Isabell’s starting bid was four thousand, and that made me nervous. I started to convince myself that my starting bid would only be two or three thousand, which wasn’t that much, if the bidders really were billionaires. What if some jerk snatched me for a few thousand? I felt nauseous again, and tried to find Owen in the crowd, but couldn’t.
The bidding commenced, and Isabell kept her composure, sending kisses and smiles to the men who bid on her.
“Eleven thousand! Twelve! Fourteen!” Ava leapt back and forth on the stage, keeping track of the rising and falling pads. “We have twenty thousand, everybody!” The crowd roared. “Do I hear twenty-one thousand! Anyone!”
Isabell’s final bid ended up being twenty-six thousand, which meant a huge payday for her. There was some sense of achievement in this, or at least I felt that way in the moment.
But now it was my time to shine. Ava introduced me and said a couple of words into the microphone. At first there was silence, but as I started to walk forward into the light cheers started to erupt throughout the crowd.
Ava continued on with my sales pitch: “Not only is she beautiful, but she is teacher. We have a civil servant up here, ladies and gentlemen!”
Ava tapped her temple with a finger, which was either meant to say she’s smart or she’s nuts. Probably a little of both, because the crowd laughed.
The bidding began. The starting bid was two thousand, as I’d expected, but it progressed very quickly.
“Three thou– Five thousand! Seven thousand!”
But I barely heard it. I searched the crowd again until I found him. He was in the third row now, staring at me and trying to get a look at the bidders. At first, bids were coming from all over the place, forcing Ava to move around.
“Ten thousand! I hear twelve thousand!”
But as it went on, there were just five distinct bidders left, then four, and then three.
Finally Owen entered the bidding.
“Twenty thousand!”
But a few other men wouldn’t let it go.
“Twenty-five! Twenty-six!”
The bidders were going back and forth, and the crowd was turning their heads left and right, as if they were watching a tennis match.
“Twenty-eight!”
My heart was racing. I found him and stared at him, but he was only smiling. Owen waited for the right time to make a move, I could see it. It wasn’t an evil smile, but rather a cocky one. I couldn’t blame him. There was that playfulness between us again. He was teasing me.
Bastard.
Two bidders got a little too into the farce, upping each other by $500, just to see the crowd react. It was becoming less and less funny.
“Thirty-two thousand five hundred!”
Owen raised his hand again, calmly like this was all an easy game to win.
“Fifty thousand.”
And older man kept his paddle in the air. “I’ll match whatever you say.”
I was beginning to sweat under the lights. The fun game had turned into torture. What if that old geezer won me? Owen must have seen my distress, because the next time our eyes met, he gave me a nod.
Even Ava couldn’t take it anymore. “Gentlemen, perhaps you should stop bidding and go home together?”
The crowd cheered, but not for long. I saw Owen make his way to the stage.
“Sir, would you like to say something?”
He reached out his hand, and Ava obediently handed him the microphone. He cleared my throat and said, “Two hundred and fifty thousand! Match that.”