Chapter 2 – Talia
“Let me help you with your bags, miss,” said the pilot as he stepped toward me to take the floral printed bag that was flung around my shoulder. It was my special bag of art supplies that I had carried with me for at least the past eight years. It went with my everywhere that I went, so I really wasn’t interested in him taking my bag anywhere.
“No, that’s okay. I’ll just hang onto it if you don’t mind,” I told him, putting so much sweetness into my voice in hopes that he wouldn’t be offended. “It’s just that it has my art supplies in it and I want to be able to capture what I’m seeing out the window on my pad and add some color to it.”
The pilot looked at me blankly, scratched his head, and said, “Not much you can see up that high, but okay. Suit yourself.”
He smoothed out the front of his blazer, turned, and started up the steps and disappeared into the small airplane.
“Here it goes,” I said, sighing deeply and walking up the steps. I had never been inside of an airplane, but from what I had always seen on TV, I thought that it would have been bigger. This one was so small that it didn’t seem like it was big enough to hold six people, including the pilot.
“There are drinks in the cooler in the back. Help yourself to whatever you would like,” said the pilot, appearing from the cockpit, waving his hand in the general direction of the back of the aircraft, and then disappearing back into the cockpit.
I found a seat in the front, buckled myself in, leaned back, and closed my eyes. I smiled at the happy turn that I felt my life taking.
I never would have imagined that I would be on my way to live on a private island, especially when I was younger, living with my mother who, despite her best efforts, always seemed to be behind on bills, energy, and just the everyday will to want to push forward. I watched her struggle for many years until I was old enough to get my first job and had been working ever since. It made me feel good to be able to help her. My father had left her to raise three children on her own without so much as a goodbye and it devastated her. She never really spoke about him or the situation at all except to tell us that in life, there were no free rides, that every penny that we earned we had to work our fingers to the bone to earn. I believed her wholeheartedly. I worked at a grocery store as a cashier and cart girl. In fact, depending on who had been scheduled that day, I may have been working both positions. It was quite a feat to try watching both the cash register and the parking lot, but somehow I always made it work. I would come home and fall into bed in my work clothes and just sleep. I would wake up with a cold plate of food by my head that my mother had left thinking that I would eat. I never ate it, but she always left it.
I would rush straight to work right after school most days and would always end up extremely tired. There were periods of time when I wouldn’t have any days off. I would just got from school to work and crash into bed for a few hours, only to wake up and repeat the process. After a while, I thought that school was becoming more of an inconvenience than anything. There were extra shifts at work that I could take and mom was appreciative of the money that I was giving her, but it still wasn’t enough. SO, I made the decision to drop out of school and start working full time.
I remember my mother’s face when she found out that I had dropped out. I had already been out of school for six months. It was the middle of the day and I had come home to have lunch on my break from work.
“What are you doing home? Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”
I had been eating a bowl of Cheerios and stopped mid-bite and stared at her.
“I…I’m not in school any more.”
She coasted into the living room toward me, a look of shocked horror on her face.
“What do you mean you aren’t in school anymore. Yes, you are. You didn’t graduate.”
“No, I didn’t. But, I figured that it would be better for me to work full time to help out around here rather than sitting in a stuffy, boring classroom not earning any money.”
She opened her mouth a few times like she was preparing to say something, but then she just closed her mouth, turned, and walked away. That was the last that she ever mentioned anything about it.
I didn’t really mind it, anyway. I never was a great student. My grades were barely passing. The only thing that I was really good at was my art.
So, when my friend, Harvey, called me one afternoon asking if I would like to be a part of an art show that he was putting together, I was very excited. But, then, I immediately went into panic mode.
I didn’t spend a lot of time working on my art because I was always working. When I worked, it seemed to drain me of any energy that I had after work for myself or anyone else. Most of my friends had either already gotten angry at me because of it or had just stopped talking to me altogether. I guess that was another reason why I didn’t mind throwing myself so wholeheartedly into work, either. It wasn’t like I had much of a social life to speak of.
