Page 4 of Snowed in with the Villains

“I’ll take it,” I say, not caring what I’ll have to do, not hiding my desperation in the least. I’ll take anything I can get my hands on, and I don’t mind getting my hands dirty either. I’ll take ten jobs cleaning toilets if I have to while I work out what to do about my mother.

“I don’t even care what the job entails. At this point, I just need enough to cover the tuition fees for my sister. I’ll have to move back in with my mom since I won’t be able to afford rent anymore.”

I would cry tar rather than move back home with my mother, but it’s either that or the streets. I’m not made for the streets.

“You won’t need to move in with your mother, and I may be overstepping, but what kind of mother gives their daughter up to the mafia that way?”

“Mine,” I say, and I feel like I’m going to ugly cry right about now.

“You can cry after you hear me out. I work for a company called Babes, Babes, and Babes.”

Lily works at a baby store. I would have never guessed that not in a million years. She pulls out her phone from her pocket; her fingers swipe across the screen before she hands it to me.

If I expected her to show me babies, I’m overwhelmingly embarrassingly wrong. On the screen of her phone, in vivid colors, are scantily dressed women, and even calling their attire scanty was stretching the truth, the same way their little lace skirts stretch over their butts and vaginas and concealed nothing. Excuse me, but what the hell is Lily showing me?

“I’m a Babe.” Lily pulls back her phone and scrolls a few more pages.

“I don’t understand.” And the minute I say it, I look again at the screen she’s showing me. There she is. Perfect porcelain skin and jet-black hair in two ponytails. She’s wearing a tight tank top that says brat on it and shorts so tiny they look like underwear. Transparent underwear. She’s licking a lollipop.

“I make thousands of dollars a month, sometimes more, sometimes just a little less, depending on whether my regulars are in town.”

“Doing what?” I ask like an idiot. But I’m hoping Lily explains it to me as if I just landed on planet Earth.

“Whatever they want,” she says with a wink, “I have a regular who goes by the name Clive, and all he wants is to suck my toes and then come all over them. At first it felt funny, but now Ikinda like it, especially when it’s cold,” she says with a straight face.

“He pays me two thousand dollars a session, and I usually fit him in between a facial and a tan once a month. I pay 20% to BBB, and the rest is mine. They do all the screening and provide security when I’m out on a job. Every Thursday there’s Garth. He wants me to call him Daddy, and he gives me a bath in this huge gold bathtub; I kid you not. That’s all he does. Just bathe me, and one hour later, I’m three thousand dollars richer.

“Then there’s Emmanuel, and he fucks me right into next Tuesday with his giant schlong, but he’s so sweet he always makes me come first. Four thousand dollars whenever he’s in town, usually once every two months or so. He has access to my pussy, but my ass costs him twice that,” Lily says, smiling deviously.

“There’s also Jenna. She’s an older woman, and no one, I swear, no one, eats my pussy the way she does. She’s a big-shot CEO, takes me away for a weekend to some luxury resort once a month, wants nothing but my pussy, and has five thousand dollars banked. Are you getting it yet? There’s no greater or more precious commodity in my opinion than a woman who enjoys sex and gets paid for it. Why not?”

“I… I wouldn’t know. I haven’t even had sex yet.” I say before I can stop myself.

Chapter Four

Skye

Yes, I just admitted to a stranger I was still a virgin. My day just can’t be getting worse.

“What? Oh. My. God. You’re a virgin?” Lily squeals, jumping out of the chair.

My cheeks turn red in embarrassment. It’s not like I’ve had the time to date. Until eight months ago, when I started working for Doctor Harper, I was holding down two waitressing jobs while in college.

Also, I could never shake my mother’s words off long enough to start a relationship and make sure it stayed healthy, so I just used the excuse that I wanted to be at a better place in my life when I did start dating. A time I subconsciously knew I would never allow to come.

“Holy fucking hymen on a pedestal. Do you know how much money you could make being a virgin? If I hadn’t given my virginity to stupid Ronald Seaward at college, I would be so much richer. That house I’m saving to buy while I live here in mybrother’s apartment would have been bought already. And you could do the same. I’m talking loads and loads of money.”

I laugh nervously. Lily thinks we’re the same. We’re not, and how long will it be before she realizes this?

“No one who doesn’t need a lobotomy is going to pay me to take my virginity.”

Lily drew back, an expression of confusion on her face. “You really think that don’t you? Well, you better change your attitude about that if you want to make some real money real quick. I can get you into BBB,” Lily says, eyeing me as I shake my head.

Again, no one is going to pay me for sex. With my dark hair and dark eyes, I know I’m not ugly, but I’m dull. I don’t have the personality. I don’t have the confidence. I read somewhere that confidence is the only kind of sexy someone needs, and it escapes me sadly.

“Okay, just listen to me. The quickest way you’re going to make a lot of money real fast is at the virgin auction.”

“An auction?” I say incredulously. “Like going once, going twice— “

---