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BPOV

I'm in.

Edward's text has me sitting up in my seat in my Women's Literature class.

It's possibly the most movement I've ever made in this class all semester, so I hope my professor and classmates don't misinterpret my sudden move as me dying to share all my knowledge about the text we're, admittedly they, are discussing.

An hour ago, I was still trying to convince Edward to say yes to my convoluted little plan, practically begging for him to consider the idea even though we both know the plan itself is outrageous and downright ridiculous. Never in my wildest dreams would I think that this would be something I would ever do. Never.

I consider myself a pretty confident girl and I do enjoy sex, but I love my bungalow even more, and apparently I love it enough to ask Edward to have sex with me on camera for money. Even thinking the words have me shaking my head in disbelief, wondering what other levels of debauchery I would sink to in order to get what I want.

I like to stick to the word desperate, as in desperate times call for desperate measures. I don't think I would consider this an option unless it is for something like this. A twenty one year old college girl with perfect weather, best friends, and a kick ass little house on the beach? There really aren't a lot of things I wouldn't do.

Roll the cameras and tell me where to sign.

Wow. Okay. I send Edward back a double text. Why the change of heart?

Instead of answering me with a response, he sends me a picture of himself looking soaked to the bone and absolutely miserable. His hair in the picture is not the usual bronze shards that resemble broken crystals; the hair that always has the girls around campus wishing they could lay their fingers upon it, drips Florida rain in sheets onto his white tee shirt. The tee shirt is pretty much useless, see through all the way to his goosebumped skin. The look on his face is pissed, and not at all amused, and I stifle my laugh beneath my fingers. It gets me another look from the people around me.

My nipples can cut glass. Shrinkage is real.

I laugh again, not fazed by his words, as I've spent three years being friends with Edward and I've grown used to his sense of humor.

I know this is why he is the one I've asked to make the tapes with me and not anyone else. I know that he will be the one to keep me grounded throughout the whole process. What the process is, I haven't one clue, but I know I can trust him.

He's not that bad to look at, either.

Like most females within a five mile radius of Edward Cullen, finding him attractive is easy. He's got the height, the lean build, the smile, the eyes, the hair, the humor, the personality; he's got it all.

I'm about to find out other parts of himself that he's kept hidden from me.

I wish I could make him feel better, but the sight of him at work looking like he just got out of the shower is too funny, and I spend the next several minutes letting him know that I will be of no help to him.

No beach now, obviously. I text him the obvious news about our trip to the beach being canceled for the day. I was hoping that the rain would have held off until after our beach trip, or lightened up by the time we were ready to head over, but apparently our trip would have to be postponed.

Pavilion?

There is a nice pavilion on the boardwalk a little further down from the bungalow, and I agree to meet Edward there instead of canceling the trip altogether. Even a rainy day at the beach is better than none at all.

By the time I make it to my car after classes are over a few hours later, the rain has let up some, but it's still coming down steady enough for my windshield wipers to beat a predictable rhythm as I put the miles between myself and campus. It definitely feels like a Friday, and I could not be more grateful to separate myself from, well, everything for a little while. The end of the semester is rapidly approaching, and pretty soon I'll be swimming in finals and papers and closing out our dorms for the semester. It never seems like a lot but it always descends upon me like I didn't have four months to prepare for it. Even with everything going on and how much I would like to get a jump start on all of my responsibilities, I decide on the drive over to the pavilion that I'm taking tomorrow off. I'm not going to think about school or work or moving until at least Sunday afternoon.

I tell Rose and Alice that I'm picking Edward up from work, which isn't exactly a lie, but it makes me think that I'll be keeping something huge from them, and that I really fucking suck at it. Lying has never come naturally for me, which I've always thought was a good thing, but now when I need it to work in my favor, I'm actually wondering if this is something that I'm cut out to do.

Lying to my friends, or keeping something like this from them, doesn't make me feel like a good friend, and Rose and Alice and I have been friends since we walked into our dorms on Moving Day of our freshman year. Alice and I had been assigned a dorm to share together and Rose had lived the first year with a different roommate, but after the first week, she had ended up just staying in our room. We applied for a suite the following year, entered and somehow won the lottery, and the rest is history. There's not much we don't know about each other, and it figures that the moment I do keep something from them, it's something as huge and insane as this.

As I pull into a parking spot near the pavilion, I try not to dwell on it too much. Maybe one day Edward and I will get really drunk and spill the beans to the whole group, who knows? For now I reach into my backseat and pull a spare hoodie out from one of the bags back there, and step out into the drizzle.

