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“Five over here, five over here.” It sounds like it’s coming to an end soon. “Do I hear five fifty? Going once.”
“Here!” The woman from before throws her hand up.
Finally, the auctioneer slows down the bids for this vacation, which is already extremely overpriced if you ask me.
“Do I have six?” The crowd silences for a few moments, Celeste glancing between Callan and the stage. Just as the auctioneer is about to pound his gavel, I jump when I hear the voice next to me pipe up.
“Here,” Callan shouts calmly from beside me, nonchalantly holding up his bid paddle. I look at him in shock. He hasn’t bid on anything all night. I’m sure he can afford a trip of this magnitude times ten, so why bid? But then I remember that this event is about appearances and charity. He wants to show the community that he can be available for philanthropy among his busy business ventures.
“Going once. Going twice. Sold for six hundred thousand dollars to Callan David of David Dealership!” Everyone applauds and Celeste glances our way one more time to wink at him.Bitch.
sixteen
Callan
IchaseafterSterling,who stormed off toward the parking lot after the auctioneer released us from the auditorium.
“Sterling, what the fuck?” I shout as I finally reach her, as she’s already waiting at my car.
“Take me home.” She’s on the verge crying and I feel like an ass.
“What’s wrong?” I reach for her arm, but she swings away.
“Leave me alone.” She turns her back to me.
“Sterling, talk to me.” She faces the passenger door, pulling on the locked handle. I know I showed my anger today. But the anger was with my family. I didn’t realize it would affect her.
She turns back to face me, and I see a look of frustration on her face. Her blue eyes deepen as she stares at me but all I see when I look at her is how beautiful she looks in the moonlight. Just looking at her earlier made me hard, which is what led me to the bathroom before the auction began. Had I continued to stare at her, I would have taken her in front of everyone.
Celeste approached me when I left the bathroom. She told me she heard about my dad and asked how everyone was doing. She’s been my family’s travel agent for years. I asked her if she’d throw in a few extra days for the trip if I bid high enough, and once I told her why, she agreed.
“Do you like her?” Sterling's sharp tone cuts my thoughts like a knife.
“Who? Celeste?” I scoff. Then I remembered the look of jealousy Sterling expressed earlier when she noticed Celeste eyeing me from across the aisle. “Even if I did, why would it matter to you?” The question comes out before I have time to reevaluate it.
“I don’t think this is funny. And you know what, I don’t care. But what was the point of bringing me here just to ignore me?” She breathes heavily, trying to keep her voice down as other gala-goers make their way to their cars around us. “Remember what you said to me in the car yesterday? And what happened between us this morning? You’re a really confusing man, Callan. Not to mention your hand on my thigh. What was that?”
“Nothing happened between us,” I respond, clearly lying to myself. And I can tell this hurts her a bit, but she can’t possibly understand why I’m doing this.
This night was not supposed to go this way but once again my dad had to make everything about himself and I let my family shit affect my emotions. Sterling doesn’t deserve this. But maybe it’s good she’s mad at me, maybe it’ll deter the attraction between us.
“I hope you have fun on your stupid little trip to Venice. Sounds wonderful. Maybe you’ll meet someone and move far away from me, so I never have to see you again,” she adds, and I can tell she’s just trying to make me mad.
“You don’t mean that,” I say as I move closer to her. More people are filtering out into the parking lot now. I hate that I’ve created such a confusing war inside of her.
“I do. Now take me home, Callan. I want to take this stupid, uncomfortable dress off!” she shouts, loud enough to grab the attention of a few people walking by.
“You’re being really immature, Sterling.” And as soon as the words leave my mouth, I fully regret them.
Without warning, she reaches in my pants pocket, sending lightning straight to my cock. She yanks out the car keys and clicks the unlock button. She pulls on the handle, but before she can open it any further, I reach around her, closing the door shut.
“What the hell?” she shouts again, putting emphasis on each word.
“The trip is for my mom, Sterling. It’s a long story. Do you really think so little of me that I’d bid on a trip to impress another woman? The only woman I wanted to impress tonight was you,” I defend myself and hope to ease her mind at the same time. Maybe it’s time Sterling knows, in words, what she does to me. Maybe we’re both sending mixed signals. Maybe we just need to give in to whatever this is. “And I obviously failed.”
I’ve never felt the need to impress anyone before. Ever.
I see the war in her eyes. She feels guilty for acting out of jealousy, but she’s also hurt because she’s right, I did ignore her all night. But it’s only because I had other things on my mind, it was not intentional.
