Christina woke up to the sound of the phone ringing next to her ear. Some thoughtless person had left it on the side table next to the couch rather than putting it back on the cradle. Christina fumbled around for it but knocked it onto the floor. It was Saturday and it felt too early for anyone to be calling them. Christina saw Mark’s slender brown fingers effortlessly pick up the phone through her eyelashes. So, he hadn’t gone home.

“Hello,” he answered calmly. 

Christina flinched. What gave him the right to answer their phone? Especially so early in the morning? What if it was her mother calling? But all the same, Christina was still nine-tenths asleep and she didn’t much care. He could come up with something to cover his can if her mother jumped down his throat, couldn’t he? Wasn’t that what public relations were all about? Christina rolled over. 

“No, Laura. I can’t do anything today,” he paused.

When she heard Mark say that, Christina flipped to only one-tenths asleep and listened carefully. It was at that point she woke up enough to realize the phone that rang wasn’t her home phone, but Mark’s cell phone.

“No, it doesn’t bother me,” he continued. “You can date whoever you like." There was another pause as Laura answered him. “If Dominic found a guy who he thinks would interest you, then you should go on the date and see how it turns out. You might end up liking him.”

Christina sat bolt upright and looked at Mark. What was he saying? That Dominic was setting Laura up with someone? Wow! The devil didn’t waste any time.

Mark had his back to Christina as he continued his conversation. It looked like he still thought Christina was asleep because his voice was almost a whisper. “I’m sorry you don’t want to date anyone other than me, but Laura, how many times do we have to have this conversation? I’m tired of offering excuses. Please, just give up on me.” He paused again. “No, this doesn’t have anything to do with Christina. I just—” He was interrupted. 

The moments stretched before he had the chance to talk again. Christina waited tensely for his next words.

“Please don’t cry,” he said gently. “No, I don’t think there is anything you could do to change my mind. I said I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Just please believe me when I say I’ll never change my mind, but I’ll always be grateful for our friendship.”

Christina had never been dumped as harshly as Mark was dumping Laura. At first, she felt proud of him for finally saying what he had been thinking all along, but it didn’t take long for that feeling to evaporate. It was obvious it wasn’t his first try breaking up with Laura. It probably wasn’t the second time either… and Laura was crying on the other end of the phone. Self-assured Laura from Financial Services was shedding tears because Mark didn’t love her the way she wanted him to. Christina couldn’t imagine liking someone that much. 

“I’m sorry,” Mark said, clearly finishing up the conversation. “Please stop crying and let’s try to talk normally when we see each other at the office, okay? Let’s not let that part be awkward." There was another pause before he finally said mildly, “Goodbye.”

Mark clicked his cell phone off and turned around to meet Christina’s gaze. “Did you hear all of that?” he slowly questioned.

“Yeah,” she mumbled.

“Did it bother you?”

“A little, but don’t worry about me. You’ve already said I’m not the reason you’re rejecting her, so I don’t feel responsible. It’s just a shame her feelings had to be hurt. That’s all.”

He squinted and brought his eyebrows together in a line. “Christina, I don’t understand you. Wasn’t the reason you took off your makeup in front of me because you didn’t want your escort glamor tainting my feelings for you? Because you wanted me to fall in love with the real you? If you want to date me yourself, then why do you feel sorry for Laura?”

 “You wouldn’t fall in love with me, Mark. The real me isn’t flirty, or frilly, or vivacious. The real me is more like what you saw last night. I’m not the type to manipulate a guy into treating me the way I want him to. That’s just an act Mindy taught me so I could work as an escort. You probably want a woman who pouts her lips, has to have her way, wears pretty clothes and bothers to dress up for you every day of her life. What I really want is just to be able to say what I want, what I don’t want and for my man to give it to me. I never thought you would fall in love with me. You are stacked up to your chin in class and you want a woman who can match you. I never could.”

“So, are you interested in me or not? Sounds like not,” he said pensively.