The rain doesn't keep everyone away from the beach. The pavilion is scattered with a dozen or so people seeking shelter from the inconvenience of the day, but I find Edward in the corner. His elbows are leaning against the painted sea green rails, weathered by storms and sand and time. He looks damp and uncomfortable and the rain has made his usual perfect fitting clothes seem huge on his over six foot frame. I can tell by the look on his face that today did not go according to his plans, and I hope that my informal and friendly sexual harassment didn't make it even worse.

The flip flop of my sandals give away my arrival, and Edward turns his head at the sound, giving me a small smile before shaking his head in mock anger. I know it's not directed at me. Directed towards his shitty day and our shitty predicament.

I don't say anything when I join him in the corner, away from earshot of anyone else, my arms resting similar to Edward's on the railing.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, the constant pelt of the rain against the roof of the pavilion and the crash of the angry waves against the sand a companion for our moods, he speaks.

"Can we acknowledge that this is absolutely the worst fucking idea we've ever come up with?" He asks with a shake of head, as if saying the words put an unbelievable truth to the situation.

"Not only do I acknowledge it, I can't believe you agreed to it."

"Me, neither." Edward answers, looking out into the gray sea in front of us. He shrugs his shoulders and explains his decision. "I really don't mind being the food bitch at work. I don't, but I want to be taken seriously, and today I came in looking the complete opposite of someone who wants to be taken seriously."

"I'm sure worse shit has been done there," I roll my eyes at his exaggeration. "Don't they haze all the interns?"

"Yeah, I guess," he says quietly, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe it's because the whole car thing is a sore subject, I don't know."

"And you took it as a sign to say yes?" I wrap my hoodie tighter around my body to keep the slant of the rain away.

"I can't not have a car," he says, defending his decision to change his mind. "Not if I want to avoid this shit again." He steps back and looks down at his appearance.

"You could get a car without a down payment," I remind him.

"Yeah, I know." Edward replies, stepping back to lean against the rail again. "But I want to be smart about it. The more I can save and put down, the better. I can suck it up a little longer."

"You can use my car on days I won't need it," I offer, and not for the first time.

He nods his head to the beat of the rain. "I know."

"I mean, it won't work out every day," I say, sliding my toes and flip flops behind me against the boardwalk. "I still have to go dress shopping for your formal."

Every spring his fraternity hosts their formal, and I usually tag along as Edward's date if we're both not seeing anyone at the time formal rolls around. Emmett and Jasper bring Rose and Alice every year, so Edward bringing me along as his date for the night really just feels like any other night the six of us hang out with the exception of all of us wearing suits and dresses.

He groans at my reminder. "Oh, yeah. We're still going to that, aren't we?"

I shrug and laugh. "I don't know, are we? You know I only go because all five of you go every year."

He thinks about it for a moment and then looks at me in defeat. "It's Senior year. I kind of have to go."

I agree, although I never pledged a house, I understand their loyalties. "You don't have to take me," I tell him, not offended whatsoever if he decides to change his mind. "Getting out of wearing heels is a win in my book."

He laughs loudly now, and I'm happy to finally see a smile back on his face. "Bella, we agreed to fuck on camera for money. Taking you to formal is nothing."

He's right.

"True." I agree with a laugh, his words reminding me why we're here in the first place. The mood turns serious again. "It won't be weird. We won't let it."

He closes his eyes only to open one of them in distress a second later. "Is that one of those rules you were talking about?"

"One of them, yeah. We have to be honest with each other. No matter what."

Edward remains silent for a moment, maybe for the first time since this whole mess started actually thinking of the repercussions of everything that we're taking on. "Honesty." He mulls it over again before nodding out to the ocean. "I can agree to that."

I breathe a sigh of relief. "Okay, good. Your turn."

"My turn? For what?" Edward takes this moment to step away from the rail again and run his fingers forward and back through his hair, flinging the excess water in my direction. I respond by splashing a tiny puddle in his direction.

I'm still laughing when I prod him to continue with our informal contract. "A rule. A rule of your choice."

He exhales and speaks to the air in front of us. "No one can know about it," he says it in a way that I know he's serious, "We can't even talk about it when other people are around. Not even if we think we're talking in code about it."

"Absolutely."

"You're up."

I think for a moment, so many random areas that we need to cover flying out at me at once. "We're professionals," I say before adding, "or soon to be. We can't be walking around with hickeys or anything like that."

He nods quickly in agreement. "Okay. No visible proof. Got it." He thinks for a second and continues, his hands emphasizing the severity of these agreements. "We have to agree on what exactly the game plan is for each video before we film it. I swear if you go anywhere near my asshole, it's done."

