Paige
“I slept with James,” I confess.
Although my voice is barely above a whisper I get the response I expected from Megan.
Shock siphons the blood from her cheeks and she drops the serving spoon. It clatters to the table, causing lumps of mashed potato to splash onto the surface, and on me.
She stares back at me in complete shock. Her skin has turned so pale it makes her blonde hair look lighter and her green eyes brighter.
“What!” She moves closer and pulls up the chair next to me.
“Please don’t tell anyone,” I beg.
“Oh my God, Paige. That goes without saying. You know I wouldn’t.” Megan reaches forward and takes my hand. “I swear to you I won’t say anything. I promise. I would never.”
“Thank you.” I swallow hard. I know she wouldn’t tell anybody. I trust Megan with my life, but I still had to ask because it’s not just me in this scenario. It’s James too, and realistically, I shouldn’t tell anyone. I just couldn’t keep something like that from her, and to be honest, I need to talk to someone I can trust, or I’ll go crazy from the worry.
I look at the beautiful lunch she prepared for us. It’s supposed to be another attempt to cheer me up. I have to take Mom to the hospital in a few hours for a checkup and a meeting with her consultant.
Megan knows I love her cooking. They always seem to hit the spot and brighten my day. I can already tell anybody that nothing will brighten me up today and I feel like a jerk for it because it looks like she went through a lot of trouble.
Megan made roast beef and honey glazed vegetables. It smells divine and the presentation is impeccable. I’m looking at a meal fit for a Michelin starred restaurant.
“Talk to me…”
“Everything is shit,” I answer and stare down at the grooves in the table. It’s barely twelve and today has already been complete shit.
On top of my James situation I got a message from the club letting me know I’ve been selected for a private booking for the next six weeks.
I saw the message just as I walked into the apartment so Megan knows about that too.
I’ve been booked to be someone’s whore for six weeks. The pay for such a thing is one and a half times the normal salary. That takes my time at the club down by a month. Great. It’s wonderful. I’m supposed to be happy. It’s more money upfront, and many of the girls would be thrilled to have such an opportunity.
I,however, can’t be because I’m thinking of James, and above all else I don’t want to be anybody’s whore.
A tear runs down my cheek, and I wipe it away with the heel of my hand.
“Paige talk to me. Tell me what happened with James. We can talk about the club after.”
“He came back to the club last night and we slept together. Then I went to his place.”
When I left James’ house this morning, I didn’t want to. My heart told me there was no way I could have had the type of night I had with that man and he’d expect me to be gone by morning.
I didn’t want to take the risk though. Then seeing him today with all those girls flirting with him nonstop made me crazy. I kept thinking, ‘What if he’s sleeping with them too?What if I’m not the only one?’
“So you were there all night?” she quirks her brows and interest flickers in her eyes when I nod.
She’s curious. This is the type of conversation we’d be having about her. Not me. I don’t do one nighters, or one night stands, or one night anything. I’m the one with the dull as fuck life, the girl who up until last night hadn’t had sex in close to a year. This is the kind of conversation we’d gather together for some juicy gossip. Not like this, with me feeling so numb I can’t think straight.
“What am I going to do, Megan? I sure know how to make a bad situation worse. It’s so much worse than it already was. He’s my teacher, and I’m stuck with him for the rest of the school year. There’s no leaving this time when he tells me he can’t be with me.”
“Paige, this… this seems like it might be a little different.”
“What do you mean? He’s going to tell me that. I avoided being alone with him this morning because I don’t think I could stand to hear him say anything like that to me.”
“Do you really think he will?”
“Of course, it’s not like he hasn’t said something similar before. It’s selfish of me to expect him to do anything else.” I nod.