Little Secrets(57)

She often thinks about Isabel. They met during frosh week, when Izzy walked into their dorm room with a suitcase that Kenzie later learned was half full of makeup and hair products. Izzy had gotten into college on a dance scholarship, and her only goal in life was to marry a rich man.

“It’s not like I don’t believe in myself,” Izzy had said matter-of-factly over pizza later that night. Her new roommate took a huge bite, which she’d vomit up later, Kenzie would soon discover. “My dream is to dance professionally. But I could break my ankle tomorrow. And then what? I have no other skills. That’s why I’ve got David. He’s my backup plan.”

They bonded over older men. Izzy’s boyfriend was a forty-three-year-old surgeon, and Kenzie was dating Sean, a thirty-nine-year-old real estate agent she’d met in yoga class. Unlike David, though, Sean was married.

“Yeah, I’d never go there with a married guy,” Izzy said, her perfect nose wrinkling in distaste. “But, whatever, girl. You do you.”

After freshman year, Kenzie and Izzy moved out of the dorm and into a tiny apartment together off campus. Kenzie was still dating Sean, but his wife had threatened to take the kids and leave, and there was tension at home. She could sense he was losing interest.

Izzy had moved on to a new older man, Rick, who loved to travel. In between her dance classes, he took her to Mexico, Barbados, Paris, and they even did a Mediterranean cruise, which Izzy said was boring because the median age of the ship’s passengers was “eleventy billion years old.”

“I’ll never do Holland America again,” Izzy declared when she got home. “Everybody was in bed by nine. What did I miss? How’s Sean?”

“I’m pretty sure he ended it,” Kenzie said, morose. “At dinner the other night, he said he needed some space, that he needed to focus on his kids. He actually gave me money. It felt like … severance pay.”

“How much money?”

“A thousand.” Kenzie wasn’t sure how to feel about it. “He pulled out a wad of cash, paid the check, then handed me the rest.”

“And you said…”

“‘Thanks.’”

“Girl, have I taught you nothing?” Izzy rolled her eyes. “You don’t take the first offer. It’s a negotiation. He wants you gone, he’s gotta pay to get you gone. A thousand … shit. David used to give me that every month, just because.”

“What should I have done?”

“You should have stroked his ego, played his heartstrings a little, appealed to his manly protector side,” Izzy said. “Said something like, ‘Oh, wow, I didn’t see this coming.’” Her voice went up an octave and softened, her face an exaggerated impersonation of someone who was upset. “‘I don’t want to lose you. This is real for me, and I’m not ready to let you go.’”

Kenzie burst out laughing. “Dude, come on. There’s no way I could have said that with a straight face.”

Izzy did not laugh. “Then you’d better practice. This breakup should have cost him way more than a thousand. When David and I broke up, he gave me ten.”

“Ten thousand?”

“You think that’s a lot for them? It’s nothing. That’s a poker weekend.” Izzy sighed and shook her head. “You know I don’t do the married guy thing, but if you’re going to go that route, you might as well capitalize. Professional girlfriend rates go up if the guy has a wife. They have more to lose.”

It was the first time Kenzie had heard the term professional girlfriend.

“Like I said, it’s a negotiation.” Izzy leaned forward. “You have to ask for what you’re worth.”

“How the hell do I do that?”

“There’s an art to it.” Her roommate paused for a moment, thinking it through. “You have to ask … without actually asking. You make it so that they offer.”

It was a lot to ponder.

“In any case, it’s too late for you with Sean.” Izzy leaned back again. “But keep it in mind for next time. You have more power than you think. Just don’t you dare fall for him.”

As they continued to live together, Izzy taught Kenzie a lot about being a “professional girlfriend.” They weren’t prostitutes, she insisted. They had to genuinely like the men, and the relationships were always exclusive; Izzy never dated more than one man at a time. While they were together, she only had eyes for him, and she doted on him the way a good girlfriend would. In the bedroom, she went above and beyond to please her man, but she expected the same in return. It wasn’t all about him.

But her boyfriends had to be able to afford her. She was high-maintenance, and required cash to get her nails done every week, her eyelashes done every other week, her hair done every month, and custom spray tans on an as-needed basis. She loved to travel, but first class or business class only. She expected gifts, and she preferred the ones that came in little blue boxes with white bows. In return, her boyfriend would receive a devoted girlfriend and travel companion who would lavish attention on him, and who would always ensure they had a good time.

But Izzy didn’t want to stay in the girlfriend category forever. She wanted the ring, she wanted the wedding, she wanted the house, she wanted the name. She wanted financial security.