Once I stop laughing, I give him a fist bump to show him that I'm on the same side with him in terms of ass play. "Okay, okay. We'll block the scene first."

Edward looks at me strangely. "Block the scene?"

I shake my head, not wanting to get into it now, and motion for us to move on. "No surprises." I add up another finger as another rule comes to my mind. "We can't sleep with anyone else until this whole thing is done. Too risky."

I watch the color drain from his face. "What about protection?"

Fuck. I hadn't thought about that until now. I try to remember if I've ever seen porn where a guy actually wore a condom.

None comes to mind.

Knowing that honesty is something we consider a "non-negotiable", I stay on the side of being honest and transparent. "I'm on the pill. I am a little uneasy about you not wearing a condom, even if they don't usually wear them on screen." I pause, thinking about it a little longer. "We'll have to go to the clinic on campus tomorrow for testing."

He nods and we agree to go before noon tomorrow. "That makes me nervous, too."

"You're clean, right?" I ask him, exhaling my nerves into the salty air.

To my relief, he nods. "I was the last time I checked. You?"

"Same." There's a slight pause as we both venture into our own thoughts, the first time a serious consequence of our future actions have rendered us speechless. It has the power to derail the whole plan, and I peer over Edward's shoulder to catch a glimpse of my bungalow set against the dark clouds, just waiting for me to hang up my string lights in my bedroom. I look back at Edward who has most likely forgotten I am even here. "When are we doing this? How often?"

He shakes his head. "My house is off limits. Too many eyes." His frat house never sleeps.

A thought dawns on me and I slap his shoulder as I remember. "Rose goes to dance practice every Thursday night. You can come over then."

I watch as he thinks about it for a minute. "Okay. Alice always sleeps over Thursday's with Jasper, anyway."

"Once a week then in my room?" I ask, eager to settle this next arrangement.

"For now. And we have to stick to it." He reaches for the railing and hoists himself onto it, the rain gently pattering against his already wet tee shirt. At this point, he's already reached saturation so a few more drops of rain can hardly bother him now.

I think about how much money we could make in a week. What if once a week doesn't generate enough? "We'll have to keep an eye on the money and see if we need to make more videos to make more money."

He curses under his breath and faces me headstrong. "Ah, money. That's a whole other issue."

The root of all evil.

"I was thinking about that already."

"Already, huh?"

"Shut up, my classes were extra boring today. Anyway, neither of us will touch the account until we've reached our goals. I'll go downtown tomorrow and open up a new account. Can't exactly have my Dad see my bank statement with a deposit from Pornhub now, can I?"

I see the terror on his face before I can hide my laughter. "Oh, please don't talk about your Dad right now." He balances on the railing as he rubs his face with his hands. He speaks to me through a muffled voice. "He can find out about this shit somehow."

I disagree. "How can he? We'll make sure our faces are never seen on video." Edward is a genius when it comes to that sort of thing; I'm not nervous about our covers being blown. "Speaking of videos, I'm going to have to see the videos before you post them."

He looks at me strangely. "That's not going to be weird for you?"

"This whole thing is weird for me, Edward." I can't emphasize how strange I find this whole situation, but we're both in too deep to back out now. "But we both have to like the video enough before we post it online for everyone to see."

"You can stop if it's too weird for you," Edward says after another couple beats of companionable silence.

"So can you." I agree wholeheartedly. "No questions asked."

The storm has let up even though the sky is still gray and the clouds are still brewing up for the next round. Eventually, we shuffle back to my car to meet up with the rest of them for dinner and drinks back on campus.

"It won't be weird," I reiterate as we settle ourselves into my car. "Honesty, remember?"

I grab his hand and squeeze, neither of us unaccustomed to one another's touch. He looks at me as the overhead light in my car fades to nothing, the intense green gaze of his eyes disappearing into the darkening sky.

"Right." Edward squeezes my hand back and slips it away from my grasp. "What do we do when we're done? High five?" He demonstrates in mock awkwardness and I laugh, happy to see him back to my normal Edward again.

"Only if we both get the job done," I say, unintentionally handing Edward a challenge.

"Oh I'll get the job done," he says, very sure of himself, leaning over to the driver's seat to place a wet, sloppy kiss on my neck. I laugh and shove him back to his passenger side where his damp ass belongs.

"Ewww, no kissing." I joke and make a big show to wipe his slobber off of my neck.

"You're serious?" He stops laughing, only to start again when he sees that I am, in fact, serious. "After what you told me you did with that kid at that party two months ago, you think kissing me is too weird?"

