What Can You Not Buy With Money?

“No tank tops, no camisoles, no undershirts! Just. Undergarments.” Terra Slater folded her arms and smirked at Walker and I as we tightly held our bathrobes together for dear life. The front door was our portal to snowy hell.

Terra Slater and Ben Burgess were dressed in comfortable sweaters and jeans. Being the good people that we were, Walker and I were going to keep our end of the deal.

“Wait, wait!” Madame Slater came down the stairs, dressed for the cold weather. She snapped her fingers for Pierre. “Pierre, make sure you have the camera ready!”

“Oui, Madame,” Pierre bit his lower lip as he tried not to laugh as he held a camcorder in his hand. He zoomed it on Walker’s and my face.

“Screw dinner. You owe me sex after this.” Walker half joked and half seriously growled at me.

“Enough! Five snow angels each!” Terra ordered as she had two maids open the door. Cold air rushed in violently, and I took a step back to take it all in. Though the landscape was a peaceful white, my skin was screaming in protest at what was to come.

“Terra, it’s me, you’re old buddy Charlie.” Walker’s face was reddened as he tried to get out of the torture. “Show some mercy! Five is too many!”

“Heh, I think it is fair. Especially for that girl.” Terra sneered at me.

“Now, Terra, be reasonable,” Burgess folded his arms and leaned against the wall. “Besides, we won. That’s all that matters.” And with that he went up the stairs. “Good night,” He called out.

"What, you're not going to enjoy the prize?" Terra called out.

"I'm tired, I'll be taking a short nap." Burgess gave everyone the cold shoulder as he disappeared.

“Oh, he’s going to be all right,” Madame Slater shook her head in disbelief. “So, let’s make it two snow angels each then. Roll the camera!”

>

My friend and I were shivering violently as we quickly escaped the roaring laughter of the French.

Walker was clearly mad at me as he slammed the door to his room behind him. I quickly dived into my room and closed the door, locking it as I went straight to the bathroom to prepare a hot bath. My skin was blue and I wondered if I’d get hypothermia. My cold body was on fire from the sudden encounter with the heat inside the house, and I was thankful to have gotten it over with.

That had never been the way I’d imagined seeing Walker’s bare skin. I just hoped that this would have been one of those stories that you would laugh about later on and tell your grand children on a senile escapade.

As the air began to steam from the scalding bathwater, I took off my robe and was about to undo my bra when an embarrassed boy cleared his throat from the bedroom. I, in half disbelief slowly turned to face Burgess. My expression must have resembled a deer staring at a pair of headlights.

Ben was sitting on the bed, his face bright red at seeing my shivering bare body. He had been there the entire time. Thank God I wore plain underwear or I’d have to die of the embarrassment.

I quickly slammed the door to my bathroom and yelled in the heat of passion, “What are you doing here!?”

“I wanted to talk,” Burgess called back. “I guess it’s a bad time.”

“You think?” I snapped. “Go to bed, sir.”

“No. I’ll wait until you’re done.”

I let out a grunt of frustration as I left the bath running and put back the bathrobe over myself. I opened the door. “Then let’s get this over with. What do you want?”

Burgess looked at me with a mysterious stare, and let it out. “I like you.”

Everything froze to a standstill, the world seemed to have stopped turning, and I blinked in disbelief. I quickly went up to him and quietly smelled him. “Have you been drinking?”

“No,” He narrowed his eyes. “Stop trying to change the subject.”

“I’m too cold to deal with this right now,” I explained as I retreated back into the bathroom, locking the door and praying that he’d just simply go away. My brain was scrambled and I couldn’t think straight.

“Fine. I’ll be back in an hour.”

The hot bath water was like a sudden explosion of fire on my skin when I let myself fall into the tub. My skin wasn’t used to the sudden heat but I gritted my teeth and kept myself submerged. My body was turning a bright red, and as I began to collect my thoughts I realized what Burgess had just said.

And I jerked myself upward at the terror of what would happen next.

“Oh no,” I let out a soft moan as I covered my face. Not that I wasn’t flattered that the Ben Burgess just told me he was interested in me—it was just so many things wrong. First, he was a socialite. I was his employee. And I secretly feared that there could be no love in our relationship—there was no piece for true happiness with him.

After I warmed myself up, I quickly got dressed—making sure I wore clothes that weren’t the least bit provocative or attractive—and waited impatiently for his return.

He knocked this time, and I opened the door to see him—and it was one of those instances where I grew weak at the knees like a twig in the wind.

“I can’t,” I shook my head. I wanted it all to end as soon as possible.

“Why not?” Burgess let himself in and folded his arms like a stubborn child.

“I don’t want anything to happen between us.”

“There’s already a lot that’s happened between us,” he countered.

“There are so many beautiful girls in the world,” I tried to degrade myself, hoping it’d get him to change his mind. “And like you said, you can have any of them.”

“I want you.” Burgess grabbed my arm as though afraid I’d disappear. “Do you know why?” When I didn’t ask, he answered his question. “Because you’re the only person who seems to give a damn about me. Not my money, not my looks—me.”

“No, I…” My brain stopped working and I couldn’t think of the right words to say. “That’s not true.” I was making myself sound like an idiot. The low temperature must induce stupidity or steal IQ points, because I was mumbling like a moron.

“Mary,” Burgess whispered as he leaned in to kiss me.

My face burned and I took a step back, and I fell down to the ground. Typical of me, to go clumsy. I was a jittery rabbit, my heart about to die of the startlement.