“No. That’s not it,” Christina denied fiercely. “You have got to be the hottest man I have ever seen in real life. Everything about you makes it seem like you were designed to break my heart. Just by looking at you—I know it’s a dream. There’s no way you could care for me the way I truly am. I’m the type who drools over you in my cubicle while you are the type to date a woman with real eyelashes, flowing hair, and a body that would make grown men cry. Do you know what I’m saying?”

Mark plopped himself down in Mindy’s recliner and looked bored. “It sounds like you’re spouting the most elaborate load of B.S. I’ve ever heard.”

Christina scowled. How could that possibly be the most elaborate load of B.S. he'd ever heard? He made up crap worse than that daily.

“What happened after you left with Dominic last night? It must have been something terrific for you to change your tune so drastically.”

“I’m not ‘changing my tune,'” Christina almost shrieked. “Besides, I didn’t act differently after I met with him and found you in my living room, now did I?”

“Well, you didn’t want to have our ‘serious’ conversation and… you fell asleep on my arm,” he reminded her. “That wasn’t my idea. I’m almost starting to feel like your whore, or at the least, I feel like I was a tool you used for convenience.”

Christina’s mouth fell open. She had never been accused of using a man for her own purposes. “I didn’t…”

But Mark interrupted her. “Listen,” he said stiffly. “There is one way to test out the waters of your little theory about the ‘type’ of person I am since you clearly don’t know me well enough.”

Christina was ultimately perplexed. What the heck was he about to suggest? 

“And that’s if you agree to be my girlfriend. Then we’ll see how much of what you just said is fact or fiction.”

Christina flushed, but managed to say nicely, “How will it go at work if we start seeing each other?”

Mark shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing will change.”

“Are you sure?” she demanded sternly. “You were pretty freaked out before when you were worried there would be a scandal.”

“Yeah, I was, but I see now that was pretty immature of me. Trust me; there won’t be any trouble with Collin.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Mark sighed. “Because he already thinks we’re dating.”

Christina’s mouth fell open and stayed open. What had Mark done? It didn’t fit in with the picture she had drawn up of him. She didn’t know what to say, but at last, she found her voice enough to ask, “And how did he get that idea?”

Mark shrugged. “He just assumed after we met in his office, when I told him you were the escort I hired.”

“And you didn’t correct him?” Christina blurted.

“Why would I correct him when I want to date you?” he said evenly, meeting her eyes with his steady gaze.

Christina’s heart fluttered. She was speechless.

Mark lifted himself out of the recliner and came over to the couch. He got down on his knees in front of her and put one arm on either side of her. Their eyes met. 

She squirmed. He didn't understand. He had no clue how she felt even though she tried to explain it. She was trying to protect herself from getting hurt in the worst possible way, and he was on his bleeding knees. He couldn't see the disaster in store for her heart if she dated him. She would see him every day, work with him every day and in her young, naive way, she would begin to think of him as hers. She'd see the slight bend in the muscle of his arm and think, 'That's my boyfriend.' Or she would hear someone in the office talk about him and think, 'They're talking about my boyfriend.' Or he'd bend to kiss her and she'd fall head over teakettle for him and believe there was a future before them. She would believe all these things so completely she wouldn't even recognize it when the relationship was over. When he dumped her, it would be devastating. She'd probably die of the shock. And he would walk over to some other girl sitting on the couch and say he wanted to try out a relationship with her instead. He'd be fine, but Christina would never recover. She would stay dead and never, ever feel alive again.

“Christina,” he said quietly. “Sorry, I accused you of using me. I don’t feel used. It was cute of you to fall asleep on me. I want you to do it again… tonight… tomorrow night—anytime you want. Just pull down your carefully constructed layers of reserve for me—just for a little while—we’ll learn all about each other and I'll show you how well we fit together.”

His voice was so persuasive that even though Christina was certain it was going to turn out to be a fatal mistake, she couldn’t open her mouth and tell him to leave. Finally, she nodded her head and let him take her out for breakfast.