“So, ready for your big night?” I said.
“What do you think?” he snapped. Oh no, he was not giving me this attitude again.
“I’m sorry, was that blowjob for nothing? Is that what you are trying to tell me?” I asked. He peered over at me.
“I’ve never been on a red carpet, I don’t know how the fuck to do that.” He was right. As tiring as it was to babysit him while he was in a foul mood, this was his first time doing this. He needed support.
“Okay, so you’re in luck, there isn’t much to it. You will answer a few questions but it's going to be really simple, vapid stuff, very low stakes. Generally, good advice is to keep a smile on your face and be polite. Say you’re happy to be there and mention how important the charity is to you.”
“So, lie?”
“Don’t lie. Just present your best self. I swear Easton, just be nice to them. The whole experience will take a matter of minutes. Once you’re directed to your mark, pose, smile for a few seconds, then move on after the photographers have their shot.”
“How will I know they have their shot?”
“They’ll tell you,” I said. I heard him sigh. In his defense, he had calmed down and seemed to be cooperating. He could have been taking it a lot worse.
“So how am my supposed to pose?” he asked.
“You want to look relaxed. You don’t really have to do anything with your arms or hands, but you can bring your arms up like you’re adjusting your cuffs. That doesn’t look bad. When it comes to posing, the trick is to look like you’re not posing. Put your weight onto one of your legs and lean back ever so slightly, like there’s something behind you that you are resting your weight on.”
“A practical example would really help right about now.”
“You will do fine.”
“Can you do it with me?” he asked. He looked almost mournful. Like a little puppy that was lost. I felt sorry for him. The plan was for me to get him situated on the carpet and then make a dash for it, meeting him at the entrance of the hall. For the first time during this whole experience, I realized that I was asking a lot of Easton. He had cooperated so far and if he was belligerent now, it was because things had finally gotten difficult.
“Okay. I’ll do it with you.”
“Thank you,” he said with a sigh. I wasn’t planning on stepping on the carpet tonight, but I was always carpet ready. This was very much my area of expertise.
“Remember, just because I’m there with you doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. I have a reputation to protect. If you make me look foolish, I am going to kill you.” He just laughed at that, noticeably calmer. Our car stopped and it was finally showtime.
“Are you ready?” I asked as the door was opened for us. Outside of the car, the carpet stretched the roughly thirty yards between us and the entrance of the hall. Photographers were there ready for us. When Easton came out, I grabbed him.
“Remember what I told you.” Any faux pas, trip up, or gaffe would be caught on camera and I couldn’t have that. The art of walking the carpet was giving everyone enough time to get their shot but keeping it moving at the same time. The sounds of people yelling at you, asking you to pose, requesting interviews could get overwhelming. I looked over Easton to make sure he was okay.
“Okay, we’re going in for the first interview,” I said to him being careful not to drop my smile. Walking up to the interviewer, the guy shoved the mike into Easton’s face. I was nervous about this part and glad that I was there to clean up after Easton if he made a mess, but surprisingly, he didn’t. He graciously answered questions while being careful to remain pleasant. I ushered us along the carpet when the questions got a few too many. Finally, we made it to the hall and got inside.
“I can’t believe I have to say this, but I was wrong about you,” I said to him.
“Good, say it again,” he said. I laughed. The two of us were handed the program for the event. Inside, the room was arranged in various tables and there was stage prepared and the guests were milling about with drinks and hors d’oeuvres, socializing. Your usual gala. I said that, but I knew that Easton had definitely never attended one. I quickly swept my eyes over the program. Later in the night was going to be the auction portion. The lots were listed so I took a quick look. Funny, one of the lots was listed as ‘Easton Schultz’. I grabbed his arm.
“What?” he asked.
“Did you know this?” I asked, brandishing the program at him. He read it and his mouth fell open when he saw it. “You’re one of the lots at the auction tonight,” I said. His mouth closed and he took a deep breath. His usual fire rose.
“I’m going to kill Toby.”
25
Easton
I scanned the room for him. I didn’t know what he thought he was doing, but he was playing with fire. It had to be him, who else would do something like this? And without even telling me first? This had his name all over it and he had some explaining to do. I told Missy to wait for a second and walked off, looking for him. If I didn’t find him, that was going to be another issue entirely. I was out of here regardless. I wasn’t staying for this shit.
Did he think that I would stay at a fucking auction when I found out that I was going to be sold in it? I finally saw him, talking in a small group with three other people, all of them women. They weren’t so much talking, as Toby was the one talking and they were paying attention like students in a classroom. I stalked up to them and tapped him on the shoulder. He slowly turned around.
“Oh, great, you’re here.”
“Is there a good reason why my name is on this program?” I asked him. Forced to stop his flirting, he slowly disentangled himself from the two ladies who were hanging off of him.
“Will you give me a moment ladies, I have some business to attend to,” he said to them. I pulled him aside. Questions came up. Who were those women and why was he flirting with them? Well, I knew why he was doing that but was he aware that he had a lipstick stain on his collar already and the night had not even begun? I pushed those questions aside and asked the most pertinent one.
