by Jamie Knight
I didn’t think that I would go back to my old partying ways, but I was so upset, I was willing to try anything.
I took out my phone and dialed Rich’s number.
“Hey, Rich, let’s go party tonight.”
I was back with a vengeance.
Chapter Fourteen
Candy
A few days had passed since I had talked to Elliot and things with the bakery were back on track. I had thrown myself into my work full-time again and there was something that felt good about being back in my element.
“Someone must be feeling really good,” said my assistant when I walked in. “To what do we owe the honor?”
I laughed and waved her away.
“I’m just doing what I used to do when I first started the business. I had gotten away from it for a while, but that won’t happen again. I’m back, focused and better than ever.”
It felt really good to be back focused on work, but I had to admit that it was hard to really be focused on anything other than Elliot. It was a large part of the reason why I had thrown myself so hard back into work: I needed an excuse to get him out of my head. It wasn’t working, though.
The truth was that I was heartbroken. I know that it was me who ultimately made the decision to end things, but a part of me kept wondering if I hadn’t made a mistake in ending it so quickly. But, it didn’t really matter anymore. I was sure that it was too late and now I’d blown my chances with him. I frowned at the thought of having lost someone so wonderful.
My thoughts were interrupted when the door burst open. It was Tammy.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, not bothering to hide my surprise.
“I came as soon as I heard the news,” she said, out of breath. “The investor that wants to building is about to buy it. Not only that, he’s going to demolish it once he buys it and use it for something else.”
My heart sank. I felt like if this building sold from under me, it would take me years to realize my expansion dreams, if I ever would.
“What can we do?” I asked, starting to feel hopeless.
“Well, the first thing we need to do is go down to the real estate office and try to fight for the building,” she said. “You came up with a really good idea for us to team up. I think that now would be a great time for us to come together on this.”
“I agree,” I said. “There’s always strength in numbers. Plus, I like the way that you operate your business, so you would be a great business partner to have.”
She smiled at me. I smiled back. I was starting to like our newfound camaraderie.
“Come on,” she said, beckoning for me to come with her. “Let’s go down the real estate office. I’ll drive.”
I told Leah that I would be leaving and wasn’t sure when I would be back. We left, taking Tammy’s SUV. She drove like a bat out of hell, even running a couple of red lights to get there. I was sure that we were either going to be pulled over or be killed. When we finally got to the real estate office, she barely put the car in park before jumping out and running into the building. I followed closely behind her.
I heard Tammy talking to the real estate broker.
“The investor is here…” he said. There was a man sitting in the office already.
My heart sank when I realized who it was.
It was my ex, Jim. I was disgusted to see him. I could tell by the look of disdain on Tammy’s face that she was equally, if not more disgusted.
“What are you doing here?” spat Tammy.
“What does it look like?” said Jim, still as smug as ever. “I’m buying a new property to demolish.”
He smiled like he knew that he was trying to destroy our dreams. The smug look on his face made me even more determined to buy the building.
“I have my savings,” I said. “It’s well over $50,000. I would be happy to offer that as a payment for the building.”
“Me, too,” said Tammy. I have $35,000 that I can pay for the building. With our money together…”
“You still wouldn’t have enough money to outbid me,” said Jim. “$110,000 is still good, right Bill?”
“Uh, yeah,” said the real estate broker. “That will be fine.”
“Okay, well send my office the appropriate paper work and I’ll be in to finalize things in a couple of weeks.”
He tipped his hat at Tammy and I and walked out the door.
Pretentious douche.
“Ugh, I can’t believe it!” I cried once he had left. “Can you believe that of all people who could be here trying to steal our dreams, it would be him?”
“Honestly, I’m really not surprised,” she said softly. “He always was a buzz kill. He never had any real dreams of his own, so I’m not surprised to see him trying to destroy the dreams and goals of others.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised, either. The way that he had emotionally and physically abused me should have told me everything that I needed to know. He was a horrible man when we were together and, from the looks of it, he had turned into an even worse man as he had gotten older. My heart sank into the pit of my stomach.
“Can you give us more time to come up with the money?” Tammy asked the broker desperately. “I mean, I know it’s a shot in the dark and Jim already has your money, but would you consider giving us some time to come up with the money before you sell it to him?”
The room was silent as the broker looked at me, and then at Tammy and then back at me. He looked torn between a solid sale and taking a chance on us.
But, I was terrified of losing the building. I knew that it was my chance to expand my business and I wanted to take it.
“I can give you two weeks,” said the broker. “But, that’s it. If he comes in with the money before that or you can’t come up with enough, I’ll have no choice but to sell it to him. I have bills to pay, you know.”
“We know,” I said, shaking his hand profusely. “Thank you for giving us a chance.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “To be honest, I really want to sell it to you ladies rather than to him. He seems like a real asshole. Plus, I would rather see the building being put to good use. It’s part of our town’s history that I would hate to see destroyed.”
