Exalted Auctions: The Virgin Bride Ch. 02

"I suppose that's true," Judy reasoned. "It's very awkward. I can't imagine how women work as prostitutes. That must be the most awkward job there is. Still, in our conversations about women selling their virginity, they get paid quite a lot of money for one night of work. I mean, twenty-five grand is pretty good compensation for some brief awkwardness."

I set down my empty beer on a nearby table and stood up from my chair before heading to the fridge to retrieve another one. "You've really thought a lot about this," I pointed out. "You aren't seriously considering doing something like this are you?"

"No, of course not," Judy grinned widely. "It just caught my imagination for some reason and got implanted in my brain. It's not anything serious, just a bit of a fantasy I guess."

"A fantasy?" I asked with a wrinkled brow as I popped the top off another can of Pabst.

"Not like that!" Judy quickly interjected. "Being auctioned off to have sex with some man is nothing I'd ever fantasize about. Gross. I mean, the fantasy is getting paid a lot of money without having to put in a lot of effort. You know, haven't you ever fantasized about winning the lottery?"

"Sure," I responded. "But none that involved me getting fucked in the ass to get the money. I'd never be comfortable with you doing something like this. I don't think it's healthy for you to obsess over trying to rationalize it."

"You're right," Judy sighed as she tapped her fingers against her can of beer. "I just got to get this out of my head. It's going to be a long weekend with half of my work week gone."

10. Chotchkies - Next Day

"Twenty minutes, I've been waiting here twenty minutes!" I complained as I leaned towards and shook my finger at the Chotchkies Hostess. "They're going to blame me when it gets to them late. This always happens here. You're costing me my tips!" The restaurant was particularly crowded, and the air was filled with the sounds of clanging glass and rowdy laughter. Televisions hanging over the bar in the center of the restaurant broadcasted a game involving a team from the local college but even though their volumes were set to high, little could be heard over the excited customers.

"I told you..." The hostess responded before clenching her teeth. The heavyset woman always had a sassy attitude that seemed to conflict with her brightly colored uniform. "I'll check with the kitchen when I get a chance." The hostess turned towards some customers who had just entered the restaurant and addressed them in a much softer tone, "How many are dining with us today?"

"Shit," I muttered under my breath as I looked at my smartphone. This was supposed to be ready fifteen minutes ago, I thought to myself.

Another elaborately uniformed restaurant employee suddenly emerged from the dining rooms holding a bundle of paper bags and began to set them on top of the reservation desk.

I immediately approached the desk and began to thumb through the bags searching for the order that I was supposed to deliver. "Finally!" escaped from my parted lips as I located my order. I quickly turned around and rushed out the door; nearly colliding with another customer in the process. "My bad!" I yelled as I quickly jogged over to my car.

I swung the driver's side door open and jumped into the seat. I quickly turned the key in the ignition and looked behind me to make sure nobody was behind me. I breathed heavily as I hit the accelerator and quickly backed out of the parking space. I glanced at my car's clock before switching gears and hitting accelerator hard. Luckily, I did not have to go too far for the delivery. As I drove out on to the road I thought, oh yeah. I reached over my torso and fastened the seat belt to the lock.

11. Dumpy Apartment Building

Judy sat alone on the couch as she stared blankly at a fashion magazine while the bottom of her mouth hung open. As Judy turned the page, she found her silence interrupted by the ringing of her phone. Judy gently lifted the device to her face and accepted the call. "Hello?" Judy asked.

"Hey Judy," the familiar voice of Jessica flowed through the phone's receiver. "It's been so weird at the office today without you being here."

"I know," Judy responded. "I have been so bored by myself here."

"I bet," responded Jessica. "Must be nice not dealing with Palmer's bullshit though. Weren't you going to talk to HR about picking up some more hours?"

"Yeah, I did," Judy explained. "She told me that they don't have anything for me. The only available hours weren't until January."

"I always hate going over there," Jessica pointed out. "Always get really weird vibes."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Judy responded. "The HR lady mistook me for you. She was upset about that question you asked at the sexual harassment class. She, like, practically chewed me out over it." Judy unconsciously looked around the room as if to check if anyone was around her own empty apartment before saying, "I had the craziest dream a couple nights ago."