“Why the hell is my name on this program?” I asked him.
“Oh, that? Because I submitted your name as a lot for the auction.” He said it so calmly and matter-of-factly that it annoyed me.
“You did this without telling me, without even asking me first?”
Toby shrugged. He didn’t even care. It enraged me. “Honestly, when I did it, I didn’t care what you thought. It was payback.”
“Payback? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Remember Alex, the Fed? Remember what you did to him? Remember how we lost, no wait, we didn’t lose it, you lost us a federal contract for half a billion dollars? Remember that?” he said. I couldn’t believe it, he was still angry about that? We had gotten other clients since and pretty soon we would be able to recoup the money that we could have potentially gotten from that man. Yes, I could remember what happened with Alex the Fed, but I wasn’t sorry about it and I wasn’t apologizing now.
“The man was an asshole, I lost my temper that night but you saw the way he was acting. He was harassing Missy, pushing himself on her even after she clearly said no more than once. You told me that he got kicked out for harassing a different woman after that anyway.”
“Sorry, but I had submitted your name anyway. So, long story short, you’re doing it.” I ran a hand through my hair, effectively ruining the careful hairstyle that Missy had made for me. Who the hell did Toby think he was going over my head like this in the company where we were co-owners? I didn’t want to have him making these kinds of decisions just because he was mad.
“And what exactly is this supposed to achieve? Who the hell is going to bid on me?”
“Putting you up in the auction kills two birds with one stone. It shows everyone your new look, and it will make them talk about our company. Literally, the least we can come away with his new business leads from tonight. If not that, we’ll be on the mi
nds of everyone here as soon as they hear who you are and what we do. If none of our clients are in here now, I guarantee that the people here can connect us to them.”
“Yeah, some CEO’s going to bid on me, that sounds likely.”
“CEO, Senator from the wealthy district, I’m looking forward to that bidding war,” Toby said.
“You were wrong for this,” I said to him. He just shrugged his shoulders.
“Maybe, but we're doing it. You owe me this. You lost us a contract with the federal government. Don’t fuck this up too.” I walked away from him back towards Missy. I didn’t know that Toby was this petty. It upset me but it annoyed me more. Why would he say something like this to me first? He had had plenty of time to let me know and he had just chosen not to. He was still stewing about that stupid contract. I couldn’t deal with this. I needed a drink or something. I grabbed Missy and walked her over to the bar.
“What’s going on? Did you find him?” she asked me. I started telling her what had happened.
“You remember that creep at the club who wouldn’t take no for an answer? Dancing all over you?” I asked her.
“What about him? Is he here right now?”
“No, he isn’t, but that’s why I’m here tonight. Toby submitted my name for the auction as revenge for losing the contract with him.” Out of all the possible reactions I expected from Missy, laughter, for some reason was not one of them, but she laughed at me.
“Oh my God. I don’t even know what to say. How about this, I’ll have a drink with you.”
“Thank you for your support in this hard time,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“Look, this isn’t going to be nearly as bad as you think. The only thing that’s gonna happen is someone will pick you and you will have to share a meal with them. That’s it. An attractive man as part of the charity auction is going to get attention from the wealthy women in attendance. One dinner date where all you have to do is smile and compliment her. That’s it.”
I took my drink down in one shot. “I feel like a piece of meat.”
“Well, surely you can permit yourself to be a piece of meat for good cause, can’t you?”
“This won’t get weird, will it? Like, some rich divorcee in her fifties buys me and I take her out to dinner, but she tries to get me to have sex with her?” I asked. Missy laughed.
“The auction only buys a night with you, what two consenting adults decide to do together when they are alone is none of anyone’s business but theirs.”
Perfect. Toby was whoring me out to the horny, rich widows in attendance. I couldn’t wait. We got seated and the night began, after the meal and the speeches, it was time for the auction. Right then, someone came to collect me from the audience and take me backstage so I could come out when my name was called. I was one of two human lots on the bill, the other was also a guy, but rather than a night with him, the audience would be bidding on a full-day experience with his company. I tried to get my nerves down so that I didn’t cause a scene. I didn’t want to take part in this, but it was redemption. I didn’t feel bad about what had happened with Alex anymore, but knowing Toby was mad enough to do this made me want to fix it. Finally, it was my turn. I walked out onto the stage to the audience’s applause. The auctioneer read out the lot description for me.
“Cofounder of Rotorhead Inc., Easton Schultz is an eligible New York bachelor. For one night, he can be all yours. Allow him to regale and beguile you on the night of decadence, on his tab of course,” the auctioneer said. Everybody laughed and I tried not to let the smile on my face fall. I felt absolutely foolish. The auctioneer set the starter bid at five hundred dollars and frankly I was a little bit insulted. The date itself was going to cost more than five hundred dollars. I got a couple of bids though and the price kept going up.
