Page 54 of Highest Bidder

“You won’t bother me.” He threw back the comforter on my side and patted the mattress. “Come lie down.”

I didn’t have to be told twice and slid into bed, although I was careful to stay on my side. I still had no idea where things stood between us.

He didn’t let me. He reached over and pulled me into his arms. Once I was situated against his chest, he murmured, “That’s better,” and continued reading whatever was on his phone.

Meanwhile, butterflies felt they were going to take flight in my stomach.

****

Jeff

I wasn’t reading. I hadn’t been able to comprehend a word since she got out of bed, and I opened my phone to try and keep my mind occupied.

She’d come out of the bathroom and looked at me like she wasn’t sure if she was welcome back in bed, and that bothered me.

I’d pulled her to my side on instinct. She felt right in my arms, even if I wasn’t supposed to admit that. Even if I still hated myself a little for how shitty I’d treated her last night, I wasn’tgoing to miss an opportunity to feel good with her naked in my arms.

I glanced down. She was curled into me, soft and warm, with her hair brushing my collarbone.

I should’ve said something. Asked if she slept okay. If she was sore. If she hated me.

Instead, I just kept staring at my phone like it held the answer.

She was quiet, but I could feel the tension in her body, as if she was thinking about something. Debating.

She shifted once, and I thought she was going to speak, but she didn’t. Then she did it again, but still nothing.

Finally, the third time, she whispered, “Why were you so mad last night?”

I didn’t answer right away. Mostly because I wasn’t sure how to. Or maybe I did and didn’t want to say it out loud.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I walked in and saw everything, and it felt like… too much.”

She didn’t move. Just waited.

“It looked like something it wasn’t. Something it couldn’t be.”

She was quiet for a second. Then: “A date.”

“Yeah.”

She didn’t say anything else, but I could feel the question behind her silence.

I ran my hand through my hair. “I’ve had someone do that before. The whole fantasy. Candles, wine, lingerie, the works. It made it feel like something real.”

I paused before continuing, “She left me for someone with a trust fund. The funny thing was, I have one too. I just hadn’t told her because I wanted her to want me, not my money.”

Her breath caught slightly, but she didn’t interrupt.

“I was twenty-one and dumb. I thought I’d found the real thing. Reality knocked me on my ass. That’s when I realized that most women are for sale to the highest bidder.”

She interjected. “Not all women.”

“The ones who like it rough don’t come free. And we’ve already established that’s how I like it.”

It wasn’t like she could argue. She was living proof that was true.

That old bitterness crept in, even now.

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