Sun on the Rocks - The Sugar Baby, Page 3

  Chapter Two

  Clarity brought the parachute closer to the sunshade, taking a seat between both men. Sam Bartleby brought two chairs for Flower and her and paid for two refreshments and something to eat. His uncle explained that he owned a small shop in Baton Rouge that wasn´t making a lot of money, but was his own. After their brief lunch, Clarity turned to Sam Bartleby.

  “So what do you do here?”

  “We´re on vacation, I work for a liquor company in Puerto Rico, they provided me with a boat to spend a couple of weeks.” Clarity had heard the name Tambrera, and had drunk the rum more than once, at parties, with coke, and without coke. The conversation moved on, until they reached the topic of subsistence.

  “How are you getting by here in BVI?” asked Bartleby.

  “We have absolutely no money,” said Flower. Clarity glared at her. To reveal their position of economic weakness was not a good move, not something famous chess player Capablanca, a recent reference for her on clarity of thinking, would have done. Sam Bartleby ignored Clarity and moved his feet towards Flower. He threw a smile at Flower meaning he understood, and placed a hand on Flower´s shoulder.

  “Well then, I´d like to make an arrangement with you, one that will make you feel comfortable, and which will make your stay here memorable.”

  Flower looked at him suspiciously and Bartleby lowered his stare, towards her cleavage, where it got stuck for several seconds.

  “What kind of arrangement?” asked Flower.

  “I´d like you to be my Sugar Baby for a few days. I´ll provide food and lodge, some travel arrangement within the British Virgin Islands, and valuable guidance for the long term.” He lifted his paw off Flower´s shoulder.

  Flower put two and two together and glanced at Clarity.

  “That would make you my Sugar Daddy,” she said, “I don´t see the boat or the first class tickets.”

  “There is a boat,” said Bartleby.

  Clarity sighed. She was somewhat familiar with the Sugar Daddy, Sugar Baby arrangement, in between a dating one and an overt live-in arrangement. Dating sites proclaiming the benefits for both parties of this type of arrangement proliferated. Benefits brought by the Sugar Daddy included paying for rent, paying for tuition, or paying for electricity or phone bills of the Sugar Baby. There was a look of puzzlement from Flower acknowledging that making a personal arrangement with a stranger such as Bartleby was nearly crazy, and yet Clarity saw that Flower might benefit in some way from living and sharing her life with a man more experienced than her. Way more experienced. Flower ran her hand across her face, holding her chin.

  “No way,” she said, “I don´t know you,” said Flower. Clarity sighed with relief, but Bartleby didn´t really take Flower´s answer at face value. He thought there was a way to change her mind. While Clive spent the day with Clarity finding a place to sell the parachutes, Sam Bartleby spent the day with Flower, taking her to a clothing store on Main Street and buying three hundred dollars worth of dresses, shirts and clothing accessories for her. He took her to Callwood Rum Distillery, on Cane Garden Bay, a still operational rum distillery established in the eigtheenth century, which looked like no one had invested any amount to renew the equipment. An old keeper, Shay Manwick, greeted Bartleby, saying the ‘Lady Moura’ was being set up according to his instructions, including the refurbishing of the bar. In addition to his job at Callwood, Manwick did errands and took on other tasks to make extra money, was happy to do so for Bartleby as well.

  “Do you like rum?” asked Bartleby.

  “Not particularly,” said Flower, “I´d like to own the distillery.”

  Clarity enjoyed the day with Bartleby´s uncle. They visited the Old Government House and museum and Clive had mentioned to Clarity how difficult it was to run a business and turn any leads into sales with a small nursery selling plants and shrubs. By late afternoon, they met with Sam Bartleby and Flower at the Martini Bianco terrace. Bartleby insisted on the offer to Flower to be his Sugar Baby for a few days, a week or so, but Flower had not changed her mind. He offered Clarity and Flower a stay at one of the hotels in Tortola that night.

  “Oh, we couldn´t accept that,” said Clarity.

