The Rich Boy Hired Me to Break Them Up

All my rich, beautiful roommate had to do was crook a finger, and she took away the boy I'd grown up with for more than ten years, just to make the prince of the oldmoney crowd jealous.

The prince came to my door himself. "Take a hundred and get that normie you grew up with away from her." I raised my price on the spot. "Give me two hundred, and pretend to be my dog on top of it.

I guarantee she'll be too frantic to ever bring up breaking up again." He was stunned. "Two hundred?

Are you robbing me?" I was stunned too. "You can't even come up with two hundred bucks?" The prince went suddenly quiet.

Chapter 1 After a long silence, Hayden Fox dragged his eyes up and looked at me. "When I said a hundred, I meant a hundred thousand." "Also, I'm not going to be your dog.

Not for real, not for pretend. Read fewer novels." My face went red all at once. That's not how it goes in the novels!

Wasn't he supposed to go along with it, let me train him, and then gradually fall for me and actually be my dog? I scratched my nose, embarrassed. "Ththen fine.

Give me the hundred thousand first." Hayden turned it down flat. "You look like a total idiot to me. I'm guessing you can't do a thing about that guy you grew up with." "Forget it.

I can't be bothered wasting time on you. I'm out." How do rich people turn on you that fast!

Watching a hundred thousand dollars fly out of my hands, I panicked so hard I almost cried. "Hey, don't go, don't go, let's talk about this some more.

Ten thousand is fine." "I am getting Everett Doran away from Blythe no matter what!" Hayden looked me up and down. "Oh? So what's your plan?

Let's hear it." I answered without thinking. "Wear him down. Bug him until he can't stand it." Hayden nodded. "So you don't count for anything with him.

All you've got is wearing him down to get his attention." I was already aching over the two hundred thousand I'd lost.

Hearing him put it that way made it hurt worse. "That's… that's not it. We've known each other a long time.

I think I do count for something with him." Hayden pointed at my phone. "Then tell him you're not feeling well and ask him to take you to a doctor.

Let me hear what he says." I got out my phone and called Everett Doran, the boy I'd grown up with. First call, declined. Second call, declined again. Third call, he picked up.

I made my voice sound like I was in real pain. "Everett, my stomach hurts so much.

Will you take me to the health center?" Everett Doran said flatly, "No time." "…But it really does hurt," I said. "Marissa Rusk," Everett Doran said, "do you have any idea how annoying you look when you can't take a hint?" Then he hung up.

I sat there staring at my phone screen. The two hundred thousand that had been scrambling my head a minute ago suddenly didn't seem that important. I knew all the arguments.

A girl is supposed to have some selfrespect, or people will only look down on her.

What I should have done right then was tear into Everett Doran, block him, and never speak to him again as long as I lived.

But I couldn't forget those years, back when my parents' fights turned the whole apartment upside down and Everett was the one who pulled me across the hall to hide at his place.

Through that narrow hallway, the filth my parents threw at each other was unbearable to listen to. And perfectly audible.

Chapter 2 Everett sat across from me reading a book, listening to all that filth along with me. I felt so humiliated. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me.

But Everett acted like he couldn't hear a thing. He got me milk. He got me strawberry PopTarts.

I ate and cried at the same time, and he comforted me. "Grownup business isn't yours to handle. Just study hard." He also gave me his mom's old phone after she upgraded.

No SIM card in it, but it worked on WiFi, and he said I could message him whenever I needed him. Except I needed him too often.

My parents were like a lot of people, two ordinary adults trapped inside their own lives. Accidentally buying a carton of rotten eggs was enough to set off a screaming fight.

So I put a novelreading app on that phone and downloaded a lot of books, and I read them whenever I felt bad. In novels it always went the same way.

No matter how many terrible moments the main character lived through, she ended up happy. So little me believed, absolutely, that I would too. When did Everett start to change?

Maybe after puberty, when more and more people wanted to date him.

In his eyes I stopped being the kid from across the hall and became the subject of everyone's questions and teasing, a girl who caused him a lot of trouble.

He started refusing to walk home with me, refusing the snacks I brought him, refusing to talk to me at school. I didn't understand what I'd done wrong.

So I worked at losing weight, learned makeup, bought new clothes. Oh, and most important, I studied.

That was the only way I'd get into the same school as him, with those terrifying grades of his. But today I couldn't lie to myself anymore, no matter how I tried.

He'd said it that harshly, and in front of an outsider. And I'd just lost two hundred thousand dollars. I couldn't hold it in.

Right there in front of Hayden Fox, I bawled my eyes out. People kept turning around to look at us. Hayden had no choice but to pull me into his Maybach.

I cried, and like a total hick who'd never been in a car like this, I touched this and poked that.

He looked disgusted. "Don't get snot on my car." So I put my hands on my knees like a good girl and kept crying. Hayden laughed. "How does he figure you can't take a hint?

