I'm Your Baby Tonight - Part One - A New Adult Contemporary Romance Series (I'm Your Baby Tonight Series)
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Sasha didn’t know what to say.
“Of course he is!” Johnny said, running up to him, “He’s my daddy.” He beamed a proud smile up at the officer.
The officer gave him a kiss on the forehead, “What’s going on, little you?”
“I’m not so little,” Johnny pouted. His dad ruffled the top of Johnny’s hair.
“I keep forgetting,” he said, in his rich confident voice, “You’re practically full-grown.”
“I am full grown!” Johnny announced.
A smile of pride spread across his dad’s face. A wide, toothy, gorgeous smile that made Sasha’s heart skip a beat.
Wow! Sasha thought to herself. She began to get nervous butterflies in her stomach, which shocked her, because she hadn’t experienced that in so long; for as long as she could remember. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself as she walked up to the gentleman and extended her hand.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Johnson, I presume?” Sasha said, trying to hide her crush and act as indifferent as she could.
“Detective Johnson, actually,” the cop said, squeezing her hand tightly. “But you can call me Chip.” Chip had a devious twinkle in his eye, and he closed the gap between himself and Sasha, more than was really necessary.
“Chip?” Sasha said. Cute name. She liked it.
Chip smiled and gave her a wink, “Virginia told me about you.”
“She did?” Sasha said, confused, trying to place which parent Virginia was. “Hope it was good stuff. “Oh…” Her conversation from yesterday came back to her, “you’re the guy who...” Sasha said.
Chip nodded, “Yeah, the one she told you about yeah. She said you didn’t sound that interested in meeting me, so I figured I had to come see who this girl was who was too busy to meet me.” His words were strict, but his tone was light and sweet. He looked right into Sasha’s eyes, causing Sasha to forget how to respond.
Sasha blushed. “I didn’t mean anything by it, it’s just...we can talk about it some other time. Maybe when the kids are not around.”
“Yeah, some other time like...for coffee?” he said, and Sasha realized they were still shaking hands.
Sasha pulled away, shuffling self-consciously. “Oh...I mean, that’d be nice except that I’m...”
“Busy, I know ... but there’s a coffee shop literally across the street from the school so ...”
“After work sometime, yes, yeah. Um, just not today, though, because you see...” Sasha’s explanation trailed off because she couldn’t think of one. She had no idea why she was becoming so shy.
“Sure, after work some time.” Chip had a sexy smirk on his face as he tried not to look Sasha up and down too long in front of the children. Sasha could tell he was interested, very interested, and the way he undressed her with his eyes, even if it was only for a moment while they were under the scrutiny of the kids, turned her on big time. Chip broke contact first, letting Sasha simmer there with her thoughts. “Well, big boy, let’s go,” he said, scooping Johnny up under one arm and carrying him like a notebook.
Johnny laughed all the way to the door.
Sasha couldn’t help but watch what a great ass Chip had. Nothing was sexier to Sasha than a confident man, especially a confident single dad. It was just a plus that he had that kind of chiseled body.
“Oh,” Chip said, turning around and whipping out his phone, “let me get your phone number. You know, just in case we have to go over things about Johnny.”
Sasha liked his slick style, “Yeah, about Johnny,” she smiled.
“Now, you’re going to call me sometime when you’re free, right?” Chip said that part quietly and close enough so that just Sasha could hear. The secrecy made Sasha blush again.
“Sure, yeah...” Sasha said. It’d been awhile since such a hot guy had hit on her. She almost forgot how to act.
CHAPTER 8
Wow! Two hot guys in one day. When it rains, it pours. But what happened that night was still ringing in Sasha’s mind as she fished in her pocket and waded through the wad of cash Tony had given her. It felt like guilt money. Maybe if she didn’t think about the way the money came, it wouldn’t be so bad. It was just that the more she tried to justify it in her head, the more guilty she felt. She hadn’t solicited the money, she knew, but the way Tony made her take it made her feel used.
Sasha was walking around her classroom, mulling the situation over, and cleaning up so that she could avoid traffic getting home. A knock came at the door as Sasha was picking up the blocks that were spread all over the floor. She stood up straight just in time to see the principal letting himself into Sasha’s classroom. It looked a lot emptier now than it did when the kids were clambering around. Sasha had already turned the dim lights off, so just pale sunlight was shining in through the windows. Sasha didn’t like being this close to Principal Close without anyone else around. She felt like she needed to explain her presence here, even though it was her classroom and the principal was the one out of place.
“Ms. Cox,” Principal Close said, stepping inside. Sasha tried not to sigh too audibly in front of her boss. The principal looked around at the kids’ art works hanging on the wall. He surveyed the short circular tables and chairs that were old and marked up with a frown.
“Principal Close,” she responded, going back to cleaning up.
“So... I’m glad to find you here,” the principal said, clearly uncomfortable in his position. It may have been the very first time Sasha had seen the older gentleman not at ease.
