I opened the app, curious of the woman who was interested in me. I looked at her profile before I read the message. Layla was beautiful. Short blonde hair and elegant features. She only had a few pictures but of the ones she had, she looked like the real deal.
Her photos weren't of her posing on beaches, yachts or flaunting whatever car she owned like other profiles. The first photo was of her on a balcony overlooking the city while holding a glass of wine, another of was a simple selfie in her car but no logos being purposely showed off and finally one of her on a forested trail with a large smile on her face.
Her profile read that she is familiar with sugar baby/momma relationships and was looking for a new sugar baby to spoil, preferably a woman. A lot of the fields for information such as her profession and income were blank. I found that odd considering all the men on the app loved boasting themselves through their profile..
I finally went back to my inbox and opened her message. My heart had picked up a bit, anxious to read what she said.
Hello Brielle,
I came across your profile and I think we would be a good match for a sugar baby/momma arrangement. I will provide an allowance, trips, gifts as well as companionship. Please let me know if you are interested as we can arrange a date and time to discuss the details of what you'd be receiving.
I truly hope to hear from you.
Layla Holt
My mind felt a little light. She wanted to meet to discuss the details? I didn't think a meeting was necessary to be considered a sugar baby. I assumed the details were all shared through messages. I put my phone away not wanting to reply to her message yet.
I wasn't against being a sugar baby for a woman because honestly I was bisexual so that wasn't the issue. The issue was with being a sugar baby. Even with a woman, the idea still didn't sit well with me. Layla seemed nice enough but I still wasn't sure if this was what I wanted.
Thoughts ran through my mind and various scenarios played out before I finally had thought about it enough to go to sleep. I wasn't sure how long I had been laying there, staring into the darkness while my mind ran wild. When I did finally close my eyes, I instantly fell asleep.
*
The irritating blaring of my alarm brought me out from my deep sleep. My hand patted around blindly to hit snooze. Even though fifteen minutes wasn't long and it'd be a light sleep, I happily accepted it.
When my final alarm went off, I blindly turned it off one last time before I forced my eyes open. I got myself out bed before I changed my mind and got ready for another day of work.
I had to grab an iced coffee before I went to work because I was almost dragging my body around. How long was I stuck in my own head? Made sense though, I had been overthinking about anything when it comes to relationships since before high school.
Walking in the back door and punching in with my iced coffee in hand, I waved hi to everyone with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. Which was very little.
Josh turned and smiled at me, amused by my lack of energy. "Good morning to you too, sunshine."
"Ha ha." I retorted sarcastically. I walked up to him only to have him point at my face.
"Are those dark circles?" He teased as I took a sip through my straw and smacked his hand away.
"Don't be a dick. I tried to cover them with makeup but I didn't get much sleep last night."
He chuckled. "Can't do makeup when you're half asleep though."
I rolled my eyes with a weak smile. "Thanks, tips."
I walked out and to my locker to hang my bag and drink a bit more of my coffee before I put it in the staff fridge. I checked my makeup in the mirror quickly to make sure my makeup looked decent, which didn't quite matter since the customers never looked at my face for too long.
"Morning!" I turned to see Kate and her platinum blonde waves bouncing towards me. Kate was my closest female co-worker. We've had drinks at her apartment a few times within the few months she'd been here but we had grown really close within that time.
Kate was nice to everyone until someone was rude or disrespectful -- common occurrence here unfortunately -- and then she'd become this authoritative queen to get the respect back. I witnessed it once and it was pretty epic.
I groaned as my reply, her energy almost making me more tired. Kate was always bubbly at the start of the shift but quickly fizzled out by her first break.
Kate looked at me with a confused expression. "What happened to you?"
I leaned against the booth next to me. "I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night." I decided to keep the details to a minimum. I didn't really want to have to explain my battle about being a sugar baby or not.
Kate nodded in understandment. "That sucks. Maybe we'll have one of the guys make a pot of coffee for you." Her kind smile was enough to help me feel a bit better.
I waved the idea off. "I should be fine, just need to keep myself busy."
"Well I'm sure Joshua would be happy to help you in anyway he can." Kate gave me a suggestive wink. She was convinced Josh had a huge crush on me regardless of how many times I told her we were just friends.
I rolled my eyes at her before Lauren and Amanda came in at the last possible minute. Then the first customers arrived, starting the shift. Staying busy helped keep me awake enough even though my mind constantly tried to go back to Layla's message.
Thinking about it made me more anxious, there were so many variables and being at work was messing up my train of thought. Luckily, the shift continued on normally. I dealt with the hints from men and drank my iced coffee whenever I could. Then I got a real Karen.
It was just after the lunch rush fizzled out so Joyce went on her lunch like she normally did. I was serving a middle aged couple, the lady uninterested in me and slightly upset about her husband continuously looking at my body.
When I served their food, she instantly had a complaint. "Um, this isn't what I ordered."
Seriously, woman? "Oh, the Western salad with the steak medium rare?"
The woman's expression was unimpressed. "Yes but my steak is not medium rare." She pointed to the sliced steak. "It's still very pink."
I had to refrain from giving her a look to show her how dumb I was finding her. My lack of energy was not helping me with her. "Yes, medium rare is still quite pink inside. If you wanted it to be throughly cooked, that would be a well done steak."
She actually rolled her eyes. "Well, I'd like it cooked more." She handed the bowl to me, forcing me to take it and walk back into the kitchen.
Josh looked over at me and swore. I hated bringing things back to the kitchen, it didn't happen often because our chefs were great but also because our head chef Bill got angry when things came back to the kitchen. But Bill seemed to like me so I hoped for the best.
Bill immediately looked and he swore as well. "What's wrong with it?"
"She ordered medium rare when she really wants it well done." I set the bowl down on the counter as Josh grabbed the steak to cook it more.
