by Brook Wilder
"That's good to hear," he replied with a chuckle. "I feel the same way."
"What now?" I asked. It occurred to me now that the car had never stopped moving since we'd left Columbus circle, and I wondered where the driver had taken us during that time.
"We're almost at your apartment," Garrett said, his cool demeanor slowly returning. "I got your address from the information packet at the auction. You'll get dress and I'll drop you off."
My heart fell slightly when he stopped there. His word choice made it seem like our time together was over. It didn't seem fair, and I almost wished I hadn't entered the car back at Columbus Circle. Nothing else could ever compare to what I had just shared with Garrett. It wasn't even just the BDSM. I knew now that even if I tried this sort of relationship with anyone besides him, it just wouldn't be the same.
True to his word, I didn't have much time to mope. As the car rolled to a stop, Garrett, having dressed already, pulled the small key from his coat pocket. I slid into my dress quickly, opting to shove my pantyhose into my purse. The second my zipper slid into place, the door snapped open. Garrett made no move to exit and, instead, gestured for me to leave. I climbed out of the car and stood there on the sidewalk, looking back at him expectantly.
The door closed, and I felt my dreams shatter with the sharp snap of the latch. Just when I was about to turn away in defeat, the window rolled down and Garrett's arm reached out.
"Take this, and keep it on you at all times," he said, offering me a black flip phone. "I expect you to answer quickly when I call or text. I'll let you know when I wish to see you next."
Before I could ask even one of the thousands of questions floating in my mind, the window rolled back up. The car then sped away, leaving me alone on the sidewalk. I stared at the fading tail lights for a moment before trotting up to my apartment. It was thankfully empty, and I scurried into my room. I set the flip phone on the side table while I prepared for bed.
CHAPTER NINE
"You have to tell me what happened last night!" Kelsey said as she sat down with our coffee cups in hand. "Please tell me you're about to be swept away by a handsome billionaire to live a life of comfort and luxury!"
"I mean, not so much swept away," I said with a grin. "But I definitely did go on a dinner date with a very handsome and very rich man!"
"Oooh!" Kelsey squealed. "What was the auction like? Where did he take you? What did he look like? I need to know everything!"
It was the morning after my whirlwind evening with Garrett, and I'd just met up with my best friend Kelsey at our favorite coffee shop near campus. People bustled and thronged around us, all going about the business of getting their morning coffee. Since it was Sunday, neither of us had classes, and I didn't have a work shift. The only thing on my to-do list was gossip with Kelsey, then work on an essay later tonight. It was such a relief to have the whole day off, especially since I needed to process everything that had happened last night. It still felt like a dream to me, like the entire evening had happened to someone else.
I looked across the table to my best friend, her eager face waiting to hear of my exploits with Garrett. It seemed surreal to me that I was about to divulge such things in a brightly lit coffee shop in the middle of the afternoon. The atmosphere made everything that happened last night seem all the more twisted and dark.
"As I said, he's handsome," I replied. "Blond hair, cut in that really popular undercut style you see everywhere. Beautiful gray eyes, cheekbones that could cut you. He's also the ultimate hipster. Like, he looks like any of the guys you see in this shop. He even has a beard and wore flannel to our date last night."
"Didn't you say the guy was a billionaire?" Kelsey asked, her face twisted in confusion.
"Yeah," I said. "It turns out he runs a very successful investment bank. He also inherited quite a bit of money from his father."
"Really? I didn't figure bankers could wear anything other than boring suits. Except for maybe shorts and boat shoes in the weekends."
"I was as surprised as you are, but I guess he just likes the fashion. Maybe I'll ask him about it this weekend."
"Wait," Kelsey said as she gripped the sides of the table dramatically. "You mean you have a second date? Already?"
"I do! He called me this morning, which I thought was strange but also kind of cool…"
"Hold on," she said with a shake of her head. "Back up. You have to finish telling me about last night first. Then I'll be ready to hear about your next date."
"Ok, well, he won me at the auction, obviously. It was a really interesting experience, and I wish you could have been there. We had to walk down this runway past all the men bidding. The other girls were way prettier and more talented than me, so I was afraid no one was going to bid on me. Garrett ended up paying more for me than all the other girls combined, though! Then we hopped in his car, he totally had champagne waiting for us by the way, and he took me to Per Se."
I decided to leave Victor's jealous interjections out of my story. Just thinking about the way he'd come to me after the auction made me squirm. There was a part of me that hoped if I never told anyone else about that part of the evening, it would go away. Besides, he was good friends with Kelsey as well, and I wasn't sure how she'd react to hearing him cast in a negative light.
"Shut up, really? Per se?" she asked, her eyes going wide.
"Yeah! He ordered us the most expensive things on the menu and a bottle of wine I'm sure could pay for my semester's tuition. It was a ten-course tasting menu with a whole bunch of stuff you'd probably enjoy way more than I did. I even tried caviar for the first, and honestly probably last, time! You would've been proud of me!"
