by Piper Rayne
“Do I hear nine hundred?” the MC says, and no one raises their paddle. “Eight fifty?” A woman raises her paddle in the air. “The brunette in the corner has the bid.”
Just like Cristian, Mauro squints, trying to see who has the winning bid and I have no idea if he can actually see past the spotlight.
“Going once…” The MC looks around the room and the woman in the corner is already celebrating with her girlfriends.
I loathe her, and I don’t even know her.
“Going twice…”
The brunette is biting her lip, her eyes roaming over Mauro again like he’s a tub of Ben and Jerry’s and Aunt Flo has come to visit.
“One thousand!” someone calls out and when I look in front of me I realize that Lauren is standing holding her paddle in her hand.
“Whoa! One thousand to the lady in the back.”
“Lauren,” I scold but she pays me no attention. Does she ever?
“Do you counter?” the MC directs his question to the other woman whose smile has fallen.
Great. Now I feel bad for her. She thought she had him and Lauren stole him away.
Her friends are all whispering, and I wonder if they’ll pool all their money together. Lauren stands there, her paddle still raised in the air.
The other woman shakes her head.
“Then sold for one thousand dollars!” He points the gavel at Lauren.
Mauro turns and heads off the stage.
Lauren tosses the paddle in the middle of the table. “You can thank me on your wedding day.”
“I didn’t want Mauro,” I argue, even if my stomach is too busy flipping and fluttering at the thought of a night alone with him.
“Yes, you did. This is your chance. Either you find out he’s a complete douche and stop comparing every man you meet to him or you find out he’s everything you ever thought he was. Either way win-win.”
“Okay, I need to be filled in here,” Vanessa says. “Especially since I’m supposed to be going out with his brother.” She points to Cristian’s bio in the book and narrows her eyes at me.
“Later,” I say.
“Fine. If this is the way we’re going to play it…” Vanessa turns away from our conversation and fixes her attention on the MC.
“If you lost out on the first two Bianco’s, the third time’s the charm with the youngest or baby Bianco as he’s referred to by his brothers. If you love a bad boy who can’t keep it in his pants, then Luca Bianco is the man for you! Be prepared to dance the night away while swatting away the competition. Don’t bid unless you can handle yourself in a cat fight.” The MC chuckles. “Luca Bianco!” he says with flourish and points to the curtains.
Luca comes out like he’s walking the catwalk of a fashion show, full of cocky confidence. He’s wearing his formal EMT outfit and he unbuttons his jacket, sliding out of it, swinging it over his shoulder as he spins around. His smile is flirtatious as his dark eyes scan over the women in the crowd.
Where Cristian looked uncomfortable and Mauro looked a little irritated, it’s clear that Luca is in his element. He nods to the MC to get the bidding going.
Paddles raise in the air as soon as it starts. Some lowering as the price steadily goes up.
“Eight hundred?” The MC asks, and Vanessa raises her paddle behind Lauren’s head.
“Eight to the pretty blonde in the back.” He smiles at her like he’s got a chance with her himself.
Luca smiles too, and I wonder if it’s because he can see who’s bidding on him.
“Eight fifty!” A woman shouts out from three tables over.
“Nine hundred!” Vanessa stands.
Lauren whips around, grabbing the paddle from Vanessa’s hands.
“Don’t you dare.” She pulls on the paddle, but Vanessa pulls harder in the other direction.
“Okay, ladies, no fighting,” The MC says.
“Nine twenty-five!” the other woman yells.
Vanessa wrenches the paddle back and Lauren lurches forward. “Nine fifty!” Vanessa stands and smiles, raising the paddle high in the air like they’re playing monkey in the middle.
Lauren steps on a chair and stretches her small body forward. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” she says with wide eyes.
I just look on and chuckle.
“It’ll be fun. Maybe we can all go out together,” Vanessa says.
I shake my head at her. That’ll be her excuse to give Cristian the cold shoulder I’m sure.
