Page 55 of The C*ck Down the Block

The cowgirls had already rotated through auctioning off about half the prizes, and the highest bid so far had gone to dad’s DSU season tickets, a whopping eight-thousand dollars. Although, Hayes’s video game night had gone for seventy-five hundred, which was insane to me. I mean, I liked Madden or Fortnite as much as the next guy, but geez.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, item number seventeen is up next. A Mile High tour and workout on the field, donated by Mustangs quarterback, Chris Kingman.” Trixie grinned at me as the oohs and awws rippled through the crowd. “Do I hear a thousand dollars?”

“Twenty-thousand dollars for Chris Kingman,” a woman’s voice rang out over the crowd and all eyes turned to see who bid something so ridiculous.

THE QUEEN BEE STINGS

TRIXIE

Twenty-thousand dollars? That was half my salary for the year. I couldn’t even fathom that amount of money.

“Twenty thousand dollars from Rachel,” I said, my voice steady despite the emotional tornado swirling inside me. “Do I hear twenty-one?”

I glanced toward Chris. He looked almost as shocked as I felt but he was still calm, his eyes locked onto mine, as if willing me to keep my composure.

This was more than just a high bid. It was a power play. Rachel knew this fundraiser was going to go gangbusters despite the way she’d tried to ruin it. Her little trick hadn’t worked, so now she was trying to show me up in front of the whole class. God, this was just like high school, and I couldn’t stand it.

I wanted to say I was the bigger person and that I’d outgrown this bullshit. But if that was true, I wouldn’t have even shown up to be on this committee, and I certainly wouldn’t have pretended Chris was my boyfriend.

I was just... so tired of her and people like her who didn’t think I was worthy. Of love, of a guy as amazing as Chris. From the get-go, she’d questioned whether I could even have a relationship with him. She’d thought I’d won a date with him. Now she was using her money to do exactly that, as if that would prove the point that Chris could be bought.

Selling my boyfriend to my nemesis.

Ugh. This was exactly why I hadn’t wanted to do her stupid bachelor auction. It’s not like I could bid against her, I was the auctioneer for goodness’ sake. Not to mention, I didn’t have that kind of money, even if it was for charity.

“Twenty thousand. Going once—”

Lulu’s voice sliced through the tension in the room. “Twenty-two thousand!”

A collective gasp filled the air.

She was holding her phone in her hand and the screen was lit up. She better not have been checking her bank balance to see if she actually had that much money. I glanced over at Chris, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think he didn’t actually care what was going on, because he was staring down at his phone.

Please, please let them be conspiring together.

He glanced up for the briefest of moments and gave me the tiniest of head nods. My grip on the gavel relaxed a fraction.

“Twenty-two thousand dollars from Lulu,” I announced, unable to keep the relief out of my voice. Except to play the part, I still had to ask, “Do I hear twenty-four?”

Rachel’s eyes narrowed, a mixture of annoyance and disbelief coloring her features. “Twenty-three thousand,” she bit out.

The room buzzed. This was going to be the tea even more than getting to go to a fancy fundraiser at the Manniway estate. I looked back at Lu and pleaded with my eyes for her to go higher.

She winked at me and then put on a show of her own. “Whew, this is gonna hurt, but yep, let’s go to twenty-five thousand.”

Like we were watching a tennis match, every eye in the place swung to Rachel to see if she’d counter again. She wasn’t in a position to have seen Lu’s facial expression communications to me.

Rachel raised her chin and rolled her eyes as if twenty-six thousand was beneath her. “Let’s just end this. Thirty-thousand dollars.”

Sweet baby Jesus.

“Thirty thousand? Wow, Rach. When you want something, you really go hard, huh?” Lulu retorted almost instantly. “But when I said this was going to hurt, I meant you more than me. Fifty-thousand dollars.”

Rachel hesitated, her eyes darting from Lulu to Chris to me, gauging whether there was a conspiracy going on between the three of us. But Chris was still staring at his phone like he was totally bored, and I was literally standing in the spotlight, so it’s not like I could do anything. I shrugged, and trying so hard to keep the smile off my face, I asked, “Do I hear more?”

She narrowed her eyes at me but turned her back and sauntered over to the bar and grabbed a glass of champagne.

“Fifty-thousand dollars.” Gah, that was a lot of money. More than I made in a year. But I supposed it was just a Saturday night for someone who literally made more than that by playing a professional sport for a living. Still, I was going to have to come up with a way to say thank you. I had more than a few ideas. And none of them involved pants. “Going once, going twice, sold to Lulu for fifty-thousand dollars!”

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