Page 14 of Mama Si's Paradise

What the hell was it about this woman?

“I’m…I’m fine,” I managed to say, nodding once at her friend as she followed Mama Si deeper into the room.

“You certainly are,” Mama Si said, going to sit behind the white desk with the gold and silver foil decorating the edges. She waved for me to sit down again, too, while her friend went to stand next to what I assumed were windows covered by chocolate-colored drapes.

For a moment there, Mama Si looked at me in silence.Reallylooked at me, so focused you’d think she could read invisible letters on my skin.

“She’s the one,” she then whispered, looking up at her friend who gave an approving nod. “Oh, yes, she’s definitely the one.”

I swallowed hard. “We, um…we didn’t really talk about working hours or payment or…or anything yesterday.”

Mama Si leaned over the desk, grabbed a pen from the holder and a Post-it notepad near a big leather binder. She wrote something on it without ever looking away from my face, then she put it on the table in front of me.

“That’s your weekly payment. Your living quarters, thefood you eat, the clothes you wear from this moment on will be provided by me.”

I looked at the number she’d written on the note. Six thousand dollars.

Six thousand fucking dollarsper weekon top of everything else?

My stomach twisted and turned a million different ways.It’s too much,I wanted to say. Way too much money.

What the hell was I going to do with all that money? Even Brandon made less than half that—it wastoo much!

And the panic that gripped me by the throat was almost funny.

I bit on my tongue hard. “Thank you.” Notit’s too much.NotI don’t deserve this—justthank you,because regardless of whether it was too much or whether I deserved it, Ineededit. I needed this money.

“You’re very welcome, Fall Doll. I can’t wait to see who you’ll become under my care,” Mama Si said.

My cheeks felt so, so warm I was afraid to touch them. They could very well burn my fingers. “What, um…what…what exactly is my…you know. Myjob?” She’d showed me the pool and the girls, but we’d never actually spoken about it. I’d been way too distracted to ask yesterday, and I needed to know despite how good the number looked on that piece of paper. Despite what it meant for me to be paid that.

It meant everything that had run through my mind all night could actually happen. A life for myself—mydreamlife could actually become reality.

“Your job is to look beautiful, Fall Doll. Our clients love beautiful things,” Mama Si said, leaning back on her chair. “I assure you, it won’t be a problem. You’re already gorgeous, but by the time my team is done with you, very little in this place will be more beautiful than you.” And she winked at me. I felt like I might have swallowed liquid fire. It burned on theway down to my stomach, and…maybe not entirely in a bad way. “Your job is to entertain—whatever that might mean. There’s time to talk about specifics once we’re a step closer to you actually doing what you’re being paid to do.” She smiled sneakily and the overhead lights made her look even more alluring than the sunlight had. “How does that sound?”

It didn’t really sound so bad, did it?Entertain.I could entertain. I could sit around a pool and drink with other girls and have fun. I could do that, couldn’t I?

“I’m…I’m not sure,” I said, despite my better judgment. “I…I don’t have any work experience, Mama Si. I’ve never worked a day in my life, so I don’t know. I don’t want you to expect something from me that I can’t deliver.” No matter how good that money sounded, if I couldn’t do what she expected of me, we were both going to end up disappointed.

But the look the woman gave me might have had me believing that we were old friends and she was in fucking awe of me all of a sudden.

“I won’t expect anything you can’t give me. I promise you that,” she then said. “I just want you to enjoy my Paradise, Fall Doll.Enjoyit. Let it work its magic on you. Let it fulfill you. Trust me, you can give meeverythingI can possibly need if you choose to.”

The way she said it, I couldn’t figure out if it was a promise for real—or a fucking threat.

I realized I was way too vulnerable right now to make big decisions, but I also knew I wasn’t going to let that stop me. At this point, what other options did I have, anyway?

“What if I can’t, though? What if I don’t fit in?” What if I hated this place and I couldn’t do whatever the hell she meant byentertainment?I needed to know this first.

Mama Si began to tap her gloved fingernails to the tabletop. “There are no contracts in my Paradise. You’re free to leave any time you please.”

It was like she’d put the world right in my hands, even if she wasn’t all too happy about it.

“All I ask of you is this: give the Paradise time to convince you that it truly is as its name suggests. Give it enough time, and then choose whether you want to stay or leave.”

I swallowed hard. “A year. I’ll accept your offer for a year.” If I made six thousand a week, that was almost three hundred thousand dollars in a year, and I planned to save every penny. I could start my life by next summer with that much money. I could actually build my life with my time here.

“A year is more than I’ll ever need,” Mama Si said, both hands pressed to her chest as she smiled at me so lovingly—so then why were my instincts all over the place?

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