“Me, too,” said Tammy, nodding at me as if she was signaling that was time to leave.
We left feeling a little hopeful.
But, we still had to figure out how we were going to come up with the rest of the money.
Chapter Fifteen
Candy
We drove back to my bakery in silence. We were both still reeling from the events of the past couple of hours.
“Let’s stop at the bakery and game plan,” I said. “We have to come up with a way to raise money.”
“Okay,” said Tammy. “Let’s grab some lunch and I’ll let my employees know that I will be out of the building for the day.”
We grabbed some burgers at a drive thru and went back to my office at the bakery.
“So, what should we do?” I asked, folding my hands in a tent in front of me. “What can we do to come up with the rest of the money?”
“Well, there are a couple of ideas that I’ve been thinking about,” said Tammy. “One is a car wash. Those always do well for fundraisers.”
“Yeah, but I doubt that a car wash is going to raise the amount of money that we need in the time frame that we need it in.”
The room fell silent as we both wracked our brains to come up with another idea.
“What about a giant bake sale?” I said. “It makes sense, with both of us being bakers.”
“Do you know how many cakes we would have to move in two weeks to make that kind of money?” asked Tammy, her eyes bulging out of her head. “We have got to come up with a better plan than that.”
Part of me felt insulted that Tammy had rejected my idea, but a large part of me knew that she was right.
“What about hosting an auction?” asked Tammy. “I earned a ton of money by hosting the last auction. And we could even use th
is as a venue to sell our baked goods and earn even more money, turning this into a mega event and making a good name for ourselves.”
I thought about the idea for a minute. I didn’t like the idea of having an auction without Elliot. He had already been a huge part of the last two auctions that I had attended. I wasn’t sure if having an auction without him would turn out as well as the last ones had.
But, I had to admit that her idea was the best one that we had come up with so far. I didn’t really see any other viable alternative. And besides, we were just hosting, right? I didn’t have to auction myself off again.
I didn’t think I could bring myself to even if I wanted to. The idea of another man’s hands on me made my skin crawl.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” I said. Tammy clapped excitedly.
I only hoped that I wouldn’t live to regret it.
Chapter Sixteen
Elliot
I stared at my computer screen in awe. I couldn’t believe the email that I was looking at.
It advertised an auction that was going to be held at Candy’s bakery.
I immediately got angry. She didn’t have time for me, but she had time to host an auction? What a slap in the face. Clearly she’d gotten what she wanted from me and was ready to move on to someone else.
I was determined to go just so that I could see the look on Candy’s face when I bid on another girl. I would do it just to spite her, not because I was interested in anyone else. My feelings were still hurt that she decided to just cut me out of her life.
I had spent the past week partying every night, trying to get myself out of the depressed funk that I’d been in. But, it wasn’t making me feel any better. In fact, it was probably making me feel worse because I just couldn’t stop thinking about Candy.
And that part made me even more angry. Here she was rubbing salt into still-bleeding wounds, but I couldn’t help but miss her, want to see her, to talk to her, to hold her in my arms, and kiss her. I had been dreaming about her almost every night once I finally drifted off to sleep.
I sat, thinking about my last dream. She had come over and told me that she took everything back, and wanted to be with me. She started taking her clothes off right in my driveway, telling me that she didn’t care who saw, but that she wanted me. My dick stiffened in my pants as I thought about her perky nipples standing at full attention and her round, supple ass sashaying back and forth in my driveway.
But even though the thoughts made my cock stir to life in my pants, they weren’t the thoughts haunting me day in and day out. I missed everything about her, not just her body and the fun we’d had under the covers.
I missed her smile, her laugh, I missed the sound of her voice. I missed every single facet of that stunning woman.
I laid back on my bed, overcome with thoughts of Candy. I wished that I could make my dream a reality. I wished I could do anything to bring her back to me, but that’s what was eating me alive more than anything else.
She had made this choice. And even though it was making me insane, it was out of my hands.
So as quickly as the thoughts of her came, I dismissed them.
I had an auction to prepare for.
Chapter Seventeen
Candy
I couldn’t calm my nerves no matter what I tried, so I decided to turn to a classic: liquor. I always kept an emergency stash of vodka in my office in case I needed it. I grabbed it from my desk and took a swig of it. It was harsh, burning the back of my throat and making me cough.
It was time for the auction and I was nervous as hell. I hoped that we could raise enough money to buy the bakery together, but I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to.
One thing that I thought about that I knew would bring in some good money would be for me to auction myself. I’d done pretty well the first time I’d auctioned myself. Maybe I could do the same or even better.