“Oh?” Sasha answered, wondering what he would be yelling and screaming or criticizing her about this time. She didn’t want to stop cleaning, but Mr. Close’s tone had her rapt attention.
“There’s something I need to talk to you about. You know we talked about the budget cuts in the staff meeting.”
“I think I recall that, yes,” Sasha said, with just an ounce of sarcasm, becoming tense just remembering that conversation. Luckily the man was too preoccupied with his bad news to notice.
“Well, I don’t know how to put this other than to just say it...things are a little more extreme than we were expecting. The budget cuts are steeper. I’m afraid, Sasha that...”
Sasha didn’t allow the sentence to finish before she cut him off. “Steeper? How could they be steeper? We already can’t afford decent chairs for these kids.” Sasha’s voice rose in exasperation.
Principal Close’s eyes widened at the interruption. He wasn’t used to being cut off, especially not in his school. Starting again slowly, he said, “If we don’t find another $10,000 in savings, we’re going to have to shut your entire department down.” His voice came out harsher than it would have earlier.
“What?” Sasha said. “You can’t shut down kindergarten, especially not the art initiative. It’s all these kids have to look forward to. Their lives at home are bleak. They want to come to school to learn and to feel proud of themselves. For most of these kids, at least, many of their parents are working hard. As it is, they’ll have to cut their hours or leave the kids at home alone. They’re too small for that, but their parents can’t afford babysitters!”
“I realize it’s...it’s a tough call, but...” he went back to shuffling uncomfortably. “You know, we appreciate you coming here and spearheading this department. The art initiative has been a special program, and the kids really seem to love it. It’s just that the money is tight, and under new legislation, our county doesn’t actually require a kindergarten program.”
“But if you were to find these savings, you could keep it open? Would you allocate the money to the program?”
“Well, for awhile we most certainly would, but that’s impossible. We’ve looked everywhere, and there is absolutely nowhere else to cut.”
“Cut my pay, in half,” Sasha found herself blurting out.
“Your pay?” The principal’s eyes widened again, this time in astonishment. He wasn’t used to teachers sacrificing themselves, as they already made so little.
The principal seemed to almost have a smirk on his face, as if he was getting away with something. “All right. I’ll see what I can do. I appreciate, the entire staff appreciates your... sacrifice.” With that, he turned on his heels and headed towards the door.
Sasha couldn’t wait for him to leave. She looked around the room angrily, looking for something to take her frustration out on. She heard the door close with a click, and she waited until she heard the principal’s clickety-click sound of his heels turn the corner around the next hallway. With him well out of earshot, Sasha kicked a chair out of her way. She wanted to pummel something, for once to be so angry as to destroy something else. But just the one kick caused the plastic of the chair to crack down the middle. Just what she needed: one less chair.
She was furious. This system was so messed up. They could find the money to keep a football department alive and well, but there was nothing left to buy chairs, snacks, or other supplies. She had come here to help people, but it seemed like they were destroying this place all by themselves. And when the anger finally subsided, the panic set in. Sure, she’d kept the kindergarten class open for now, but what about later? How far would her sacrifice stretch? And how in the hell would she pay her bills now?
CHAPTER 9
Sasha drove home in her beat-up Camry in a daze. The reality of losing half her salary had really settled in. There was no way she was going to make it. She had no family or friends to whom she could turn. Moving in with Anton had been a bust. If only my parents ... The Camry swerved sharply into the oncoming lane and a loud honk caused Sasha to come out of her daze. She learned a long time ago that her parents weren’t going to be there for her. As soon as they found out she wasn’t going to follow in Daddy's footsteps, they didn't want anything to do with her. It didn’t happen all at once. It was slower: holiday by holiday, they stopped inviting her over; then they also stopped calling for her birthday, and it happened until they wouldn’t even return Sasha’s calls. And long before that, they had stopped giving Sasha any financial assistance. There was only one thing to do now, of course, seeing as she had just six more days until rent was due and her roommate made good on his promise to kick her out. She had to use some of that money that Tony had given her to cover her half of the apartment rent.
Sasha pulled her beat-up car into the apartment’s assigned space for her. She popped open the door, clambered out with her briefcase and other bag of school supplies, still mulling her dire situation over. She started the long trek up to the third floor, and wished once again that she made enough money to afford to live in an apartment with an elevator, or that she could just actually afford to live in any apartment of her own at all.
The thought of actually using Tony’s charity, or whatever it was, to make ends meet made Sasha feel queasy. She tried to convince herself that it wasn’t so bad. Tony had said he would have paid it to his regular masseuse anyway. Sasha had reached her door and was shuffling her bags so that she could fumble around in her pocket for her keys. Why doesn’t Anton just open the door? He can hear me struggling out here. She finally got the keys out and made her way inside. Setting her things down on the dining room table, she moved to the cabinet to fix herself a glass of water. When she turned on the tap, a small bug - maybe a roach - scurried away from the water’s grasp. Sasha sighed at the development and wondered when they had started getting roaches.