"That sounds like heaven, Laina. But then what happened! Did he just drive you home, or did you get to see his luxurious penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side?"
I paused, debating about how much I was actually willing to tell Kelsey. I'd had two plans in mind when she called me earlier to chat about my date, and I still wasn't sure which one I wanted to go with. I'd already decided to whitewash a lot of what actually happened on the date. I just found it too difficult to put into words the relaxation I had felt when Garrett ordered me around. It was like I could finally relax, in a weird way. Kelsey just wouldn't understand, and I didn't want to jeopardize our friendship. She was definitely the type to think that, no matter what, a man should never tell a woman what to do.
I had to tell her something, though. I couldn't keep everything secret from Kelsey. She's my best friend, and I've known her since grade school. We shared every secret with each other, and she was the only other person who knew how badly off my father really was. Still, I just couldn't bring myself to tell her the entire truth. I decided to go with my first plan; tell her enough to satisfy her curiosity, but hold back on the racier details. As I started speaking, I realized with a pang that this conversation marked the first time I had actively lied to her.
"We did go back to the car, but we didn't go back to my apartment, uh right away."
"Don't tell me you got it on in the car?"
"We did!" I said with genuine excitement. "It was the hottest thing ever!"
"Girl, you are so lucky," Kelsey said with a slight grimace, "Next time there's a billionaire auction, you need to tell me about it. I can't let you have all the fun."
"I promise, I will!"
"Good," she said. "Now you can tell me about this weekend!"
"Well, he called earlier this morning and said he wanted to take me out on his boat on Saturday!"
I felt a guilty churn in my stomach as I told the half-truth to Kelsey. I was certainly going on his boat like I said, but the reality was that I had little choice in the matter. When I told him I'd already had plans, including a work shift, he demanded I not only cancel them but also quit my job. I had tried to argue, but all Garrett would say was that he'd 'take care of it'. True to his word, one of my roommates barged into my room minutes later and tossed an unmarked envelope at me that some random
courier had just dropped off. I waited until my roommate had left before I opened the letter, and I had been glad I did. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I pulled out a stack of hundred dollar bills. It was almost double what I made in an entire month at the library. The money was safely tucked away under my mattress, but I still had the note in my wallet.
For your troubles and for some new clothes. -G was all it had said.
"Of course he has a boat. I bet it's big enough to hold a party for half of Manhattan too. You're going to have to send me pictures! Oh! Do you even have a cute bikini? We should go shopping later! Anyway, enough about you. Have you heard about what happened to Anna last weekend?"
As the conversation with Kelsey turned away from my love life and onto the latest gossip, I let my mind wander toward Garrett and the implication of his money. All morning I'd felt just dirty, like an escort or a gold digger. Though I'd tried my best to justify the situation to myself, it was hard to escape the single, underlying truth. I was being paid in return for fulfilling Garrett's sexual fantasy. Sure, I was getting pleasure from the arrangement, quite a bit of it, but it was still a hard pill to swallow. I had also realized that this was yet another grab at power on his part. The money, which both my dad and I so desperately needed, now hung over my head like a carrot on a stick that Garrett could use to make me do whatever he pleased.
Frankly, it made me slightly nauseous, and I fully intended to return the money when I saw him this weekend and break things off. I certainly wanted to keep seeing Garrett; I was not blind enough to see that we not only had amazing chemistry together but that he had also introduced me to a lifestyle that I had never realized existed. I'd been unable to sleep after Garrett had dropped me off last night, and I'd spent hours scrolling through website after website, learning as much as I could about BDSM. It was like I was finally finding a part of myself that I had denied for so long, and I found the community to ultimately be open and welcoming to me.
I just couldn't do the money thing, though. I liked the role play, and definitely the submission, but I was now finding that it wasn't something I could really do all day, every day. Not like this.
"Laina," Kelsey said. "You there?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry, Kels," I said, my mind snapping back to reality. "I just got lost thinking about the essay we need to do for next week."
"Oh geez, don't remind me," she said and immediately began on another tirade about another girl that we both knew. I half paid attention to her while the rest of my mind drifted off to other thoughts. I made sure to nod at the right points, and laugh when it was appropriate, but otherwise, I had no idea what she was actually talking about. I knew I was being a bad friend, but I just couldn't bring myself to spare any thoughts on whatever drama she was cooking up for herself. I had enough going on in my own life.
She had really hit her stride when a phone buzzed in my purse. I prayed it was my phone, but I saw that it was, in fact, Garrett's phone that was lit up with a new notification. I took a peek at the text as sneakily as I could, hoping that Kelsey was too involved in her story to notice.
I need a picture of you, nude, it said.
I felt a blush creep up my neck and I prayed that Kelsey wouldn't notice. She didn't seem to, thankfully. What was I going to do? I'd never sent sexy photos to anyone, and it seemed like he wanted them right now. What was I supposed to do, rush off to the bathroom and take a picture in a stall? I decided to just ignore the text and hopefully deal with it later in a more private setting.
