Chapter 2

Still, none of those wealthy families paid nearly as much as Alfie's mother.

After I had embarrassed Alfie in front of everyone that day, he stopped speaking altogether.

I followed him around, waving the recording in his face and pestering him from every direction, but he refused to say another word—not even when the corners of his eyes turned red from holding it in.

I sighed. "Looks like you really don't want me to earn another penny, huh? Good thing I still have other clients…"

With that, I picked up a call from a new client. Alfie stopped in his tracks.

The client was in a hurry and had offered me an extra 20% commission. Since Alfie showed no sign of speaking anytime soon, I turned around and hurried off to meet my new client.

Then, I heard Alfie's voice behind me.

I spun around in a panic. "What did you just say?"

He stared at me with his lower lip clenched between his teeth, the corners of his eyes pinkish. No matter how many times I asked him, though, he never answered.

I was just about to stop the recording when he suddenly spoke. His voice was quiet but clear. "You can't…"

I instantly sent the recording to Mrs. Lawson. "Pay up, please."

Alfie turned around and walked away. I struck while the iron was hot and hurried after him, spouting more nonsense.

"Hey, babe. What did you just say? I didn't quite hear you. Can you say it again? Just like you did last night, when you were crying in my arms."

The people around us stared in shock. He quickened his pace.

"Babe, slow down, or I won't let you cry in my arms tonight!"

Alfie nearly tripped. When had he ever had to endure being the center of attention like this, with everyone's eyes burning into him?

Tension rose. Embarrassment overwhelmed him. Seeing that I was still holding up my phone and talking his ear off, he walked up to me and crashed his lips against mine, silencing me.

…

This time, I was the one speechless. I couldn't get a word out. Even after Alfie let me go, I was still too stunned to speak. He was the one who spoke, albeit in a stammer.

"Do you… say the same things… to the other guys… too?"

I slowly raised my camera. "Are you jealous?"

"Stop recording!" he exclaimed, pushing my phone down. "How much… did they… pay you?"

I opened my mouth, unsure whether I should reveal a trade secret.

He pulled out a Black card and pressed it into my hand. "I have… money… too."

It had been so long since Alfie had spoken, so his words came slower than they used to. Mrs. Lawson was over the moon, though. She instantly transferred me a million dollars.

"Keep it up, Pheeb. If you can get him back to his old debater self, I'll pay you even more."

I was thrilled, but it wasn't long before Alfie served me a reality check. After giving me the Black card, he never spoke again.

He had only given me one final warning. "You're only allowed… to say those things… to me."

Oh. Basically, he had bought the exclusive rights to my dirty talk. In the end, I never got to earn the ten million dollars from his mother.

On the brighter side, Alfie's Black card had no spending limit. After Mrs. Lawson saw the video of him kissing me, she doubled my monthly allowance from 50,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars.

In the long run, I wasn't exactly losing out.

On graduation day, I ran into Wendy again. She was clutching her résumé and making the rounds at one job fair after another.

The rich kids from our prestigious academy had family businesses waiting for them the moment they graduated. Only she had to go around making connections and fighting for herself just to land a well-paying job.

Wendy glanced at the luxury shopping bags hanging from my hands and sneered. "I heard you became a mistress of that spoiled brat."

I didn't answer. I simply turned to leave.

"Hey, Phoebe Spencer!" she called after me, jaw clenched.

"You think a rich heir from a family like that will ever treat you like a real person? Put nicely, you're his girlfriend. Put bluntly, you've gone from being his companion to his glorified maid!"