Becoming a Sugar Baby
Sitting at the dining room table, her legs outstretched, feet resting on the chair opposite her, Erin spun the maroon colored contents of her glass with the circular motion of her wrist. Smoke rose from a porcelain ashtray just a few inches from her elbow. A stack of junk mail and magazine ads for Ulta sat splayed across the middle of the table, with a pink rectangular four-by-four piece of card stock sitting on top of the pile. Erin’s blotchy red eyes crept up from her white cotton gown, the ends drooping low on the floor, to the stack in the middle of the table. The words flashed bold and black, once again: FINAL NOTICE BEFORE SHUT DOWN. She started to read the text that followed: we have not yet received payment for your electricity bill of $132.05. We will be discontinuing service as of 7/13/09. This is your final notice before – and Erin shut her eyes tight to keep from reading the rest.
Turning her head away from the stack, she lifted the lit cigarette from the tray to her lips, and took a long, deep inhalation off it. Blowing out the smoke, she took another sip of wine from her tall cheap kitchen glassware. Peeling open her eyes, she started to tear up once again. It had been four months since she had been able to pay her own utility bills. Since then she’d had help from close friends. But they didn’t exactly have money to spare, and soon they could no longer front the cash she so desperately needed. This week’s check had been just enough money to cover her rent, along with the money she had saved from her previous paycheck. She bought Parliaments and a jug of eleven-dollar cabernet in order to keep her company throughout the night. She promised herself that it would only be a few weeks until she got her financial situation under control. That was over a month ago.
Now her electricity was soon to turn off by midnight. Her water was next, she was sure. She just hadn’t received the little ominous envelope in the mail yet. Erin looked warily at the little neon numbers of the clock on her microwave, and haphazardly pulled herself up to pour another glassful from the quickly waning jug on the counter. She was going to drown her sorrows in this last hour of light, and hopefully pass out before resorting to the need of matches and candles. Erin didn’t succumb to a lot of tragic means that many people did in her situation. She didn’t do drugs or have a lewd job description. In fact, she came from a very middle class family with religious values and beliefs; she did well in school and had many aspirations for her life. But fate wouldn’t have it, and she followed the footprints of a life that challenged her abstinence-minded upbringing. She struggled to keep afloat in an ever obscure world, where bills were an obstacle month-to-month, and life seemed to be a lasting uphill battle. Then, rent spiked, new financial obligations grew and the simple things in life seemed to get increasingly expensive. She thought she put the toughest time of her life behind her with two full-time jobs and restored hope… but now look where she was. All that turmoil and triumph, and yet, this is where she stood.
It was now 11:43, and Erin had just lit up another cigarette. Gulping down the last of her wine, the jug empty, Erin dragged her feet to the couch. She felt so tired, like she’d been working a twelve-hour shift. But in reality, she’d had the day off. She tried selling some of her furniture online, with no bites. She tried following up on applications for some freelance house cleaning work with no results. Today she smoked almost two packs of Parliaments and drank an entire jug of wine, and lights seemed to flicker out as she began fading away into sleep.
Just A Decent Guy
Waking up with a thumping vibration behind her eyes and forehead, and light beaming in from between the blinds, Erin awoke to a stark reality. She went to start some coffee, but as she messed with the button looking for a green light, she realized that, as of last night, there would be no more fresh coffee available. She grabbed her pack of cigs, but instantly recognized the hallow weight of the empty box. She shook it and opened it as if something would magically appear there, then tossed it aside, the tobacco shavings scattering from it. Erin reluctantly hauled herself to the shower and continued to get ready for work.
She had a good hour before she had to be to work, so she checked her email to see if anyone had inquired about the furniture she had put up for sale. To her surprise, there was one email from a guy interested in buying her dining room table, and he wanted to see it today. She immediately responded and asked if he could come to see it this morning before she went to work. He agreed and half an hour later, there was a knock on her door. Erin opened the door to a short and stout man with a wide face, arms and belly. He had a cherubic glow and smile, and a pleasantly warm feeling about him. After a few minutes of viewing the table, Nathan agreed to buy it.
“How much were you asking for, again?” He asked as he pulled his wallet out from his back pocket.
“Twenty.”
“Twenty for this!” His eyes widened in surprise.
“Well, what’s your best offer?” Erin hesitated to say.
“Oh, twenty’s more than fine. I just thought you’d be asking a lot more for it. I mean it’s beautiful craftsmanship.” He said running his fingers across the top of it. “Where’d you say you got it?”
“It was my grandfather’s. He built it himself. He left it to me in his will.” She said with a tinge of despair that couldn’t go unnoticed.
“Why in the world are you selling it then? You should keep this!”
Erin simply looked away and was silent for a moment. “So will you take it or not.” She finally uttered.
Nathan saw the desperateness in her face, and then his eyes caught the pink shade of the card in the corner of her kitchen counter. Erin caught his eye, and rushed to block his view. The last thing she needed was for some stranger to feel sorry for her. He looked away as if he didn’t see anything. Then, he put his wallet back into his pocket, and slipped out his checkbook from the inside of his jacket lining.