Sounds like you take them fine." Still crying, I told him everything about me and Everett. Hayden was completely exasperated. "Does this normie think he's a celebrity?

Is he scared a rumor about you two would hurt his follower count?" "And you. Could you show a little backbone?

Is he worth crying like this over?" To save face, I insisted, "I'm crying over the two hundred thousand.

My two hundred thousand, boo hoo hoo…" Hayden rolled his eyes, exasperated but holding it in. "There's no two hundred thousand.

There's a hundred thousand, and only if you actually get that normie away from her." "Also, there's no way I'm being your dog, not for real and not for pretend.

But some other kind of relationship, we could try that." That got me going.

I grabbed a tissue and wiped the snot and tears off fast. "Ooh, yes, yes, what kind of relationship do you want?

How about obsessed billionaire heir and innocent heroine?" Hayden clicked his tongue. "You wish." "Innocent heroine chasing the billionaire heir, more like." "However you used to treat that normie, that's how you're going to treat me." So I wasn't going to get to be the innocent heroine with a billionaire obsessed with her.

But the thought of breaking up Blythe and Everett still made life feel full of hope. I knew Blythe only wanted Everett as a prop, something to make Hayden angry.

Chapter 3 Blythe and Hayden Fox were the famous couple who'd grown up together and loved each other to death, and they'd broken up and gotten back together more times than anyone could count.

Every round was a spectacle, and every round ended with them making up.

Now and then Blythe would get an urge to post the apology gifts Hayden gave her after a fight, and strangers would flood the comments. [how did i scroll into a royal account] [turns out rich people can be hopeless romantics too] [just a peasant here to watch the nobility date] What I didn't understand was what Everett was thinking.

Last time he came to find me, he walked straight into Blythe and Hayden in the middle of a breakup. Blythe was furious.

Right in front of Hayden, she marched over to Everett, that beautiful face set in pure defiance. "Hey, can I get your number?" I was seriously panicking.

I knew Everett hated hassle more than anything, and he was definitely going to say no.

But Blythe was a girl with a lot of pride, and if she got shot down in public she'd be mortified.

I was still racking my brain for a way to quietly tell Everett to at least pretend to say yes.

Then Everett nodded and said, "Sure." And took out his phone and saved Blythe's number. I still remember exactly how I felt. It was strange. Not hurt. Shame.

Shame at my own useless empathy. Because after Blythe saved the number, she glanced over at me and said, "What are you staring at me for? He's not your boyfriend.

Can't I ask for a number?" Luckily the shame didn't last long. Hayden interrupted the memory.

Not only did he want me to run my whole Everett routine on him, he also banned me from contacting Everett in any form.

So for the first time in all the years I'd known him, I went more than twentyfour hours without messaging Everett.

Then I stared at my phone and imagined an epic, onhisknees grovel arc. …That's how it goes in every novel I've read, anyway. I told Hayden what I'd been imagining.

Hayden let out an oldmoney laugh that lasted a solid three minutes. When he'd laughed himself out, he said, "That normie's busy going on dates with Bly.

He doesn't have time to think about you." Then he told me to get in the car and took me to a restaurant that ran $399 a head.

We hadn't been waiting in the car ten minutes when Everett and Blythe came out. You could tell she was a pretty heiress raised on money.

And she was standing that close to my tall, goodlooking boy from across the hall. Blythe glanced at Hayden's car.

Her face had been blank, and all at once a sweet smile spread across it. Still smiling, she turned to look at Everett.

Then she went up on her toes and kissed the corner of his mouth. Hayden's face went dark.

He threw the car door open, got out without so much as a glance at Everett, and pulled Blythe off somewhere private. I didn't care what they were fighting about.

I just watched Everett. After Blythe kissed him, he froze completely. A few seconds later he raised his hand and touched the corner of his own mouth.

Like he couldn't believe what had just happened. I really wanted to cry. Why was that his reaction when Blythe kissed him? Disbelief.

Like he'd been handed something he didn't deserve. All I'd ever done was think he was asleep and sneak a photo of myself holding his fingers.

And he shook me off and told me to stop being crazy. Of course I knew Blythe was rich and beautiful and there was no comparing me to her. I know exactly what I am.

Chapter 4 But we'd known each other so long. Wasn't that enough to earn a reaction that didn't hurt quite so much?

A few minutes later Blythe came storming back, grabbed Everett, and left. Hayden Fox got back in the car in a foul mood.

He glanced at me, pulled out a pack of tissues, and tossed it over. "Wipe your tears fast, before you get my car dirty again." I touched my face. Dry. Great. Not a tear left in me.

Watching them walk away, I asked Hayden, "Why does Blythe need some guy to make you jealous?" Hayden let out an irritated breath. "Her parents are busy.