I did have one friend, though. Allison. I met her literally by chance one day. I was on my way to work and she was coming from the bank on her way to work. She steps off of the curb and sank down into a hole with water in it, plunging her whole foot fitted with high heels and nylons into it.
“Why does this have to be my day?” she exclaimed, shaking her fists at the sky. I didn’t mean to laugh, but she looked so funny. She threw me an angry look, her lips pursed into a shriveled o.
“Are you okay?” I asked, trying to will myself to stop laughing.
“What do you care?” she asked me venomously.
“Look, I didn’t mean to laugh. Seriously, are you okay?” I extended my hand for her to reach it and helped her up out of the whole and back onto the sidewalk.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said dejectedly. “I’m Allison.” She extended her hand for me to shake it. I did and introduced myself to her. From then on, we were fast friends.
We talked about everything. She listened to me without any judgment and I did the same for her. Some of the things that she would tell me would be very racy. She once told me a story about how she had slept with four different guys within hours of each other. I told her that she was crazy.
“I don’t care. I think that I have a very healthy sex life,” was her response. I told her that as long as she was happy, that’s all that mattered.
When I told her about the arrangement that I had made with this guy Blake, she just told me to be careful. He and I had spent the past few days talking on the phone for hours. He actually seemed like a very nice guy and was easy to talk to. Allison insisted that I check in with her every couple of days to let her know that I was okay. I told her that I would. I felt like I was being very safe. I had even downloaded one of those apps that showed your location and gave the info to Allison just in case someone had to come looking for me. I swallowed hard at the thought of things not going the way that I hoped that they would, but I quickly dismissed the thought and replaced it thoughts of imagining how amazing it would be to spend time on an island with a sexy billionaire.
I pulled his picture out of my bag that I had printed off and stared at it. He was hot. I crossed my legs as I felt the tingling of desire brewing in my nether regions. I was convinced that it was probably an old picture or that he really didn’t look as good in person as he did on the picture. At any rate, I was on my way to see him and would find out the truth first hand.
“We are ready for take off. Fasten your seatbelts. We should be on the island in about three hours.”
I gripped the arm of my seat so hard that my knuckles turned white. I tried to will myself to relax, but it wasn’t working.
My thoughts went back to Blake. Even if he didn’t look as good in person as he did on the pictures, there was something alluring about his personality. And his voice had a deep, low tone that was mesmerizing. He was very smart, charming, and funny. I thought about a joke that he had texted me before I boarded the plane and smiled. It was corny, but I appreciated that he made the effort. I was excited and nervous at the same time. I was sure that things were going to work out great.
My only real worry, though, was what I was going to do about art supplies once I ran out of the little stash that I had. I didn’t have any more money. And I didn’t think that there was any type of supply stores on the island. In fact, Blake made it a point to tell me that we would be the only ones on the island and that I would need to bring whatever I would need.
I was really happy when I learned about the arrangement on sugarbabies.com, especially after Harvey asked me to be apart of his art show. I knew that it would have been next to impossible to try to create art while working full time, so this was perfect. Maybe this wasn’t my mother’s idea of working my fingers to the bone, but it did give me the chance to still keep my income flowing and have time to work on creating art. Even though this may not have been the ideal way to work things out, I figured that it was worth it to try to make it happen rather than giving up on my dreams.
If only I had been able to bring enough supplies, that is. The way that it was looking, though, I wouldn’t be able to do it.
“Please put your seats in an upright position. We will be landing shortly.”
I looked out the window at the expansive blue sky and tried looking down to see if I could see anyone. There was a little piece of land below in the middle of the water, lush and green against the deep blue water that surrounded it. It was absolutely breathtaking. I couldn’t wait to sit out in the sunshine and create pieces of this amazing landscape.
