“What do you mean by that…fuck. Just, please explain, and don’t delay it anymore.”
“Lizzie, I want you in my life. I never want to lose that. I feel as strongly about that as I feel about anything. I’ve found a way to keep what we have while I also run Bennet Babes.”
I’ll admit it: I’m full-on crying at this point. I’m also flat-out confused, so I try to stay balanced with my words.
“Please, Mr. Darcy, elucidate what you mean by that.”
Darcy does not break his eye contact and his warm expression doesn’t falter.
“Your archives are, I can say confidently, the best in the business. And, I bet you have even more content that’s not online right now.”
Fuck, now I am going to throw up, and also throw this goddamn desk out the window. I feel my face flushing with rage. As much as I want to tell Darcy to just stop talking, please, I can’t even find my voice. I know where he’s going and I can’t stop him from telling me anyway.
“All that content, Lizzie. We have the quality and quantity to put all other tube sites to shame. We can eliminate almost all our current expenses, and then, Lizzie, we can stay together. I’m as surprised as anyone that I’m actually about to say this, but you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I’m not crying anymore. I’m just beyond everything: beyond upset, beyond sickened, beyond perplexed that he would dare to do this.
“I just have one question: what’s going to happen to everyone who relies on the site for their livelihood? What happens to all the staff you won’t need anymore? What happens to my friends?”
Something about that last word breaks me. Tears start streaming out, and I just want to throw myself on the floor and sob. Instead, I just look at Darcy, knowing that he has no good answer. He cannot meet my gaze.
He’s projecting somber shame, but how can I trust him now?
I stand up and walk as steadily as I can to the office door. I can’t leave it like this, though. I cannot even stomach facing him right now, so with my back to him I say my piece:
“I’m not fooled, Mr. Darcy. If it’s not your cock, or your wallet, it means nothing to you.”
I don’t know what comes next, but for now, all I can do is walk out the door.
Darcy
Well, that certainly could’ve gone better.
I slump down in my chair. My ordinarily perfect posture goes to shit. I thought I had come up with the ideal plan to acquire Bennet Babes and keep Lizzie in my life.
But she wasn’t having any of it. And now, here I am. Alone in my office.
I don’t want to drown my sorrows in an expensive bottle of wine. I don’t want to call an escort and fuck her brains out until I feel better about myself. I just want Lizzie back in my arms.
The door opens. Could it be Lizzie coming back to work things out? Nope. It’s Chuck.
I go back to being the saddest man in the world as Chuck lets himself in and takes a seat.
“So, I saw Lizzie storm out of here,” he says. I don’t feel like answering. He goes on, “I take it she didn’t take kindly to your proposal to turn Bennet Babes into a tube site?”
“She could have had everything,” I finally say. “She could have had any job she wanted. All she had to do was ask. And now she may be out of my life forever.”
Chuck fidgets in his chair for a moment. Then he says, “You know, those girls are all very close to each other. If you were to turn Bennet Babes into a tube site, Lizzie may have been fine afterward, but the others would’ve been fucked.”
The other girls. Jane, Mary, Charlie, and Lydia. They’re all beautiful.
If I had met any of them a year ago, there’s no doubt in my mind I would be able to fuck each and every one of them. Hell, I probably could’ve fucked them all in a single afternoon.
The first night I watched Lizzie’s cam show, I could’ve stumbled across any of these girls’ shows. Perhaps I would’ve been more enraptured by one of them and started a physical relationship with one of them instead of Lizzie.
Or maybe I would’ve gone on one of their cam shows and been completely disinterested. This whole deal could’ve gone through without me getting my personal life entangled. A single click of a button, and my entire life would’ve been different.
I’m not one to believe in fate. People meet other people all the time, and I don’t think a chance encounter is generally special just because