Exalted Auctions: The Virgin Bride Ch. 02

The email read as follows, Dear Judy, thank you for reaching out to us to inquire about this once in a lifetime opportunity. I am sure you have many questions about contracting with us and you deserve to have full and fair answers provided face to face and not through an email. Therefore, I have included an invitation to a video conference next Thursday. In the meantime, I can ensure you that claims that women who have contracted with us have made life changing amounts of money are not mere rumors but the reality of the opportunities we provide. Exalted Auctions is a professional, diverse, and socially responsible organization. Women who contract with us keep 90% of any auction proceeds and we use much of the remaining 10% to invest in charitable activities through our partnership with several non-governmental organizations. Because of our commitment to charity, these percentages are non-negotiable. We guarantee the safety and legality of all our auctions in every one of our contracts. I look forward to meeting you and discussing this amazing opportunity face to face. Sincerely, P."

Judy was caught a bit off guard by the email. It hadn't been what she expected at all. She was expecting something much sleazier and more abrasive. Yet it didn't seem like Exalted Auctions had anything to hide. There weren't any red flags. Judy accepted the calendar appointment for the video conference for next Thursday.

14. Dumpy Apartment Building

"You know, I reached out to the auction website..." Judy began as she lifted a spoonful of hot soup up to her lips. We were both eating dinner together in the kitchen of her apartment.

I shook my head before ingesting my own spoon full of soup. "I wish you would just drop this," I responded. "Instead, you just keep on going and going. You know that, right?"

"I know," Judy conceded before swallowing the spoonful of soup. Judy looked down at the soup bowl and narrowed her eyes. "But we got to keep an open mind about things. Dealing with these auction people might be bad but so is being homeless."

"Don't start catastrophizing," I counseled. "I am sure we'll find a way out of this before it reaches that point." I scooped up a spoonful of soup and began to blow on it to cool it down.

"I don't know," Judy remarked as she grabbed a saltshaker and sprinkled some salt into her soup. "Did you have any luck applying to extra jobs?"

"I didn't get around to it," I explained as I sipped the soup from the spoon. "I really had no idea it was going to take me that long to get to work and back taking that bus. It's so much slower than driving. I wish my job was close like yours so I could just walk."

"That doesn't sound very promising," Judy responded with a frown. "Well, I have a phone call setup with the auction people next Thursday. They said that they would answer all our questions then." A loud motorcycle could be heard driving through the intersection outside.

"You're actually going to speak with someone about potentially auctioning your body off?" I responded as I crossed my arms. "I thought you were just doing this to satisfy your curiosity. That seems like more than being curious."

"You're right," Judy conceded before continuing, "I'll probably chicken out. It's starting to get a little too real. But yeah, right now it is scheduled for next Thursday. If I do decide to do it, I'll just reserve one of the conference rooms at work. Just to get a little bit more information."

"Shouldn't I be there?" I interjected as I dropped my spoon into the bowl of soup. "I don't like the idea of you talking by yourself to a bunch of people who auction women off for a living."

Judy shook her head. "I know I said phone call but it's actually a video call," Judy explained. "We don't have a webcam here and we're almost out of data. Plus, despite what you're saying, this company is actually pretty corporate and professional. They're the ones who offered to speak candidly face to face about what it's like to work with them." Judy looked around at her apartment's worn furniture and cheap mass-produced decorations. "Besides, this place... its basically the opposite of professional."

"I just don't want you to get taken advantage of," I countered. "My advice is don't do it at all. It seems like deep down you agree with that as well, so I don't know why you haven't given it up a while ago." I sighed as I picked the spoon out from the soup bowl. "But if you're dead set on this, just make sure you don't agree to anything without talking to me about it first." The prospect of Judy meeting with people from the auctions made me concerned and uncomfortable but at the same time I felt relieved that I would not have to be present for a conversation that would likely be very embarrassing for me. Of course, knowing now the string of ignominies I would later endure, I would've never emotionally procrastinated in the first place.

