“This ain’t business, li’l baby. This just art. Sometimes I just have to get the words out my head. Write the lyrics down, but I ain’t really hearing no beat with it. It’s just something weird I do. My fault. I got notes on my phone, scraps of paper with scribbled thoughts all in my car. It’s a bad habit.”
“It’s poetry,” she answered, eyes softening.
Day scoffed. “If you say so.” He stood. “Let’s eat. Give housekeeping time to change the sheets and turn down the room.”
Stassi hesitated. “You don’t normally like to walk with me in public. I mean, we go through different doors. We don’t have to eat downstairs. I know this is just an arrangement.”
Day paused. He was in tune enough to hear the hurt in her voice.
“Every woman I’ve ever done this with had rules. I didn’t need the paparazzi speculating, starting rumors of dating, digginginto the past of the women I see. It’s a privacy thing,” he explained.
She nodded. “Yeah, I get it. We don’t have to…”
“You sent the money back.” He stopped her. “I know how much you need it. I didn’t see it ‘til this morning. Why’d you give it back?”
Stassi shrugged. “The not being seen in public, the hotel rooms and the personal team that rotate your women in and out for you, and the money... It made me feel cheap. I’ll climb out my hole. I’ll rebuild my life. I can’t rebuild my soul if I take the money.”
He was speechless. “Stassi, I want to take you on a real date, like fuck the arrangement. I fuck with you and I ain’t never been that interested in a woman before. My lifestyle don’t accommodate relationships, but everything about you makes me want to ask a million questions. I need to know more.”
Stassi was like a deer in headlights.
“I can’t, Day. We can’t,” she said. “I took money from you for sex. You’ll always see me as that person. I was desperate and low. I can’t be that person.”
“You’re not that person.” He stood and made his way over to her. “I can see the depths in you, Stassi. Let me drown.”
“Definitely a poet,” she whispered. She sighed weakly, feeling her resolve dissipate as he stared into her eyes. “What is this feeling?” It was like her heart was clogged, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t clear it.
“I don’t know, but it’s something real interesting about you. Your energy is fucking crazy, even when you’re asleep. A nigga write like crazy just watching you breathe in the middle of the night.”
“You write?” Stassi asked, a little confused.
“Your breathing inspires me,” he said. He took the back of his finger and traced her jawline as he admired every featureon her face. “Not the breathing you’re doing now. You’re tense and nervous. It’s fucking up the vibe in the room because you’re in your head. You’re uncertain about this, about me, but when you’re sleep... You exhale peace, and the shit is music to my ears. Kinda like your orgasms. When you orgasm, I hear music too. You remind me of the thing I love most in this world, Stassi, and that’s my music. I just want to keep tapping into you, if you let me.”
No man had ever described her with this much passion. Stassi liked Day. She was infatuated with him in dangerous proportions, but she was so unsure. First impressions mattered, and his first impression of her was that she could be bought.
He kissed her lips. “Dinner in public?” He asked.
“Dinner in public,” she confirmed.
He released her and reached down in his bag, and removed a small pink gift bag. “I kinda really want you to wear these.”
Stassi pulled the contents out of the bag to discover a pair of thong panties.
She laughed. “Wait, what?”
He reached inside the bag and recovered a remote. He pressed one button, and the panties came alive in her hand. The vibration was strong, and a streak of mischief streaked through her.
He took the panties from her hands and then reached for her jeans, lowering to help her out of them.
She stepped into the panties, and he slid them up, kissing her legs and thighs as he ascended her body. He made sure the vibrator was pressed right against her clit.
“This is crazy,” she giggled.
“Time spent should be time remembered, Stass. Let’s make it interesting,” Day said.
There was a sense of adventure in the air as Stassi sat across from Day.
“I always see people on dates, and I rate how in love they are,” Stassi said as she sipped the glass of wine that she held daintily in her hand.
