The Vampire's Sugar Baby

Chapter 8

“What do you mean you don’t know?!”

It was the next morning, and Ali and I had come back in from our run around the block. The night before had been interesting, to say the least, and as soon as my head hit the pillow my mind was filled with dreams of Holden that would make even the sauciest of romance novelists blush. I woke up feeling like my bed was the loneliest place in the world when I didn’t find him in it beside me. I needed a good run. Being obsessed with a man I’d met for 5 minutes was not something I needed, especially since he was likely screwing that horrible girl Erika.

“I don’t know if being a sugar baby is for me. I slept on it, and I don’t think I’d feel right about it.”

“What would you not feel right about?” I frowned at Ali.

“These are men who pay women for sex.”

“We’ve been through this already, are you really morally superior because you exchange oral with a guy you met on Tinder and it’s free?” I sighed. Ali continued, “Listen, dating apps do not benefit women. On regular dating apps, 99% of the men are looking for s*x, and 1% are looking for a relationship. Same on sugar dating sites. The thing is all of these websites benefit men. Only the sugar dating sites benefit women.”

“With the benefit being money,” I said, as I filled my smoothie cup with ice.

“Not just that but consistency - most of the men want someone they can see on a regular basis, higher quality men, men who are honest.”

“Honest?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Yes, on sugar dating sites, married men are more upfront about their relationship status than on regular dating sites. They don’t have to lie. Also, consent is more important. They have jobs and their own income, so they’re responsible for themselves.”

“So what you’re telling me is all the good men are sugar daddies.” I laughed.

“No, but if you’re smart and clear about what you’re looking for, you can find a good match. Someone who wants the same things you want emotionally, and who wants to help you get what you want career-wise. Haven’t you wanted to get a second camera?”

“Ali, if I want a second camera, I’ll buy one. It’s not like I’m struggling.”

“Well, what about that marketing course you mentioned a while ago?” The marketing course. It was a $50k course and I really wanted to join. Don’t get me wrong, I was great at sales, but only decent at marketing. I usually pulled in about 6 clients on average per month, and while I could get them to invest an average of about $4,000, I wanted to do better. I wanted to double my clients. I wanted consistent $70,000+ months. I’d invested in marketing courses before, but this was one all the high-profile photographers were talking about, and it cost more than what I’d spent on all my coaches in the past combined.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a successful, wealthy boyfriend who cared about you and wanted to see you succeed? Wouldn’t you love to have someone tell you, ‘Charlotte, I believe in you so much, you deserve this.'?”

“You make it sound so easy,” I said as I put the cap on my protein shake.

“It could be, in fact, today’s work day for me consists of brunch and lunch with two gentlemen I met at last night’s event.” She smiled and winked at me.

“Oh! I forgot to fill up your tank last night!” I grabbed my phone. “Let me, Zelle, you.” I logged into my banking app. “That’s not f*****g right...” Ali looked up concerned from her shake. I scanned the recent purchases that had been made on my card.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” She asked.

“$1500 for Ulta? $12,000 at Neiman Marcus? I didn’t make these purchases!” I ran to my bedroom and searched for my wallet in all the usual places. The bathroom vanity, dresser, and bedside table. It was nowhere to be found.

“When did you last see it?” Ali asked me.

“Last night at the…speed dating.” Oh my god! I was so concerned with getting out of the bar they hosted speed dating in, that I accidentally left my wallet!”

I held my face in my hands. All my money was gone. My personal debit, my business debit, and my credit card had been maxed out. Ironic that I had been out browsing sugar daddies while some asshole was having a nice little shopping spree on my dime. I had called the police and the bank. We would see if they could find the thief, but in the meantime, my bank told me I had to wait 2 weeks minimum before I could see my money back in my account.

“What are you going to do?” Ali asked me.

“Well, today I was going to practice shooting here and figure out a good posing flow, but now I have to figure out what I’m going to do about money for the next two weeks or so.

“You know what you could do…” I interrupted Ali.

“Don’t say find a sugar daddy.”

“Duh, you’ve made it clear you’re not interested, and I’m not going to push you to do something you don’t want to do…what I was going to say was you can take the car again today, log into my Shopfast app, and make deliveries. I was between sugar daddies for a while a few months ago and had joined the app to make some money.

“My license was in my wallet though.” Ali and I looked at each other in silence.

“Drive safely?” She said.

I could not believe I was doing this. I was so stupid! I lost my wallet, had all my money stolen, and was now driving without a license in a new city, in a car that cost more than my life. How was this happening to me?

I had made 4 deliveries. I’d gone to a bakery for a birthday cake, a grocery store twice, and a liquor store and the liquor store delivery was for someone downtown, so I had to pay for parking which ate up any money I made from the previous 2 deliveries. I was on my fifth one, a delivery from…a doctor's office of all places. The order simply said “Special Request”, and the woman at the front desk didn’t seem surprised. She simply called someone on her phone and a nurse came downstairs with a locked box that felt cool to the touch. As I drove to my destination the map began taking me down a winding road. There were a few houses at the beginning of the road but the further I traveled the less I saw. The area had a lot of trees and forests. I finally pulled up to a gate. There was a note on the app with the code to open it. I punched in the numbers.

“4,5,5,3”

The gate swung open and I drove through. All over the grounds, there were trees with giant limbs that spread out close to the ground. Everything was well manicured. I had to drive another 800 feet before I actually saw the house. It was huge. At least 3 stories. In fact, I wasn’t even sure it could be considered a house. Maybe a castle? It reminded me of something out of a fairytale. There was stone on the outside, and I counted 7 round towers with a twisting design carved in near the cone rooftops. The windows and archways were pointed. Even the wooden doors were arched and pointed. I pulled up in front of the stairway that led to the entrance. I got out of the car and opened the trunk to pull out the cool mysterious box.