When the plane began to make its descent toward the ground, I could feel my stomach dropping as if I were on a rollercoaster. I tried not to scream aloud as the plane seemed to nosedive over and over again. I just prayed that we would make it safely onto the ground. I planned to kiss the ground as soon as I got off the plane.
Once the plane came to a stop and the pilot came out of the cockpit, he smiled at me and extended his hand in my direction, “Join me, will you?”
I smiled back, unbuckled my seat belt, and walked over to where he stood.
“Are you ready?” he asked me.
“Yes,” I said softly.
He flung the doors open and the sunlight all but blinded me.
“Welcome to Fantasy Island!” said Blake, arms extended in either direction. He looked divine standing there, his beautiful features accented by the warm sunshine beaming down on him.
“Hello there!” said the pilot, running down the steps of the plane in the direction of Blake and a man that was standing next to him. The pilot and Blake hugged each other in greeting and talked happily. Blake asked how the flight had gone and about other details related to the plane that I didn’t quite understand or really care much about. At Blake’s side stood a large dog panting with large, searching eyes standing next to Blake. Blake turned toward me after talking to pilot. Everyone fell silent.
“Hello, Ms. Romano,” said Blake. “I have been looking forward to meeting you for quite some time. Well, at least for the past few days.”
He smiled.
I smiled back.
We all kind of stood there, silently staring for a few minutes before the pilot spoke up.
“Well, I want to make sure that I make it back home before it gets too dark. Ms. Romano, it was a pleasure meeting you and I hope that you enjoy your stay.”
He turned and saluted Blake and quickly disappeared back into the aircraft. After a few minutes, the machine’s engine came to life and began taxying down the runway. As the plane began to take off, Blake pressed his hand onto my arm.
“Shall we head toward the house?” he asked, smiling.
I nodded, looking down at the happy mutt who was wagging his tale standing next to Blake.
“Oh don’t worry about Duke,” he said, giving him scratch behind the ears. “He loves everyone who comes to our island. Don’t you?”
I really wasn’t worried. I had been around dogs all of my life. Animals always seemed to love me. And I loved them right back, sometimes better than some of the people that I came in contact with.
“How was the flight in?” he asked, taking long, slow strides.
“It was good, I guess. I’ve never been on an airplane before, so I guess that I really have nothing to compare it to.”
“Well, if it had been a bad flight, you definitely would have known,” he said grimacing.
I had seen my fair share of movies that ended up with people being capsized on an island to know that he was right.
Watching him take easy, determined steps and seeing his tall, strong frame in person excited me even more. I could feel my lady regions beginning to tingle with excitement simply from being in his presence.
We walked for about ten minutes through an open field until we came to a row of trees. We walked through a pathway among the trees. At the end of the path stood a rather large house with a very large deck. There was a circular couch and tables with stones on them. It looked like some sort of fire had been lit there not too long ago.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” said Blake, raising his arms in front of the doorway leading to the house. “Let me show you to your room so that you can get settled in.”
He swung open the cherry oak door revealing a breath-taking spiral staircase. A large, crystal chandalier hung in the foyer, soft yellow light shining down and cascading down the walls. I had never seen anything so beautiful in person.
“Wow,” I said as I stepped into the house and turned so that I could see every angle. “You have a very beautiful home.”
“Thank you,” he said, turning to head up the stairs. “Come this way.”
I followed behind him, still taking in the cozy beauty of the house where I planned to spend the next year. He led me to a room a few doors down from the staircase. When he opened the door, I saw a large bedroom with a canopied bed. The sheer pink curtains felt almost childlike. It reminded me of the way that my mother had decorated my room when I was little girl.
“How do you like it?” asked Blake eagerly.
I didn’t want to lie, but I also didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
“It’s okay,” I said.
“Maybe not the best décor, but if you think of anything you would like to add, just let me know. We can try to make arrangements. I want to show you something else, too.”
Blake walked over to a connecting door to the bedroom. He slowly pushed it open and my heart seemed to skip a beat.