She tapped her fingers on her dining room table: back to thinking about money, racking her brain with what to do. She’d already been through the classifieds a million times. Every job for which she was qualified and that would still allow her time to teach was taken already, and all the rest were scummy call-center shit.
She had to do something. She put her hands behind her head and stared up at the ceiling. Maybe Tony would pay her to do another massage? Or maybe…
The idea hit Sasha in the head like a two-by-four. She planted her feet on the floor and found her laptop. She logged in to the dating site. With her new idea, she needed to create a new profile, to describe herself a little differently: a couple inches shorter; instead of red hair, she said dark hair; instead of blue-grey eyes, she said brown. Anything she could think of to hide her identity. And then she came up with a new screen name: “HotEroticMassageTherapist.” Then she started typing her ad:
Subject: Need some release?
Body: Hot massage therapist will relieve you of your stress. Specializes in 30-minute deep, deep tissue massages and passionate rub downs, happy endings included but no sex, strictly massage.
She felt better about it, making it clear that she wasn’t looking for sex. That was actually illegal, and she didn’t want to run that chance. She wasn’t exactly sure what to charge, but based on what Tony had given her, she figured that was a good starting point. Her fingers nervously twitched over the keypad and she fretted over whether or not she should upload the profile. She kept no picture of herself there, deciding to keep it as discreet as possible, in case she did decide to go through with it. There’s no way someone can actually trace it back to me, is there? She was worried that if someone did recognize her, they would out her at school for having a naughty night job. She didn’t think that the principal, or even most of the other teachers, would be comfortable with her being so open about it. She would face the real threat of being fired.
But she was also excited at the possibility. Tony had praised her for being so good: maybe she was good enough to turn it into a real occupation. She needed money, that was for sure. She swallowed a lump in her throat. This was foolish: this was stupid. Why would she put her career, her reputation, at stake? What if her school was to find out? What if the parents did? And speaking of parents, what if her parents found out? What would they think of her then? Not that it should matter. They did cut me off. The thought of it still gave her the chills.
She leaned back into the couch and readjusted her laptop. It’s not like she could go to her own parents, anyway. No, she had to earn this money herself. It was her problem that she'd created, and she was doing it to help the kids. That’s what she kept telling herself. What good would she do them if she was out on the street? Besides, she’d only do it long enough to get herself out of this financial mess and maybe even move out on her own without having to deal with a fucking roommate.
With that in mind, she took a deep breath and clicked upload.
This was it. Seconds ticked by while she sat there staring at the screen. No sirens sounded, and no one burst through the door looking to immediately arrest her. She looked around the apartment, but there was no one to witness her act. Sh sat by the computer for another good thirty minutes, staring at the screen. Part of her wanted to delete the profile, because after five minutes, no one was responding. Putting herself out there like that caused her to feel vulnerable, like an exposed nerve, and the lack of response felt like stark rejection. Another part of her felt like deleting it because of the anxiety that was eating her alive. She was hunched over her laptop, and it was causing her back and neck to cramp up. She needed to lie down for a minute and let the anxiety slip away.
She remembered that her roommate was working an extra shift, so she had a good four hours or so before Anton came back. She decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet by lying down in her bed and taking a nap.
***
It was the ringing noise that did it. The constant beeping that she thought she was just imagining, but finally she cracked her eyes open and stumbled up out of bed in her pj's, as she padded her way out of her bedroom, through the kitchen, to the source of the sound.
Sh let out a loud yawn. God, she needed that nap. She rubbed her eyes, her blurry vision slowly coming into focus as she looked at her laptop.
Why was her laptop ringin
g? Was it out of battery already? No, she’d plugged it in. Maybe it was…
Then her heart pounded. She looked at the screen and sat down immediately. She had 23 messages on her massage therapist profile. She took a deep breath. No reason to get excited: most of them were probably just people kicking the tires.
She opened the first one.
-Hey HotEroticMassageTherapist, I’ve got a stiff one. Stiff back, I mean ;) Could use some relaxing. How much do you charge?
Sasha took a deep breath. A small smile curved on her lips as she typed in $200 for 30 minutes. This was a bad idea, and at least she could scare off the riff-raff by giving them a ridiculously high price.
She got up and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. She’d look at the rest of the responses later, but then the ringing started again.
She sat back down. There was a response. She clicked on it.
-OK, no prob. Where do you live?
Sasha’s jaw dropped. She must have stared at the screen for a good five minutes before she responded. She typed in her address.
- Good, I’ll be there in 15 minutes. Do I need to bring anything?
- Just yourself, Sasha replied, and a hard-on, she teased.
Shit. She had to get the place cleaned and ready, and the only oil she had to use was that same baby oil that she’d used on Tony from the other night.
That’s when she heard it: the familiar sound of the keys jangling and her roommate stepped in the door.
CHAPTER 10
Sasha dashed over to the door. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do, but she knew she had to get rid of Anton and fast.
“Hey!” Sasha said, maybe a little too enthusiastically.