Lara kept bringing condoms and a randomly chosen selection from her sex toy drawer each time she went over to Aaron’s house, but each time he just wanted to talk. Lara, for the duration of the hour, kept her focus entirely on him, finding ways to keep the conversation going and going.

His house had originally belonged to his mother, a miser who had unexpectedly left him enough money to live off the interest when she died. He mostly read, walked by the river, went out to lunch with a stable of friends around his age. Absent any external motivation to do anything at all, he was “getting a little seedy” as he put it.

In return for his apparent candor, Lara invented a whole alternate past for herself that involved a childhood in California, former troubles with substance abuse, quirky anecdotes about her fake family, hobbies she didn’t actually have, and so on.

As months passed — he made appointments to see her every three weeks or so — Lara started to wish that he would make an actual pass at her. It would clarify things. She had signed up to have sex with him for money, she hadn’t signed up for whatever this was. The anticipation she felt every time, and its subsequent relief, made her feel slightly crazy in the days following her appointments. She never did anything good with the six hundred each time. It went to expensive clothes, takeout, drugs, books. After a few weeks, she’d be back to doing endless trains of mental math about groceries.

When, in November, she got an email from her old boss at the library, asking if she would want to pick up some shifts, she felt relieved. For a moment she contemplated ghosting Aaron, but no — even if she was getting twice the shifts the library would give her, she would still need his money. So she did both.

One day, close to the end of the semester, Jenna emerged from the stacks with a wild look on her face. She walked right up to Lara’s desk and placed both elbows on it.

“Hi Lara,” Jenna whispered. “Are you also losing your goddamn mind?”

“Yeah,” Lara said.

“When’s your shift done? I literally can’t think anymore. I need to, like, walk around.”

“I get off in an hour. Can you wait that long?”

“No,” Jenna said, and walked a few steps away before turning back and mouthing, Please?

After checking if her supervisor was there (he wasn’t), Lara turned off the light behind the desk and put her coat on. Jenna grinned and they walked out into the freezing night air. When the door closed behind them Jenna let out a prolonged, guttural groan.

“That bad, huh?” Lara said.

“Oh my god, he fucking proposed to me.”

“Excuse me, what?”

“With a ring, Lara. His grandmother’s fucking ring.”

“What did you tell him?

“I said I’ll think about it.”

“That seems reasonable.”