“One thousand!” the other woman declares, smiling smugly at her friends like she’s got this.
“Lauren you are the one who said we couldn’t fight the other on who they chose,” I remind her.
“That’s before I thought she’d bid on him,” she says, him with disgust.
I don’t know what she has against Luca Bianco and I wonder if my best friend has been keeping secrets from me.
Unable to reach the paddle, Lauren teeters on the edge of the chair and has to crouch down before she falls.
“Just tell me, what’s the highest you’ll go?” Vanessa asks the woman.
The redheaded woman shrugs like game on. Vanessa blows at a strand of hair out of her vision. “Fifteen hundred!”
“Vanessa!” I scold because she cannot afford that. She can’t even hold down a steady job. I mean, she pays me her rent in five, ten, and twenty dollar bills every month.
“NO!” Lauren screams and stands trying to grab the paddle again.
She finally loses her balance and crashes into Vanessa who can’t stop them from falling. They topple to the ground in a tangle of limbs, but Vanessa is sure to keep the paddle in the air.
“Nice,” I say, shaking my head.
“Do you counter?” the MC asks the redhead and she sits down in her seat, picking up her glass and downing the rest of her wine.
“Sold to the lady on the floor wrestling her friend. Have fun with that one, Luca.”
“Just how I like them,” Luca says before he saunters off stage.
“It’s over,” I say to my friends still wrestling for the paddle on the floor. Classy, aren’t we?
Lauren sits up on her knees, not bothering to straighten her dress or fix her messy hair. She could probably go a couple more rounds.
“See, you’re perfect to fight off the competition,” I say and laugh.
Lauren narrows her eyes at me.
Vanessa stands, instantly situating her hair and dress. “Jeez, Lauren. It’s just a date.”
“A date I won’t be going on. You just wasted fifteen hundred dollars.” Lauren stomps off toward the bar.
I could use a drink too. I stand and begin to follow her, but my feet stop when Mauro comes into sight.
He’s got a beer in his hand talking to a golden-blonde haired woman in an elegant dress that reveals her nice figure. He always did love the blondes. I remember some of the girls he was linked to in high school—Tasha Needlebrook, Holly Jenkins, Katie Iverson. All blonde, all thin, and all cheerleaders. The woman smiles, touching his bicep. Back when we were younger I was used to seeing the girls fall all over him, but what cuts me right now is his wide smile toward her. He’s hanging on every word she’s saying. Jealously rips through my body like a taser.
Trying to shake off the unwelcome emotion, I continue on my way to the bar.
“Tequila shot. Now.” Lauren slaps the top of the roll in bar set-up outside the ballroom. Her rudeness pulls a few stares our way.
“Sorry Miss, we don't have tequila,” the kind women who served me earlier says without the friendly smile this time. “You want gin or vodka?”
“Vodka and I need two then.”
“I’ll just give you a double.” The bartender pulls out a regular highball glass and pours in more vodka than Lauren should consume.
Lauren downs most of it in one gulp.
Luca comes out from the ballroom and I notice Vanessa laying out piles of cash on the table to pay for Lauren’s date. The women accepting the payment
glance at one another, looking a little unsure.
“You think she’s hooking?” Lauren asks me, seeing the same thing I am.
Who carries fifteen hundred in cash in their purse?
“No. She would never do that.”
Silently, I second guess myself…the hours she keeps, the cash she always has on hand, the way she’s always so shady about where she’s been.
Nope. I know my friend and she is not sleeping with men for money. But she’s definitely up to something.
“You’re probably right,” Lauren says.
Luca stops when he spots Vanessa, leaning his hip against the table, eyeing her like she’s his next meal.
“Great, now he thinks she bought him,” Lauren says.
Vanessa nods to us and Luca steps to the side to look past Vanessa and smiles even bigger when he spots Lauren.
Hmm, maybe he remembers us.
“I’m going to go pay.” I head over to the table, but Lauren stays where she’s at, ordering another drink.