"Oh yeah?" Jessica responded curiously.

"Yeah, remember that spam email we got? Judy asked. "The one that said you could make twenty-five grand for a single night?"

"I had forgotten all about that," Jessica responded. "But if you had a dream about it, you have to tell me about it."

"Well," Judy said began with a bemused smile. "In the dream, we had accepted the money. So, I had to... well, y'know, I had to sleep with the guy who won the auction. It wasn't awkward at all. He just kind of took charge and well, it was a lot hotter than I am probably making it sound right now."

"Wow," Jessica responded in a surprised tone of voice. "What about Luke?" Jessica asked. "He went along with it?"

"The dream didn't really involve him," Judy lied as she crossed her right leg over the left. "It was just me and... this handsome stranger who had won the auction. You know, I agreed to it. So, I just had to go along with it. You know how conscientious I am."

"Interesting," Jessica remarked. "If I were to have any dream about that gross email, it would be me spending the money not getting the business from whoever won the auction." Jessica chuckled. "Did that dream change your mind since our littler convo at Chotchkies?"

Judy laughed as she responded, "Of course not. It's funny that you ask though because I actually played devil's advocate when talking to Luke about it yesterday. I really drove him up the wall explaining all the reasons why it might make sense just to do it."

"I know, right?" Jessica asked. "I've had some lousy sex before but none of it was so bad that I'd regret taking twenty-five grand for it."

"I was telling him that a lot of the arguments against doing it are based on arbitrary patriarchal beliefs," Judy explained. "Ideas like virginity matters or is somehow important or that women shouldn't be allowed to choose what happens to their bodies."

"I bet you did," Jessica chuckled. "I know how you are, Judy. Once you start an argument you don't let go. You'd make a great lawyer, you know that? You've got that dramatic touch to you as well."

"Yeah, I know," Judy responded. "Too bad it requires all that extra schooling. I could totally be the bitch prosecutor from law and order. Well, no, I would never do that. I'd be the defense attorney fighting injustice."

"So, what did Luke say?" Jessica asked.

"He got annoyed," Judy offered. "After a while he told me to stop. He wasn't comfortable arguing about it anymore. I think I had tortured him with it enough at that point, so I dropped it."

"Well, that's good," Jessica replied. "So, what have you been up to on your day off?"

Judy noticed her phone began to vibrate in her hand. "Hold on Jessica," Judy began, "I got to let you go. Luke is calling me." Judy touched her phone to accept the poll and spoke, "Hello?"

"Judy, I've got some bad news," my voice spoke through the cell phone's speaker.

"What is it?" Judy responded as she touched the side of her face. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," I responded. "I got into a car accident. Luckily no one was hurt."

"What happened?" Judy asked anxiously.

"I was trying to drop off a Chotchkies order," I explained. "The traffic was kind of stop and go at different points. This asshole next to me kept constantly switching lanes trying to get ahead. One minute he is in my lane just right in front of me because he changed lanes even though there was hardly any room. Then suddenly he changes lanes real fast again. Well, the reason he did that is that traffic had completely stopped in front of him. I slammed the breaks but there just wasn't enough time."

"Shit," Judy responded. "So, what happened? Is your car ok?"

"Of course, it's not ok," I explained with a snort. "The thing is totaled. It's a complete loss."

"You're not the one getting blamed for this are you?" Judy asked

"Oh, yes, I am," I responded as my voice deepened. "I tried to explain it to the cops but the whole situation just sucks. I am the one who hit the guy in front of me. The guy who was driving like an asshole wasn't part of the collision. So, he was long gone by the time the police showed up. I mean, who else are they going to blame?" I continued without pausing, "the guy that I rear ended? Even worse, the cop saw the delivery and put it into his report. I begged him not to, but he said it was government policy. There's no fucking way the insurance is going to pay for the damage now."

"What are we going to do?" Judy asked while pinching her chin. "Our rent is due next week. How are you going to work without a car!"