“You all right?” Burgess went to help me up but I quickly did a crab walk backwards.

“I’m fine.”

Though the moment didn't call for it, Burgess chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” I stood up and kept myself away from him.

“I’m practically opening my chest for you and it’s not enough.” Burgess covered his mouth and sighed but his lip curved in a confident smile. “You promised that you’d be spending this weekend with me. So I’m going to hold you to it.”

“All right,” I hesitantly nodded.

“I’m taking you out tomorrow first thing in the morning.” He added, “And you can’t get out of it. Good night.” With that, he stormed out of the room with pride holding his face up. I had to give him credit, he was a strong man.

I hardly slept that night as I tried to overcome the turmoil of what I should do. Half of me wanted try and go out with him but the other told me to steer as clear away from him as possible. I considered quitting and just going to a community college somewhere... across the country.

I dressed, tying my necklace around my neck. After I brushed my teeth I remembered to get my Smartphone and tried to sneak into the breakfast dining hall without being caught by a long list of people.

As I quietly crept down the stairs, I had to stop as Pierre was in front of me.

“Good morning, Rose Mary,” Pierre smiled. “I’m glad you haven’t caught a cold from that little fiasco yesterday.”

“Yeah,” I nodded distractedly, though my face blushed at the memory of my humiliation. Pierre had a snickery gleam, his eyes full of amusement like a twinkling star. “—Is Burgess around?”

“Oui, he is… how you say… fuming.” Pierre looked over his shoulder. “He’s in the living room.”

“Oh, then I’ll go back upstairs…” I quickly started climbing stairs two by two.

“Hold it,” A voice ordered and my shoulders slumped in frustrated surrender.

“Good morning, Mr. Burgess,” I forced a smile and nodded my head. But my eyes were narrowed in anticipation and I grit my teeth to the point of mind numbing. “Did you have a good night’s sleep?”

“Cut the crap. Come on, I’m losing my patience.” Burgess took my hand and pulled me roughly through the mansion, heading to the front door.

We passed by Walker in the kitchen who was trying to outcook the Slater chef. "No, no," Walker heatedly argued, "Le vin et le riz est un péché ! employez l'huile d'olive." He didn’t even notice us as he was too busy immersed in boasting about his knife spinning and correcting a man on the proper technique of buttering a frying pan.

“Where are you going, Ben?” Terra Slater was in the entrance way, a nameless novel in her hands. She had a raised eyebrow as she suspiciously glared when she saw me being dragged like a helpless animal by an overaffectionate child.

“Sorry, business related. I’ll talk to you later, Terra,” Ben quickly brushed her aside as he took our coats from a closet and threw one over me. A maid walked up hurriedly, worried that she wasn’t doing her duty of providing the winter coverings.

We went out into the snowy wonderland and I asked, “Where are we going?”

“It’s a secret,” Burgess had a limo awaiting for us as we walked down the steps of the front patio.

We passed by a man that seemed out of place. Ben didn’t notice him, but I studied how he was cleaning the windows and eying the mansion strangely. He turned and we locked eyes on each other. There were uneven layers of scars under his left eye, and when he smiled at me I could just barely make out sharpened teeth.

There was a menacing shine to his pocked skin and he continued to grin at me. He waved and returned back to his work, and it was as though all fear was gone with that gesture. He was just an ordinary cleaner. I entered the limo and forgot about him.

I was silent during the car ride, and thankfully Burgess was the same. We both looked at opposite ends of the car windows, ignoring each other until we finally stopped a few miles from Slater’s property.

“Come on, we need to hurry so that the sun’s in the perfect position in the sky.” There was an eagerness that I’ve rarely seen in his eye as he waved his hand for me to follow him. He sternly tapped the hood of the car, telling the chauffer, “We’ll be back in thirty minutes.”

We were in an open field, where many hills covered in virgin snow coated the ground evenly.

My boss was a few steps ahead of me, his long legs making it easier for him to tread through the snow and up the hills while my moves resembled a mountaineer, climbing the Himalayans.

After a few minutes of endless climbing, I asked in between pants, “Are we there yet?”

“Quit your whining.”

I frowned and struggled to put my foot infront of the other. I collided into his back and quickly retreated as I waited for him to continue.

“We’re here.” Burgess turned and looked over to the side.

I looked over to see flowers, actual flowers! They were covered in a thin layer of sparkling ice, but blues, yellows, and reds were shining out of the pure white snow.

“What are these?” I was in awe at the pretty little miracle.

“French Pansies. The flower can survive in the winter.” Burgess went over and brushed some frozen powder off of a blossom. “I found this place when I was a little kid. I never told anyone about it,” Burgess looked at me with a silent demand. “You mean that much to me.”

I bit my lip but nodded. “Thank you,” I was beyond flattered but I still felt scared. My heart was fast and not because of climbing that hill.

My avoided Burgess' imploring gaze by looking at the flowers, all clustered together like a family of blossoms. We stood without saying a word, our breathing absorbed into the snow.

“There’s a snowflake on your eyelash,” Burgess murmured as his hand touched my cheek, the thumb lightly brushing it aside. It caused me to blink and my eyes closed in reflex.

And then I felt his lips just barely touching mine. He smelled nice and had a sweet taste. I finally decided to just try, and give him a chance.

But a ringing that pierced the peace stopped us before anything else happened.

Burgess swore as he pulled out his cell phone. “What?” After a moment his eyes widened and he quickly added, “We’re on our way.” He hung up and waved at me to follow him quickly. “There’s a problem at the Slaters’.