“It’s me, Stacy, hope you didn’t forget this face that soon,” she giggled, waving at the door.
I swung the door open and flung my arms open for a hug. God, Stacy was the cutest little stripper at Bar Seven. She didn’t stay too long, since she met her husband, Grant. “Oh my god, Stacy!” She hugged me, her petite pregnant frame mustered up enough energy to give me quite a squeeze.
“Hey there, How have you been holding up?”
“You know, same old same old, come on in and make yourself at home.”
I brought her inside and she looked around. It had been a while. She was soon to be a mom and now living the life of a house wife. A wealthy one. How did she do it?
“Hmm, still no boyfriend yet?” she sighed, holding her chin in curiosity. She was digging for some positive news. Why did everyone think women always had to have a man.
I flopped down on the black sofa I had in the living room and shook my head.
“Stacy, you know I’m not the kind to settle down. I’m a free spirit, bogged down by no man.” I had to admit, my chest rose a little when I said that. I wouldn’t call it haughty, but more like proud. Confident and proud that I could live life without the appendage of a guy. Too much drama. I’d rather live without it.
I saw what it did to mom.
I saw the fights it caused my sister Samantha. And like hell was I putting my name on the drama list.
Stacy sat down next to me and tilted her head to the side with a smirk. “Oh, so you think I’m bogged down?” She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes playfully. Oh, come on, she knew what I meant.
“Not you! It’s just… dating and stuff isn’t my style, you know?”
“I see. Well, here,” she said, digging into her purse to take something out. She shoved into my hands a small card that had gold embossed letters. Fancy.
“What’s this?” I opened the card and saw the words, ‘You are invited to…’ And I knew exactly what was happening.
“I’m getting married. I know you were the officiant at Willow’s and I want you to be the bridesmaid at mine!” she chirped, bouncing on my couch like a happy kid. The happiness that glittered and danced in her eyes. She was in love.
I wondered, what was the heartbreak she had to endure to find him? What were the risks, and how bad did it hurt?
In the end, I knew she’d say it was worth it. But finding that special someone wasn’t a guarantee in life. It didn’t happen for everyone. Willow and Stacy were lucky. Me? I was going to be realistic and stay the happy single tramp that I was.
“Really? Wow, so many people getting married around me.”
Stacy placed her hands in her lap and leaned over. “Too bad you don’t have a shiny new beau to bring with you.”
“Please, that’s not gonna happen. I’m good by myself.” My phone rang again. I swore to all Gods that were good and unholy that I’d never give out my real number to any strange guy again. “Ugh, damn phone.” I pulled myself off the couch and sprinted into the bedroom. Stacy followed behind.
“Is it a guy?” she asked, clasping her hands together.
“No, just my sister trying to bug me again. Spoiled brat.”
“So, gonna come?”
We both walked back out into my modest sized living room.
“Sure, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. You and Grant deserve to be happy. I’d love to see you officially tie the knot.” Stacy fought a cough since the place was filled with remnants of cigarette smoke
“Same thing for you too…”
“Don’t worry, I’m good, Stacy. Bet you’re pretty busy today, aren’t you? Got your wedding dress?” I had to end this conversation of me shacking up with some dude. It wasn’t going to happen. I liked my sex without strings. Hard, fast, done and gone.
“I’m going shopping for it soon. Maybe tomorrow, you’ll have to come.”
“Sure. I’ll just make sure I’m not busy. The club’s been booking private dances.”
“Ohh, really? Cool.”
“Meh, it pays the bills,” I said reaching for a pack of smokes on the table.
“Well, got to go. I still have a handful of invitations to deliver and caterers to talk to a million last minute things to do for the wedding. See you, and go find a boyfriend.”
“You’re not going to let up on me, will you?” I sighed.
“Nope. Think about it. Everyone there is bringing their boyfriends or husband. Do you really want to be the odd one out? Anyways, let me jet out the door. I’m going to be late meeting with the caterers.”