  “We could, we could,” said Flower, “in fact we do, our purses are empty, but we can see you like our company.” Clarity thought Flower was unbelievable, so blunt, and so open with strangers. Bartleby spoke, transferring on to Flower two bags full of expensive clothing.

  “We definitely like your company, think it over, let´s have dinner together tonight, we´ll treat you to some good food at the yacht centre in Sopher´s Hole, West End, there are several restaurants by the Ferry Terminal.” He dragged Clive by his side towards the ‘Lady Moura’ and waved good bye at the women. “See you in a couple of hours.”

  Clarity and Flower freshened up at a hotel offered by Bartleby, taking a shower and donning the clothes bought that day by the executive. A couple of hours later, Clarity and Flower met Bartleby and his uncle Clive at a restaurant near the Ferry´s terminal of Road Town. Bartleby livened most of the conversation, reassuring Flower that he was single, and not married, and that he was through playing dating games.

  “Most girls are so immature, but you strike me differently, an ethnographer like you is the type of woman I´m looking for. I can see that you know what you like and what looks good on you, I´d like very much for you to be my Sugar Baby.” Clarity stared at Flower, who was enjoying the compliment. Flower enjoyed all compliments. It may have been the wine, but Flower was listening to what Bartleby was saying way too carefully.

  “All right, I´m willing to give this a try and be your Sugar Baby, what exactly does it entail?” Clarity nearly spit her filet mignon. Flower was like that sometimes, impulsive and direct, but also gullible, innocent and unsuspecting. Bartleby lowered his voice in the dimly lit restaurant. As Sugar Daddy, he wanted Flower for a few days, a week or so, along his side aboard the fishing boat he owned, the ‘Lady Moura’, while he carried out a business deal, a transaction for a marriage and dating site called Oleanne. The transaction, for Clarity and Flower, involved collaborating with Bartleby and a man known as Chubby Caddy, an important client of the dating service, coming from Panama and meeting them during the trip. In exchange, Flower would travel the British Virgin Islands with him for a few days, get some additional clothing accessories suitable for the cruise, and also get valuable work experience from a seasoned executive who had been employee of the month, himself.

  “No sleeping with you though, and my friend comes along with me.” Bartleby nodded and lifted his head, asking the waiter for another bottle of wine. Clarity thought Bartleby was certainly taking Flower´s statement in stride. Usually, sugar daddies wanted physical relationship, plain sex, in exchange for paying some type of expense for the Sugar Baby. But Bartleby showed a smile, as the waiter handed him a glass to taste the wine, an expensive red wine, Château Margaux 1985, worth over four hundred dollars.

  “Fine, your friend can come along as well,” said Bartleby.

  After dinner, they said good night and went to their hotel, whose bill Bartleby was willing to pay until the following when they´d board the ‘Lady Moura’ for a few days.

  “What do you think?” asked Clarity.

  “This guy speaks like a sleazy salesman, but he´s got some dough,” said Flower, “and from an ethnographer point of view, it was tempting to accept his offer, it´s good field work.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Ethnographers deal with cultures, the way people live. I want to know how the Sugar Baby business works, best way to do that is to be a Sugar Baby.” Clarity opened the mini bar, looking for ice cream.

  Flower added sheepishly: “I think Bartleby´s good looking, and he works for Tambrera, not a bad way to spend a few days and turn around our stay here, remember we don´t know any one. I saw him at the rum distillery, one of the people working there greeted him as a friend and spoke with him for a few minutes, and the owner of a mixer and liq
uor store in Port Purcell waved at him. Bartleby´s known in the area, I think, he´s not just anybody, I feel sort of safer spending a few days with him.”

  Clarity nodded, unsure. They had very little money of their own, just a couple of twenty dollar bills offered by Cubandor on the Air Fashion Jet, before they´d been parachuted. In addition, they had no passport and no ID, and they needed a U.S. passport to get back to the U.S. Clarity thought Bartleby´s uncle was all right, but she agreed with Flower that Sam Bartleby was sleazy. She took off her clothes and slid naked inside the fresh bedsheets of her bed, going along with Flower´s decision. Her friend was confident that she could deal with Bartleby as a Sugar Baby, without compromising her own sexual integrity.