by Eva Luxe
I blush and shake my head but my smile betrays the fact that she has guessed correctly.
“I’ll go do it with you if you want,” she says. “Check out this billionaire club. Sell my time, or my body, or whatever it is these old rich dudes are wanting to pay for.”
“You would ,” I tell her.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Stacy asks, throwing a french fry at me.
I catch it and then put it in the bag with my garbage.
“Just that you’re a lot more adventurous than I am,” I tell her. “And that’s a good thing.”
“Yeah you really need to relax and let go sometimes,” she says. “At least go on this blind date with me next Saturday night. You know I’ve been dating Scott and he wants to set you up on a double date with his friend Jerry. He’s a football player. I’m sure he’s a stud. All of Scott’s friends are.”
“I’m kind of burned out on dates right now.”
“Oh please,” Stacy says. “I’m setting a new rule right now. Either you have to go on this blind date with Scott and me or you have to go on a date with one of these billionaires.”
She points her finger at the Student Gazette on the table in front of us, which is still open to the ad about the billionaires’ Exchange club.
“Well in that case, my decision is easy,” I tell her “I guess I’ll be joining you on the blind date. And this guy better not think that I’m eating too much just by ordering a burger.”
“I’m so glad to hear that you’ll come,” she says, as if she had given me a choice in the matter. “I know that with everything going on with your mom…”
She doesn’t finish and I’m glad. My mom is part of the reason that I both do and do not want to go on dates with random people who probably won’t turn out to be suitable date material.
My mom was diagnosed with cancer a year ago and her progression has been rather downhill. So, going on dates is a welcome distraction to take my mind off things but then when they don’t turn out well I’m left feeling even more depressed than I usually am.
“I know you’re just trying to be a good friend,” I tell Stacy, because she looks regretful that she brought up my mom and I don’t want her to feel bad. “I appreciate your help and I’ll go on this date that you want me to go on. As long as you stop bombing me with french fries.”
“I promise I’ll stop,” she says, solemnly. “And not just because I’m out of fries. But I don’t want you to think that I’m pushing you too much or making fun of you. You’re a beautiful girl and the world is your oyster. You should be out there having fun and experimenting and exploring. But I also can understand why you’re hesitant. Especially after the crappy date with the cheap guy from biology class.”
“So, you think I’m a beautiful young woman?” I ask her, batting my eyelashes in mock flirtation. “But what about stunning and intelligent? Those are the requirements to be with these billionaires.”
I point again at the classified ad in the Student Gazette .
“I deftly think you would qualify,” she says. “And you might as well be making lots of money instead of having to spend it on your own dinner with a guy who insults you.”
“Speaking of biology class, I better get going,” I tell her, standing up and picking up my bag.
I’m partly changing the subject but partly realizing I need to hurry to class for real. I really hope I don’t have to see that guy I went on a date with. I’m going to ask the professor if I can change seats.
I scoop up the trash on the table so that I can throw it away. But when I pick up the Student Gazette , I don’t add it to the pile of trash. Instead I slip it in my backpack along with my cell phone which was also on the table. I’m conscious enough of this fact that I stop and think about why I did it.
I guess a part of me is intrigued. But not intrigued enough to call that number.
Chapter 2 – Isaac
It’s cold when I enter my father’s house. The cheap bastard never did like to pay to keep the heat on. But I thought old age would soften him somehow, let him give in a little bit to the luxuries— or even just basic comforts— he hadn’t let himself indulge in his entire life. I guess I was wrong.
As I walk up his creaky old stairs, my phone buzzes with a text message. It’s from Dan, one of my best friends.
You coming to The Exchange tonight? It asks. Hear there’s gonna be some hot ass there.
I lean against the railing and roll my eyes before responding, which is more than Dan deserves because I’ve already told him “no” a billion times.
Not my thing , I text him back.
I’ve never paid for sex or a woman’s company. Ever since this new club— a local branch of a national chain— opened up on Ace Boulevard, my buddies have been trying to get me to go. It’s not like it’s just a strip club— although I here you can buy lap dances if you want. It’s a club to indulge in every man’s deepest darkest fantasies. Whatever you want, you can find a girl willing to sell it to you.
For Dan and my other buddies, this is a dream come true. They’d read about these clubs that are popping up nationwide and they even wrote to the owner of The Exchange so that we could get one in Miami.
I understand the allure of it: paying a girl to have her do what you want, owning her because you have the money to buy her. But I think it reeks of desperation and I don’t see the need to throw away so much money on something I can get for free.
I’ve never had a problem getting women. As I stare at my phone screen, I notice a case in point: all the other texts next to Dan’s are from women. They’re telling me what a fun time they had the other night at dinner or how they want me to fuck them again with my huge cock. They talk dirty to me, they talk sweet to me, they do anything I want and I don’t even have to pay them.
Sure, I know they’re into me because of the money, at least in part. I can take them to the Keys for a fancy party or we can ride around on my yacht or in my private plane. I can buy them fancy dinners and take them on expensive shopping trips.
