Chapter 7
Sydney
I was petrified.
We had all been given instructions on how to behave – smile and wave, and I was doing exactly that. At first, I felt stupid, but seeing as how everyone was doing it, I thought I’d fit right in. Isabell was standing next to me, she seemed a little more animated and enthused about the whole thing.
I was kind of surprised quite honestly, since she seemed to only be here for the money.
The dancing lights were blinding, so I couldn’t really see the crowd. The music was deafening, so at least I didn’t feel any stage fright. It almost felt like it was just us on the stage, rehearsing a play.
Keep it together, you’re doing great, I thought to myself.
I kept repeating it like a mantra in my head, trying to relax. When the applause had died down, Ava stepped back onto the stage.
“Aren’t they just gorgeous?” More applause. “Brilliant! Look at them! I wish I was allowed to bid!” This got a decent laugh from the crowd, but a rather weak one from the girls. We clearly didn’t find it as hilarious.
I glanced in the general direction of the bar, which stood like a colorful neon island in the back of the room. It was hard to tell for sure, but there was nobody on the stools, at least not on the ones Owen and I had occupied. Had he left? I refused to believe that. He must have felt the same connection I had. There was something between us, something electric that we had shared, and I couldn’t stand the thought of him abandoning it.
But yet I had.
As soon as I was away from him and back with the girls Ava insisted I put on my dress and get in line. There was no time to even tell her that I had changed my mind.
So here I was.
Being sold.
I tried looking for Owen in the crowd, but I could only make out the faces in the first few rows, and none of them were him. People were cheering and clapping, their numbered pads ready to shoot up into the air.
It was bizarre, but at the same time kind of fun. Nobody was taking it seriously, I discovered. It really did feel more like a game for rich boys, and I could live with that.
As long as Owen was the rich boy who won me.
Ava began introducing the first contestant, but I didn’t take much notice. I would be one of the last girls to be auctioned, so instead I kept searching for Mr. Blue.
My eyes scanned the crowd and I sucked in a breath when they landed on a familiar frame. He was in the very back, making his way through the crowd, gently squeezing between people to get closer to the stage.
Thank God.
I lost my focus for a moment, and then my attention was drawn to one of the girls being auctioned.
“Five thousand!” Ava announced. “Do I see six thousand? Six thousand, number 106, thank you. Seven thousand, anyone? Would you look at her? What a stunner! A Bachelor of Psychology from Stanford, no less! Ten thousand, thank you…”
Ten thousand dollars! Ava had promised them fifty percent of the final bid. This could save Declan and I.
Change our lives.
“Final bid is fifteen thousand! Gentleman on my right! Congratulations, sir! Enjoy your prize.”
The auction continued in a similar manner, but with each girl the starting bid was lower and lower. I felt hurt for a moment, but it made sense. I was a newcomer, and while I was great in every aspect, there were girls who looked like Victoria’s Secret models.
Isabell’s starting bid was four thousand, and that made me nervous. I started to convince myself that my starting bid would only be two or three thousand, which wasn’t that much, if the bidders really were billionaires. What if some jerk snatched me for a few thousand? I felt nauseous again, and tried to find Owen in the crowd, but couldn’t.
The bidding commenced, and Isabell kept her composure, sending kisses and smiles to the men who bid on her.
“Eleven thousand! Twelve! Fourteen!” Ava leapt back and forth on the stage, keeping track of the rising and falling pads. “We have twenty thousand, everybody!” The crowd roared. “Do I hear twenty-one thousand! Anyone!”
Isabell’s final bid ended up being twenty-six thousand, which meant a huge payday for her. There was some sense of achievement in this, or at least I felt that way in the moment.
But now it was my time to shine. Ava introduced me and said a couple of words into the microphone. At first there was silence, but as I started to walk forward into the light cheers started to erupt throughout the crowd.
Ava continued on with my sales pitch: “Not only is she beautiful, but she is teacher. We have a civil servant up here, ladies and gentlemen!”
Ava tapped her temple with a finger, which was either meant to say she’s smart or she’s nuts. Probably a little of both, because the crowd laughed.
The bidding began. The starting bid was two thousand, as I’d expected, but it progressed very quickly.
“Three thou– Five thousand! Seven thousand!”
But I barely heard it. I searched the crowd again until I found him. He was in the third row now, staring at me and trying to get a look at the bidders. At first, bids were coming from all over the place, forcing Ava to move around.
“Ten thousand! I hear twelve thousand!”
But as it went on, there were just five distinct bidders left, then four, and then three.
Finally Owen entered the bidding.
“Twenty thousand!”
But a few other men wouldn’t let it go.
“Twenty-five! Twenty-six!”
The bidders were going back and forth, and the crowd was turning their heads left and right, as if they were watching a tennis match.
“Twenty-eight!”
My heart was racing. I found him and stared at him, but he was only smiling. Owen waited for the right time to make a move, I could see it. It wasn’t an evil smile, but rather a cocky one. I couldn’t blame him. There was that playfulness between us again. He was teasing me.
Bastard.
Two bidders got a little too into the farce, upping each other by $500, just to see the crowd react. It was becoming less and less funny.
“Thirty-two thousand five hundred!”
Owen raised his hand again, calmly like this was all an easy game to win.
“Fifty thousand.”
And older man kept his paddle in the air. “I’ll match whatever you say.”
I was beginning to sweat under the lights. The fun game had turned into torture. What if that old geezer won me? Owen must have seen my distress, because the next time our eyes met, he gave me a nod.
Even Ava couldn’t take it anymore. “Gentlemen, perhaps you should stop bidding and go home together?”
The crowd cheered, but not for long. I saw Owen make his way to the stage.
“Sir, would you like to say something?”
He reached out his hand, and Ava obediently handed him the microphone. He cleared my throat and said, “Two hundred and fifty thousand! Match that.”
Everyone in the room, including myself, inhaled in a collective breath. The silence hung for what felt like several minutes, with people exchanging both puzzled and amazed looks. For a minute I thought that I had misheard him.
When he returned the microphone, Ava said, “Sir, could you confirm the number for me, please? Was it two hundred and fifty thousand dollars?”
He gave her a confident nod, and looked at me with a cocky smirk on his face.
It took a moment for me to get back in touch with reality, and when I did, I found myself next to Ava, still alone on the stage.
“Sir, would you like to counter?”
The older man dropped his paddle and shook his head.
“Excellent. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars! Sold!” Ava lifted my hand in the air, as if I’d won a boxing match. “Please, Miss Mercer, you may join your date!”