The next morning, Isla slept in a little later than normal. So did Jane.

Jane worked and went to school. Her family was similar to Isla's. At least her mother's side, so Jane needed to work if she wanted to pay her fair share of art school and this nice apartment.

Jane barely had time to grab a shower and change her clothes. She had to rush to the door, snagging her purse from off the floor. She stopped in the doorway before turning back to face Isla. "Did you make your decision?"

"I… maybe."

Isla's head hurt. Her decision, which had seemed rock solid the night before, had gone to shit in the light of the morning. Now she didn't know what to do all over again. Her courage left her.

She shouldn't have gone to sleep. She should have just called Arturo's office and left a message saying she would agree to his terms.

She blamed the beer for this.

Jane bit her bottom lip. She was clearly torn between getting to her job at the university’s coffee house on time and staying to make sure Isla didn't do something stupid.

"Just go before you're late. I'll text you before anything happens," she said, waving her friend off.

Jane looked behind her and down the hall, as though there were people who were waiting for her.

Then she looked back at her. "Make sure you text me, got it?"

She nodded. "I will."

Jane still looked incredibly unsure, but she had to go. She even blew her one of her flirty kisses before taking off.

The apartment was so quiet with her gone, and it smelled of last night's pizza and beer. One of the bottles had spilled on the carpet.

Great.

She had all day to basically do whatever she wanted. She hadn't expected him to give in so easily, but neither had she made plans for anything else because, well, nerves she supposed.

She should have spent this day searching for shops that would sell her designs. She still owed Jane some rent, but now she had to go through the terror of deciding whether or not to go through with Arturo's deal all over again.

She kept her mind busy for the rest of the morning by cleaning the carpet, the kitchen, and the bathroom. She had started around nine thirty, and suddenly it was noon.

Her heart thundered as she realized the time. Only another two hours to make her decision if she wanted to give Arturo a visit and let him know what she was going to do.

Of course, she could always call him, which would give her a little less than three hours.

She ate some leftover pizza. She was so going to make herself sick, but she needed this. Cheese and garlic were her friends in that moment. She'd hate them again when it came time to check the scale.

Another hour went by. She put away the pizza boxes into the recycling and swept the floor. Then she stuck the dishes into the dishwasher. Busy, busy, she needed to keep herself busy.

Jittery. She was too damned jittery and had to shake her hands out to get rid of some of her excess energy.

Maybe she should take a shower. A long one. That would calm her nerves, right?

It didn't. Even when she used all the soothing creams and scented oils for her skin, she was left feeling even more helpless than before, and another hour had gone by.

She wouldn't be making the trip into town to his office. Forget that nonsense. She didn't need to go to the king's tower. She'd just send a message to the guard who watched the gates.

That Sylvia woman could pass along the message.

She was going to do it. She was definitely going to do it. That company meant so much to her family. It wasn't like she would be prostituting herself for twenty dollars.

Another twenty-five minutes went by.

No, she couldn't do it. There was no way she could let an arrogant asshole like that inside of her. She enjoyed sex, but she'd never fucked a man she didn’t like at least a little.

Fifteen more minutes. Time was running out.

Yes, she was going to do it. It was only a month, and no one could be that bad. This might turn out to be kind of fun. He had to treat her well when they were in public, and she'd already decided he didn't seem the type to abuse her in private.

With what his father had done, however, there was no guarantee, was there?

But what about Matt's future? He needed the company to be up and running. Mom needed to be working there with her awesome paycheck to help support his schooling.

Right. She made her decision. She was going to give Arturo's secretary a quick call.

She grabbed her cell phone. It was one of her more expensive gadgets that she really needed to get a better plan for. She was paying too much and was starting to feel the squeeze of it every month when it came time for her to pay her bills.

She dialed the number for Calendri Corp, letting the computerized voice on the other end guide her until she got to Sylvia.

"Good afternoon, you've reached the office of Calendri Corporation's CEO, Arturo Calendri, may I have your name and you can leave a message?"

She swallowed hard. "Sylvia, hi, it's me, Isla King. I was there yesterday in a meeting with Mr.—with Arturo."

If she was going to let him inside of her, which she still really didn't want to do, then at the very least, she was not going to call him Mr. Calendri. First-name basis or nothing at all.

There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. "I'm sorry, who is speaking?"

What? "Isla king. I was there yesterday."

"Let me check the appointment logs," Sylvia said.

Was she fucking serious? Isla knew some people would have trouble remembering a person if they worked with or happened to see a lot of people, but Sylvia couldn't have seen that many people in just one day.

The girl was jerking her around. She tapped her foot, immediately reminded of why she'd gotten that annoyingly bad vibe from her yesterday.

Was she taking her sweet time looking for those appointments? She was probably checking her nails while leaving her hanging on the phone.

Not impressed. She was so not impressed, and the longer she waited, the angrier she became.

Finally, the girl came back on the line. "Oh! Of course, Isla King, from Baciami?"

"Yes, that would be me." She tried not to make it overly obvious that she was clenching her teeth.

"Of course, of course," Sylvia said. "Are you calling to decline Mr. Calendri's offer?"

Her spine stiffened at that. "No, I'm calling to accept it, after I've looked over his terms, of course."

There was another pause, this one much briefer than the last, and somehow, she got the feeling Sylvia was grinning when she spoke. "I'm sorry, but Mr. Calendri is very specific in the way he does business. You need to be here in person to review any documents he would want you to sign."

"Yes, I know that, but until then, I'm saying that I'm going to accept, and later on I'll come in and sign his papers."

Isla hadn't expected Arturo to want her to sign anything on her iPad and email it back to him.

"I'm afraid there's been something of a misunderstanding," Sylvia said. "You have to sign any paperwork he has for you in person, but you also need to be here to accept his offer. Papers are to be signed before three pm."

"What?" She pulled her phone back and looked at the time before bringing it back to her ear. "It's ten minutes to three! I can't get down there right now."

"I'm sorry, then Mr. Calendri will take your lack of appearance as a decline to his offer."

"But I'm not declining!" Desperation unlike anything else she'd ever felt before in her entire life filled her. She wasn't declining. She wanted to accept the offer and sign the papers, but he… he wanted her in…. "Seriously? He wants me in his office before three? It's impossible for me to get there on time now."

"Then I suggest you hurry and hope he's in a generous mood," Sylvia said.

Then the phone went dead, and Isla was left standing there, horrified.