But it also helps that I have dashing good looks— or so everybody tells me: a full head of hair which is rare at my age and a toned, sculpted body I make sure to keep in shape at the gym. The size of my cock and all the things I can do with it are selling point as well.
I suppose I take pride in my other assets besides just my bank account. I don’t really mind when a woman wants to be with me for money because I get how human nature works and I also find that it cuts down on some of the BS when we both know exactly what we’re wanting.
I think that girls let me do things to them that they wouldn’t let any “normal” guy do and I have an insatiable appetite for what others might call kinky or even disturbing desires. I like to tie them up and leave them begging me for more. I’m not sure they’d be so into it if it wasn’t for all my money. And that’s fine with me.
They also know it’s just temporary, and I’m not looking for commitment. I just do fun, and adventure, and things that only rich guys can do with a girl. I don’t fucking do relationships.
I’m not going to waste my money by going to a club where the explicit purpose is to buy girls who are probably there for some desperate reason. I would feel I was taking advantage of their vulnerability.
I would feel that there was an unequal nature of our relationship even more so than when a girl dates me just because she knows I’m filthy rich. So I’ll let Dan and my other buddies have fun at the new club and hear all about their exploits later.
I have plenty to do to keep me busy in the meantime. I’ve been trying to understand my father’s business because I plan to take it over. But numbers and spreadsheets have never been my strong suits. I already listed my strong suits above and they only include things below my waist, not up in my head. That’s always been fine by me but now I have to get serious and start understanding how businesses work.
Right as I’m about to put my phone back in my pocket, I get another text from Dan.
> I have a feeling you’ll change your mind , it says.
Then he sends me some screenshots. Apparently the owner of the club posted pictures of the girls on a private webpage to show off some of the goods in advance.
Sure, the girls are hot but a bit too skinny for my liking. I like some meat on their bones that I can hold onto while I fuck them from behind. And their platinum blonde hair looks very fake. I like a natural girl who’s not afraid to be herself.
So, I don’t even bother responding to Dan again. I finish making my way up to my dad’s bedroom where he’s in bed with a cold press on his head. I guess his caretaker had come by earlier but there’s no sight of her now.
“How you doing, Dad?” I ask him, as I enter the room and put my hand on his shoulder.
“Good,” he says, sitting up and coughing a bit.
But he doesn’t look good.
He has liver failure and the doctors don’t expect him to live longer than six months. Hence why I have to hurry and get up to speed on the family business. Even though my old pa and I have never gotten along, it pains me to see him this way.
“Is there anything I can get for you?” I ask him.
“Yeah,” he answers, shaking his head at me and looking disgusted. “You can get yourself a wife.”
“Not this again, Dad,” I grumble, sitting down in the chair beside his bed where his caretaker usually sits. “Can’t you just let me find a wife in my own good time?”
“No,” he says, “Because you never will. You’re my son and I know you.”
I chuckle because old dad is right about that one. But I can’t let him know.
“Geez, Dad, how do you know?” I ask him. “Maybe I’ll settle down when I’m good and ready.”
“I know because, like I said, you’re my son. Therefore, you’re part me. And this particular part of you is very much the same as I was. Imagine how much of a fortune I could have amassed if I had gotten serious earlier on in life and really cared about the business.”
Not this again , I think.
“Dad, you already amassed a huge fortune,” I tell him?
And you certainly didn’t spend a lot of time on other things. Everything was spent on your business so if you lost any time in your youth by not caring enough about getting serious about that, you certainly made up for it by the time I came around.
I think this last part but I don’t say it. I rarely ever saw my dad growing up. I know he thinks that meeting my mom, who ironically divorced him for being a workaholic, saved him because it forced him to settle down and focus on the business. Or maybe he was always like that, in which case I’m not sure how my mom would have married him because otherwise she has good sense.
He used to be a hard partier but after he married my mom and started his real estate business, he stopped that. But he still continued to drink just as hard as he worked. Alcohol was his escape and when he wasn’t hard at work he was drowning himself in a bottle.
I think the combination of work hard, play hard made him the grumpy old man that he is today. Not to mention, it caused his liver disease.
I try to see my dad through my mom’s eyes so that his image is redeemed to me a little bit. Mom tells me that when they were in the dating phase, my dad was a lot of fun: lighthearted and even silly.
They would go on dates and do fun things together and it was a deeply romantic time. So, they got married pretty quickly and soon after that they had me, but my dad changed, in what my mom says were both good ways and bad.
He became more focused and disciplined and he amassed his empire. But he did it at the expense of his family. I barely know my dad and what I do know about him—well, I can’t say it’s very pleasant. He’s demanding and inflexible and straight up crotchety.
“I want you to know I’m very serious about you getting married,” my dad tells me now. “What about that girl you went on those dates with?”
I rack my brain trying to think of who he might mean. There are so many girls.
“Jessica?” I guess, pulling out of thin air the name of a girl I had managed to go on more than one date with within the last six months.
