“It’s appalling,” I quickly stated, hanging my head, “and I immediately regretted getting involved, especially when I saw it was you -”

“What game?” she bluntly cut me off, her voice devoid of expression.  I cringed.

“It’s a bet,” I frowned, “called Project New Girl… basically you put in 300 dollars to take part and the winner takes all.”

“And how, exactly, do you win?” she asked curtly.  I felt like I was back in Kindergarten, having to explain something naughty I did to the principal, who was less than impressed by my childish antics.  Only I was never in love with my principal and certainly didn’t want to get in his pants.

“God, you’re gonna hate me,” I muttered, raising my eyes to the ceiling where I wished I would find God so I could ask him to beam me up, or whatever it was he did… maybe make the ground swallow me whole?  “The rules are; everyone has to choose a particular date to begin – whenever they like – and from that time you have two weeks to arrange an official date with the ‘New Girl’, and once that date is over you have one week to have sex with her… whoever sleeps with her first gets over 20 thousand dollars.”

She remained silent for a moment, taking it all in, watching me intently before her eyes widened.

“And the new girl was me, right?”  she asked, her voice lower than I’d ever heard it before.

“I am so sorry,” I said vehemently, never having meant the words more in my life.

She said nothing, not even looking at me as I desperately tried to see some sort of reaction in her features.  She just stared down between our feet, probably noting the position of them, just as I had.  Or not.  Maybe she was reeling from the fact I’d made a bet to sleep with her.

“Honestly, Spence,” I began again, knowing that waiting for a response was futile.  Besides, I’d asked her to remain quiet until I’d told her the entire story, and there was still a lot to say.  “As soon as I knew it was you I regretted getting involved… I tried to get out of it!”

“So why didn’t you?” she suddenly looked up, looking more hurt than I’d ever seen her look.  I felt my heart shatter in my chest – the fragmented shards puncturing everything good inside me and causing me more pain than it would even have done if it were me in her position.