“Oh, I can’t accept checks.” Erin said, thinking to herself that he was going to try and scam her out of twenty bucks and her table.
“You take this and when it clears, then I’ll come and pick up the table. I can’t pick it up myself anyway, I’ll need another guy here to help me.” He lied.
Erin found it hard to believe that this guy, as short as he may be, lacked the muscle to pick this table up himself. But she accepted nonetheless. He didn’t hand her the written out check until just before he left, making arrangements to be back in 2-3 days. When Erin looked down at the check, she saw that he had given her a 300 dollar check! She thought that he wasn’t serious about buying it then, and that she most likely, would never see him again.
Arriving at work ten minutes before, she glanced across the street at the bank. She decided to go cash it instead of depositing it straight into her bank, so she could confirm straight away that he wasn’t serious. But the transaction was smooth, and she got her money right away. She couldn’t believe it. She thought for sure that he had either not had enough money to clear it in the first place, or that he’d cancelled it right after. But he’d consciously and purposely given her fifteen times as much money as what she was asking for. Her elation was somewhat stunted by a guilty feeling that she shouldn’t be accepting of this. It was far too much, and she didn’t like the idea of being a charity case. After work however, she had a change of heart, and decided that he was trying to be a decent guy and just give her a bit of help. So she deposited the money into her account and started paying off bills straight away that night. Even with the late fees she had racked up on top of her utility bills and car insurance, she was able to cover all but her cell phone.
A Cosmic Orgasm
Two days later, she called Nathan from work to thank him and see when he’d come by to pick up the table. But Nathan didn’t answer. He didn’t answer the two calls that followed, nor the next day or the next. She worried that he may not know it was her since she hadn’t used her cell phone to contact him. But a week later she got her paycheck, and finally was able to use her cell phone.
“Oh, I really thought that table was worth much more than twenty dollars. I’m sorry I haven’t been by though. It’s just been hectic at work. I’ll be by tonight.”
But when he came over, he was in a nicely ironed dress shirt and pants, and holding a bouquet of roses in his hand. “You’re still in your dress clothes. I hope they don’t get dirty when moving it,” Was the first thing out of her mouth. She remained clueless until she realized that there was no one there to help him move it like he said there’d be, and she noticed the flowers in his hand.
“To be honest, Erin, I don’t want the table anymore.”
“But I already spent the money! I don’t have any way of refunding your money!” She panicked.
“That’s okay, I don’t want it back. I just want to take you to dinner.” He held out the roses to her.
Erin, dressed in her sweats and t-shirt, hesitated to go. But she looked at the flowers to his eager face, remembering the generosity he had showed, and accepted. “Ok, that would be nice. Come on in, let me just get changed real quick.” She hurriedly slipped into some elegant evening wear, and dabbled on some makeup. He told her she looked beautiful, and they went to a Red Lobster downtown.
Erin never ate at restaurants like that, and the appetizers alone were enough to choke her up. She’d spend that much on food for two days in her own budget. Over dinner and martinis, she found that Nathan was eighteen years her senior, and that at 24 and 42, they couldn’t be further apart in their life’s experiences. She told him about the battle with her kid over her financial situation. He told her about his struggle to find a decent woman. That night, a few too many drinks and a libido that she hadn’t been able to un-kink for quite some time now, got the best of her – she brought him back to her place where he filled her thrust after thrust in air thick with euphoric sensation. Even through her heavy buzz, she wondered if she would’ve gone through life never experiencing sex like this because of solely basing consideration upon physical attraction.
As she poured two mugs of coffee the next morning, all she could think of was how fantastic their sexual experience was last night. Even as they casually sat across the dining room table, swapping news feeds and current events, her mind kept flashing to scenes of him holding her legs up high over her head, and coming in at her from impossible angles. She wondered if he was as pleased with it as she was, when in fact, he was replaying similar scenes in his head. He thought about the sexy mole on her back, as she slid up and down with him between her thighs, her back bending forward and leaning back against his chest. He smirked a little when he remembered the slippery wetness dripping from inside her down his leg as she arched her back to have him enter the curve of her pelvis. They both had a lot of fun in that night, but they understood without speaking it, that it was a one-night type of thing. They hardly knew each other anyhow. But they continued to get to know each other, minus the sex part.
More Than Friends
The week that followed was full of daily texts and phone conversations, casual lunches and rented movies at his place. He helped her get back on her feet by “loaning” her money for rent, bills and stocking her fridge. But he never accepted any of the small payments she attempted to reimburse him with. Her parents, who were completely void of the situation, wondered how she was able to get her life back in order without keeling over from the third extra job she claimed she was working at. They continued their mild flirtation and friendly affair, until Erin started having deeper feelings for him and his kindness. Sooner rather than later, their friendship blossomed into a relationship.They had spent so much time together, that it was only natural that they began a romantic chapter. Erin was entirely thankful for his presence in her life, not because of his financial assistance, but because he brought the best out in her. He made her feel secure and see the positive sides of any sticky situation. His generous spending was only a perk of the many amazing times they shared together. He was like the lighthouse that led her to shore in her dark and stormy travels through a turbulent sea.






