Sadie
I am standing offto one side of the stage. I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into, but luckily Stacy is staying with me back here, so I don’t get tempted to kill Angela. She’s in a black sequin dress that barely comes past her ass. She just noticed me about five minutes ago and has not taken her eyes off of me.
“Everyone ready?” A man comes over and asks. “We are changing the order a bit. Ms. Graves, you’ll be going last. Ms. White, you’ll go right before her.”
“Aw. You’ll get a front-row seat to him bidding on me,” Angela turns to me and says. “He doesn’t even know you’re here.”
“You’re an insufferable cunt, you know that?” I ask with a deadpan expression. “And yet he chose me over and over and over. What makes you think he’s going to choose you this time?”
I just smile and shake my head at her. It doesn’t stop that intrusive thought from sneaking its way into my head. What if he does bid on her? Even if he’s not intending to win, does that still count as cheating even if we’re not dating? Obviously, we are heading in that direction, so would that be a betrayal?
We all walk out onto the stage, and I spot the guys, as well as our entire friend group. Their faces light up when they see me. Angela is directly beside me, but they haven’t taken their eyes off me for long enough to see her. All three of them have this look in their eyes that tells me that I am about to learn a whole bunch about my best friends.
I am one of ten women. There are four men here as well. Bids are averaging around five thousand dollars or so. An older lady bid fifty thousand on one of the men. Otherwise, the bids seem pretty reasonable. The guys haven’t taken their eyes off of me, but they all realize who else is here when her name is called out.
“Next, we have Ms. Angela White,” the man says. “We’ll start the bid at one hundred.”
“Here,” I hear a familiar voice say. I scan the faces to see who it is. When I see him, I know right away it was him. Alex. The man taking the bids goes back and forth with Alex and an old man for a while before Alex gives up.
“Going once… Going twice… Gone for $65,000,” the man says. Angela smirks at me, but I can see how disappointed she is that Lance never took his eyes off mine. “Last for the evening, we have Ms. Sadie Graves. We’ll start off at $100.”
“Here,” Lance says without hesitation
“$150,” Alex says.
“$1000,” Mason chimes in. The man looks to Lance, and he nods once.
“We are bidding together,” Lance says simply.
“$5,000,” Jake says, and I laugh when Lance glares at him.
“Hell, $6,000,” Todd adds.
“10,” Dean barks.
“25,” Alex says with a smirk.
“50,” Lance says.
“Do you know these people?” the man murmurs to me.
“Yeah,” I say quietly. The guys are going back and forth with Alex, while our friends are just pushing the price up for the hell of it.
“$100,000,” Alex says. He is on his feet now, but the guys are relaxed in their chairs. They say nothing. They just stare at me with cute little smirks painted on their faces.
“Going once…”
Silence. I trust them.
“Going twice…”
Silence. I trust them.
“Gon…”
“$500,000,” Lance says coolly, and my mouth falls open in surprise. I hardly hear the man beside me restart the countdown.
“Gone…” The man says. Lance stands and approaches the edge of the stage. I can’t help but grin at my boys. They are all gathered at the edge of the stage, but it’s Lance who wraps his arms around my hips and picks me up. As he lets me drop, his lips crash against mine before my feet touch the ground. His hands cup my face before he pulls away to look at me.