Jezebel |h.s|

Fifteen

"Alright, well I don't have any other meetings planned for today. We can come up with an agreement now and I could have my lawyer write up an official contract tomorrow."

She nods, "Sounds good to me. So, where do we start?"

That's a great question. I'd like to know the same thing. "Well, I guess let's start with the basics. Money. How much were you making at Afterlife?" Logging into my computer again, I pull up a brand new document.

A glance at Isabella tells me that she's nervous, but there's a curiosity in her eye. An openness to this arrangement, even if it dies before we sign the contract. "Well it depended on the night. Usually I worked four days a week, five if there was a slow day. I was never allowed to do the VIP rooms and so after Chris took his cut I'd have about two thousand at the end of the week."

My brows furrow a bit. "How much was his cut? That doesn't seem like a lot given how popular you were there."

She looks down at her lap, picking at the skin around her nails. "It was a lot. Look, I definitely got taken advantage of but I'm done there."

"Okay... Are you in any kind of debt? Student loans, credit cards? What kind of bills do you have?"

"Yes, I have student loans. This year I started trying to pay them off with whatever money I have by the end of the month. Usually my money from the club went back into repaying my loans. I don't have credit card debt though, and I just have rent which is like two thousand each per month, and normal bills like phone bills."

"Get me a number for the loans, I pay them off. Rent, I'll cover. And how about two payments of ten thousand every month?"

Her eyes go wide at the offer and immediately she shakes her head. "That's too much! Twenty thousand dollars a month? That's crazy, Harry!"

"Isabella, I don't think that's a crazy offer. I mean, to be quite honest I'm lowballing it. I thought you would've made more money and I told you I would double it. And living in Manhattan, I think this is pretty fair."

"You're also talking about paying off my student loans and covering my half of the rent which is way too much. If you're not going to budge on the payments, fine. But you don't need to pay my rent or my loans."

"Okay... How about two payments of ten thousand every month, I pay half your loan and you can cover the rent. Does that work for you?"

"Two payments of ten thousand, I pay my rent, and you pay five thousand into my loan every month. If we make the contract for six months, that would be thirty thousand into my loan repayment."

"Make it eight thousand a month and we have a deal."

"Fine, eight. What next?"

I can't help but smirk over at her while I type our deal into the document. "You know, for someone who's about to get paid twenty thousand a month for the next six months, you don't seem too excited."

She rolls her eyes but can't hide the smile on her face. "What's. Next?"

"Do you want to have a sexual relationship?" Might as well rip the band-aid off.

Maybe I should've been a little gentler about it since it takes her aback. Her brows raise and she opens her mouth but nothing quite comes out at first. She finds her voice in her next attempt. "If I say yes and later decide that I don't feel comfortable with it..."

"Isabella, the second you say that you want this arrangement to end, it ends. If you do not give verbal consent, contract or not, nothing will happen. And even if you do give consent, you are well within your rights to revoke it whenever you want. I don't want you to feel forced to have a sexual relationship with me just because I'm paying you. That's not what this is about."