It wouldn't be weird, at all. It's just very real. I worry that making anything too real in this situation will make me realize what a horrible idea this really is, beneath money as its disguise.

"We wouldn't be able to anyway," I swiftly change the subject. "We can't hide our faces if we kiss."

"Right, right." We turn on the radio until I'm sliding into a parking spot so ridiculously far away from the dorms. God, I can't wait to park right in front of my bungalow and walk seven steps into my house.

"So we're really gonna do this?" Edward asks as we stroll to where the rest of them are waiting for us.

"I think we can make this work." I say positively. "It's not like we're going to fall in love or anything."

He pauses momentarily on the sidewalk to see if I'm serious or not before I nudge him to keep walking. He looks down over at me, a slight smile on his face. "Do we really need to add that to our contract?"

I can't roll my eyes harder if I tried. "I'll write it up tonight."

"To sign?" He questions.

"Of course. Signing it makes it a legal document."

"When should I sign it?" Edward asks, holding the door open for me at the dining hall. It's virtually empty, as the rain had scared most of the students away into their rooms, but I hear first and then see our friends in their usual spot.

"Thursday at our first session."

-ptp-

"I'm telling you it's beyond worth it," Alice says as we browse a selection of lotions downtown at a local waxing bar. I pick up a soothing lotion and pop the top to smell it, making sure to read the label to see which body part this is supposed to sooth exactly. I cringe when I realize I'm most likely going to have to buy it. "Ask Jasper."

"I guess I have to see for myself," I say, not in the least bit excited. Alice, on the other hand, is taking this as a bonding experience.

"I told you I would show you," she says, coming over and throwing an arm around my shoulder.

"No, not literally show me." Poor choice of words. I clarify myself before Alice pulls me into the bathroom and pulls off her underwear to model for me. "Find out for myself is what I should have said."

"Bella?"

I hear my name being called from the door that opens to the back rooms.

"One Brazilian, coming right up!" Rose snickers from her seat near the window, popping a piece of gum and flipping through a magazine.

I let the technician lead me into one of the rooms in the back, before making myself comfortable. Comfortable is a word I use really loosely as I slip my jean shorts down my legs, my underwear quickly following. This is weird; do I leave my flip flops on without shorts?

I don't have time to think as a knock on the door interrupts my doubts and I eye the materials needed for my upcoming online sex debut.

I make sure Edward is fully aware of what I'm about to put myself through with a picture from the brochure in front of me. I make sure that it leaves nothing to the imagination. The girl in the picture is completely hairless from the eyebrows down, and she looks very happy about it.

We better make a million dollars. I text him those words and the picture of the girl from the brochure right before my own hot wax process begins.

Later that night, when I'm using the soothing lotion on my unmentionables, I read over an email to send to Edward. It's a copy of our contract for him to peruse before signing on Thursday night.

The Proposition

I, Bella Swan, and I, Edward Cullen, on this day dated April 16, 2020, hereby wish to express our intent to enter into a friendly proposition.

The Terms and Conditions are as follows:

This agreement is defined as a physical and emotional arrangement to engage in uncommitted casual sex once a week between the aforementioned parties who know each other, care about each other, and can trust each other. The intent of this agreement is to engage in sexual satisfaction for monetary gain, in which both parties will benefit.

No kissing.

No telling anyone.

No love bites or other visible evidence of encounter.

No other partners until monetary goal is met.

Both parties must stick to agreed upon schedule unless cancelation/reschedule is mutually agreed upon. (It better be a good reason!)

Honesty.

High five as celebration gesture is acceptable but only on mutual success.

Once a week.

Location to be agreed upon by both parties.

Video has to be approved by both parties before posting said video.

No faces on camera. EVER.

Contraceptives/Testing: Must be tested and on safe and reliable contraceptive for duration of Contract.

Not to be discussed openly in front of others.

Acts performed are subject to agreement of both parties prior to filming.

Money in account cannot be touched until both parties have met monetary goal unless special circumstance in which mutual parties must agree upon withdrawal.

Contract can be terminated by either party without an explanation.

No falling in love.

I hit send.

-ptp-

Next Chapter: Their Debut

Thanks to everyone who took the time to rec this little crazy fic of mine – The Lemonade Stand, BitterLady – Check out their fic, Scars To Your Beautiful, and everyone else out there that I might have missed!

My other fic, The Rec, was voted #6 on the Top Ten Fics Completed in the month of April. Go check out The Rec – and yes, I do have plans for a sequel! (You know how I feel about sequels!)

See you soon!

Oh, and please, everyone just love one another. EVERYDAY. ALL PEOPLE.