“Take care of yourself, Stacy.”
She slipped out the door like a piece of delicate lace, returning home to Grant. It fit her. The whole situation was just… her. Me? I was a stripper, I didn’t have doll baby looks. I was sexy in a tough yet feminine manner.
“The only single one there, huh? Bet people are expecting me to show up alone, aren’t they?” I said to myself, hunting around for a lighter.
Still, I couldn’t stop Stacy’s words from haunting me. I still had an ego.
Everyone at that wedding was coming with someone. And that meant if I was going alone, that I’d be the subject of stupid conversations. Side eyes and whispers.
Now that I thought about it, showing up without a man by my side would make it seem like I—like I couldn’t get a man.
“Oh shit. Now this feels like a challenge.”
Willow and Stacy knew I wasn’t the lonely type. But the older women would gossip and… well, to be honest, it was probably rude to show up to an event like a wedding all alone and solo.
Stacy would probably feel uneasy about it too. Everyone married with kids around me…
That was her special day, and I was determined not to ruin it. Plus, I’d get fun wedding day sex with a random guy.
But not just any random guy. Grant and Darien were big wigs. Rich men. Powerful men. I was going to need that same level of man to bring with me.
And I knew someone who could do that for me.
She owed me a favor.
***
Eliza Vent. The go to woman for all billionaire men who were looking for love… or reliable one-night stands.
She was busy getting another party together for a small fleet of wealthy men and young twenty something virgins with an appetite and need to get their cherry popped by someone wiser and wealthy.
No harm in that. I only hoped she had someone suitable for me. I didn’t need a BDSM super freak or anything like that. She waved her assistant off when she saw me cat walk down the starlit stairs down into the main corridor of her party room.
It was dark in here, save for the twinkling lights everywhere and the blur of phones as people moved around to get ready for this function she was holding.
“Well, look who stumbled in. Looking for love?” she teased, knowing full well how I was adamantly against being in a relationship.
“Sorta, I need a date. A rich and powerful one.” I flexed my arm and wiggled my eyebrows. She held her stomach and laughed.
“Ohh, what has you of all people interested all of a sudden?”
We walked over to one of the tables that were decked out in roses, rose petals, and golden plates with champagne glasses. Eliza had expensive, good taste.
“A Wedding. My friend’s wedding. Her and her other bridesmaid both have rich men as husbands. I don’t like being a third wheel or whatever.” I picked at the petals on the table and tried not to envision myself as a housewife, happy with a few tots running around. I was doomed with a hard slap from reality if I allowed myself to do that. Eliza frowned, studying my face. She thought I was wife material. I didn’t.
Everyone around me thought I was marriage material.
Everyone around me was wrong. Dead wrong. Laughable wrong.
“Let’s see. I think I have someone that might suit you.” She dabbled around with her phone, swiping the screen around. Then she held it up, so I couldn’t see the screen. Since she worked with so many rich men, there wa
s no telling how many secrets she knew.
God, the woman probably could black mail a guy for a couple million in a minute flat. Lucky for them Eliza had a heart of gold. Rare these days. What was even more rare was that my friends all shared that heart of gold.
Except for me. Which was fine. I considered myself average. I wasn’t even a virgin.
“Make it good, you owe me a favor for that lap dance session I gave to a few of your clients,” I reminded her with a wicked smile and wink. She smirked and sat her phone down.
“I know, I know. Don’t worry. I only deal with the best. Come back here around eight o’clock to meet him.”
“Meet him? For what? Can’t you just send him to me?” I slouched back in my chair. My legs weren’t crossed either. I sat like a tomboy on a hot day.
“He’s not a package, love.”
“Funny, bet he’s got a package if he’s a man.”
“You’re so dirty,” she whispered with a hiss of laughter.