15. Vanholt Corporation - District Office - Next Thursday

Judy paced back and forth as she tried to assess whether it would be possible for anyone else at the office to listen in on her upcoming conversation. Judy had reserved a conference room for herself for privacy because if anyone else found out what she was doing, it would be highly embarrassing. Having scoped out the perimeter enough times, Judy finally relinquished and entered the dark conference room. When Judy hit the light switch, nothing happened for a few seconds before the lights finally flickered and then illuminated the room. The room was well insulated and managed to cancel out most of the sounds of ringing phones and copy machines emanating from the cubicles outside. Newer, relatively unused furniture in the conference room gave it a plastic smell.

"Ok, let's do this," Judy quietly said to herself. Her hands grabbed the web camera and set it atop the conference's room's computer monitor. Judy took a deep breath and pressed the power button. Her legs crossed while she logged into the computer. Upon accessing her email, Judy felt a chill come over her and her chest began tingling. I don't have to do this, Judy thought to herself. Her fingers tapped on the top of the desk as she could feel her heart beating sluggishly. Judy sighed as she quickly grabbed the mouse and clicked on the web meeting invitation link.

A window popped up on Judy's screen. In the center of the window, Judy could see a mirror reflection of herself captured by the camera she had connected to the computer. Text in the upper center portion of the window indicated, waiting on meeting organizer. Judy swiveled back and forth in her desk chair as she bit down on her lower lip. As minutes passed, Judy experienced an empty feeling in her stomach.

A bell noise sounded from the computer's speaker and the window increased to fill the entire screen. The reflected projection of Judy decreased in size and moved to the bottom right corner of the screen. A new picture now took over the screen of a well-dressed, attractive woman in what appeared to be an expensive suit seated at a sleek, modern looking desk. The woman had hair that looked professionally styled and was wearing a pair of colorful glasses with thick rims. Judy sensed the woman was older than her but not yet middle aged. The office she was in appeared large and decorated with post-modern art. Tall windows in the background revealed that the office was high up from the ground and in view of several other skyscrapers.

"Judy?" the woman asked as she gazed intensely at my girlfriend. "Can you hear me speaking?" The woman's voice had a subtle hint of a New York accent.

"Yes, it's working," Judy responded as she twirled her hair with her right hand.

"Oh, great!" the woman responded with a smile. "I can sense you're a little nervous sweetie. I was nervous too when I first started working in this industry. A lot of women find it awkward. But the fact you've made it this far makes you special. I can already see myself in you. You're going to have lots of success and not let anyone else get in your way."

"You're right," Judy admitted. "I am nervous. I've never considered something like this and I'm hoping just to get some more information on it."

"Of course!" the woman replied. "There's no pressure here whatsoever. Just think of me as one of your girlfriends. We're just discussing all the options we have available to us as women. I don't believe any woman should be pressured into something she is uncomfortable with. You've heard of #MeToo right? I actually do a lot of consulting for some of the lawyers suing Hollywood on behalf of those poor actresses."

"I don't want to be rude," Judy spoke as she continued to twirl her hair. "But you could tell me, who exactly it is that you are?"

"Oh!" the woman exclaimed. "I'm so sorry! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Penelope. I am the general counsel for Exalted Auctions," Penelope hesitated for a second and then continued, "But what I really am is more like your agent."

"So, is that, like, a lawyer or something?" Judy asked. "Should I have a lawyer with me for this?"

"That's something I really can't answer because it's really up to you," Penelope responded as she appeared to be looking past Judy and examining the conference room, she was in. "I will tell you that transactional attorneys often charge hundreds of dollars an hour. In my experience they tend to torpedo deals over pointless technicalities. Besides, Exalted Auctions has consulted with many legal experts who all agree that the services we provide are one hundred percent legal. In fact, a standard term of our contract is a legal guarantee. If you are ever subject to any sort of criminal prosecution or fine related to our contracts, we will hire you an independent attorney to toss the suit. In the extraordinary situation your lawyer loses in court, we even agree to indemnify you and pay any penalties imposed."

"Wow," Judy remarked. "That sounds pretty generous. That's good to hear because I certainly couldn't afford to pay a lawyer hundreds of dollars an hour."

