Page 4

Juliette

I stepped out of the bathroom to boisterous laughter. Cursing, I tried to step back in.

Maybe they haven’t seen me. Maybe I still have time to go back and pretend I’m still taking a very, very long ? —

But of course, dreams were just that. Dreams.

“Julie? You’re home? Come eat with us!”

Shit. I quickly took the towel off my wet hair and hung the damp fabric before shutting the door with a soft click. I really didn't feel like talking to anyone.

You would think that getting someone to bid one million on me and spending the night getting railed into oblivion would make me feel super carefree and just wash all my worries away.

But actually, the additional money only added to my stress. Instead of making all my problems vanish, it tripled them instead.

The shared bathroom was adjacent to the living room and right in the line of sight of the dining room. Not an ideal living situation, but the only thing I could afford. I was offered one of the rooms with a private bathroom, but that was an additional two hundred I was not willing to spend.

I mean, I would much rather have dinner at least three nights a week than a bathroom inside my room.

I headed back to my room to change before meeting my roommates.

I hadn’t heard them over the water and the mental math in my head.

They often congregated in the living-dining room, and while I normally would have loved to hang out with them, the pressure of the money in my bank account was too much.

“I didn’t hear you come in,” I said with a smile as I joined them at the dining room table.

Harmony was at the head, her black hair pulled into a messy bun, wearing a hoodie from her college. Erin had her nose in a book but lifted her head to give me a smile, and April was the closest to me and gave me a shy smile as she brought her bowl closer to scoop some of the slop into her mouth.

Harmony was the loud one, but she was also the most caring. She mothered us to death and often cooked when she had time, though it usually was some questionable mush of ingredients. Luckily, it had never tasted bad.

She passed me a small bowl of rice and motioned for me to pour a heaping pile of sauce and meat onto it.

My stomach gave me away, growling at the smell.

“Beef and tomatoes,” April whispered. April was the shyer one. She wasn't one to typically initiate a conversation, but if we were all together, she'd usually join.

She worked at a small boutique on one of the walking streets at the park. This was quite far away from where she worked, but, like me, she couldn't afford much.

She didn't talk much about herself or her family—or anything really—so all I knew about her was that she worked at a small boutique that sold handmade soap she would sometimes bring back for me.

“Not half bad this time,” Erin muttered.

Erin was a student, and I believed she was getting her master’s, though I wasn't completely sure. When we hung out and talked, we didn't really get too personal. She was also the most sarcastic of the group, so it was hard to actually tell when she was telling the truth.

At first, she rubbed me the wrong way because I took everything she said a little bit too seriously. But after a while, I realized she was actually pretty sweet and looked out for us. Whenever her school had free food or any of those small gift bags they handed out, she'd bring us back some.

I remembered more than one time when she snuck us into her school for free food at some event. It was fun pretending to be in college, even though I never had a chance to go myself.

Even community college was too expensive for me, so experiencing that meant more to me than she probably realized.

With a smile, I took a large bite of the food.

“How’d the thing go?” Harmony asked. “You know, the sex cl ? — ”

“Oh my God,” I interrupted with an eye roll. “Is this really what you want to talk about right now?”

Anything but that. But her gaze told me that she wasn't going to let it go that easily. That was the thing with Harmony. She loved to gossip, and if she smelled something juicy, she would not back off until you spilled everything.

“Yeah, Harmony, not the place. I’m eating.” Erin’s tone was sarcastic, though her gaze was locked on me and her expression was dead serious, telling me she was also waiting for me to give them all the dirty details.

I told my roommates a lot. Sometimes more than they told me. I couldn't help it—I liked them, and more often than not, if I felt comfortable around a person, I would share too much. They were the closest things I had to friends.

We watched movies, we painted our nails together, and had most of our meals together as well. So sometimes it really did feel like we were good friends or maybe even family.

But I hadn’t told them about the money.

That felt too… private. And if I was being honest, I hadn’t really come to terms with it either. I couldn't believe what I had done. And I felt maybe even a bit… ashamed.

Most of it felt like an unbelievable dream that I wasn't sure actually happened until I looked at my bank statement.

Flashes of that night kept coming back to haunt me.

Her tongue on my skin. The way her hands felt as they roamed over my body. The things she said.

She had made me feel so much more than anyone else ever had.

She was caring. Attentive. The perfect partner.

I was nervous the entire time. I felt bad because I didn't even reciprocate. I wanted to touch her and taste her so badly, but she took over from the start and barely let me up for air.

Yeah, we took a break every five orgasms or so, but after a while, those breaks blurred together. Even if they lasted five, ten, twenty minutes, it still felt like only a moment before we were back at it.

And then she just up and left me.

Not much aftercare besides a few soft words, and she was gone. She looked at me right before she left. Lingering at the door as if she wanted to say something. As if she was trying to decide something.

But in the end, she left, and I stayed there, decompressing on the bed, trying desperately not to fall asleep. I barely made it home, and as soon as I did, I crashed out on my bed.

We did everything we were meant to do there. She bid. She paid the money. I received it. We fucked. And that was it.

Still… I knew that if I had met her on a different occasion, I might try to start something more with her.

