Two Sugars

As readers of my other stories know, I usually do a good amount of character build-up before getting to the action. This story is no exception.

I always appreciate comments and feedback, so please leave some if you're so inclined.

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"Come on, Syd; we share everything. You can't keep all the tea to yourself on this one!" Isabella pleaded.

"It's kind of what I'm paid for, Izzie," Syd said while scrolling through her phone on her bed in their shared dorm, "I had to sign a little piece of paper and everything. Actually, it was a huge piece of paper, with a lawyer's name at the top."

Izzie rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Syd, you know that just means you can't go to TMZ or hop on TikTok and spill. It's just me, Isabella Rocha, best damn roommate anyone could hope for and hot piece of ass."

"Modest too," Syd quipped.

"Bet your ass," Izzie replied, "Come on, when have I screwed you over?"

"Well you were supposed to deliver on that bottle of Fireball for the Halloween party-"

"I told you, my brother got a flat. Totally not on me!" Izzie insisted.

"Then you forgot to leave your keys for me when you went home for Thanksgiving and I had that job interview," Syd said.

"Did I not hook you up with Damian Morgan? Did he not fuck you into next week? Because I've got complaints from the rooms next door and a really vivid memory of you waddling out of the bathroom bow-legged that afternoon."

"I was not bow-legged," Syd insisted.

"You were squirming like something itched your pussy good, and it was attached to the star running back. Who I hooked you up with right before homecoming?" Izzie said.

"Fine, whatever," Syd relented, "but this is different. This isn't college co-ed shit. This is like, legit legal real-life stuff. I do not want to fuck this up."

"Fine, whatever," Izzie echoed in a slightly bitchy tone and went back to her tablet, trying to read the virtual textbook for her chem class.

She'd been deathly curious about Syd's side hustle for the past month. At the beginning of sophomore year, both of them had their hearts set on rushing a sorority on campus that had promptly evaporated under hazing and sexual harassment scandals the school couldn't ignore. Izzie had been a bit disappointed but Syd had been devastated, almost to the point of tears. When she asked, Syd explained the sorority had a strong financial network and got students favorable rates for student loans and grants, and the member dues were way less than housing and book costs.

Izzie had never thought about that, but Sydney was always focused on money. It had actually annoyed Izzie when they were first assigned as roommates freshman year; here was this white girl with an hourglass figure, shiny brunette hair, straight white teeth and a pair of lawyers for parents and she was panicking about money? Meanwhile Izzie was the third child of her single mom, and only made it into college thanks to a few financial aid packages and a damn fine essay. She's resigned herself to the idea that the rest of her life was going to be working her ass off as a nurse and never paying off her student loans until some boyfriend knocked her up and left her in the lurch like her mom. It was family tradition, almost, and this college gig was just her last vacation before she'd have to own up to it. She wanted to live it up in the last four years of fun she figured she'd have, and this bitch was cramping her style.

After a blowup fueled by too much alcohol, bad timing, and boy troubles, Izzie got the real tea on her roommate. Her parents were both lawyers, but her younger brother was the darling, so most of Syd's mother's attention and money went to him. Meanwhile her father was better at office politics than legal arguments, and he'd picked the wrong side in a dustup at his firm. His train on the partner track had been derailed and her mother had started questioning why, if she was the one making all the money, she was putting up with him at all, especially with all the rumors about how he chose his personal assistants. By the semester break that year, Syd was trying to figure out how to schedule Christmas at two separate houses.

Izzie tried to convert Syd to her "four-year last hurrah" outlook but she'd only been partially successful. She thought she'd made a breakthrough when Syd agreed to rush the sorority with her, and only found out about the financial motivations after it fell apart. Syd had been frantically job hunting all throughout their first semester but never landed anything solid. The whole time her stress level had been going through the roof.

Then she came back after winter break completely different. The first couple weeks she'd seemed a little nervous, but then she relaxed more. She also disappeared on weekends and at least two nights a week, only telling Izzie she had to work.

Izzie sort of stumbled onto the truth by accident. She'd snagged herself a boyfriend after homecoming and they'd kept it going pretty strong. Izzie caught some feelings even, so she went nuclear when, three weeks after coming home from break, she found out he'd reconnected with a high school flame over break and had been stringing Izzie along.

