The Lowest Maintenance Sugar Baby novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: One Real Purchase

Carlton put down his spoon.

"No," he said.

"No what?"

"Don't buy my family, ma'am. Not for me." He swallowed. "If Millie wants to, that's hers to decide. But don't do it to save me. I don't want to be the thing somebody paid to rescue."

Opal looked at him for a long time.

"Good answer," she said, and stood up, and took her purse. "Millicent, I'm going for a walk. There's a bodega on the corner with a shelf of peanuts, and I intend to read every label."

She kissed my forehead, patted Carlton's shoulder, and left us alone with three empty bowls.

He picked up his bowl and carried it to the sink.

He turned on the tap.

I could see his back, and it was shaking a little.

"Don't wash those," I said. "You'll flood the floor. The drain's a liar."

"Millie."

"Come upstairs."

The roof was cold, and the sky over downtown had a smear of orange in it.

I sat in my lawn chair and he sat in his, and the arms were two inches apart, just like the first time.

"My boyfriend," I said, "when I was twenty-three. He knew my grandmother owned the stores. I told him on the fourth date, because I thought that was the kind of person I was supposed to be."

Carlton said nothing.

"He told a gossip site. Not for money, he said. He said he thought people ought to know. They put my face on it for a week. People I'd been friends with for years asked me to invest in their podcasts."

"God."

"A man I'd been dating before that, one date, sent me his rent number. The day he found out, I mean. He never said hello again, he just said the number."

"Millie."

"I made rules after that. I did the site because I wanted a price in writing. Dinner. Fourteen ninety-nine. If a man wanted more than a group order, I'd know what he wanted." I wiped my nose with my sleeve. "Nobody can fake a motive around fifteen dollars."

"But I did ask for more," he said.

"You did. You begged me to spend your money. You were the only man who ever begged me to cost him something."

He was staring at the skyline.

"That's why I fell for you," I said. "And that's why I couldn't tell you. Because the second I did, you'd start counting too."

"I'm counting now."

"I know."

"I'm counting every Thursday," he said. "And I keep getting to the same number, and it's not on any bill."

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