"Good decision, sweetie," Penelope said as she suppressed a smirk. "Your time is very valuable to us. I just sent you an email. Click on the link and it well let you download a $200 gift card to Chotchkies. Consider it our gift to you."

Judy observed an alert pop up at the bottom of the screen notifying her that she had received the email with the downloadable gift card. Judy's eyes widened as she responded, "Thank you. That's very nice of you."

Penelope smiled and continued, "What I was trying to say is that I'm not meeting you as someone who is representing Exalted Auctions. Sure, that is a role I sometimes play. Today my role here is as your agent. Many women would love to participate in our auctions. We hear from hundreds of the most ambitious, beautiful, young women every day. It would be impossible to meet with all of them like this. For those who we believe will be exceptionally successful, we assign an agent to help them maximize their potential. As your agent, I am one hundred percent on your side. Because Exalted Auctions takes a percentage of the total auction price, I have every incentive to get you the true value of what you are worth."

"It's because..." Judy blushed a light shade of peak before continuing, "I'm a virgin, right?"

Penelope paused and pondered the question before answering, "I see a woman who is both luxurious and clever. By itself, your virginity provides you with nothing of value. To lose it is to lose nothing other than an opportunity. The opportunity to bargain it to a man. Men foolishly think popping a cherry is some sort of luxury when they would have the same exact sexual experience with any woman, virgin or not. Unlike most women, you were clever enough to hold on to your virginity until the opportune time. You waited until the perfect time to bargain it away for as much money as you possibly could. Thinks about it, how else are you ever going to extract value from it? At some point, the longer you wait, the less valuable it becomes."

"I never thought of it that way," Judy remarked. "That email you sent. It said I could make twenty-five grand. My boyfriend and I are trying to save up for a wedding."

"Boyfriend?" Penelope asked. "Wedding? Ohh...yes, I can work with this." Penelope eyes glowed as she began rapidly nodding. "If you take me seriously as your agent and listen to what I have to say, you'll be getting way more than twenty-five grand. I promise you that if we work together, you'll have a debt free wedding, a paid vacation on a tropical island, and a couple additional months to take off from working by living off the residuals."

"Really?" Judy asked excitedly. "You really think that I could get that much?"

"Sweetie," Penelope began before continuing, "this is BMW money we're talking about here. I wasn't joking when I called you luxurious." Penelope turned away from her camera and began typing on her keyboard. "Judy, I'm going to try to share my computer screen with me. Accept the message when it pops up."

A window popped up on Judith's screen letting her know that Penelope wanted to share her screen. Judy accepted the request. Her screen then filled with an image of a computer desktop.

"This is a short video I show to all of my clients as an agent," Penelope explained. "I just want you to watch it before we go on."

The mouse clicker hovered over to a video file saved on the desktop before beginning to play a video. The video started with some light intro music accompanying Exalted Auction's corporate logo. The picture then faded into a recording of an attractive young woman speaking into a microphone. She appeared to be in an office.

"Hello," the young woman spoke in a cheerful voice. "My name is Melissa. Prior to my auction, I always struggled with credit card debt. I had self-esteem issues, and I could never get a handle over my finances. Life seemed so hard back then. When I heard about Exalted Auctions, at first, I thought it was a joke. I could never see myself auctioning myself off. When I reached out to find out more, that's when I met my agent. She really opened my eyes to an opportunity I never knew existed. She changed my life."

"Talk about your experience with the auction," said Penelope's voice from somewhere out of view of the camera recording Melissa.

"Everything about the auction was very professional." Melissa explained. "At first, I really argued with my agent over some of the details. But having been through the process, I now see why she made all the right suggestions. Some of my fears were how awkward it was going to be or that I'd feel grossed out or dirty afterwards. That wasn't my experience at all."

"What was it like being with the auction winner?" asked Penelope.

"Like I said, "Melissa began and continued, "Not awkward at all. He took me out to eat. We drank wine together. He wasn't creepy or weird at all. I did what I agreed to do and felt no guilt about anything. I have not seen him since but if I did, I would thank him again for the opportunity he gave me."

