The Sugar Baby

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 2.

Don't stop.

I whispered repeatedly to myself as I pushed myself to run faster and to keep going as my feet pushed off the gravel in a quick pace as my breathing picked up and became harsh.

After the unexpected death of my sister, who died in a car wreck with her boyfriend, I made myself run to keep from mourning the death of her. I've never been the type to let people see my emotions surface, so whenever I felt down, I just took off and could disappear for hours if I needed to until my head was back on straight.

This morning called for some running since I couldn't get any sleep due to the continuous slamming of a headboard and overzealous screams from upstairs.

I was thirty minutes into my run when I came upon a neat little coffee shop with the sign, "Opened" in the door. I checked my watch and it was exactly 7:15 A.M., so I figured I had a few minutes to spare to myself before the meeting began.

This morning I was meeting up with Leo and my best friend since the seventh grade, Billie. We would discuss and go over how Friday night would go and Leo would tell me more about Salvatore so I knew what to expect when approaching him.

After stepping inside and savoring the strong scent of caffeine taking over the shop, I took a seat in a booth far from out of sight in the back and pulled out my phone, a Christmas present for myself from last year. and sent texts to the both of them letting them know I was here.

Minutes passed before Billie entered the shop with an eager expression on her face and immediately she sunk down into the seat beside me.

"I can't believe you're actually going through with this!" She exclaimed, beaming from ear to ear.

"Wait," I began to protest. "I never said—"

"But you're thinking about doing it!" She interrupted. "You should do it blaze.. This could really change things for you. You could stop stripping and get out of this place for good."

She had a point, but still...

"I guess.—" I paused when Leo entered the coffee shop and offered a tantalizing grin in our direction.

"Hubba hubba." Billie nudged me with the slight wiggle of her perfectly arched eyebrows before we exchanged knowing looks.

[                  ]

"He may have a good image to the public, but from the research I've recently done and the people I've talked to, he has major issues."

It was now 8:30 and we were still seated in the same booth, talking about Shane. I was tapping my freshly manicured blue nails on the table surface when I suddenly paused.

"What kind of issues?" I asked quite nervously as sudden concern blossomed within me.

"He suffers from volatile anger, which can cause him to lash out at times and become very violent out of nowhere." Leo explained while looking through a few files in a black folder that was set in the middle of the table.

Oh great.

"Oh, that's nice. What if he decides to choke me if I don't want to be cooperative?" I asked now, sarcasm dripping from my tongue with every syllable.

"Guess you better be coo— coopur— oh hell you know what I mean." Billie gave a shrug of her shoulders and her cheeks became red from embarrassment.

Leo and I burst out in laughter, but I quickly stopped and held in my snicker as I looked at Billie, who was beat red now.

"Stop laughing you guys! It isn't funny!" Her British accent even more audible now as her voice wavered.

After some time of joking around and sipping on frappés, the three of us all departed and I was left alone, standing on the sidewalk as the cold breeze punched me in my face.

No coat.

How amazing.

I muttered curses under my breath as I began marching all the way home, skipping through traffic as taxi drivers screamed curses at the cars in front of them and occasionally at me.

"Hey, get out the road!" A middle aged driver screamed as I jumped in the way, trying to run through the streets.

"Sorry!" I squeaked as cars around me hunked their horns and in that moment, I knew I shouldn't have came here but I had to cross over to the other side to get home.

All of a sudden, fingers wrapped painfully tight around my upper arm without slacking for an instant and it took everything within me not to scream out in pain and before I knew it, I was on the other side.

Shane.

He stood as if he was a king and in a way, he was.

Sharply dressed in an immaculately fitted suit. Three pieces in dark worsted wool, bright white shirt, with starched collar and broad striped tie wrapped around his tremendously thick neck. Nearly the perfect vision of an English gentleman, but his hulking physique and full beard made him look primal, almost wild. It was as if someone had managed to persuade a bear to stay still long enough to be measured by a tailor.

His eyes were of a cold, yet light blue steel and his chiseled features struck me as if I were being whipped.

His gaze traveled over me and it seemed as if he were taking notes, but he was quite unreadable and I doubt I knew what he was really thinking about.

"Thanks." The words left my mouth before I realized it and for a second, I wished I hadn't said anything because it ruined this moment, but he didn't seem to hear me because he was already turning on his heels.

"Wait!"

In the blink of an eye, he was gone.

PUFF!

The continuous bumps brought me back to realization and I quickly turned back on heels and continued on my way home.

Maybe this is a sign that I should take the job.

Or maybe it's a warning that I shouldn't.