Sun on the Rocks - The Sugar Baby
Page 4
Chapter Three
Bartleby decided to leave Road Town and start the cruise on the ‘Lady Moura’ that evening. He wanted to ensure that fueling of the fishing boat was done properly, and he needed a whole day to get the ship ready for departure. Clarity and Flower spent the morning with him visiting the fishing boat, marveling at the large size of the suites, suntanning in one of its decks, and meeting Glev Ribalaigua, the bartender of the boat and all-purpose man hired by Bartleby. Clarity wasn´t completely comfortable with the arrangement. Why would a Sugar Daddy be involved in a deal with a dating service provider like Oleanne, if he already found a date, namely Flower? Why did he need a Sugar Baby by his side to carry out a business transaction? It struck Clarity that these questions needed clarification, and she prompted Flower to inquire about Oleanne. Discretely.
“Discretely?” asked Flower, “good, I can do that, I´ll go talk to him with idle conversation and then I´ll ask him.” She walked towards Bartleby, who was busy with Clive supervising the loading of food for several days, mostly rice and pasta, and liquor. Clarity also noticed several boxes of meat, chicken, and various fruit and vegetables being loaded, fruit such as pineapple, mango, papayas, bananas, and some vegetables, mostly avocadoes, and tomatoes. Finally, Ribalaigua brought cases of water to the boat. The bartender was amiable and confided to Clarity that Bartleby didn´t use the services of Oleanne very often, and when he did, he did so by using the reception phone of the Inner Harbour Hotel, by the Marina in Road Town. Flower came back after twenty minutes.
“Nothing, he dislikes me being involved with Oleanne, he told me not to worry, that I didn´t have to take care of anything related to his business.”
“Tell Bartleby some excuse to leave for a few hours, there´s something I´d like you to do to check this.”
Flower told Bartleby they wanted to see some shops in Road Town, before boarding the ‘Lady Moura’ with him and Clive. They walked towards the inner Harbour Hotel and found a receptionist welcoming them indifferently, a middle aged woman dressed in blue executive jacket and matching long skirt. Clarity inquired about hotel services available for guests, such as room service, access to wireless internet, daily excursions to see the Estate of William Thornton, the designer of the U.S. Capitol building, and the business center. Flower prompted the receptionist for some indications on what they were trying to find.
“Oleanne?” said the receptionist, “yes, it´s available, a gentleman´s service, who spoke to you of it?”
“Mr. Bartleby,” said Clarity, “we have some friends in college who are interested in using it, when they graduate.”
“When they graduate if they don´t get married,” pointed out Flower. Seeing that Clarity might bring in some business for the hotel, the receptionist handed them a piece of paper.
“Call this number, and don´t miss the extension for new customers, the other extension is for established customers only. You need to send a selfie first, you can use the cabins to your left, there´s a connection cable to send the photo file through to them.”
“Thanks,” said Flower. “Is Mr. Bartleby a reliable customer?”
Clarity took her hand and drew her away from reception. Flower kept staring at the paper. They walked to a phone cabin to do the selfie and call the number provided. After Flower sent the selfie, she got a confirmation number. She dialed and got a menu driving various options, after she typed her confirmation number. A feminine voice asked her for her name and the name of the person refering her to Oleanne. Flower got nervous, not knowing what to do.
“It´s a menu, the person´s asking for a reference, do we tell Bartleby´s name?”
“No, keep moving through to an operator, we want to know what they do.”
Somewhat uneasy, Flower pressed on the number indicated for women. The phone rang but no one picked it up. She looked at the piece of paper provided at reception and dialled an extension. The phone rang until she reached the shopping bag requesting area. Flower thought it was an area for Sugar Babies, for she was getting several options to select the size of her preferred shopping bag, large, extra large, real big believe me, extra spending, and real poor small bag. She selected the option real big believe me. The menu asked for her name but Flower refused several times to reveal her identity. The connection ended abruptly and Flower could not access the dating service a second time, even though she dialed the number more than once.
