Like Warm Sun on Nekkid Bottoms - Charles Austen [156]
I scampered in her direction and tried anxiously to wave her off, but, of course, it was far too late. There was a contract involved. Pizeley M. Boone had made that abundantly clear.
“We have a bid…” Wisper said quietly into the microphone, astonished, “…of one hundred thousand dollars.” She paused, not sure if she should even bother asking. “Do I have another?”
One woman started to raise her hand, then reconsidered. Another coughed. They all looked toward Wendy, surprised and deeply disappointed. Their fun had ended far too soon, and not with anyone they knew and could tease, admire, or joke with.
Who was this newcomer?
I moved over to Waboombas and stood beside her. Wisper caught sight of me and scowled. Knowing how smart she was, she had probably figured out that I was somehow behind this and was wondering what my game might be.
“Ms. Waboom—Wendy,” I said. “I’ve recently discovered that I…” I briefly hesitated, “…I don’t have any money.”
Wendy continued looking around at the wondering crowd, soaking up their attention, and didn’t bother turning to me.
“What?” she asked.
“I’m broke,” I said, more curtly. “In this dimension, my money is worthless.”
She turned directly to me this time, and her smile faltered.
“What?” she asked again, though her terrified tone told me plainly that this time she’d heard me perfectly.
I shrugged, not sure what else I could say.
“SOLD!” Wisper said firmly. “To the woman in the red dress.”
Waboombas looked as if she’d been shot.
“Corky,” she said quietly, her voice sounding desperate. “I don’t have any money either.”
“I know,” I said. “But don’t worry. I’ll find a way to get us out of this.”
“You sure?” she asked, clearly not buying it.
“I’m sure.”
“You positive?”
“I am positive,” I said, feeling nothing of the kind.
She didn’t look convinced. Damn. The woman was far too insightful.
“I swear to you, I will make good on this,” I said, not explaining that it might be through my physical incarceration. “If I have to sell everything I own, my home, my car—everything—we will work this out, and nothing will happen to you.”
Wendy smiled, still a bit nervously, then pulled herself up to her full height and walked off to claim her prize. Confidence was, apparently—justified or not—her natural state of being.
“Let’s go, handsome!” she called out to River. “Your ass is mine for two whole days, and I ain’t wastin’ a second of it.”
River, for the first time since I’d encountered him—maybe for the first time in his life—looked nervous and unsure of his future. Good, served him right.
I had finally crossed some kind of personal line, or barrier, or Joseph Campbell threshold into a hero’s journey. I was going to get to Wisper, and I was going to make this work somehow, even if I had to go to jail to do it.
And now was the time. Petal stepped up on the stage and took the microphone from her sister, and Wisper moved, shyly, toward center stage. She had her head down slightly, then folded her hands behind her back and raised that lovely head, confidently, chin up, eyes out, lips smiling. Everything about her nude figure radiated magnificence.
What a girl, I thought.
“All right,” Petal began “You all know my sister, Wisper. The waitress with a heart of gold who organized this thing, and I must say, did an absolutely fantastic job of it because even the little hors d’oeuvres—she made those herself, you know, and they are sooo good, so if you haven’t tried them, you really need to, especially the little chocolate mousses—because this isn’t just ordinary food, we’re talking about here, folks, this is something that was delivered from the kitchens of the gods, and shows just how multi-talented she is, and how good at time-management she can be since she did those in her frickin’ spare time between mod…her…uh…day job and organizing this whole auction thing because not only is she the prettiest thing in Nikkid Bottoms by far, she has talents you’ll never get a chance to discover in just two nights, and two days—not talents like sexual talents, so don’t