to.

"Good, you're here," he says when I enter his office after him.

"Of course," I say, a little confused. Where else would I be on Monday morning?

"Close the door behind you, I have something to discuss," he says in his professional, clipped tone I'm used to.

I close the door and stand before his desk.

"Please. Sit," he says a little warmer. I sit in one of the comfy chairs, still confused. I've never been invited to sit in his office. Hopefully I'm not getting fired.

"I have a proposition for you," he says, then pulls out a contract and walks around his desk to hand it to me.

I look down at the document and see the words "Commitment Contract". I look up at him questioningly and ask, "What is this?"

He sits on the edge of his desk and for a moment I'm distracted by the sheer masculinity of the pose. I'm sure I've seen it in a watch or cologne ad somewhere. After a brief moment I mentally shake my head and focus in on his words.

"The other day you said something that gave me an idea. You talked about creating a marriage contract that outlined the boundaries of the relationship, remember?"

I nod, keeping my face unreadable for now until I know where this is going.

"Well, it got me thinking to the success of last week. The Losanges were thrilled with you, you were great at keeping away unwanted female attention and to top it all off, I have a meeting with Mr. Gaffan next week. You were able to get further with him in twenty minutes then I have in years," he says. He pauses but he still hasn't gotten to the point.

"Can you just come out with it. This document is like 100 pages. I'd rather not have to read it all, but it might be faster then waiting for you to explain," I plead.

He looks at me like he's trying to gauge where my head is at, then he says, "I want you to be my fake girlfriend. This contract would be for a three month term and if it worked well then we could extend it. This is just a preliminary contract, we would need to discuss the terms and how much you would need to be compensated for this to be worth your time."

My mouth is hanging open like I'm trying to catch fish. To say I'm shocked is putting it lightly.

Mr. Conti is looking at me amused and I'm sure he realizes I won't be talking anytime soon so he says, "Take some time and peruse the contract, you don't need to rush to decide. If you need the morning off that's fine as well."

"I will not be taking the morning off," I say sharply, the thought of taking more time off horrifying me. "I just basically had a week off."

"Okay then," he says, still amused but probably trying to stay on my good side. "How about we do our briefing for the week since you're here."

I nod and pull out my pad and pen, the normalcy of the task centering me. 

Once he's done giving me the list of tasks for the week I leave his office and go back to my desk. I work through the easiest of the tasks in no time. This is so much easier then trying to figure out what he needs based off of what Jessica remembered from the briefing.

After an hour of work I feel calmer so, when I have a free moment, I pull out the contract he gave me and start to read. I skim the legal talk to get to the meat of the contract, the clauses detailing what would be expected of me in my role as girlfriend.

I immediately start marking up the contract with red pen and highlighters like I'm a student back at school. A big part of me can't believe I'm even reading the document because that means some part of me is considering it but another part of me knows this is inevitable. 

Mr. Conti has built a multi billion dollar empire. That doesn't happen by accepting no and giving up on the things you want. No, he has a vision and he goes for it and right now his sight are set on this setup so I should take it seriously. If I'm going to accept this offer then it needs to be something I'm comfortable with. 

I've never had a boyfriend or lived with a man and while this wouldn't be a real relationship, it would still be a close work relationship that could risk blurring lines. I need to know for myself what I am comfortable with, where my lines are, before I can come to the table to negotiate.

As for compensation, how do I accept this proposition without feeling a bit like an escort?