“Oh my goodness!” was all that I could say as I stepped inside the room. It was larger than the room that we had stepped out of. And it had enough art supplies to last me for the next years. Tears started to well up in the corner of my eyes. I walked to the large table in the middle of the room and ran my fingers over the paintbrushes and canvases that lay neatly in their piles. There were different kinds of paints, colored pencils, and markers. There was a station with cloth, threads, yarns, hot glue guns, and all types of other supplies. The large windows that covered the wall from floor to ceiling filtered in natural light that created perfect visuals for even untrained eyes. I was so overwhelmed by all of it that I couldn’t even speak. The tears began to flow freely.
“Thank you!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms around his neck and giving him a huge bear hug. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me back tightly. When we let go of each other, we stared into each others eyes for a moment. I almost felt the urge to kiss him. If I weren’t mistaken, it seemed like he had the same urge. But, he pulled away and turned his back toward me.
“Uh, dinner will be ready soon. Go ahead and get settled in and if you need anything, just holler. I’ll be around.”
Blake quickly disappeared out of the doorway and down the long hallway. I tried to look to see where he was going, but he was moving too fast and the hallway seemed to get darker the farther down it was.
I looked at the two rooms that would be my domain for the next year and smiled. Despite the overwhelmingly pink nature of the room that he had shown me to, it had a very warm and homey feeling to it. I went over to the bed and jumped on it, laying on the bed staring at the ceiling.
I started thinking about how lucky I was, how I couldn’t believe the happy turn that my life had taken. As I laid there, I found myself eagerly anticipating when Blake and I would be having sex. Honestly, I thought that it would have been something that I would have had to work myself up for, but it wasn’t. He was extremely attractive and I was curious to see what sleeping with him would be like. So far, I had not been disappointed and I had a feeling that things were about to get even better.
I got up and grabbed my bag from the corner of the room and began sorting my belongings. I was awestruck with the amount of thought and attention that he had put into setting up
I was awestruck with the amount of thought and attention that he had put into setting up my space. What made it most amazing is the fact that he wasn’t an artist, but that just after the short conversations that he and I had had over the phone, he had been able to piece together what I needed and then some.
“So, I know that you mentioned being an artist,” he said. “What types of things would you need in order to create some amazing pieces, ones that you will be happy to have created?”
“Well, I guess some paints and stuff. Something to paint on. I don’t need much else than that.”
I thought that he was asking to make sure that I brought the right supplies with me. I had no idea that he was planning to put together an artists’ paradise for just me to use.
I emptied out the contents of my floral bag onto the giant bed, watching my notepads, pencils, markers, paints, and a few articles of clothes land in a pitiful heap. A piece of black lace caught my eye. I almost laughed at the idea of me wearing it. I didn’t own a piece of lingerie, so I had to go to the store and try to find something.
It was one of the most embarrassing experiences that I have had to date.
The chipper, blonde salesperson bounced over to where I stood in the middle of the aisle looking much like a deer in headlights.
“Can I help you find something?” came her squeaky voice.
“Maybe,” I said, reluctantly. “I’m trying to find something sexy to wear, like after a date or something.”
“Oh,” she said, then paused. “Ohhhhhhh.”
She smiled a secret smile.
“I think I know just the thing,” she said. She sized me up quickly and walked over an aisle to where there were a bunch of separate lace bras and panties. She flung a pair of lace panties in my direction and assured me that that would give me the reaction that I was hoping for, winking and smiling sneakily.
I know that my face had to have turned the brightest shade of red on the spectrum. I wordlessly took the panties, slithered to the front, paid for them, and left. I didn’t even know how they would fit.
But, as I looked at them, crumpled underneath my little pile of belongings, part of me couldn’t help but wonder when I would get my chance to wear them. He hadn’t made mention of anything sexual in the short time since we’d arrived at the house, but I was starting to get very eager.
I couldn’t wait to find out just how good in bed he was.