Her Rejection, My Chance

Adrian held out a gold card to Evelyn in the campus canteen. She knocked it out of his hand and told him not to insult her with his dirty money. The card landed on the floor and Natalie, who was poorer than Evelyn, picked it up and handed it back to him politely. He looked at her for a moment and made an offer: talk Evelyn into taking the card and he would cover Natalie's tuition and living costs too. Natalie talked her round. What she got in exchange was a place in Adrian's house as his kept woman, the stand-in for the girl who had refused him. Years pass. She works as his secretary and is finally out of poverty, and at night she is the substitute for Evelyn, who is abroad. Evelyn comes back. Natalie starts arranging her own quiet exit, having always understood which of them he actually wanted. Adrian does not take it the way she expected, and the man who bought her attention now wants something she never agreed to hand over.