Izzie's frustrations had been both emotional and physical and a week after the breakup she'd broken her "substitute boyfriend" by forgetting to seal the battery properly and using it in the shower. Syd had found Izzie digging through her drawers wrapped in a towel.

"What are you doing?" she'd asked.

"Looking for your fucking vibrator," Izzie had snapped back.

"What the fuck Izzie?"

"It's not like you're using it. You're getting good dick on the regular now. Yeah, I know. I don't know who he is but I've never seen a woman look as well fucked as you when you come back from-oh holy shit!"

Somehow before that moment Izzie had never connected Syd's satisfied, well-fucked look with the times she "left for work." Suddenly really embarrassed, Izzie had immediately rushed back to the shower. Two days of awkward exchanges followed. Finally Izzie decided it had to stop and had told Syd that she didn't judge and was supportive, but if she was escorting she should be careful, because her mother had told her a lot of stories.

Then Syd had told her the real story.

"It's called sugar-babying," she'd said, "It's just one guy. I go on a few dates with him a week. Then one overnight over the weekend. Just him and me. No clients, no pimp, nothing like that."

"But-"

"Izzie I'm not really supposed to talk about details. But I'm okay," Syd had insisted.

Over the next couple of weeks Izzie realized Syd was more than okay. She was more relaxed than Izzie could remember ever seeing her, and she thought only part of that was from the regular sex she must be getting. She also acquired some new things Izzie couldn't help but notice, like a brand new Apple watch and some blouses with brands like French Connection and Reiss. Also, the couple of times she'd caught Syd changing before or after work, her underwear was always colorful, lacy, and often included a garter belt.

She'd switched from worrying about her roommate to teasing her quite a bit about her excursions, frequently greeting her on her returns from trips by inquiring about what positions they'd tried, or if she had to fake it that night.

Tonight, she'd tried a different approach to sate her curiosity, promising no more teasing and an honest, non-judgemental approach if Syd would just let clue her into some details.

"If you're so curious you could always try it yourself, you know," Syd finally said after silence reigned in the dorm for a few minutes.

"Yeah, okay," Izzie scoffed.

"What?" Syd asked.

"Look at you, Syd, then look at me," Izzie said.

"You look fine," Syd insisted.

"Sure," Izzie scoffed again, "My frizzy-haired, snaggle-toothed face and flat chest are what all the guys want to pay top dollar for."

Syd rolled her eyes. "For fuck's sake Izzie you wear a b-cup. That's not nothing. And you're the only one that thinks your tooth is even noticeable. People only see it because you point it out. You've got a natural all-over tan by default, your eyes may as well be hypnotic with that golden brown mix you've got, and people would literally worship your ass if you let them. Trust me, you look fine. Weren't you the one calling yourself a hot piece of ass a second ago?"

Izzie actually felt herself blush at her roommate's praise. She'd never heard Syd say any of those things before, and especially not with the voice and look Syd gave her. There was a bit of an awkward pause again when Izzie thought Syd would look away, but her face was almost pleading, as if she was desperate for Izzie to believe her.

"Well still," Izzie finally said to break the tension, "I don't think it would happen. And after what that asshole did, I don't think I could stand the idea of being a side piece."

Syd rolled her eyes that time, and Izzie felt a little hurt. Having successfully killed the conversation, both of them went back to their own thing.

When Izzie got up to get ready for bed, Syd said, "I'm not, you know."

"What?" Izzie asked.

"I'm not a side piece," Syd said quietly, "I couldn't do that either."

Izzie's eyes went wide and she made to ask more questions but Syd shook her head and said, "Shit, I shouldn't have said that. Look, it's really not what you're thinking, Izzie. Just...leave it at that."

Izzie didn't know what to do with that, so she just walked to the bathroom.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Despite the awkwardness of their conversation that night, or maybe because of it, Izzie couldn't get the reality of Syd's job out of her head. Every day she would wake up or start drifting off to sleep and think of things she wanted to ask Syd about her experiences.

At first she just blurted out the questions, but usually Syd brushed her off the same way, or suggested she just look online somewhere where people who were curious asked. But Izzie wasn't interested in that. She didn't want to know what some random stranger's experiences were; she wanted to know what Syd, specifically, was doing.