There was an instant connection between us that I’d never felt with anyone else in my life. I was never one for a one-night stand. I mean, I had a few over the years, but I preferred long-term relationships.

But this was different. I wanted to know more about her, but I stopped myself from asking. It was in the club rules that we had to stay anonymous. That was the whole purpose of it. I didn't want to know her, and she didn't want to know me.

She took her mask off for me, though. She broke the rules, and she didn’t even look like she cared.

Which led me to fantasizing about going back to the club just to find her.

I mean, she’d have to come back, right? You wouldn’t just spend a million dollars to fuck someone and never go there again, right?

“That good, huh?”

I couldn’t help the heat that ran up my skin. There was no hiding my blush, so I didn't even attempt to as my face reddened.

“Oh, fuck, did you actually do something there?” Erin asked, leaning in with her eyebrows raised, the small silver ring on top of her right one reminding me a little bit too much of one of the club workers.

“I don’t kiss and tell,” I forced out.

Harmony slammed her fork down, causing me to jump.

“You so do, you whore ! Tell us everything!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. That was Harmony. Maybe someone who didn't know her would get offended by what she called us, but I knew she didn’t mean it like that.

“It was a very good one-night stand,” I replied and took another bite, leaving them hanging before I continued. “But that’s all I’m telling you.”

Harmony let out a squeal and grabbed Erin and April’s arms, shaking them violently.

Even Erin cracked a smile.

“So you’re going back, right?” April asked in a soft voice.

I turned to answer her just as my phone started vibrating in my pocket.

I fished it out, and my heart stopped when I realized it was my boss. I answered quickly, her voice filtering through the speakers immediately.

“Juliette, I need you to take up a job now . It’s important.”

My resignation was currently folded up in my purse, ready to be handed in tomorrow. I had originally thought going to the auction would only give me a couple thousand, maybe a few hundred thousand. No way in hell would it have been enough to quit my job.

But then she paid a million fucking dollars .

The money would be enough for me to not only pay for Lucas’s college but also give me some time to move on with my life. Move closer to him and my aunt. Give me the time to find a job, maybe in a school or a daycare.

The most important part was to pay off my parents’ medical debt and Lucas’s college, though. And now I could.

At least that was what my mental math told me. I meant to double-check on paper after my shower, but then I was summoned to the dining room. And I definitely hadn't expected my boss to give me another job so soon.

I was in between positions now—something I would usually complain about, but that gave me enough time to think.

I bit my tongue, not knowing what to do.

“Is there no one else?” I asked in a small voice. I didn't like rejecting her or the families. It made me feel bad.

“We’ve been through almost all of them,” she admitted with a sigh. “Can you please help with this?”

“I don’t know… I was going to take a break?—”

“It’s a rich family,” she added quickly. “Twice your usual pay, and I’ll add an additional ten percent to your bonus.”

Damn. Even if I was going to leave, that was pretty good in comparison to what I usually got paid, and working could probably help me get my head on straight, my shit together, and figure out what to do with the money.

“Let me think about it, okay?”

“Get back to me tonight, please.”

We hung up and I leaned back into my chair with a sigh.

“Another nannying job?” Harmony asked, and I nodded.

My hand itched for another bite of the food, but my stomach was in knots and my head had started to hurt.

“Let me go do some math,” I said as I stood.

“Uh-oh. She’s doing math, everyone!”

I shot Erin a half-hearted glare as the others snickered. It wasn't a secret that I was shit at math. I liked to blame it on the fact that I didn't go to college, but in reality, I hadn’t paid attention to algebra or geometry or literally any math class I’d ever had since I started going to school.

“Come back to finish your dinner before it gets cold!” Harmony called after me.

“Will come back in a bit! Just give me a second!”

“It'll probably take at least an hour,” Erin teased. “Might as well put it in the microwave so she can heat it up later.”

I pushed into my room and shut the door behind me, leaning against it with a sigh.

The room was barely big enough for a twin bed and a small desk off to the side where my five-year-old computer was.

As soon as I got myself together, I sat down on the rickety chair and pulled up my bank statement, the calculator, and my calendar.

I added up the huge medical debt left from my parents’ accident, all four years of Lucas’s schooling, and how much it would take to move my entire life.

I didn't know what school he would choose. I had to do a quick search and see what the average cost of tuition was per year, and the number was high. I even added a twenty percent buffer on his yearly tuition after realizing that he would need textbooks and clothes and a place to live.

The money in my bank account was good… But after actually putting everything to paper, it started to feel like it wasn’t enough.

The more I added, and even without factoring in any of my monthly expenses, the more I realized quitting now probably wasn’t my best bet.

Fuck.

Maybe it would last me a few months—a year even—but after that I would be stuck in the same situation. I would be back to working to make ends meet, and if Lucas needed anything else while he was in college, I would not be able to help him or myself.

I can always go back to the club…

I put a stop to that thought. It’s not that I wouldn’t like to, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back and find myself in a room with someone other than… her.

I needed the job. No matter how much I didn't want it, there was no denying that I still needed it.

One more job. Just one more that would hopefully last me a while so I could save up. Get away from my overcontrolling boss who paid me literally pennies on the dollar. Then I could go.

I dialed my boss again, and she picked up on the second ring.

Just one more job, and that's it.

“I’ll take it.”