Sugar Baby

"What? You can't just cut me off like that? I still have my tuition for one more year, then there's my schoolbooks, and the apartment. Mother, father...you can't be serious?"

My parents told me to come home for an important family meeting. They informed me that they were getting a divorce, and since I was an adult, they decided to stop paying my monthly expenses, education, and even my allowance.

They gave me all kinds of excuses about their lawyers' expenses, their new families, but all I heard was that they were cutting me off, leaving me. They considered me baggage from their marriage, and they wanted nothing to do with me anymore.

I was never close to them, well, probably for the first ten years of my life. But after that, it went downhill. They would fight every night. I couldn't even remember who cheated on who first, but their divorce was a long time coming.

Money was never an issue for them. They were both successful businesspeople, which was why it didn't make any sense that they would stop supporting me. The only explanation could be that they didn't want to have anything to do with me.

"Lorraine darling, we’re both moving to another state. I trust that you can stand on your own two feet. You're twenty-one already. Just try it out, darling. We will leave you with two-months’ worth of expenses in your account, plus your car and apartment, of course," my mother said.

"But after that, we would expect you to support yourself. You need to learn to appreciate money…"

They both continued talking, but I was done. I walked out of my childhood home. I looked at it one last time. They said that they had already sold it and would send my things to my apartment. I started the drive back to my place, and my mind was in overdrive.

For the next two weeks, my life got even worse. My best friends decided I was not worthy of their time, since I was no longer rich. News spreads fast amongst the wealthy. They found out about my parent's divorce, and about me being cut off financially.

Even my boyfriend of two years broke up with me because his parents told him to. Apparently, Richard was being groomed to be in politics, and dating someone with divorced parents would be bad for his career.

I was sitting alone in my apartment, secretly grateful that they had all left me behind. If this was my life now, I needed to get started. I still had money for the next month and a half. But I would need to find a smaller apartment and sell my designer things online for more money. I needed to pay for next year's tuition which was due in the next two months. The apartment was under my name already, but the maintenance would cost a lot.

I was cruising on my laptop and had already set up my new eBay account. I needed to spread out my things and take pictures. But I decided to look at smaller apartments first. Maybe I should change my car too. The gas on that thing was life-threatening for my finances.

I was studying business, so I had an inkling of what was needed to be done to survive. I needed to get rid of what was consuming my expenses the most. I made a list on my notepad.

- Penthouse Apartment - Gourmet food - Weekend getaway - Car Gas

- Beauty spa - Weekly therapy - Tennis - Horse riding - Stable for Princess - Princess I finally cried when I thought about Princess. She had been there for me throughout my teens. I needed to sell my horse and end the lease on her stable.

I called Lucy at the stable, telling her that I wanted to meet with her, and talk about selling Princess. She didn't sound surprised. Damn! She must've heard about my parents too. Their friends hang out at the same club that houses the stables.

Walking down to the lobby, Phil greeted me. "Ms. Matthews."

"Oh Phil, what am I going to do with you? It's been years. I told you my name is Lori. Please. I will be out of this building in a matter of weeks now." Phil looked sad but he nodded and call me Lori. He opened the door for me and tipped off his hat, trying to look cheerful.

Oh...I'm going to miss the old man.

I went to the club, and straight to Lucy's office. We talked for about an hour. She already had a buyer for Princess, and the price was good.

Wow! She moved fast.

I told her to go ahead with the sale. I went to say goodbye to Princess and drained my tears as she kept nudging me for the treats that I brought her. I kissed her one last time and walked away.

It needed to be done. I can do this. People deal with worse.

I went to a bar and bought one shot of bourbon to give me strength after crying my eyes out. I was about to leave when a woman approached me.

"Do you have time to talk? I might have a business proposal for you. We can change the venue if you'd like. I'm Adriana." She looked glamorous, sophisticated. I had no idea what she would want with me.

"Uhm...what kind of business proposal?"

"Why don't we grab lunch and talk more. How about I meet you at the bistro across the street, fewer eyes there." She winked at me as I looked at my surroundings. A few people were looking our way, I could see a couple of my parent's friends with their pity eyes.

"Okay. I'll meet you in ten, I'm going to get my car."

Meeting a stranger in a bistro for a shady business proposal…Damn! I'm really desperate for money. Oh, fuck it! I'm just going to listen to her.

"Hi, I hope you don't mind that I ordered for you. It's all on us of course…company expenses." She showed off her pearly whites.

"So, Adriana, I'm Lorraine. I don't think we've met. Now, I'm confused about what kind of business proposal that you intend to pitch me?" I sat in front of her drinking my champagne, still trying to figure out how she knew me. Was she one of my parent's friends?

