It's never smooth sailing

Matt made a point to be at the bus stop early. He'd finished his pushups when, as usual, he felt Amy's gaze.

"Hey Amy." She looked cute in a short skirt and a little blouse that tied above her belly button. Her tanned legs, toned by horse riding and swimming, definitely caught his eyes as did the flat tummy.

"I'm getting cold feet," she said.

Shit. "Okay. Want to talk about it?"

"How am I supposed to know how you feel about me, how I'm supposed to feel about you? If you were my real boyfriend, I'd know. But you're not. You're someone my mother is paying, like a babysitter."

"Didn't you go over this with Karen?"

"Yeah, Karen. She's so smart she can make anything sound convincing. Except, when she's not here I get to thinking on my own."

Matt didn't like the sound of that. "I can tell your mom the deal is off."

"Really?" Her eyes lit up. "You'd do that?"

"Don't be silly. There's no way I'd do this without it being okay with you. That's why we told you about the deal in the first place." He could practically feel the hundred dollars a week floating away from him, wanted to come up with something clever, something Karen would say, to persuade Amy that she was wrong to be uncomfortable, that it would be fine for Matt to get paid to pretend to be a boyfriend. He couldn't.

"Look, Amy," he finally said. "Think about it. Talk to Karen. Decide how you want to handle it. Whatever you decide, I'm okay with it. Your friendship... both for Karen and with me... is more important than a hundred bucks."

"Thank you, Matt." She kissed him... just as the bus pulled up.

Well, hell. He didn't need the whole bus full of kids and Ophelia seeing him kissing Amy. Sleeping with Amy would be great but realistically, he didn't want to be exclusive with her or anyone else.