"I know you probably don't want to discuss this in front of a camera, but what are your feelings about losing your virginity to a stranger?" Penelope asked.

Melissa did not hesitate before answering, "No regrets. I felt the same after as I did beforehand. It made no difference. I thought maybe it was going to hurt the first time. It didn't hurt at all though. I don't miss being a virgin because there was never really anything to be missed."

"How did the auction change your life?" Penelope's disembodied voice asked.

"The first thing I was able to do was get out of debt, permanently," Melissa explained to the camera. "That really did a lot to help regain my confidence. I also used some of the money to have my breasts augmented. Since then, I find I get noticed more often and I've been promoted several times at the office."

"All the success you've had since?" Penelope's voice asked. "It didn't involve having to sleep with anyone else, did it?"

"No," Melissa responded as she laughed awkwardly. "That was a one-time thing I did to turn my life around. It's not what defines me as a person. I have zero regrets and in fact I am very satisfied with my decision to work with Exalted Auctions. Working with EA does not make you into a sex worker or anything like that. It just helps you on the path to becoming the person you want to be. For me, that was getting out of debt and regaining my self-confidence."

Penelope's voice asked, "Is there any other advice you would give to other women considering working with Exalted Auctions?"

"Well," Melissa paused before continuing, "don't let this opportunity pass you by. The other thing is, listen to your agent. They are really your advocate in the process and are the key to taking advantage of your opportunity. Your agent is probably going to tell you things you don't want to hear. Just listen to them."

"Thanks, Melissa," Penelope's voice concluded. The video file reached the end of the recording. A moment passed before the screen flickered back to a live recording of Penelope's office.

"Thanks for watching my little video," Penelope said with a smile on her face. "Just out of curiosity, how did it make you feel hearing Melissa's experience?"

"Less nervous, I guess," Judy responded. "It's kind of what I expected honestly but I guess hearing it makes it feel more... grounded. Doing this is really something I don't think most women would even think about."

"That's what makes you so exceptional," Penelope responded as she turned her attention towards her computer screen. "Since it appears we're both on the same page with this, let me get your signature on our contract and then we can begin working on your auction."

Judy noticed a new pop-up window notifying her that she had received an email. Judy opened the email's attachment. A document appeared on her screen that was several hundred pages long. "You want me to sign this now?" Judy asked as her eyes blinked. "I still had a lot of questions about this." Judy scrolled down part of the document and noticed that there were parts of it that appeared to be incomplete with blank sections.

"Don't sweat it sweetie," Penelope responded. "This is just the main contract. By signing this you agree to participate in an auction where the bidder will be permitted to be intimate with you. You agree that you will remain a virgin until the auction, and you will submit to testing to confirm that as well as to confirm the lack of any sexually transmitted diseases. Once you agree to this, we'll hash out all the minor details."

"Well," Judy began as she fidgeted in her chair. "I really wanted to have some time to talk this over with my boyfriend. I mean, we did already talk about it, but I think it'd be easier if I talked to him some more about it. Also, there is a lot here to read."

"Look, I understand where you're coming from," Penelope responded as she leaned towards her webcamera and softened her tone of voice. "I don't know how your boyfriend feels about this. Maybe he is gung-ho and eager for you to do it. Maybe he's reluctant to have you be with someone else. Men can be territorial like that. What I do know from working with other women in your shoes that you'll feel a lot better about the decision you make if you make it yourself. It is your body and therefore should be your decision."

"I suppose you're right," Judy responded. "But I'd still like some time to go through all of this. I didn't expect the process to go so fast."

"Trust me," Penelope responded as she nodded her head towards Judy. "I've got only your best interests in mind. Lots of women would envy the position you're in right now. In fact, I have several more I need to meet with today. Unfortunately, that means my time is pressed. You don't want to get nervous and blow an opportunity like this. Just enter an electronic signature on the last page and forward it back to me. Once I know you are serious about doing this, I can give you all the time you need to work out details and answer all your questions. Are you the type of woman who knows what she wants and does what it takes or are you the type of woman who tends to flake out?"