"Ask Angelina to go with you."

  "I already asked her and she has a shoot that morning. She can't make it." There was a slight pause. "I will buy you the latest brushes for your work, I promise."

  She did need a new set of brushes to up her work. Her style might get stale if she didn't constantly renovate it and cater to her clients.

  "If it is anything below 100 dollars, don't bother to ask me to go," Katherine strategically bargained.

  "You're spending time with your friend and being so stingy about it? Who would have thought that you were so easy to convince. All you need is money." Lily nudged Katherine. "Lower the price."

  "You are the one who is money-driven. I learned it from you. 120 or nothing…" she deadpanned.

  "This is highway robbery."

  "If you want I can raise it to 150," she said smugly, giving Lily the side-eye.

  "You'd have made a terrible negotiator," Lily harrumphed and gave up. "100 dollars for one date. That's settled, you hoe." Katherine sniggered as her friend grumbled under her breath and left the room.

  "I would have made an excellent negotiator," she sniggered as she went back to work.

  Later that night, the phone rang and Katherine leaped on the bed as she tried to reach it before the phone cut off.

  "I just needed to charge my phone for a bit. Sorry for the delay," his voice was tired and Katherine felt bad for him. On most days he would sound half dead when he called her.

  "You should have gotten some rest. You need to sleep," she said in a low voice that was meant to comfort him, but it only made him groan internally. She sounded sexy when she spoke to him, all concerned and demanding him to take rest.

  Obviously, it had the exact opposite effect.

  "I am resting. I am revitalizing myself by listening to your voice." He coughed to hide the arousal in his voice. He was wide awake and his tiredness slowly seeped out of his body like magic.

  "You think too highly of me, kind sir," she teased. She flicked her hand on the lock of hair that had escaped her messy bun and rolled it around her fingers. She was conscious of the nervous actions she was partaking in, but she continued, knowing he would not find out anyway.

  "Are you nervous?" he said suddenly, stunning her. 'How did he know?'

  "No," she squeaked.

  "My lady, I know you enough to know something is on your mind. Now, care to tell me what it is?" He sounded concerned and she wanted none of that.

  "Promise me you won't be mad once you find out!" She would have to make him swear before she spoke a word of the double date she was going to go on.

  "The fact that you are asking me that tells me that you have committed a grave crime." He was taunting her in an amused manner, but he didn't realize that she hadn't caught his tone. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Love, I don't care what you did, just tell me," he urged.

  "Lily is forcing me into going on a date with her," she blurted out. He remained silent for some time.

  "On a double date?" he asked, his voice sounding a little strained. "Do you want to go?"

  "Of course not!" she stumbled to defend herself. "I didn't want to go but there was no way out of it. I even asked for a bribe because I was doing her a favor."

  "I hope it was a big bribe," he prompted her on.

  "I asked for exclusive brushes that I can't afford at the moment. She wanted to bargain but I got my way." Cage clucked his tongue, a faint smile on his lips.

  "Tell me what brushes you want. I will buy them all for you. You don't really have to go on the date," he said petulantly.

  She laughed in delight. "Don't be jealous, Ray. I have no interest in the date. I just want to know the guy she is meeting. It would be odd if he didn't bring a friend along when she was, so they decided on a double date scene." At this point, she was making things up. But it made sense that they were all meeting the friends.

  "I am jealous," he agreed readily. "Even I haven't had the opportunity to go out with you, but here you are going out with another guy. I feel bad." All his tiredness had left his body but he was left a big ball of tension.

  What would happen if he suddenly found that she had started to like a real guy she had met?

  "What concerns you?" she voiced, knowing that she would react the same way if it were her on the other side.

  "That you will start liking this guy." She chuckled when she heard how he sounded. But he seemed hurt, so she couldn't continue for long.

  "You little boy. You go around calling me a loli but you are insecure about your girl going out with friends." She didn't mean it maliciously, and she hoped he didn't take it that way.

  "'Your girl?'" he whispered. "My girl?" he said again, this time making her giggle for real.

  "Now that we have established that, you don't need to be frightened about what I do outside with them, okay?" If she could, she would have pecked his cheeks after saying that, but the distance between them was long.

  "I wasn't frightened."

  "Of course," she acquiesced.

  "But I will ask you to proclaim yourself as taken so that no one shows any interest in you." She threw her head back in laughter. "I'm serious. You're dangerously beautiful."

  "You make me sound like a vixen!"

  "That's exactly what you are, love. You will be the death of me with your sweet voice and words."