“Hey, can I have the number for my date?” Cristian approaches another lady working at the table as I’m paying.
“She’s right here,” the woman says to him and points to me.
I finish tearing off my check and hand it to the other lady. “Actually, it’s her.” I point over to Vanessa who’s wandered off away from the table.
His face pales when he sees her and then he turns to me, doing a double take. “Maddie?” he squints like he did earlier on stage.
I nod. The fact that he recognizes me does nothing to boost my ego. I may have a metal free mouth, contacts, and lost forty pounds, but apparently, I’m still ‘Fatty Maddie’ at heart.
He wraps me in his strong arms, pulling me to him. When he backs up he has the first real smile I’ve seen on his face the entire night.
“Oh man, we have to catch up. I don’t think I’ve seen you since high school,” he says.
I chat with Cristian for a while and he volunteers to buy me a drink, but he should really be trying to win over Vanessa.
“So, I don’t get it, if you bought me…”
“We switched paddles and bid for each other.”
He nods like, he now gets it. “Are you trying to get me fired?” he whispers.
My eyes linger on Vanessa who’s now talking with her dad and the blonde she chatted up in line who ended up winning the date with him. The woman’s arm slides through her dad’s and much to Vanessa’s delight I’m sure, they already look cozy.
“Why would you say that?” I ask, looking back over to him.
“Her dad is my Commander,” he bites out. “I can’t go on a date with her. I’ll end up working traffic patrol.”
When I’d made the bid, I hadn’t known. “I’m sorry. I’m sure John won’t get mad at you taking her out for one date when it’s such a great cause.”
“Have you met the man?” he says with sarcasm and an arched brow.
Vanessa leaves her father and approaches us. Her self-confidence is like something I’ve never seen before. “Cristian,” she says his name coldly. “I’m sure you don’t want to go out with me as much as I don’t want to go out with you. I’ve already informed Maddie that she wasted her money, so let’s shake on the fact we’ll call it even.” She holds out her hand for him to shake.
Cristian’s lips tick up for a second and he crosses his arms in front of him. Just like Mauro, he’s grown into quite the man.
“Sorry, but I’m not really into letting my friend waste her money. I’m sure you have some hang up on a man in blue because of your daddy, but we are going to go out.”
Interesting. A complete one eighty from what he had just said to me. I guess there’s no faster way to have a man interested in you than to make it clear that you’re not interested in him.
Confrontation makes me itchy and I can tell from Vanessa’s eyes that a storm is brewing.
“I’ll leave you two to discuss,” I say and slink off.
Luca and Lauren are standing together now at the bar and he’s laughing while Lauren stares blankly at him. I could venture back into the ballroom or maybe be a wallflower until they’re ready to leave. I’m not unaccustomed to watching from the sidelines when we all go out together.
A callused hand lands softly on my forearm. “Excuse me,” a deep voice says.
I stop and circle around. My entire body shuts down for a second as Mauro Bianco stands front and center only a couple of feet away from me.
“I heard you were the winning bid for me. Well, not for me, but a date. Which I guess is technically still me.” He shakes his head, chuckling to himself.
I giggle.
He holds his hand out. “Let’s start over.” His smile is infectious. His eyes, alluring. His muscles, worth salivating over. I’m back to being that sophomore girl again. “I’m Mauro Bianco. Thanks for coming out to support such a good cause.”
“Hi. I’m… Madison Kelly.”
His smile grows and my gut twists, my palms sweaty, my heart pounding against my chest as I wait with baited breath.
“Nice to meet you,” he says.
The knife twists in my gut and then slices my heart for thinking that he’d remember me. Of course, he doesn’t.
I was always invisible to him.
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Austin
The handsome guy on stage with his jaw hanging wide open, shock and awe in his eyes?
That’d be me. Austin Bailey. Eldest brother of the Bailey clan, guardian to my younger siblings, biology teacher extraordinaire, baseball coach, good neighbor, and all-round pretty great guy.