But, I’d never be able to bring myself to do it again, not like this. I knew that a large part of the reason that I had done so well had been because it was Elliot who had won. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like with someone else. In fact, the very idea of someone else winning me in an auction turned my stomach.
Or was it the vodka?
Either way, I was starting to feel nauseous. I stepped outside in the back alley to get some fresh air. The wind flowed over me, so strong it almost threatened to knock me over, but the cool blast of air helped settle my roiling belly.
The familiar faces and setting just kept bringing Elliot to the forefront of my mind. I thought about calling him for the millionth time, but I hadn’t found the nerve to go through with it. But I missed him so much it felt like a hole in my chest.
But, my bakery was filling up with people as they shuffled in for the auction, so I needed to pull it together and play hostess. I walked back inside and found my way to the stage. I turned toward the door and I saw him.
I couldn’t believe it. I was sure for a moment that I’d conjured him, or that maybe it was a trick of my imagination, but no, he was here, in the flesh. I started to weave my way through the crowd of people, but before I could get to him, Tammy found me, a look of horror on her face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, starting to feel worried myself.
“Some of the girls flaked out,” she said. “You and I are going to have to be in the auction or they’re going to have to cancel.”
My heart started racing. I was horrified.
“Tammy, I can’t-“
“Please, Candy, if we don’t, the building is dust,” Tammy pleaded with me.
What choice did I have? Now that it wasn’t just my dream on the line, but both of ours, and refusing would be beyond unfair after suggesting this partnership in the first place.
And I couldn’t bare to see that building torn to the ground, especially after everything else that monster had ruined in my life.
I was going to be in the auction after all.
And I was up next.
Chapter Eighteen
Elliot
Candy and I had locked eyes earlier, and I was sure that she would have been irritated that I had shown up, especially since she had said that she wanted some space. But to my surprise, she wasn’t. Her face had lit up when she laid eyes on me. She had been smiling from ear-to-ear from the moment that I saw her.
And it was eating away at me for some reason.
I had to talk to her. I looked around the room to see if I could spot her. I would pull her into her office and have a talk to her. And maybe more would happen. Who knew?
But, before I could never take a step I heard the announcer’s voice.
“Next up on the docket is our girl, Candy.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. Had I heard that right? Did she say Candy’s name? MY Candy? My head was spinning and my blood boiled.
I was furious. How could she push me away only to auction herself off all over again, to some new stranger? Had I just opened Pandora’s box and now she was hooked on the thrill? I felt like she hadn’t been honest with me or there was something that I was missing.
My anger subsided when I saw the look in her eyes. She looked like she was walking to her execution, a look of determined resignation all over her face.
It was obvious that she didn’t want to do this. So, why was she still trudging forward onto that stage? I wanted to know immediately.
But, before I can think about all of the questions that I had, I needed to claim my girl.
I took my spot in my seat, my paddle in my hand, ready.
“The lovely Miss Candy is auctioning for some lucky guy to have their way with her,” said the announcer.
The crowd was abuzz with excitement. Many were smiling, laughing, and clapping. The excitement was palpable. The bidding commenced and paddles flew. One went up right away in the back. I craned my neck to see who it was, but couldn’t see a face.
With every new number, my paddle shot up in competition.
My paddle shot up.
<
br /> It climbed and climbed, but I felt numb. Just like that first auction, my eyes were on her and only her, and the rest of the world fell away. Meeting her gaze, I tried to read what was going through her head.
Why had she done this? Was she really willing to give herself away to someone else? But then, why had she dragged herself up to that stage so miserably? I didn’t understand, but I wanted to.
I wanted her back, more than I needed my next breath. Candy was under my skin in a way I couldn’t explain, and I felt lost without her.
Finally, the paddles stopped shooting into the air. Other bidders dropped out one by one until it was between me and the stranger in the back. But there was no suspense, no fear, I knew what I was here for.
No one was taking a taste of my sweet little Candy but me.
“Come up and claim your prize,” said the announcer, finally declaring my victory and cementing what I already knew: That Candy was mine.
I made my way right up to the stage, grabbing Candy’s face and kissing her hard. I tried to pour everything into that kiss, all the heartbreak, all my love for her, everything. That kiss contained a thousand emotions I wanted her to understand.
I slid my hand under her shirt right there in front of everyone. I wanted them all to know whose girl this was, to see that she is made for me and me alone. I slipped my other hand into her panties and worked my fingers between her slick folds. She moaned, grinding against my hand. “Fuck, Elliot,” she gasped before I kissed her again, sticking my tongue into her mouth.
Things were really heating up and the crowd had gone so silent you could hear a pin drop. Her legs trembled and threatened to give out beneath her. I didn’t want her to fall, so I stopped teasing her. I had bigger plans for her.
I grabbed Candy’s hand and marched off of the stage and to my car, despite the protests of the crowd being denied their peep show.