“Yeah, her,” my dad says excitedly, although he probably would’ve said that no matter which name I had thrown out.
They’re all the same to him. He just wants me to get married to someone and he doesn’t care who it is. He’s convinced that marriage will make me more studious and responsible. In his mind, if I stop playing the field I can start being better about managing his business.
I’ve been trying to show him that this has nothing to do with whether I’m married or not. I can learn the business with or without a wife. But he just dismisses my efforts and thinks that only an engagement will save me.
“I’m glad to hear about this Jessica lady,” my dad says. “Because if there’s one thing I’d get out of this bed for before I die, it would be to see my son get married.”
Suddenly I see him in a whole new way. His skin is wrinkled and cracked but it doesn’t seem as hard as it did just a few minutes ago. He’s even smiling a little bit—which is rare for him.
The light is shining through the little window in his room– he’s always maintained a spartan-like environment no matter how much money he’s had– and I can see the twinkle in his eyes as he gets excited at the thought of this wedding that can’t possibly happen within the next six months since I have no bride.
There’s no way I would marry Jessica. She’s so flighty and can be a straight up bitch to other people. I don’t ever want to get married, but if I did, it would be to a woman who is kind and funny. But if it makes my dad feel happy that I might get engaged to Jessica– or anyone– I’ll humor him because he’s a dying man.
“Well Dad, I’ll see what I can do.”
I chuckle.
Maybe just having hope that I’ll get engaged will give him the strength to live longer. It’s sad that it took him being on his death bed for us to get closer but there’s still a chance for us.
As a bonus, after he realizes I’m not getting married, he might see that I’m still a good CEO of his company and that it will be in good hands with me even if I remain a single man. At least, that’s the only way out of this that I can see. But I’m good at finding creative ways out of things so something still might pop up.
Chapter 3 – Isaac
My dad’s hands shake as he reaches for the glass of water sitting on the stand beside his bed. I hand it to him and he nods his thanks to me, appearing stern, as if he doesn’t want to acknowledge how weak he is.
“My lawyer was by to see me just a bit ago and that’s why I had Cora leave,” he tells me, which explains the absence of his caretaker. “I wanted to have attorney-client privilege and discuss some serious matters. So that’s why I called you here, to let you know of some changes that have been made.”
“Okay, Dad,” I say, massaging a slightly pinched nerve that’s formed in my neck from sitting in his old wooden chair.
I didn’t realize that this visit had such a serious purpose behind it. I had been happy he invited me over to see him. I always offer to come by but he usually says he’s fine with Cora’s help, and the most I can get him to let me come visit is twice a month.
I know he doesn’t like me to see him in this fragile state. But it’s nice to spend whatever little time with him that I have left. I should have known he had a business reason to invite me over, rather than just for father- son bonding time. He’s never been the type for that.
“I’ve put a clause in the partnership agreement saying that you’ll inherit the company if and only if you’re married by the time I pass away,” my dad says. “If you’re not, then it all goes to Charles.”
“Charles!”
I scratch my head and jump up from the chair.
“Dad, he’s crazy. You’ve told me so yourself. You said you couldn’t wait to give the company to me.”
His exact words at the time had been somewhere along the lines of saying t
hat even though I’m incompetent, Charles is crazy, so he can’t wait to give me the company, because even though I have no idea what I’m doing, at least I’m not a madman.
“Oh, you know how Charles and I have had a love-hate relationship ever since we started this business,” my dad says. “He’s crazy but he sure knows how to run a company.”
He doesn’t say it but I know he’s thinking: unlike you .
I’m still determined to show him that I can run the company and I wish he would just drop this whole marriage thing. There are bigger issues to worry about then whether or not I settle down and commit to some flaky girl. I hadn’t wanted to bring it up right now because I think he should rest and relax, but since he’s talking about the company, I decide there’s no better time than the present.
“Dad, I’ve been going over the books and I really think there’s something strange about what’s in there…”
Before I can even finish telling him, I hear him snoring. He’s already fallen asleep. Or maybe he’s just pretending because he doesn’t want to talk about it.
I suppose it’s for the best, since I don’t fucking understand the numbers enough to explain to him what I mean, and he’ll just think I’m stupid and incompetent like usual, but I’m convinced that something is definitely off. I’ll have to have Dan look at the books at some point. He’s more of a numbers guy than I am.
Judging by how my dad is insisting on this marriage thing, I better have Dan look at it sooner rather than later. Especially since Dad is going to leave the whole business to Charles if I don’t do what he wants, and who knows where Charles’ own interests lie.
A thought suddenly strikes me when I think about Dan. This exchange club he wants me to go to: he says the women will do whatever I want. Whatever I need.
What I need that probably no other woman will give me is an engagement. Sure, lots of women would probably be happy to marry me but I need one who knows it’s fake. She has to be on board with the arrangement. And what better way to ensure that she is than to know that she needs the money and that money is the sole reason she’s doing it?