Izzie wasn't dense, and she could tell she was annoying Syd after a few days, so she kept her questions to herself. When Syd left that Saturday morning, Izzie found herself saying, "I hope you have a good time."

Syd turned around and smiled at her. "I will," she said.

Izzie couldn't explain why she was suddenly obsessed with Syd's job. She wondered if it was some sort of weird rebound thing. It had certainly taken her mind off of her ex, though it didn't do anything for the other kind of frustration.

Her replacement vibrator had finally come in, and she decided to put it to use right then. As the contoured plastic split her folds and wet her sex, she found her mind conjuring images of Syd in lingerie, with a man standing behind her, clearly pounding away. That image stuck in her head as she pushed herself to an oddly intense and satisfying orgasm.

She wasn't sure what to make of her fantasizing. She wasn't secretly in love with Syd, she was pretty sure. You weren't fantasizing about fucking her, she thought to herself, you were fantasizing about her fucking another guy. Her other guy.

As she always did, Izzie didn't dwell on the problem; she just pushed it to the back of her mind and ignored it, burying herself in studying, random videos, and hanging out with other friends. By the time Syd got back from "work", Izzie had almost forgotten about it.

Of course, then Izzie came back to their dorm Tuesday after her afternoon class and saw Syd bent over her drawers in a black lace corset and garter, stockings not on yet, the little string of her thong barely hiding anything. She looked away quickly. And averted her gaze until Syd had her little black dress on for her date. Then Izzie delayed going to the campus dining hall in favor of a session in her bed with the vibrator. Again, her mind was full of Syd, but still in lingerie and fucking her mystery lover. Izzie wondered if she was a voyeur now, but she didn't feel any particular compulsion to try following Syd, or even to try catching someone else having sex. The next night she could clearly hear Pat in the room next door getting some, but she just had a fleeting thought that she was happy for them and went back to what she was doing.

She vowed to herself she wasn't going to jill off again on Thursday, Syd's other "work night," but her method of distracting herself was to look more into the whole sugar baby thing. Unfortunately after the first one or two entries she found everything else seemed to be stories about a "friend of a friend I heard of," and most of them had posted anonymously. Izzie got it, for sure; she could only imagine the kinds of DMs those women would get telling the internet they're basically a high-end prostitute. And even if that wasn't totally correct based on the descriptions, most people on the internet wouldn't bother making that kind of distinction.

Syd was late coming back that night. Izzie had planned on waiting up for her, but at some point her body got the better of her and she dropped off. She was a little surprised to find herself nicely tucked in the next morning.

Then Syd asked her if she was around for dinner Friday night. Izzie made a sarcastic quip about her dating life but Syd ignored it and said, "Good. We need to talk about something," before rushing off to her morning class.

Unfortunately, Izzy couldn't push that worry to the back of her mind like everything else; she was sure it was some sort of "roommate breakup" situation. Maybe she had found a co-op or something and was moving into an apartment next year? Was she moving in with her sugar daddy full time now? Or maybe she'd just gotten tired of the awkwardness that seemed to be growing and wanted to get another roommate. Then she wondered if Izzie was going to ask her to move into an apartment. She checked her finances and for the first time in a while really looked at the long term picture. She had $250 to her name, which was more than she usually had if she was honest with herself; breaking up with her boyfriend had done wonders for her savings. But she was pulling in maybe $60 a week from her on-campus job, and she had no prospects. There was no way she'd be able to afford anything other than the dorms going forward; her student loans didn't cover off-campus apartments.

Because of her worrying, Izzie was a bit down when she met Syd for dinner, to the point where Syd opened the conversation with, "What's wrong?"

"Just...are you sticking around the rest of the semester?" Izzie asked.

"What?" Syd asked.

"I mean...you're moving out, right? That's what you wanted to talk about? That we won't be roommates anymore?" Izzie said.

"Oh God Izzie that's not it at all. Sit down, have some food," Syd insisted.

Izzie was a bit relieved, though she still had a bit of worry because now she wasn't sure at all what Syd wanted to discuss. After getting her food and eating for a bit, chatting about nothing with Syd, she finally got down to it.