“That’s why people love me.” I shrugged and got up. Tugging my dress down from the dangerous top zones of my thighs were my butt cheeks were almost visible. Eliza picked herself up too and placed her hands on her hips. This was when I noticed she was wearing all black. Black tight top with skinny turtleneck, and a pencil skirt that showed off her shape. Hmm, that made me want one too now.
“You heard me, eight o’clock, and I’ll have the perfect match by then. I just spruced up my book of eligible bachelors.” She threw her hands up into the air. Happy that her business never seemed to go on a downward curve. She was always getting repeat clients, and some even happily married. Funny. She didn’t get to know if they were divorced though. Marriage was supposed to be important. But a lot of people trashed the meaning.
“Good, I’ll be back then. Thanks Eliza.” I waved.
“You’re welcome!” she said after me as I climbed up the steps to leave her place. After one last glance, I dipped out the door and checked my phone.
Good, no missed calls.
But what about after the wedding?
No, that wasn’t my concern. The only things I needed to focus on right now were wedding presents and how I was going to get dressed for tonight.
My phone rang again. And a vein popped in my forehead. Much to my relief, when I looked, it was just my bratty other half, my sister Samantha.
“What?” I said into the phone, opening the door to that led to the sidewalk. I decided a nice hour or two getting a manicure and pedicure with a massage would be a nice way to loosen myself up for tonight.
“Hey, not nice. How about ‘Hi’?” Samantha complained.
“How about ‘get to the point’? You’re up to something.”
“I was wondering. Can you watch my dog tonight? I have a date—”
“No can do, kiddo. Find a real dog sitter.” Men on the sidewalk were being men. They stared and scanned my body from head to toe. I just kept my switch and walked on.
“But, Linds…” she whined in her spoiled voice.
“Look, I kind of have a date myself.” I grunted.
“You mean a one-night stand? Those aren’t important like me!”
“Got to go, Samantha. Really busy,” I said, getting ready to tap the red phone icon.
“Fine. Ugh.”
“Plus, you have that rich boyfriend Totler, can’t he buy you that?”
“Yeah. Catch you later, I have to go shopping.”
“See ya, stay safe.”
I hung up and realized I was on the street corner. Wow, an invite to a wedding had me twisted up like this?
Hmph, it’d be over soon enough. The date on the wedding card said it was in two weeks and there were more details to come.
Then I remembered, it said a location.
I had the card on me, so I took it out to read the location.
Holy shit. Of course, Stacy wasn’t going to be the traditional one…
“Montreal, Canada?! What?”
Chapter Two – Gordon
Seeing my office brought me peace after a hectic morning. Meetings, it was meetings all morning, and an impending sense of doom loomed over my top employees and board of directors. They all looked at me, scanning my face, wondering if I was going to lose everything.
“Finally, peace and quiet all to myself. Maybe I’m used to getting lonely…” I said to myself while I made my way behind my desk.
I managed not saying anything about the situation to anyone and that alone helped my stress levels. Reclining in my custom-made leather chair, I reached under my desk to pour myself a small shot of whiskey. There were no more meetings for the day, and I was thankful as hell.
I gulped down the spicy brown tincture and basked in the sting on the back of my throat as it crept down. I was calm in the midst of a storm. I had to be. I owned this damn place and placed serious blood into it to make it work. Even the amounts of pussy I turned down for the benefit of the company was hilarious.
My door flung open, and in rushed Richard, my friend of twenty years. He was frowning and stopped at the rim of my desk to glare down onto me.
“Hey, Gordon! Aren’t you busy looking for a wife?” he asked, bending over to further scold me of my relaxed composure. What was I going to do? Run around like a chicken with my head cut off?
“Richard…want to explain why you didn’t knock?” I asked, to dodge his question. I smirked and rocked back into my chair. The comforting smell of whiskey still wafted into the air. And that pleasant tingle was still there.
“Knocking is for when there isn’t an emergency. Did you check your calendar or what?”
“What are you rambling about?” I poured another shot and drank it down. Richard took a step back, and puffed a sigh of disbelief. His clothes even looked disheveled.