"What a bitch." Bill insulted quietly making me smile. Good, he wasn't too mad about it.
Finally when the steak was well done, I thanked Josh before going back out to give the woman her food. "Alright, there you go. Sorry about the wait."
She looked at it and sighed with annoyance. "Now it's been overcooked. It'll be dry."
"This is well done." I said simply, trying to keep my composure.
The woman scoffed. "I never said I wanted it well done. I wanted it cooked a bit more." I almost lost it. Was this woman for real?
"I'm sorry about that." I wasn't. "I can have the kitchen remake it." I didn't want them to but we had to do whatever we could to keep customers happy.
It's what I hated about being in customer service. Being a sugar baby didn't seem so bad at that moment, at least I'd only have to make one person happy rather than every old geezer and their jealous wives that walked through that door
"No, I'm too hungry to wait again. I'm not happy about it though." In her words, she wanted a heavy discount for the inconvenience. Usually I'd grab Joyce by this point to get her help but with her being on her lunch break, I didn't have any good managers to help out.
"Is everything okay here?" I cringed when I heard Greg's voice. He was the worst possible option in this scenario.
The woman noticed he was a manager and decided to be the one to tell him what's going on. "I ordered my salad with steak and it's been overcooked. I'm not willing to wait for them to make it a second time because I'm hungry and on my lunch break. I had told the girl that I am not satisfied with this experience."
I closed my eyes to hide the eye roll. She was pulling a classic Karen. And I hated when people called me girl, I knew I was younger than them but it sounded like an insult.
"I see. Well why don't I go see how long it'd be to have the steak remade for you?" Greg offered, clearly unsure how to de-escalate customers. I wasn't sure how he even got the job as general manager.
"Okay." The woman shrugged passively.
Greg and I went into the kitchen, I only followed to get away from the customer. "Hey Bill!" Greg shouted as we walked into the kitchen.
Bill turned around with an unimpressed look but when he saw me he immediately knew what it was about. "The fuck does she want now?" I tried to hide my smirk. Bill was probably even more pissed because it was Greg asking. No one liked Greg.
"How long does it take to cook a steak?" Greg asked as Bill looked at him confused.
"Depends on how rare she wants it." Bill turned back to aggressively chop whatever he was doing before we walked in.
"How did she want it?" Greg asked me as I shrugged.
"Probably medium well." I was losing cares about this woman's steak as the anxiety of everything going on was getting to be too much.
"Then it takes less than ten minutes." Bill called over his shoulder.
Greg went back out as I leaned against the counter. When he came back in, he held the bowl in his hands. "She said she'll try the medium well."
"She'll try it?" I asked with annoyance and frustration, as if I was the one who had to cook it. No, I had to be the one who waited on her and dealt with her attitude. I had a massive headache from the lack of sleep and the customers.
So I left the kitchen and went to grab my purse and my iced coffee. When I walked through the kitchen, all the guy's eyes were on me. I couldn't put up with the bullshit today and this would only make the rest of the shift unbearable.
"Where are you going?" Greg asked with clear confusion.
"Home. I'll be taking tomorrow off too." I punched out while I ignored whatever bullshit Greg tried to say. I got into my car and drove off before anyone tried to pull me back in.
I drove home, blank minded from the fatigue. I walked from my car and made my way up to my apartment while I texted Kate an apology who surely had to deal with the customer for me. I owed her one. I was surprised that I actually walked out after saying it for so long.
The first thing I did back in my apartment was to take a shower to relax. My showers were always hot so the bathroom steamed up regardless of how much the fan tried to prevent it. I sat in the bathtub with my arms holding my knees to my chest. I allowed the hot water to flow over my body while I tried to gather my thoughts.
I had to do something to ease my mind or I would go back to work on Thursday only to have a repeat of what happened earlier. The main thing on my mind was obviously responding to Layla's message but that came with some decisions in itself.
The first decision was if I could trust this Layla woman. Her profile didn't throw any major red flags at me as well as that she wasn't putting any dollar signs in her message. Majority of the first messages from men would explicitly say how much they intend to pay. I thought it was smart because money is the core of the arrangement but the fact that Layla was withholding the information made me wonder why. I decided that I would proceed with caution when it came to trusting her.
The second thing was the physical aspect of the arrangement. Obviously if this woman intends on paying me a fair amount of money as well as the gifts and trips on top, there had to be some sex being expected. I realized though that having sex and only having to please one woman to make money was better than my current way of earning an income.
The final decision I had was if this was something I wanted to pursue but as I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that I didn't have to make an immediate decision. Layla's message was feeling out if I'm interested. By me responding and meeting her, I'm doing the same thing. If I don't like what she's offering or I get weird vibes from her, then I didn't accept the arrangement.
I put my forehead on my knees, feeling the hot water in my hair. I was still anxious about meeting Layla. I also hadn't even started to figure out what I was going to reply back with. I did however figure out that Quinn was going to help me with my response.
After quite some time in the shower doing nothing but trying to think, I turned the water off and got out. I wrapped a towel around my body and dripped water onto the floor as I went into my room. I was in no mood to look cute, only comfy clothes would be chosen. So I went with a pair of lightweight sweat pants and an old t-shirt. I heated up some leftovers and poured myself a glass of wine before I sat on the couch with my dinner and put on something to help momentarily distract me.
I watched a rom-com that I loved but my mind kept circling back to Layla and how I pretty much walked out of work over it. I ended up shutting off the TV as soon as I was done my food and my wine. It was the early evening which meant Quinn would soon be up to go to work.
I decided to lay down in my bed and try to sleep off the small headache I had. I decided that it wasn't worth losing anymore sleep over and I'd deal with everything in the morning. Luckily for me, sleep quickly washed over me.