Rose Tinted Reality - A Succession Story

We May be Royally Screwed

Two weeks have passed, and Piper has gone on two more dates with Amelia. Moments without her are rare, though Piper currently finds herself in one of those moments. She's curled up on her couch enjoying the momentary solitude, a bowl of freshly made mac and cheese in her lap as she pokes at it with a fork. Something mindless is on T.V., though she's not really paying any attention to it. Instead, she's watching videos on her phone.

    A strange number flashes across her screen, the area code local. Irritated with the interruption, she declines the call immediately only for them to call her right back. One more decline, and one more call.

    "Hello?" she answers, balancing the phone between her shoulder and her ear. "Who is this?"

    "It's me. Roman. The guy you, you know, jacked off on your couch that one night," he says, and his voice unleashes a torrent of emotion. Two and a half weeks of radio silence, and then he calls her like this? She almost hangs up, but her curiosity, at least, she tells herself it's curiosity, gets the better of her. She forces herself to sound relaxed, and in her opinion, she's convincing.

    "Oh, yeah! Roman. I vaguely remember doing that for you," she starts, biting her lower lip. "Why are you calling me? I figured the two weeks or so meant you were uninterested."

    "My dad's got this stupid charity event coming up and I need someone to come," he says, and she can tell that he is also forcing himself to sound casual. A smirk tugs at the corners of her lips.

    "Is this a date? Is Roman asking me on a date?"

    "I just figured that the girl who gives decent handjobs would be good for this kind of thing, alright?" he snaps, his irritation coming through the phone static. 

    "Am I going to be giving you a handjob afterward?" she asks, holding back a laugh.

    "Yes. I mean, you don't need to, but a handjob or blowjob would be nice," he says, suddenly subdued. She wishes she could see his soft, half-lidded, brown eyes right now. He probably looks almost cute, if someone like him could ever be described that way.

    "I would love to go, Roman, I really would, but I have nothing to wear to an event like that," she says, finally thinking of Amelia. They weren't exactly exclusive, but as far as she knew, Amelia wasn't talking to anyone else.

    "I could, um, write you a fucking check," he offers. "How much do you need?"

    Piper pauses, the empty static on the line painful to sit with. Shit. She was hoping that excuse would work. How bad would it really be if she went, anyways?

    "I don't know, like, 150?" she says, shifting uncomfortably. One-fifty wasn't anything for him, but the thought of giving away that much money on a whim made her stomach churn. To her, that was quite a bit of money.

    "That's it? How about 300, and then you can get some new shoes or something to go with it," he says. Her stomach drops.

    "That's a lot." The words slip out, and as soon they do, she can't help but feel stupid for saying that. Quickly, she attempts to recover. "A lot more than I asked for."

    "Just make sure you look nice, okay? This isn't a fun night out, it's like, a big deal and you have to look presentable," he says, sounding distracted as he speaks. She wonders what's on his mind, but decides this isn't the time to press him for personal information.

    "I clean up better than you think," she explains with a laugh. He's not receptive to the joke, or maybe he just is so distracted he didn't even realize a joke had been made.

    "Cool, cool. Listen, I gotta go so I'll just send you the details. When, where, and how you're getting picked up. All that good stuff," he says. Before she can even respond, the line goes dead and she's left alone to ponder. Less than a minute later she gets a brief text with an address, a date and time, and a short note about how he'll be sending someone to deliver the check later that evening. With everything moving so quickly, it takes her a few minutes to realize that the date seems familiar.