My plan worked for all of five minutes when I felt another buzz. It was Garret's phone, again, and he didn't seem too happy.
You have ten minutes, Laina. Don't keep me waiting.
I wondered idly what would happen if I didn't obey him, but I decided I didn't want to go down that route. This man was about to take me out on his boat, alone, and the last thing I wanted to do was make him angry.
"You ok?" Kelsey asked. I realized I had spent too long staring at my purse and my mind spun as I tried to come up with a plausible excuse.
"Sorry, I just remembered I meant to call my dad," I said as naturally as I could manage. It was a weak excuse, but truly the best I could come up with in the moment.
"Go for it! I don't mind, I'll just chill here," she replied.
"Well, uh," I said, trying to find a way out of the coffee shop, "It's just that it's about his health, and I'll need to reference some papers I have at home."
It was a stretch, but Kelsey seemed to be buying it. Why wouldn't she? I had never given her any reason to doubt me before. Part of me wanted to stay there and tell her the whole truth, every dirty word of it, but I knew that she just wouldn't understand. I also reminded myself that Garrett probably wouldn't take too kindly to me gushing about his rather risqué private life. I loved Kelsey, but she was a gossip to the core. Anything I told her today was guaranteed to be passed around to everyone she knew by dinner time.
"Oh, shit," she said, her face contorted with concern, "Is he okay? I thought he was getting better! I mean, health-wise at least."
"He is, we're just trying to find a nurse that can check up on him at night," I said. That much was true, at least, though I left out the fact that we were still ages away from actually needed that kind of care for him. He may not be able to keep up at his old job, but he was still very capable of caring for himself.
"I'm sorry that you have to deal with that, Laina," Kelsey said. "You go home, and tell your dad I said hey."
"Thanks, Kelsey," I said as I stood. "I'll call you later. I still want to get together and study for our biology midterm."
"Of course, girl. Hey, before you go?"
"Yeah, Kels?" I replied as I gathered my things.
"Just be careful," she said, a worried look falling over her face. "I can tell you're holding something back. I honestly don't care what it is, you're certainly not required to tell me everything about your personal life. I just want you to be safe, okay? I'm sure Garrett's a safe enough guy, but I still worry about you going out with someone I don't know that you just met. Call me when you get home from your date! I'll need to know everything that happened."
"Of course, Kelsey," I said solemnly. "I'll make sure I get a few pictures for you!"
CHAPTER TEN
I hustled out of the coffee shop and made it back to my apartment in record time. Several people gave me odd looks as I sprinted past them on the street, but I barely paid attention to them. I was on a mission. When I finally reached my building, I ran up the stairs and flung the front door open.
"Anyone home?" I called out.
I waited for a moment, and let out a sigh of relief when I heard no response. I was in no mood to deal with curious roommates, even though they mostly respected my privacy. I ran into my room and quickly closed the door, locking it just in case anyone decided to return unexpectedly.
After I flung my purse and jacket on the bed, I started pacing the room. I knew I was running out of time, but this was completely unexplored territory for me. I'd never sent a racy photo to a guy before, and I didn't have a clue as to where to start. It seemed like a simple enough request, but I was starting to feel some real anxiety. I took a moment to stop, close my eyes, and breathe. I reminded myself that while Garrett had set a time limit, this was all still just a game between us. He might grumble at me, or 'punish' me later, but he'd still get his photo.
When I felt calm again, I opened my eyes. One thing I did know, despite my lack of experience, was that a nude photo meant my clothes needed to come off. I quickly undressed, and my phone buzzed right as my jeans hit the floor. I looked down to see a text from Garrett. It was hard to read his emotion from a short snippet of text, but I was guessing he was getting impatient and possibly irritated.
It's been ten minutes. It said. More than that, actually.
I know, sorry to keep you waiting. I'm trying to get the angle right, I replied.
On a whim, I pulled out the one lacy thong I owned and arranged it artfully o
n top of my discarded pile of clothing. I snapped a photo and set it to Garrett, hoping he would buy the insinuation that I had just been wearing it. The reality was that Kelsey had given me that thong years ago as a gag birthday present. It was black, semi-sheer, and about a size and a half too small. I'd put it on once and decided it was way too uncomfortable to wear out and about. It had gone back into my drawer and hadn't seen the light of day since. Garrett didn't need to know that, though. If all we had between us was a fantasy, then two could play at that game. He replied in seconds, and I hoped it was enough of a distraction to buy me some more time.
I like it, but it's not what I asked for. You have five more minutes. You're lucky I'm feeling generous today, his message said.
I let out a puff of air as I thought over the best way to take this photo. On a whim, I propped myself up against my headboard and spread my legs, making sure to get every inch of myself in the frame. It was a little awkward as I tried to stretch my arms to get the angle I wanted. I mugged at the camera, trying to find a look that said sexy, but all I could manage was goofy. I ultimately decided to crop my head out of the photo and, instead, put the focus on my breasts with just a hint of my womanhood peeking up out at the bottom of the frame.