And then Mina.
There’s a collective gasp as she steps into the spotlight. That champagne colored dress. Her red lips, pale skin, and ebony hair. Aunt Maisie starts the bidding at one thousand dollars and several hands hit the air. The price rises, but so do hands, strangers fighting for a night with the woman who came with me.
“Do I hear twenty thousand?” asks Maisie with a conspiratorial smile for Mina.
Twenty-five.
Thirty.
Dom raises his hand. “Fifty.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” I whisper.
“Taking your advice and getting to know her,” he responds and my jaw clenches.
Before I can say anything, a voice calls out from the back, “Seventy-five thousand dollars.”
The audience gasps. Mina’s jaw drops. And I turn to see Benjamin Bancroft lowering his hand with that strange look still on his face.
Dom crosses his ankle over his knee and sits back, eyeing Mina like he wants to dissect her. “Seventy-six.”
“Eighty,” I say without thinking.
A murmur rolls through the crowd like waves preceding a storm. They know Mina came with me. They know I’m bidding on my own date. I look like a territorial asshole, but I don’t care. I can’t let Dom buy a night with her. Not after everything he’s said. Not when he won’t think twice about saying it to her face.
“Eighty-five,” counters Dom.
I glare and set my jaw. “Ninety.”
“One hundred thousand.” Bancroft’s voice comes from the back.
“Do I hear a hundred and one?” Aunt Maisie looks like she can’t believe she’s asking for that much money and Mina seems downright distraught.
Dom scoffs and rolls his eyes. I wait an eternity before Maisie cries, “Sold! And that’s an ROF record, ladies and gentlemen!”
TWENTY-SEVEN
Mina
“What just happened?” I step off the stage after the most surreal experience in my life and gape at Angela.
“Someone paid one-hundred-thousand dollars for a night with you,” she responds, looking as shocked as I feel. “I’ve never seen the bidding go that high.”
That someone is Benjamin Bancroft, the super hot, super nice, maybe a little awkward but incredibly talented architect I’ve had a minor crush on for most of my career. Of all the things I saw happening tonight, that did not make the list.
“But did Nathan bid too?” I ask, even though I know the answer to that question. My heart raced to hear his voice. My breath caught when I saw the determined look on his face and then caught again when I realized I wanted him to win. I didn’t want to spend the evening with the glaring man beside him, throwing bids my way like he intended to kidnap me afterwards. Nor did I want to spend the evening with Benjamin.
I want to share this beautiful, perfect night with Nathan.
“He most definitely bid on you too.” Angela nods, smiling broadly. “Right after his friend Dom came out of nowhere for what were sure to be nefarious reasons.”
“Dom.” I furrow my brow. Have I ever heard Nathan talk about a friend named Dom before? I don’t think so. But that guy sure seemed to have heard about me and if the look on his face means anything, he didn’t like what he heard.
But if that’s true, why would he bid so high?
Angela pats my cheek. A friendly gesture that warms my heart.
I guess that’s what we are now. Friends.
“I’m gonna go ahead and assume you’re as relieved as I am that you don’t have to spend an evening with that Jerky McJerkerson,” she says as Micah saunters our way. “He’s a special breed, that one.”
Micah grimaces, clearly not a fan of this Dom character, either. “Nathan bidding on you really didn’t make sense until I saw Dom. He was saving you from a terrible night with a terrible person. That’s Nator Tot’s thing. Swoopin’ in. Damsel in distress. Saving the world, one good deed at a time. Don’t tell him I used that nickname, by the way. I promised I’d stop.” Micah grins at me. “You must be feeling pretty badass right now. One hundred thousand dollars?”
Everyone’s acting like I should be flattered, but I’m not. I’m a little disgusted and a lot uncomfortable. That much money could change someone’s life, but Benjamin just threw it away for a few hours with me. What does it mean? Surely, he’s not the kind of man who makes a play on someone else’s girlfriend. Or does his bluntness extend far enough that a dramatic gesture that big doesn’t seem off to him?
“I’m feeling…confused,” I say. “That really happened? It doesn’t even feel real.”
I glance up and there’s Benjamin. He smiles gently and waves, almost shy. Behind him, Nathan lurks, glaring in my direction. He sighs when our eyes lock, then cocks his head in Benjamin’s direction and saunters away. I have no idea what to make of that, but it doesn’t matter because suddenly we’re signing contracts and Angela’s reciting the rules, grinning like the whole thing’s just the best thing ever instead of the confusing mess it really is.
Benjamin scribbles his signature first, then mine hits the dotted line. He offers me his arm. I drape my wrist over his elbow, and he leads me back into the gala while I search the crowd for Nathan. The string quartet has left and the band has taken their place, the lead singer cupping the microphone as he croons a popular love song. Heads turn as we pass, people whispering, grinning, wondering. In a sea of dazzling and spectacular people, I’m suddenly the most interesting person here. How does anyone know what to do with this much attention?
“I want everyone to see the hundred-thousand-dollar girl,” Benjamin says as he parades me through the crowd. “I want them to wonder who you are. I want them to talk. I want your name on their lips.”
“Benjamin…” I begin, growing more uncomfortable by the second. “I feel like I need to tell you—"
He places a finger against my mouth with a conspiratorial smile. “Hush now, Mina. I’ll explain once everyone has seen you.”
If I was confused before, I’m downright baffled now. “Explain?”
“You’re not very good at hushing, are you?” he whispers, then boops the tip of my nose.
After he’s certain everyone has gotten a look at us, we stop at the bar for drinks, then find a secluded table under the stars. He pulls out my chair, then takes a seat next to me. Our backs are to the party, the ocean in front of us catching fire in the setting sun. The music is muted by distance. The waves are constant and a breeze slips across my shoulders. I cross my arms on the table, except that feels too much like I’m leaning close and I don’t want to give any accidental nonverbal cues, so I uncross them and put them in my lap, but that feels too expectant, so I take a nervous sip of my champagne and wait.
Benjamin leans back, throwing an arm over the back of his chair as he rests his ankle on his knee. “A while ago, I told you I worried that Nathan might not be good for you.”
I tense. Of all the times for him to make his move, he chooses now? In a grand gesture worthy of a movie, nonetheless. A couple months ago, I would have swooned right into his embrace. Now it just seems so…
…so…
…selfish.
I haven’t given any hints I was interested. I’m with Nathan. What could Benjamin possibly think would happen tonight?
“You did tell me that.” I twirl my glass between my hands, meeting his gaze, waiting and worrying about what he’ll say next.
“And you told me everything was fine.”
I nod, hoping I look calmer than I feel. “I did.”
