Page 25 of Baby Girl
Am I really still going to model for him? After everything that’s happened? Because, as much as I want to completely blame Derek for how they have all treated me over the past month, Derek wasn’t the one who stood me up on my first-ever date. Derek wasn’t the one who tried to manhandle me out of modeling for an art class. Derek wasn’t the one who went completely radio silent until I forced an interaction.
Okay, well, he did kind of do that last one.
Darcy humiliated me in front of a restaurant full of people. I will never forget the look of pity on the waitress’s face.
Maybe I can treat this as just business?
Since I’ve ended things with them, the sugar baby money is going to end, but if I keep the contract with Darcy, I can save that money. I might even go on a sugar date here and there so that I can treat myself once in a while without touching my savings.
And it’s not like I have to talk to Darcy during the sessions, especially if that hyper-focused state he was in after that one session in his classroom is any indication of what he’ll be like.
I’ll show up, do my job, and then I’ll leave. That’s it. Keep it nice and simple. I can make it clear to Darcy that we won’t be having any personal conversations. The only words that need tobe exchanged between us are about what position he wants me in. For his art.
That could work. And if it doesn’t, I’ll quit.
Chapter 13
Emery
“So, are you going to open it?” Oakley asks from her spot next to me on my bed.
She’d returned about an hour ago, popped her head into my room to see if I needed anything, then disappeared for a shower. She came back to camp out on my bed beside me in what wasXavier’s old spot, dressed in sweats and a hoodie, with a turban-towel thingy wrapped around her still-wet blonde hair.
“Open what?” I murmured, focused on this pixel-shooting game she got me addicted to. The first ten levels were my bitch, but now I’m on a randomly hard level, and this is my third attempt to clear the screen, and I only have two lives left.
“The gift that arrived this morning. You know, white box, big bow?”
I pretend I don’t hear the exasperation in her voice. “Nope.”
“Can I ask why not?”
Oh shit, I’m almost out of slots. Quickly, I start hammering at the screen with my index finger, trying to clear slots faster than the shooters can get back to base. “Uh, because I told them to leave me alone. I’m going to dump it on Derek’s desk tomorrow before class so he can take it back.”
There is a notable silence from the other side of the bed, but it takes me until I’m finished with the level to truly notice it.
Rotating my head, I look at her. “What?”
Oakley lifts herself up, fully repositioning herself onto her side, and stares at me with a face full of implorement. Imploring? Whatever, her eyes are wide, and she looks very serious while somehow coming across as gentle. It’s impressive, to be honest.
“Ems, you didn’t get to see them at the hospital. I’ve never seen four grown men so…I don’t know. Agitated. Worried. The only one who managed to stay in his seat, well, I wouldn’t say patiently, but at least he wasn’t roaming the room, was Derek.” Oakley bites her lip before reaching out to take my hand from my phone and giving it a squeeze. “They were worried about you, Ems. Seriously worried. And before that, when they came to look for you here at the dorm, they were all take-charge and ‘we’re going to save her.’”
For that last part, she attempts a He-Man male voice, then she heaves a sigh.
“I know that whatever happened before that was bad, but the way they showed up for you…I think they deserve a second chance. Or at least a conversation, whatever you are willing to give them.”
Her words sound awfully close to Derek’s, and I stare at her, irritation building in my stomach. She is supposed to be on my side. “I saw them at the sex club they are members of with other women draped all over them. Did they tell you that? Darcy had his ropes out and was showing this sexy-as-fuck blonde woman how to wrap them around her arm. Dylan, Derek’s ex, was kneeling by his feet, holding his drink above her head. And if you are wondering how I know she’s his ex, she works at a restaurant he owns, which they took me to on that first weekend. Hudson had a totally different woman kneeling at his feet. And finally, some woman was sitting on the armrest of Xavier’s seat, practically falling into his lap. I’m good on the second chance, Oaks. I just want to move on.”
“Kneeling…” Her mouth opens and closes several times, eyes doing some sort of weird, shocked-but-intrigued thing. Shaking her head, she refocuses. “Maybe it wasn’t what it looked like? Those four men, Ems, they care about you. I saw it. They—”
I shoot her a glare. “I thought you were supposed to be on my side.”
“I am! But maybe there’s an explanation? Each of those things sounds like it could be innocent.”
“Oaks, we were in a sex club. I literally walked past people fucking right there in the open area. The possibility of all four of them being in completely innocent situations is so ridiculously low, I’m not even going to try to do the math.”
“Okay, yeah, I can see how that would have looked—” she starts, but I cut her off by removing my hand from her hold.
The anger in my stomach starts to feel hot and twisty, so I sit up and shove my pillows behind my back. “And if it was all innocent, why the hell were they even at the club? Derek mentioned something about talking to Newton’s dean and getting the okay to be with me, but why the hell did that have to occur at the club and not in his fucking office? We’d already waited three weeks, what was one more weekend? And besides, the line between teacher and student was definitely crossed, with all of them.”