"No, we haven't met before. I'm a member of the club. I'm what you’d call a headhunter. But I specialize in a different field of expertise. I've heard about your situation. Please don't leave. Just listen and think about it. You don't have to answer or even get back to me if you're not interested."

I was about to get up, this sounded shady. I didn't like where this conversation was going. Then she gave me her card. There was no company name, just her name, Adriana, and her mobile number. There wasn't even a last name. I drank more champagne and tried to stay as still as possible.

"Good. Thank you, Lorraine. First, we are offering you a very exclusive contract. Our company handles the biggest clients in the country. We are very proud of our listing." She held my hand and looked into my eyes. I was still confused about what she was offering. I think I knew, but I just refused to believe my train of thought.

"We know about your situation. We could help you, and profit from you. It's a win-win. We have studied your background. As I said, we have the biggest clients. We don't let random people in. It's a very exclusive offer. We are offering you the option to be one of our highly paid escorts. I assume you know about sugar daddies? Well, I'm recruiting you to be our sugar baby." I choked on my drink.

"What the hell? How could you? Why? What makes you think…Damn it. Is this a joke? Who put you up to this?” I blurted out question after question, but she calmly rubbed the top of my hand and smiled sincerely.

"Lorraine, I know it's a lot to take in, but I need you to think about it. I'm not asking for a fast response. This lifestyle is not for everyone. But this is a very exclusive proposal. I assure you that no one will know. We are very discreet because of our client's names. That's why we only recruit a handful of ladies in a year." She paused to drink her champagne.

"Just sleep on it for a couple of days, weeks, up to you. I will be waiting, but I do hope you join us. At some point, you will easily get your horse back. The money is very enticing. But I won't talk about that now. I will need your commitment first. I will need your open mind for this lifestyle. Take the card and call me when you have your answer."

We talked some more and finished our lunch. Then she left me at the bistro. I was still stunned by the proposal.

I decided to go grocery shopping to clear my head since that was all I could afford right now. God! I'm so poor...

Damn it, woman! You can do this. You're lucky you can afford groceries.

I was heading back to my apartment with groceries in both of my hands, and Phil noticed that I was buying groceries instead of Prada and Dior. I never ordered gourmet food anymore. He would give me a look sometimes.

"Hey Phil, no don't worry I got it." But at the same time, someone bumped into me and made all my groceries fall. My eggs broke on the man’s Gucci shoes and he started yelling at me.

"Damn it, girl! I just got this. Now I must go back and change. I'm running out of time. I can't be late. You've just cost me my time."

Phil was by my side instantly. But I was already having my own breakdown. The eggs had also spilled on my favorite pair of white Louboutins. I knew I could not afford to have them cleaned properly, let alone replace them. My eyes watered.

The man seemed to be stunned that he had made me cry.

"Come, Ms. Matthews. I'll help you with your penthouse." I glared at Phil.

"Sorry, Lori, look...let me help you okay. You look like you had a very rough day. Just this one time, okay Ms... I mean Lori?" He smiled and started picking up my stuff.

I joined him and ignored the guy. He was one of those snobs who was always too busy to even look where they were walking. These people expected you to part ways just to let them pass and walk in a straight line.

"Look, hmm...I'm sorry that I snapped. Don't cry, okay? Just watch where you're going next time, okay?" The guy cleaned his shoes with his handkerchief, then he smiled at me. For a second, he looked genuinely sorry. Then his phone buzzed, and he was barking orders over the phone.

Well, there goes the handsome face. Wait, what?

Phil snapped me out of my daydream by calling me out from the elevator to join him. Then I was back to my problems in no time, overworking my little head off. I finally thanked Phil for helping me with the groceries and set them on the kitchen counter.

I quickly tried to clean my Louboutins and saved them as best as I could. I should start googling cleaning shoe DIY. I needed to save this pair.

After taking a quick shower, I decided to start taking pictures of my designer bags and shoes that I would be selling on eBay. I was starting from the expensive ones and the ones that I rarely used. Then there were still boxes that I hadn't opened from my parents' house.

God! This will take forever.

At least it was the weekend, and I had a couple of days to snap and post before I had to go to campus on Monday. I worked hard and posted a lot of things. I sold a couple of my items fast. I kept track of the money and calculated it for my tuition.

Damn! This was going too slow. I was so exhausted.

I decided to have a drink. I still had my stash of liquor at the bar. Thank God I did a lot of partying before.

Hmm...maybe I can sell this.

I was laughing my ass off now. I saw dollar signs attached to everything I touched. I was going crazy. I needed to stop thinking about money. I need to get wasted.

So, there I was alone on a Friday evening drinking my problems away, cruising on Google trying to find the best way to clean my favorite pair of Louboutins.