"So, look, I know you're still kind of obsessed with this sugar baby thing, and I've been shutting you down," Syd said. Her voice was clear but quiet, but Izzie still cast a paranoid glance around the dining hall to make sure there weren't people listening.

"Syd, it's fine, I'm okay with it. I shouldn't have pushed and I'm sorry," Izzie said, "And I'm only a bit curious you know, I'm not, like, obsessed or anything."

Syd smirked. "I saw your tablet last night. You'd been scrolling around about it for a couple hours at least," she said teasingly.

Izzie blushed. "Well it's sort of like your secret life. I guess I'm a little curious," she admitted.

"How curious?" Syd asked.

"Why?" Izzie replied.

Syd took a deep breath and paused for a second, then said, "I talked to Charles."

"He's your...?" Izzie left the question unfinished but Syd nodded.

"If you want, you can come with me this Saturday. There's no expectation," she quickly added as she saw Izzie's eyes widen and mouth open to say something, "Charles says it would just be me inviting a friend over for part of the day. This is still my job, though, Izzie and at some point, well...I have to do my job."

"So, um, is he gonna ring a bell or something and that's when I go?" Izzie asked.

Syd looked at her annoyed until Izzie giggled, which set Syd off. "I don't know," Syd finally admitted, "he said if you showed up he'd play it by ear."

Izzie felt a little thrill, but then she paused and looked at Syd accusingly. "What exactly did you tell him about me?" she asked.

Syd shrugged. "I just told him you'd been curious about what I do," she insisted. After Izzie glared at her for a bit, she admitted, "I may have...talked you up a bit to him."

"So, you're pimping me out?"

"No!" Syd insisted, "Izzie, seriously, I did not tell him you were going to do anything. You can wear a burqa when we go if you don't want him looking or whatever; I swear we'll all be perfectly fine. But you can't fool me; you want to know what my job's like. He's kind of curious to meet my roommate, and he says he feels guilty taking me away from my busy college life, and he feels like this is letting me keep some of it."

"And what are you getting out of this?" Izzie asked.

Syd shrugged. "I mean, he's not totally wrong; I wouldn't mind having you around rather than puttering around in his house by myself."

There was a long silence after that as they both finished their meals. Finally Syd looked at her phone and said, "I have to get to study group. Look, think about it. If you want to go, just tell me tomorrow morning. And I promise, there's no strings attached here."

-=-=-=-=-=-

Syd usually left around 10:00 on Saturdays. Izzie rarely slept past that, especially since she broke up with her boyfriend, and this Saturday was no different; her eyes popped open at around 8:50.

She stayed perfectly still, just watching as Syd got out of bed and headed off to the bathroom. She saw the few glances Syd cast her way, her expression questioning (possibly longing). Izzie went back and forth in her head a bunch of times while her roommate primped and prepared to leave. She wasn't dressing up like her weeknight trips, she came back from the shower in a purple tanga and bra combination with lace edges, and then slipped on tight yoga pants that showed off her legs and ass.

By 9:45 Syd was mostly put together, just touching up her eyeliner. Izzie still hadn't moved from the bed. Syd looked at her for a long moment through the mirror.

"Fine, fuck it," Izzie said suddenly.

She threw off her covers and dashed into the bathroom, taking a lukewarm shower at best. She'd lost the time to do anything effective with her hair before even getting up, so she just pulled it back into a ponytail that at least wouldn't leave her head looking like a mop after a lightning strike.

She got back to the room and froze with indecision. She looked at her closet and bureau while standing, clutching a towel. Syd came up to her.

"I don't know what to wear," Izzie admitted.

"Wear what you want."

"Shouldn't I wear what he would want?" Izzie asked.

"It's not your job. You're the guest. You're just my roommate, come for a hang out," Izzie reminded her, "Besides, if he wants me to wear something he has to buy it for me."

They both giggled at that. Izzie put on some black slacks that she knew showed off her ass well and a basic tank shirt with built-in support so she didn't have to bother with a bra. It was only after walking down the hallway with Syd she realized the shirt was one she bought for dates with her ex.

The car waiting to pick them up was no basic Uber. It was sleek and black and she could use the chrome on it do to her makeup. She literally slid across the leather seats when she got in and had a full window and climate control console in the back. The car set off as soon as Syd was settled.