Somewhat Clarity and Flower walked back to the ‘Lady Moura’ after seeing a few shops and taking a swim in the Caribbean for a few hours. Flower kept saying that everything was good and that Oleanne was a service geared towards Sugar Daddies. Clarity wasn´t so certain, but acknowledged that the extension Flower had reached was for women.
“Are you going to tell him?”
“Tell Bartleby about this call?, No,” said Flower, “they just have my selfie and my shopping bag preference, I want him to notice I reached Oleanne on my own.” She spoke matter of factly, but she wondered what Bartleby had in mind next for her. They boarded the ‘Lady Moura’ and Bartleby took both of them to dinner on the boat, speaking of how great making money working for a company felt, even though work was hard and getting promoted was difficult at times. Still, he had done well.
“I like to be rich,” said Bartleby. The conclusion certainly made sense, thought Clarity.
“Well, I certainly like you to be rich,” said Flower. She turned to Clarity and hushed in her ear.
“I think that´s what Sugar Babies say,” she said. Clarity hushed back.
“It´s certainly what Sugar Babies want,” she said. The bartender, who was acting as waiter, walked to the dinner table, bringing mineral water.
“You got a message Sam,” said Ribalaigua, “it´s printing now.”
Bartleby walked to his cabin and glanced at the message sent by an associate of Oleanne, his correspondent for any affairs regarding the dating service. They liked the selfie that Flower had sent so much that Clarity´s friend was already assigned. Bartleby sweared and called his uncle. He showed Clive the message, coming from Chubby Caddy, and then showed him the selfie of Flower.
“They found their way to Oleanne,” he said, “she must have dialed the wrong extension, the one for established customers, the call reached Chubby Caddy´s private area. Chubby Caddy wants her as his Sugar Baby, he´s been expecting one for several months, and there´s no way the transaction is happening without him being comfortable.”
“Comfortable?”
“Comfortable with her that is, he thinks I´m providing this girl for him,” said Bartleby. Chubby Caddy was changing the date of the transaction by one day, to ensure his own enjoyment of the Sugar Baby provided by Bartleby.
“Are you going to tell her you´re not her real Sugar Daddy?”
“Tell her about Chubby Caddy? No,” said Bartleby. He spoke matter of factly, but he wondered what Chubby Caddy had decided to do next, because the end of Chubby Caddy´s message told Bartleby that a crew of pussy liners was coming, to ensure the new Sugar Baby was in ‘proper condition’. Ribalaigua knocked on the cabin´s door.
“We´ve got company,” he said.
Clarity and Flower were seating on two lounge chairs of the top deck of the ‘Lady Moura’. They saw a group of very good looking women dressed in mini skirts and short dresses, wearing pearl necklaces and expensive pendants board the ‘Goealand’. One shady man, Anton, a man who looked like a bodyguard, was carrying several trolleys linked like a small train, carrying clothes and a box made of wood labeled 'spirits' for the women. The three women said hi to Clarity and Flower, saying they were pussy liners sent by Oleanne as entertainers for the cruise. Clarity saw Bartleby and Clive exiting the flybridge cabin and moving towards them, the look on their face indicating puzzlement. Clarity walked closer and overheard Clive speak to Bartleby.
“I don´t like this, they shouldn´t be here, it´s going to distract you from the transaction.”
Bartleby ignored Clive, knowing it was close to impo
ssible to ignore a gift by Chubby Caddy. He stared at a woman dressed in a gold top with ample cleavage, who was taking his hand to make her way to the stern of the boat, to inquire about the wavejammer and where to leave the box of alcohol she and her friends had brought. Clarity and Flower sat on two lounge chairs in the top deck and threw a glance at the women gossiping near them. The evening lights of Road Town were shining behind them. Bartleby gave the order to leave port. Their first night in the Caribbean. The girl with auburn hair turned to Flower.
“Are you sure we´re making the right choice?” Flower showed no signs of hesitation or any sign of seeing any type of danger ahead.
“Yeah, I may have found a Sugar Daddy for life, there´s clearly a fit.”
“A fit?”
“Yeah, nothing can possibly go wrong between a man who likes to be rich, and a woman who likes his man to be rich.”