“Three thousand,” I heard someone say. That someone was a beautiful, young blonde sitting on the table close to the front. I was impressed. She was beautiful, completely unlike any woman who would pay attention to me in the past. Was that how powerful a change in the wardrobe was? If that was the case, then maybe I should’ve done this a long time ago. I started standing up a little straighter.
“Three thousand here in the front, do I have thirty-five hundred?” the auctioneer called.
“Five thousand,” someone announced. There was a gasp through the crowd, and I tried to see who had made the bid.
“Five thousand, thank you to the lady in the back, do I have Fifty-five hundred?” the auctioneer asked. The blonde called it.
“Seven thousand,” the previous woman called again. That British accent, it was Missy. I couldn’t believe it. At the table where we had both been sitting, Missy was on her feet engaged with the blonds in a bidding war in order to win me. I had not been on board at all, but suddenly, this was my new favorite show.
26
Artemis
That bitch wasn’t going to get him. Not on my watch. I threw my hand up and shouted another bid. We were up to nine thousand. Sorry to the young lady who thought she had him, but he was mine. I wasn’t sure what came over me, but I could not stand the way that woman was looking at him. I remembered what Easton said about whoever got to buy him using the opportunity to get sex from him and that just pushed me over the line. I had money, and I had seen Easton first so she was out whether she knew it or not yet.
“Ten thousand,” I yelled at the auctioneer. Everyone around us laughed and applauded. The blonde was looking back at me. The look on her face was annoyance mixed with defeat. I knew that I had her, that was more than she was willing to bid. I felt triumphant as she conceded, and the auctioneer announced that Easton was mine. Ten thousand dollars, my God. That was almost as much as I was charging Easton for my services, but it was worth it to outbid the blonde and make sure he wasn’t spending a romantic night with her.
I knew that I could get jealous sometimes, this wasn’t a surprise. What was a surprise was the amount of money I was willing to drop in order to keep Easton around. I wasn’t that jealous, was I? I shook my head. It didn’t matter anyway since it was for good cause. Yes. That was what I was going to tell myself. It was all for a good cause, so it did not matter. The auction ended and everybody dispersed to have drinks and socialize before the event officially ended. I got a drink while I waited for Easton to emerge from backstage. I saw him, but before I could go over there, the blonde approached.
I saw them exchange conversation and she hugged him, kissing him on the cheek. I couldn’t hear them, I was much too far away but I could tell they were having a friendly, maybe too friendly conversation. She kept touching him and laughing and he wasn’t doing anything to push her away. I didn’t know whether she was his type, but she was petite with model proportions and a miraculously huge rack. That was everybody’s type. Screw a good cause, I was jealous plain and simple. I hated it. I hated the attention that she was giving him, but I hated it more that he was giving it back.
I threw back the rest of my drink and ordered another one. I would be steaming by the end of the night, but I didn’t care. Easton, by the way, could find his own way home. I was ready to go. I was finding my bearings, identifying a few key people to bid goodbye before I left when some people with microphones and cameras came up to me.
“Artemis James? We’d love to interview you about your part in the night,” the person with the microphone said shoving it into my face. It was the magazine crew. I had already done photos for them and a sit-down interview with one of their reporters, but I guess they wanted more material for the feature. I was not in the mood at all and I was drunk. I was upset too.
“What do you want to know?”
“Of course, we saw the auction and we got to see Easton Schultz, the new and improved version in the flesh. We’d love to know about his transformation.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“We heard that Easton Schultz is your first male client,” she said. I scoffed.
“He needed the help; you should have gotten
a look at him before we met.”
“He was a challenge, then, you’d say?” the interviewer asked.
“Easton Schultz was half-nerd, and half-rube who thought it was acceptable to run a company in a stained t-shirt and pajama pants.” I laughed at my own joke. “Can you imagine someone with that much money presenting themselves in that way? Honestly, it took a miracle but what can I say? I am a miracle worker.”
“You are definitely talented. What was the most rewarding part of the process?”
“The money of course. Oh, and finally fixing his look. He was an absolute eyesore. It was serious. I didn’t know how anybody worked for him or respected him at all when he was walking around looking like that. I know that I wouldn’t.”
“Can you tell us who he is wearing?”
“Designers who never would have dressed him before I cleaned him up, that’s who,” I said laughing at my own joke again. I tried to get a good look at Easton but he and the blonde were still talking. What the hell were they going on about? She didn’t look like she had two brain cells to rub together.
“Any last words for us?”
“To everybody who had to work with Easton Schultz before I worked my magic on him, I’m so sorry that I didn’t get there sooner. You deserved better.” I said my goodbyes and started looking for the exit. I was done. I wasn’t even going to tell Easton that I was heading out.
“Missy? Missy. There you are. Are you ready to head out?” I heard Easton behind me. I ignored him and kept walking. He caught up and stopped me. “Hey,” he paused and looked me up and down, scanning my face. “Is something wrong? Are you drunk?”
“Who was that woman?”
Admit You Want Me: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Irresistible Billionaires Book 3) Page 16