Chapter Fifteen #2
“It was… an event,” I say. My voice sounds wrong even to my own ears. “That’s what they called it. Private. Discreet. Safe.” The word tastes like a joke. “Some hotel suite. A car picked me up. A driver. Like it was normal. Like I was just… going to a fundraiser.”
Maddy’s eyes narrow. “Who is ‘they.’” Her voice is low, controlled, but her fingers are white around her cup. “How did you even find out about something like that? You don’t exactly follow gross rich-guy accounts on Instagram.”
I shrug. “Atlantic City, you know… It’s not as hard as you’d think.”
“No, I don’t know.”
“I guess it’s different in Montana. Or maybe not,” I say. “Maybe it’s just more discreet.”
“So…” She looks around and leans in. “So, someone bid on you?” The last three words were completely silent.
I nod. “A bunch of people. Full house. And it wasn’t just me. There were other women before me.”
Maddy’s face goes pale, then flushes, like her body can’t decide whether to be sick or furious.
“How many?” she asks. “Bidders, I mean.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “The room was dark except for the lights on us, and everyone was… silhouettes and voices.” My hands tighten around my cup. “It was intentional. I think they used buzzers because no one called any numbers out.”
“And you stood there,” she says, barely moving her mouth. “And they let men… bid.”
I nod again, smaller this time. My throat aches.
“How much?” she asks, leaning in even more.
I lean in too. “Seventy thousand.”
Her eyes widen as she leans back. “What?” she mouths. “Seventy thousand dollars?”
I nod.
“For your cooch?”
I slap her hand and make a face. “If I do say so myself,” I say primly, trying to make light of it.
“What then?”
“Then, they took me back to the room to wait.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. They made it sound like the safest thing in the world. Security right outside the door, blah, blah, blah.” I swallow hard. “But none of that mattered when I was in that room, waiting for some stranger.”
Maddy’s eyes shine, but her voice stays steady. “Did you know who won?”
“No,” I whisper. “Not at first. Not until he walked into the room.” I glance toward the hospital windows like I can see my dad from here, like that would make this make sense. “I didn’t even think about who. I only thought about the money.” My stomach twists.
“But on Saturday, you called me from that random number. You told me you weren’t alone, and you were safe,” Maddy says quietly. “You were with… him? The bidder guy?”
I stare at my cup like it has the answers.
“Remember how I told you I started a new job a few weeks ago?”
“Yeah,” Maddy says, then her voice turns sly. “With the scary, super hot, rich, perfectly dressed boss who barely smiles and makes grown men nervous?”
“Yeah… him,” I say. Then, after too long a pause, I lift my eyes to Maddy’s. “It was him.”
Maddy goes completely still.
“It was him. Your boss?” she asks, confused.
“Yes,” I whisper. “I was with him.” My throat tightens. “He… he walked in, and it was Nico. My boss.”
Maddy opens her mouth like she wants to speak, but just freezes like that. Then she says, “I’m so confused. Your boss bid on you? What was he doing there?”
“He was there because of me.” I toy with the lid of my cup. “Apparently, he was tipped off that I was there and came to rescue you.”
“He paid seventy thousand dollars to rescue you?” Maddy asks in disbelief. “Wait, who tipped him off? Why would he do that?”
I sigh. This is an even longer story than I anticipated, and somehow, selling my virginity is the simplest part. “He’s… connected. Well-connected. And seventy thousand dollars is not much to his family. In fact, it’s very little.”
She scratches her head. “Okay, so you didn’t sleep with him?”
“No, I did,” I whisper.
“So, he wasn’t there to rescue you?”
I huff out a breath. “He was, but it... I don’t know. It’s complicated. He was there to rescue me, and he did because it could’ve been really bad. But I did sleep with him. For other reasons. Like, not money-related. I don’t know. I’m still trying to work it out.”
“What other reasons?” she asks, voice tight. “Because right now all I’m hearing is a man with money and power—your boss—walked into a room where you had none of either and—” She stops, swallows, and her eyes flash. “And I don’t like it.”
“I know,” I whisper. My fingers worry the cardboard sleeve on my cup until it starts to bend. “I don’t like it either. But it wasn’t… like that. Not the way you’re thinking.” I look up at her, forcing it out. “He didn’t force me. He didn’t threaten me. He didn’t—”
My voice wobbles, and I hate it. “I was scared, and I was alone, and then I saw him and something in me just… snapped into relief. And then it got complicated.”
Maddy leans back a fraction, eyes hard. “Complicated how?”
Just then, my phone signals that it’s time to pick up my dad. I snatch it in relief.
I glance at the screen, then squeeze the phone into my palm as if I hold it tight enough, it’ll keep me from falling apart. My chair scrapes softly as I stand. “I have to go,” I say, already reaching for my bag. “They’re done. I need to get him.”
Maddy’s hand shoots out and catches my wrist. Not hard. Just enough to stop me. “No,” she says, low. “You don’t get to drop that on me and then run across the street like it’s nothing.” Her eyes flick over my face, like she’s trying to read the parts I’m still refusing to say. “Erica—”
“I’m not running,” I whisper. My throat tightens.
I pull my wrist free and force myself to meet her gaze.
“I’m choosing my dad right now.” I swallow hard and grab the strap of my bag.
“I’ll tell you everything, okay? I just can’t right now.
I don’t even know everything right now. But I have to go.
” I turn toward the door before she can argue, my feet already moving, because if I stay one more second, I’m going to break.