Page 45 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 1

She offered a coy smile. “Let’s put it this way, you are exactly what she asked for during her interview. I’d be shocked if she didn’t take you home tonight.”

I chuckled. “Excellent. I can’t wait to get this show on the road.” I rolled my shoulders and shook off the excess energy.

“Speaking of... Tonight we’re doing men first. You’re up, my friend. Follow me to the front of the line.”

I did as she requested. As I passed by Summer, she lifted her hand in the “rock on” symbol. “You’ve got this, buddy! Go get ’em, tiger,” she said.

The petite woman named Maia gave me a solemn wave as though I was heading to the guillotine. She was an interesting one. Didn’t say much through the entire process, giving nothing of herself. It was as if she wanted to fade into the background. It made me wonder where Madam Alana had found her.

Before I knew it, my name was called through the PA system and Jade held back the black velvet curtain. The lights blinded me momentarily as I pushed through.

“Welcome, Memphis. Please take your position.” Alana spoke from where she stood off to the side in front of a podium.

“Memphis Taylor is from Atlanta, Georgia. He played college football and loves fitness, as you can see.” A couple women in the audience made a few woot sounds which had me grinning. “Memphis comes from a large family and loves the outdoors, working out, and watching football. He is six foot three and twenty-four years old.”

“First, we’d like to ascertain the bidders’ interest in this young man. Please pick up your remotes and choose Yes-No-Maybe before we continue.”

I turned around to see the results, my palms sweating as my nerves replaced the earlier excitement. This was the make-or-break moment. The first step in being chosen by someone tonight. If I was, then my plans for a successful, financially secure future for me and my family would be set into motion.

Yes – 7

No – 5

Maybe – 8

“Hell, yeah!” I whooped, so caught up in the moment I forgot where I was. Some members of the audience laughed at my outburst while Alana’s lips twitched, showing she wasn’t upset with me.

Out of the twenty women bidding, fifteen of them were interested in me. An injured college dropout who had no clue what to do with his future. Not that I’d be sharing that information anytime soon. I fully planned on wooing my wife and being everything she needed during the three years of our marriage.

I just had to convince my family that getting engaged out of the blue to a woman they’d never met wasn’t suspicious. My mother would be concerned I was moving too fast. My father, would be thrilled beyond reason that I’d found someone. He’d always told me he knew the second he met my mother that she was the one for him. But my granny... Now, she would be the hardest to convince. She knew me better than anyone. I’d always been close to her, especially since my father had worked long hours driving while I grew up.

My mother was always there for us kids, but she had her hands full with the six of us. Dividing her time between my sisters, her job, and my sports schedule was difficult. My granny, however, had taken a shine to me from the second I was born. I’d gravitated toward her. She was wise, took no shit from anyone, and had three sons of her own. She knew how to connect without smothering. Getting her to believe I was marrying for love was going to be hard as hell, but I’d find a way.

“Memphis, please exit the stage and return in your robe for the second half of tonight’s auction,” Madam Alana instructed.

I smiled, waved at the crowd, and then spun around on my heel as though I was doing a complicated dance move. More chuckles could be heard from the audience as I suavely sauntered offstage.

* * * *

NAOMI

I sat with my mouth hanging open, my heart pounding, and my mind reeling as my dream man walked onto the stage. I could not believe it. Lady luck was finally moving in my favor.

Memphis motherfucking Taylor, in all his Black, handsome glory, stood tall and proud, looking even more dashing than hedid when we’d run into one another in the elevator just this morning.

All last night I’d bemoaned the fact that I’d not gone after him. We’d had the best date of my entire life. I hadn’t met a man I’d connected to so completely before him. And after that goodbye kiss...I was a goner. But, I wasn’t that kind of girl. I didn’t steal another woman’s man right out from under her nose.

Now I realized what was really happening.

The clever man. He’d never said his fiancée’s name. Never mentioned how’d they’d met or why he was in town a day earlier than her. He’d only said that he would be meeting his wife the next evening.

And now I knew.

A million thoughts scrambled my brain as I stared at him. He wore a tailored suit that showed off his muscular arms and thick thighs. It was a dove-gray color that offset his complexion magnificently.

“Damn, I’ll be taking that man home tonight,” a scantily clad white woman to my left said to a bidder sitting next to her. “Look at that fine hunk of a man. Mm-hmm. I’m going to climb him like a tree the second I win the bid. And Daddy will be so angry when he finds out I’m engaged to someone without status too,” she snickered.

I snarled, grinding my teeth. There was no way in Hell I was going to be outbid on this man by a giggling, spoiled brat. It was probably his money she was spending. I, too, had been born and raised with a silver spoon in my mouth, but I’d actually worked to earn what I had. Was independently wealthy outside of the family trust.

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