“You need a wife! Did you forget? You need to get married soon or else everything you worked for will go up in smoke. Silent smoke. This will be a stealth kill to all your hard work,” Richard cried, flinging his arms out. He threw himself down into one of the seats in front of my desk and placed an elbow onto the rim of my cherry oak desk.
“Richard, you’re more concerned about this than I am,” I pointed out.
“Because, I’m your friend. Someone’s gotta watch over you until you get hitched.” He leaned back and crossed his legs. He was going to throw me out of my office and out onto the street, so I could pick the first woman I saw and marry her.
“I appreciate it. But I’m fine. What will happen will happen,” I said, swirling the small remanence of whiskey in my shot glass. The golden colors looked brilliant when subtle rays of sunlight hit it.
“And what does that mean?” Richard’s tone of voice dropped down to a sound of hope lost. I didn’t give up, I only had to keep calm. But it was still the truth.
“You don’t rush love, Richard. It’s a natural phase—”
Richard laughed, “Natural my ass. You can manufacture a wife. Then while you keep your end of the deal, you can go out and look for real love. See? Problem solved.” He folded his arms and smiled as if he had fixed everything.
“No, problem not solved. I’m not going to go through the trouble of getting married and divorced then married again. That’s nothing but a mess and chaos waiting to happen.” I turned my chair around to glance over the skyline of the city. I was on the twentieth floor and my windows were from the floor to ceiling, giving me a flawless view of everything.
It’d be wonderful to get the right woman by my side to enjoy this.
“Gordon, if you don’t get married…”
I waved my hand and shook my head. “Stop worrying, I’ll be fine.”
“Sometimes I wonder, do you even want all of this? This company? This lifestyle?”
“Of course I do. Richard, calm down.” Richard dropped his shoulders and looked down.
“Damn, man. You really worry me sometimes,” he said, pinching his eyebrows and frowning.
“I can see that. Would you like a whiskey?” I reached for
another shot glass and held it to him. He looked at it and sighed.
“Nah, I’m good. Promised my wife I’d take her to that new bar that opened in the east end. Doubt their stuff will be as good as the liquor out of you stash.” He dragged himself out of the chair and to his feet. His phone vibrated in his pants pocket and rung. Digging it out, he looked at the number and his eyes lit up. I knew who it was.
“Oh? Speak of the angel, that’s her right now. Hey, Gordon, I’m gonna go now. Try to make an effort to keep yourself, okay?” He swiped his phone to accept the call and waved.
“Sure.”
“You’re really convincing sometimes, you know?” he joked, turning around and diving into conversation with his wife. “Hey, babe. Yeah… You’re wearing what?” He vanished through the door and I was left with that feeling again.
That feeling of want. I wanted that too. Someone I could protect and love. Someone that I could also sink my cock into on a daily basis. Sex, I miss it. I hadn’t had a release in a while and was damn near desperate for that.
The phone on my table trembled as it rung. I looked at the caller ID and noticed that it wasn’t marked with a name.
“Hm? That number… vaguely familiar.” I picked it up and answered, “Hello, Gordon Glen speaking.”
“Hello, Gordon darling. It’s Eliza, been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Ah, Eliza Vent. How are you?” he asked with a bright vibrancy in his voice.
“Good. I have good news for you. I believe I have found you a match.”
“Really?” I leaned back in my chair again. Curious as to what she had planned. Eliza Vent was the best when it came to pairing people up. That was why I went to her…six months ago. I thought she wouldn’t be able to find a match. But hell, even if this woman isn’t the one, at least I could get a few fucks out of it. No strings. Just to keep it simple and clean.
“Yes, come down here at eight o’ clock sharp. She’s dashing and can’t wait to meet you.”
“Does she know my name?” Anyone would be happy to meet me, Gordon Glen.
“No darling. That’s against protocol until you meet her. This is like a blind date—but fancier.”
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