“Package for you,” he says.
“Thanks,” I say, a little confused. “I didn’t order anything, though.”
He shrugs. “Came with the mail. No return address.” He hands me the thin brown box, about the size of a dress box.
I take it from him. “Thanks, Thomas.”
“Have a nice day.” He smile again and I shut the door.
Curious, I turn to my bed. I place the package down and pull it open, frowning as I go. The brown plain box reveals a shiny black one, though without a logo. I pull it out and place it on my bed before taking the top off.
The first thing I notice is a card in a plain white envelope. I take it out and set it aside. Beneath it is some white tissue paper. Too curious to stop myself, I pull apart the tissue paper and slowly take out the contents.
I turn bright red as I realize what I’m holding. It’s a black lacy lingerie set, clearly expensive, and incredibly revealing. It’s in my size, but I have no clue who sent it. I know I didn’t order it, because I don’t really own anything like this. My clothes tend to be pretty plain, but this… it’s sexy.
I grab the card and tear it open. Inside is a plain white thick paper stock with a simple note.
Call me. 555-506-5136. Gavin.
I gape at the note for a second before dropping it and stepping away from the bed, my heart hammering in my chest.
I don’t know how, but Gavin managed to buy me lingerie that will clearly fit me, and even had it sent to my home. I’m sure my parents don’t know about this, or else they would have freaked out. I stare at the card before picking it up and reading it again.
Heart beating fast, I type the number into my phone. For a second, I want to hit send, but instead I just save it. I pull the lingerie out of the box and hold it up, my whole body tingling with excitement.
I can’t believe he sent me this. I’ve never had a man do something like this before. I should be insulted that he’d be so forward like this, and maybe a little wary now that I know about his bad reputation, but I just don’t care. In this moment, I’m more than excited imagining Gavin slowly peeling the bra and matching panties from my body.
I’ve never felt so sexy in my whole life. I want to try it on, but I can’t. I’m too nervous, afraid that I might get caught. Instead, I quickly put the lingerie away and hide the box in the back of my closet. I tear up the card into tiny pieces and put it back into the cardboard. I’ll have Thomas or someone else dispose of it for me, just to make sure my parents don’t see and ask me what I bought.
It’s stupid that I have to sneak around my parents like this, but I’m still stuck under their thumb. I can’t help it. I don’t have any skills, and only a high school education. I don’t know what I’d do out in the real world without the safety net of my family.
But now more than ever, I want to explore the world outside of my own little bubble. And Gavin, for all his flaws, may be the perfect way to do that.
5
Gavin
I can’t get the girl out of my head.
I don’t know why. I’ve never been so hung up on someone before. I’ve been with plenty of women, some of them rich, all of them beautiful, but none of them holds a candle to Sadie.
I just keep seeing her coy little smile at dinner, the way she laughs, the way our conversation flowed with such ease. I can’t stop imagining what I’d do to her body.
Sending her the lingerie wasn’t hard. Her family’s address is easy enough to get, and I figured that if I sent it to her but didn’t include a return address, she might just get it.
But I have no clue if she did or not, because she didn’t call. I don’t know what I expected, sending her lingerie. I knew it would rile her up at the very least. I half thought she might call me angry and demand an explanation.
But I got something worse. I got silence.
I didn’t expect silence. Anger I can deal with. Excitement and desire, obviously I want those. But just nothing, well, that drives me even crazier. Makes me want her even more.
A couple days after the date and sending her the lingerie, I went to get a drink with my closest friend, Chuck Peck. He’s a friend from high school, one of the smartest guys I know. He turned his high school education into a job on Wall Street trading stocks.
Chuck sips his whisky and cocks his head at me. “So what are you going to do?” he asks. I just finished telling him the story of Sadie Tillman.
I shrug. “Not sure what I can do.”
“Not like you to just give up.”
“Never said I’d given up.” I grin at him. “Just need a new angle.”
“The lingerie thing was a bold move.”