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Shoot.
No wonder Katrina was grilling her.
If Emily had actually gotten a new job, Katrina would have been her first call. Especially because she’d already told Katrina about losing her last one, and she’d known her best friend was worried about her. But she’d gotten all in her head and weird about the money, and now Katrina had heard about it from someone else, and she knew something was up.
“Try again, Emily Graham. You are being all kinds of sus, and I am not buying it.” A little note of hurt entered Katrina’s voice. “Why don’t you want to tell me? I know I haven’t been able to be there for you like I used to, but?—”
“No, no, that’s not it at all,” Emily said immediately, shaking her head even though Katrina couldn’t see her. Darn it. She really hadn’t been thinking. She’d been so thrown by her night with Katrina’s dad, waking up to find him gone, then all the money that had come into her account and trying to figure out all of that, plus dealing with her lingering feelings… Normally, that would be the kind of thing she would talk about with Katrina. If only the man hadn’t been Katrina’s dad. But she needed to give her best friend something.
“I um… I sold my virginity in an online auction.”
“You what?!” Katrina’s shriek nearly blew out Emily’s eardrums. She quickly pulled the phone away from her ear as Katrina kept shrieking at her, talking fast enough that Emily couldn’t hear the words.
“Kat! Kat! Take a deep breath!” Emily yelled, thankful she was in the privacy of her own home. Sighing, she sat down on the kitchen chair, smiling when she felt the cushion instead of the hard wood under her butt. She was doing her best to be conservative with the money and only spending where she needed to, but she had gone a little wild at the local Walmart. New clothes, toiletries, a little bit of makeup, new sheets for her bed, cushions for the chairs… she was waiting for the mattresses to go on sale before she got a new one, but her day-to-day life had vastly improved.
She’d even gotten a few little pictures to hang over some of the most egregious stains on the walls, the ones that brought up the worst memories. Paint would work, too, but the pictures had been a lot cheaper. Once she managed to get a job, she’d invest more in getting her home into better shape, but for now, it was amazing just how much a difference a few small changes had wrought.
Katrina took several audible, deep breaths before yelling again.
“What the hell, Emily? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”
Like father, like daughter, apparently. Emily’s bottom tingled with the memory of the spanking Mr. Elliott had given her—which was wildly inappropriate at the moment.
“I know! But…” Emily sighed. It was time to tell her friend everything about how bad things had gotten. About her panic when she’d been fired, about going to the strip club, about signing up for the auction to try to fix her life. So she did.
Now that she was out of it, it was easier to admit how bad it had gotten.
Not that she could tell Katrina everything.
“He wore a mask, and so did I, so we wouldn’t be able to recognize each other.”
“Well, that sounds smart. And he used a condom, right?”
“Right.” The first time. But she definitely wasn’t explaining he hadn’t used one every time. The only reason she’d trusted him enough for that was because she knew him. She needed to quickly move on from this topic. “I fell asleep, and when I woke up, he was gone, and I was a couple-hundred-thousand-dollars richer.”
Katrina blew out a breath.
“I still think you were stupid as hell, but I almost get it. Except why on earth didn’t you tell me? I could have helped!”
“I figured you had enough things to pay for, considering where you’re going to school and getting your master’s and everything. Plus,” she added before Katrina could start arguing with her, “I didn’t want to be anything like my Dad.”
Her dad had borrowed money from just about everyone in the park at some point. Sometimes, she wondered why her neighbors still talked to her, cared about her, considering the way her dad had been. But no one blamed her for his debts. A few of them had come calling to see if she could pay them back, and she had, but not because they’d threatened her or anything, but because it had been the right thing to do. They were definitely never going to see any of the money from her dad. She didn’t even know where he was anymore.
“The amount I needed… it was too much, and I had no way of knowing if I’d ever be able to pay it off. Now, I don’t have to worry. I paid all the bills, paid all the credit cards, and I still have a little bit of a cushion. I need to get a job, but I’m not in dire straits anymore, and I got myself out of it.” She said that last part with pride because that was how she felt.
She’d fixed the situation herself.
Well, Mr. Elliott had fixed the situation, but even if he hadn’t been the one to buy her virginity, the situation would have been fixed. She had just gotten an amazing night out of it, in addition to everything being fixed. It was still hard not to feel like she owed him, specifically, but she was going to pay him back by doing exactly what they’d talked about. She would take care of herself, and she would make sure Katrina never knew who popped her cherry.
“I get it, I do, but I swear, Emily, next time you tell me.” Her voice lowered. “I don’t talk about this much because my dad always wanted me to keep it a secret, but we have plenty of money, okay? My dad has paid for all my school. I have no loans. I don’t work because he doesn’t want me to lose my focus, and it makes him happy to pay for everything and spoil me.”
Katrina made an aggravated noise before continuing. “You are my best friend. My sister from another mister. If you need a bill paid, you tell me. If you don’t have food, you tell me. Or I swear I will come back home and take over your whole life and pay for everything until your pride is screaming and you’re crying in a puddle on the floor. Because fuck your pride.”
Pressing her lips together, Emily did her best not to laugh because she knew that Katrina meant every word of it. Tears also sparked in her eyes.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too, bitch. The next time you start letting your pride get in your way, you think about how you would feel if our situations were reversed.”