She's… starved for love." "We've known each other for years. Growing up, I was always the one bringing her along." "I only thought of her as a friend.

Last year she suddenly said she liked me, and that's when we got together." "She needs me to answer every message the second it comes in and spend every free hour with her." "I've done as much of that as I can, and it's still not enough for her." I honestly didn't know what to say.

An heiress who could buy a purse on a whim that cost two years of my living expenses. With a boyfriend from a family just like hers who looked like a movie star.

A boyfriend who was already trying his best for her, and it still wasn't enough. One crook of her finger and she had the person I could never catch no matter how hard I chased.

Kissed him in the middle of the street like it was nothing, just to pull in a little more attention and a little more love. I couldn't name what was churning around inside me. Hate?

Disgust? Neither one. I could even understand her. Just a beautiful girl with a whole lot of money who needed a whole lot of love.

I just suddenly felt even smaller than I'd thought I was. Hayden reached over and snapped his fingers in front of my face. "What are you spacing out for?

Time to work." "Didn't I tell you to treat me the way you used to treat him?" "Get out of the car with me.

In a minute they'll all be gone." I came back to myself. "You're not expecting me to kiss you in front of Blythe, are you?

I never did that with Everett." Hayden raised an eyebrow, a little surprised. "So what did you do?" "Just, you know. Comfort him.

Care about him." Hayden said, "Huh, you know how to comfort people? Go on, comfort me a little. Let's hear it." No kidding, I thought.

Comforting people and seeing things from their side is the thing I'm best at in the world. My parents fought my whole childhood, and sometimes they took it out on me.

But every time they finished complaining to me about how hard things were for them, I couldn't hold any of it against them.

Because if I were them, I probably wouldn't have done any better.

I thought about it, looked Hayden in the eye, and started talking in earnest. "I don't think you're the kind of person who says things he doesn't mean." "If you say you were good to her, then you gave it everything you had." "Maybe it's because you did so well that she decided you were precious, and she's scared of losing you, so she keeps testing whether you'll leave." "I don't want to tell you two how to feel about each other.

I just want to say…" "Don't feel bad because she kissed Everett. She's serious about you.

I can tell." "And being too good to her, so she can't stop worrying, that isn't really your fault either." Hayden listened to all of it quietly. He was silent for a while.

Then he laughed, once, suddenly. He said, "Get out of the car." I was a little speechless. "I am not getting out to be your lapdog in public.

That's embarrassing." Hayden clicked his tongue. Chapter 5 "Get out of the car so I can buy you a good meal.

What did you think I meant?" The thrill of getting something for free wiped out the ache in my chest instantly.

I couldn't help beaming at him. "Thanks, boss!" Hayden Fox stared at my face for a few seconds before he turned away. "Nice little white teeth.

No wonder you can talk your way out of anything." Turns out you have to book a $399ahead dinner way in advance. Watching my free meal evaporate, I couldn't hide my disappointment.

But Hayden made one call, and the manager came over personally, all smiles, and walked us into a private room. I was happy again.

Hayden glanced at me. "Could you be any more obvious about what's going on in your head?" Obviously not.

When the food came I took a pile of pictures, then made Hayden take a couple of me.

He had nothing to say about that, but he took them anyway. "Could you not pose so stupidly?" He caught my sleeve and moved me into a different position.

Then the door of the private room opened. Blythe walked in with no expression on her face and, without a word, started hitting Hayden with her purse.

Two swings in, the tears started.

Fat drops of them slid down that delicate chin. "Hayden Fox, what is this supposed to be!" "You have time to eat dinner with somebody else and no time to answer my messages?" Hayden stood there and let her hit him.

It was like this had happened plenty of times before and he was used to Blythe getting her way.

When she'd worn herself out, Hayden said, "You mean the one where you said you wanted to break up?" "How did you want me to answer that?

Yes or no?" I stood there mortified, afraid to move and afraid to make a sound, sure I'd be the next one she hit. "I want you to say it to my face!" Blythe stared at him. "I want to break up with you.

Yes or no?" Hayden frowned, his eyes going dark. "I want you to answer that one to my face too." "Are you serious, or are you just saying it because you're angry?" "If you're serious, then yes." Blythe stopped moving.

After a few seconds she looked coldly at Hayden Fox, then at me. "A minute ago I was saying it because I was angry.

Now I'm serious." "And if you're going to cheat, cheat with better quality than this. Don't tell people you ever dated me.

I'd be embarrassed." She was attacking me, but the whole time she said it she was staring at Hayden. Like the entire world were nothing but set dressing for their show.

Hayden didn't argue. He nodded. "Thanks for your concern. I like what I see.

That's all that matters." Furious, Blythe kicked an eyeshadow palette that had fallen out of her purse and stormed out.

That was when I noticed Everett had been standing in the doorway the whole time. His