Highest Bidder

I almost didn’t hear him. All I could do was stare dumbstruck once more, at just how handsome he was. I didn’t look like that when I wore my Parka.

“Freya,” he called.

I jumped up from the bed, already dressed. He turned to leave and shortly, we were riding at the back of his town car.

I remembered then that there were quite the number of things I wanted to speak to him about. I snuck a glance to see that he had his glasses on and was going through a small folder of documents. I wanted to speak, but I felt so nervous. I couldn’t understand myself. I had spent the night in his arms ... With him, I had been more intimate than I’d ever imagined possible, why then, did I always manage to alienate him when we were out of bed? If only I had not fallen, become embarrassed and lashed out at him. It wasn’t his fault that I was so clumsy.

Eventually I got my mouth to work. “Brent.”

He turned to me.

My breath caught at how handsome he was with the low winter sunlight slanting in through the window and turning his eyes into molten gold. “My mother’s store ... do you know if everything went okay today?”

“It was reopened this morning, and it was as if yesterday never happened.”

“Thank you again,” I said, turning my face away.

I told him to drop me a short distance away from my home. Soon the car came to a stop and for a second, I wondered if I should try to repair the tense silence between us before I left the car. But I didn’t know how to properly say goodbye to him and I would probably make a mess of trying to apologize, so I just thanked him for a nice time and grabbed the door handle.

He caught my hand just before I could pull it and kissed me with breathless abandon. My eyes fluttered closed, my heart raced, and my lower belly came awake with pure unbridled desire.

He broke it off before I could lose myself in his taste. “I’ll see you later,” he said.

The question escaped my lips before I could stop it, “When?”

“Come to me tonight.”

“I have to study for a test tonight, but message me?”

He nodded and I threw my arms around his neck for one last lingering kiss. Just before I broke away, I planted soft kisses along his jaw and buried my nose in his neck for one last shameless whiff of his scent before I exited the vehicle.

I returned to an empty home and was incredibly relieved. After I charged my phone, though I was blasted with the seemingly unending alerts of calls and text messages. I called Maddie first to calm my nerves down.

She greeted me with a scream. “Where the fuck where you? How could you be out of reach? You idiot. Your mother’s been calling me and I’ve had to tell her all kinds of lies.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, “my phone died.”

“God, you’re so damn annoying. Your mom was going crazy when she couldn’t reach you.”

“I told her that I would be staying at your pla—”

“Well, she wanted to fucking talk to you. What excuse do you think I could give as to why you couldn’t come to the phone even after she told me to wake you up that it was important?”

“What excuse did you give?”

“I told her you were sick, and then she wanted to come over.”

I gasped. “So what happened?”

“I had to ruin my reputation and confessed that I lied. That you were actually on a date. That you have a boyfriend.”

“What?”

“What else could I do? She waited to speak to you when you returned, but then she didn’t call again, so I’m suspecting she’s sharpening her knives. Freaking call her.” She hung up the phone on me.

I was left staring at it. I jumped when it began to ring again, and was surprised to see it was Maddie again. “Yeah?”

“What happened last night? I mean are you okay?”

“I am,” I began. “We sailed towards Scotland. I’ll explain later.”

“Fine. I’m still too angry to listen to you now, but call me when I’m back from work.”

“Alright, I'm sorry," I said.

She grunted before hanging up.

Freya

A few hours later, I arrived at my mother’s boutique to see her attending to an elderly woman in a gorgeous white suit and three pearl beads around her neck. She had the most gorgeous head of curly white hair that I had ever seen and for a moment, my gaze was fully on her before it fluttered over to my mother.

I met her completely furious pair of blue eyes on me and instantly looked away. After briefly chatting with Martin, I passed the time browsing through the racks of clothes and pretty soon, I heard the click of her heels as she headed over to me.

“You’re no longer under my control anymore, are you? You’re completely on your own now, right?”

“Mom,” I began and felt her glare begin to dig a grave underneath me.

“How dare you be out of touch for so long?”

“I’m sorry, my battery—”

“I have to know where you are at all times,” she cried.

I could see that my absence and the loss of contact with me had visibly shaken her, more than I would have expected, and I understood why. After my father’s death, we had stuck closely together and she had remained especially paranoid that she was going to lose me too for the longest time. Her old fears were beginning to return. Especially, at all the unexplainable events that had been happening in our lives recently.