Before we dive into the fact that karma just raised its middle finger at me, you should hear how my day began.
Today started like every other day. I woke up, got ready, prepared breakfast for my ungrateful twin sisters, Phoenix and Sedona, then we all hopped into my Jeep to head to school.
Of course, Phoenix didn’t eat the pancakes. Her exact words, if I remember correctly were, “They taste like cardboard. Can’t you just follow the recipe?”
Sedona ate the pancakes, but as soon as we pulled into the parking lot of Lake Starlight High School, where they’re seniors, her appreciation for me ended. “Park in the back, I don’t want to be seen stepping out of this monstrosity.”
I’ve learned that there’s no pleasing a teenager, especially a female one—no offense, ladies, but her comment still irks me. How is my Jeep embarrassing? It has a snorkel so when I off-road, I don’t have to spend my money on a new engine and can instead afford to buy her whatever new outfit she wants. She should be grateful, thanking me. But she’s seventeen. Pleasing her is impossible.
I purposely park in the first row and honk my horn to announce our arrival, because pissing off Sedona is one of my top five favorite things to do. I’ll miss that come next year.
Phoenix’s stomach rumbles as she exits the car. Sedona has already raced off to the nearest entrance as if that creepy IT clown is following her.
I stroll toward the door, reloading my emails on my phone, hoping I received the response I’ve been waiting for and that it contains good news. Elijah, my star pitcher, cuts me off.
“Coach, I need some advice.” He runs his fingers through his long hair.
“How to cut your hair? Come see me. I’ve got clippers in my office.”
It’s like a contest these days for the kids to see who can grow their hair and look the most unkempt. I don’t get the appeal, and Elijah is the worst of them all.
“No, Coach, Becca broke up with me.” There’s a hitch in his voice. His eyes scour the courtyard, where most of the kids hang out until the first bell rings.
I stuff my phone into the pocket of my jacket. “Why?”
“Well…” He runs his fingers through his hair again.
For the love of Go
d. Next season if I’m still here, I’m making a new rule—if your hair covers your eyes, I’m your barber.
Of course, then JP’s mom will call to complain. She always calls. I think if we changed the flavor of the performance drink we give them from strawberry to lime, she’d call. You know the type. She probably still wipes his ass to make sure he did it right. And though I understand that the Andrews family has had its share of heartbreak, she was like that before and after.
I push JP’s mom out of my head because just the thought of dealing with her will give me a headache. “What’d you do?”
I open the door to the hallway. With it being Monday morning, my fellow teachers nod, gripping their coffee mugs like life vests.
A group of three girls lingering around one locker follow Elijah as we head down the hall. I’m not blind. He’s kind of a big deal around here, and I can guess what path his teenage hormones led him down. They’re tricky fuckers to manage.
“You know Sara Pylar?” Elijah asks in a tentative voice.
See? Too bad I can’t bet on my players’ screw-ups. I wouldn’t be working here, that’s for sure. I’d be a rich man.
I open up the door to my classroom, and Elijah heads in first.
Do I know Sara Pylar? Of course, I do. She’s usually the one in the short skirt with her finger twirling a strand of her hair. The worse her grades are, the more bubble gum she chews while she asks to move to the front row so she can see the smart board better. Sara would eat up and spit out a kid like Elijah if he ever tried to tangle with her.
“Yeah, I know Sara.”
He sits in the chair next to my desk. “There was this dare…”
“Nothing good comes from those.” I cross my arms.
“JP was razzing me about how I’ve only ever kissed Becca and that when I go to college, we’ll break up and how the girls at college are on another level.” His eyes widen, silently asking me.
I went to college. I played in college, and at one time, I thought maybe I’d hit the majors. Then family responsibilities brought me back to Lake Starlight. Now I teach and try to advise kids like Elijah not to make the mistakes I did. Then again, youth is your free pass to do stupid shit.