“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?”