"I don't know, Judy," I snapped. "I haven't figured that out yet, but we'll talk about it tonight. I hope you are in the mood for dinner from Chotchkies because I have got an order here which isn't going to make it to the customer."

12. Dumpy Apartment Building - Evening

I walked back inside Judy's apartment and immediately slumped into Judy's couch. On a nearby table, I set a paper bag containing the Chotchkies order. As I spread my body out over the cheap fabric, I let out a long sigh. The sound of music emanating from the bar across the intersection could be heard once again.

Judy walked out of the kitchen and addressed me, "I just got off the phone with the insurance company. You were right. They're not going to cover it. We signed something promising not to use your car for commercial purposes. Those stupid contracts. That's how they're always fucking us over. It's how the capitalists enslave us."

"Ok, ok," I interrupted as I rubbed my forehead. "The last thing I want to do right now is talk about politics, please. Just let me sit down and relax for a second." I reached into the bag and pulled out an order of onion rings. The rings crinkled in the container. After popping the container lid, I was hit with the smell of cooking oil as I took a bite of one of the rings. While biting the ring produced a satisfying crunch, it tasted cold and bland.

"What are we going to do for money?" Judy asked as she walked over to the couch. "How are you going to get to your job? Forget that. Can we even afford rent with your regular hours and my half hours?"

"It looks like I'm just going to have to start taking the bus," I sighed as a I reluctantly took another bite into the onion ring. "I don't know what we're going to do. This really sucks. We're pretty low on options right now. It just feels like this came out of nowhere. This is literally the worst time I could have gotten into an accident."

"I know what you mean," Judy agreed. "It's crazy how one single event can derail all your plans out of nowhere like that. It never seems to happen in reverse though." Judy walked over to one of the apartment's windows and looked through the blinds at the bar across the intersection.

"There's food here by the way," I said as I gestured to the Chotchkies bag. "It's a little cool but you could warm it up in the microwave if you want."

Judy didn't seem to be paying attention to me and instead had raised her head and squinted up at the evening sky outside the window. "What if we could cheat luck?" Judy asked. "Through a single event, change things around. Maybe cash in on the bad karma. Get the universe to lift us back up again. Maybe the reason it never happens in reverse is because we fail to seize the opportunities when they present themselves." Judy could feel the hairs on the back of her neck go stiff as she turned her attention back towards me.

I turned my head to Judy and raised my right eyebrow before responding, "Did you smoke a joint or something before I got home? You're not usually the metaphysical type."

Judy nodded her head before making eye contact with me and replied, "I know. I don't usually believe in luck or karma or things like that. It's just that, recently I've had this sort of feeling that maybe my brain is trying to tell me something below the surface level. I mean, do you find it odd that this happened right after we had that conversation about the auction website? Like we were talking about how this one moment could solve all our problems and then one brief moment instead ends up ruining everything we had planned."

I rolled my eyes and responded, "Please don't bring that up right now. This situation is serious. The last thing I need is another ethics discussion as if you're Socrates or something."

"Look, I know you probably think I'm nuts and you're probably right," Judy warned before continuing, "When I brought it up before I was just doing it to tease you a little. But now that all this happened, maybe we should reach out to them and just hear what they have to say. I mean, it seems like the universe did us dirty and it's time to call the universe's bluff."

"If you think the universe gives two shits about us, you really are crazy," I responded as I crossed my arms over my chest. "Believing that because you lost a lot that you're soon going to win big seems like some sort of gambling addict's fallacy. That website was a stupid idea when we discussed it before. The fact that we're now in a much worse circumstances doesn't make it any less stupid now."

"Just let me submit the contact form," Judy replied with slightly parted lips as she walked over and sat next to me on the couch. Judy wrapped her arm around my neck and leaned over and kissed me cheek. "I love you, Luke. Trust me with this. You're probably right that this is a stupid idea. I'm being irrational because of this feeling I'm having. It's probably because I'm stressed out about everything that's happened this week. But let me take it just a little further. It's one of those things where I have to just get a little uncomfortable to get rid of this feeling I have. I'm sure once the reality of it sets in, I won't want any part of it."

"No," I objected. "Don't give them your personal information. What are you, crazy? I'll figure out some other way to make some extra money."

"Like what? Judy asked as she removed her arm from around my neck and placed it on her hip. "Seriously. What are you going to do?" Judy crossed her arms and pressed her lips into a fine line while she waited for an answer. After some time passed, Judy continued, "That's what I thought. Next time I'm at work I am going to contact them. That's as far as I am going to go though."

I shook my head as my chest became tight and rigid. "If this is what it takes to get you to shut up about this, then fine," I finally said. "But I don't want this going any further. The Judy I know responds to reason and logic. Even if she can at times be a bit dramatic. I don't like this mystical Judy who makes decisions based on things like karma."

I've spent many nights since that day struggling to fall asleep. Struggling with why I didn't make this into my last stand. The hill to die on. Like I said at the start, many decisions my girlfriend and I made in this process proved questionable. We did not have the tool of hindsight that we do now and in many ways, we were very naïve.

13. Vanholt Corporation - District Office

Judy rubbed the back of her neck as she looked around to make sure no one at her work was staring at her. I can't believe I'm doing this, Judy thought to herself. With trembling fingers, Judy typed the web address of the auction website. The familiar image of the site she had earlier visited soon popped up with the logo, Exalted Auctions. Ok, let's go, Judy thought as she clicked on the contact button. A prompt popped up asking Judy if she was interested in bidding on an auction or participating in an auction. Judy selected for participation. A second prompt asked if Judy belonged to any one of several special categories. Judy clicked on the icon next to virgin.

To proceed to the next step, Judy would need to fill out a profile. Many prompts filled Judy's screen asking for her information. Judy began filling out the forms with her name, address, phone number, and email. There were also prompts that required her to provide her birthday, height, weight, race, and even her bra size. When Judy reached the prompt for sexual orientation, Judy selected straight.

The next section allowed Judy to put limitations on the auction as Jessica had described during their dinner at Chotchkies. Judy indicated that she was only willing to engage in vaginal sex and not oral or anal. Judy also indicated she would only participate in protected sex. When Judy reached the prompt where she could exclude or include men of certain body times, Judy elected to exclude all men but those who were fit or average.

The final section took the form of an open-ended question asking them to provide additional information. That's vague, Judy thought. Judy typed out; I am just reaching out for information purposes. I heard a rumor that men will pay a lot of money to sleep with a virgin. Is this true? Also, how do your auctions work? Are they legal? What about safe?

Before Judy could proceed any further, the website also required her to submit a photograph. Judy again looked around her workspace to make sure no one was paying attention to her. Judy began to unbutton the top of her blouse until her cleavage started to spill out. Judy pushed her chest out and posed for a selfie using her cell phone's camera. She then enabled the data on her phone and emailed the photograph to her work email account. As soon as the photo was downloaded to her desktop, she uploaded it to the website and submitted it along with her profile.

"Judy," Mr. Palmer's voice interrupted. "Where are those reports, I asked you for this morning?" Mr. Palmer asked as he stood behind Judy and her desk.

Judy felt a rush of adrenaline as she quickly moved her mouse to exit out of her web browser. "I'm so sorry Mr. Palmer," Judy apologized with a flushed face. "I'll get working on them right away."

Mr. Palmer stared down at Judy's open blouse and exposed cleavage. "Yes, uhh..." he stammered. "When you are finished bring them to my office." Mr. Palmer slowly backed away from Judy's desk and began to walk back towards his office.

"Phew," Judy sighed as she slumped back into her chair. Judy then remembered her shirt was still open. Oh shit, Judy thought to herself as her face grew flush. She quickly buttoned the top of her shirt back up. Her boss was the last person she wanted leering at her cleavage.

Judy proceeded to have an otherwise uneventful day at work until near the end of her shift when she received an email response from Exalted Auctions. Judy didn't open the email immediately upon receiving it as she felt a bit nervous about what it might say. At first, she tried ignoring the email and focused on finishing her work for the day, but she was completely unable to concentrate as her thoughts kept going back to the email. Finally, as she shifted around in her office chair, Judy opened the email.