Paige expected to wake up with an unknown man’s lips on hers. No such luck. Instead, she was awoken by a pink metal handcuff coming down on her wrist. She groaned. Had no one bought her? 

It wasn’t that she wanted to be sold into basic slavery, but if she wasn’t purchased, she would belong to Sleeping Beauty Inc., which would probably be worse. They would get their money’s worth out of her. When she came to their headquarters to be put into cryostasis, she had leafed through the pamphlets that advertised Sleeping Beauty models who came back, after serving their year, with diamonds, designer handbags, and goodies galore (all presents from whoever bought them). If Sleeping Beauty Inc. owned her, she would spend the rest of her life doing disgusting grunt work no one had invented a machine to do yet. It wasn’t that Paige expected diamonds, but she did expect to be sold. Her disappointment made her lips an accordion of sadness. 

“Oh, stop that!” the female guard programming her wristband snapped. “At least you’re not going to have my job.”

Paige blinked. “Does that mean…?”

“Yeah, sweetpea. You were sold. Hallelujah,” sang the guard sarcastically. She was obviously a left-over Sleeping Beauty who had not been bought.

“So, where’s the guy?”

“He left.”

“He left?” Paige exclaimed.

“Yeah. He didn’t feel like waking you with a kiss and took off. You’re to be delivered.”

Paige thought his busyness made him seem rich. Sleeping Beauty Inc. did not force their customers to kiss their product. It was optional, but he could have taken her with him when he left. His being so busy that he couldn’t even spare the time to do that made him seem like a great catch, but then she remembered to ask what day it was. If she had been in cryostasis for a month, he would have paid a lot more than if she was close to her expiry date. “What day is it?” she asked rather feebly.

“March 2, 2214.”

“Crap,” she mumbled. He was less rich immediately because he had paid almost nothing for her. It was all her fault for getting her memory wiped. That invalidated her contract with Sleeping Beauty Inc. and instead of just selling her for one or two years, they were allowed to sell her for life. She couldn’t keep her unhappiness from showing on her face. 

“Why do you look so miserable?” the guard asked, throwing Paige’s wrist away and typing something on her own, much larger, wristband.

“Because I’m probably bound to some ridiculous moron for the rest of my life,” Paige moaned.

The guard put her hand on her hip haughtily. “I should be so lucky. Do you think I would be acting this grouchy if you were being taken away by a guy twenty years older than you with whiskey breath and bruises on his knuckles? Oh, no. I’m acting like this because even though the man who bought you clearly has no money, he’s young and… how should I put this? Cute face. Nice muscles. A total catch.”

Paige didn’t know what to say. Had her bad luck turned around?

“Ready for the bad news?” the guard asked, responding to a question Paige hadn't asked. “The bad news is that he’s so broke that he didn’t buy any clothes for you from our stores. He opted for you to wear the street clothes you wore here for the transfer. So that means no ball gown, no bathing suit, and no elegant heels. We’re not going to give you a speck of makeup or a drop of perfume.”

“I’ll live,” Paige said, swinging her legs out of the casket-like box.

“Personally, I think that’s why he didn’t want to leave with you when he left. He didn’t want to be seen carting out a very ordinarily dressed woman from a place that is supposed to be selling runway models. Maybe we wouldn’t let him. In any case, we’ll need the nightgown back.”

“Right now?” she asked, tugging the tie at the back of her neck.

“No. Go to the change room. It’s going to be my pleasure to deliver you to his home, in the north.”

“The north?” Paige gaped, doing a double-take. 

“Yeah. I wasn’t done telling you the bad news. That isn’t a problem, is it?”

Paige rolled her eyes. She had to go wherever the man who bought her wanted her to go. She smiled sickly, “No. It’s not a problem.”

“Excellent. Get dressed, get fed, get in the truck and we should be there sometime tonight.”

Paige pursed her lips. She wasn’t sure if her purchase was good luck or bad luck, but whatever it was she had to accept it, so she got herself to a dressing room.

***

The truck the guard put Paige in was not usually used for transporting models from Sleeping Beauty Inc. It looked more like an army transport leftover from the war. 

The guard smiled roguishly when she showed Paige which truck they were taking. “Sorry, Mr. Fox didn’t spring for a company limousine. You know the ones. Pink all over and full of fruit and champagne, but look! The windows in this bad boy roll down. Isn’t the fun almost too much?”

“Quiet,” Paige huffed as she got in the front seat. 

The guard got in next to her and they began the drive.

Paige passed the time by playing with the bracelet/handcuff around her left wrist. That was the one thing that she got to choose for herself when she signed her contract with Sleeping Beauty Inc. 

They had every style imaginable: clunky bracelets that jangled around a girl’s wrist, pretty beads hanging on tiny chains, some made of rubber, and some made of leather. Paige's was made of pink metallic links an inch wide. It was pretty. Something about it reminded her of chains, which she also liked. She wanted to remember that she was a prisoner. That way she wouldn’t have any grandiose ideas about the rest of her life. 

The last thing she remembered before she had her memory wiped was the sight of the man she loved. Remembering him, she felt how her heart used to quicken whenever she saw him. Seeing him was precious and rare. His taking notice of her was almost impossible.

On the last night that she could remember, he offered to purchase her. It was out of the blue. Before that, she’d had almost nothing to do with him. 

An offer of employment under the cloak of a purchase contract had to be sexual in nature. She’d read stories about purchased women in media outlets. The articles had all the good bits cut out. He could only be buying her because he wanted her the way she wanted him. As his eyes met hers, she felt her insides turn to water—the color of his eyes. 

She should have known better. She should have listened to the things her father said about him behind his back. She should not have been seduced by his voice, his hand that crept up her thigh, or the money he represented. Being bought by him would ruin her reputation and the reputation of her family.

When she expressed her concerns to him, he waved them off like problems didn’t exist. Her father would be happy. How much would her father need to retire? He kept raising the price he was willing to pay for her until she was dizzy. 

The interview ended with her shyness as the victor. The amount of money he’d offered was so much, she already knew she couldn’t refuse. She promised him an answer in the morning and stumbled back to her quarters, her legs were so weak.

She got into bed and imagined what life would be like if she accepted his offer. 

When she woke up, she discovered that two years had passed. There was a note propped up on the nightstand explaining that she did work for him and it didn’t work out. She had no family anymore. No friends. Nothing was left but debt and heartache. In the hope of being able to repay the debt she had incurred, she had decided to sell herself to Sleeping Beauty Inc., but she could not live with the broken heart she'd suffered, so she'd wiped her memory.

The sale to Sleeping Beauty Inc. would have been fine—only lasting a year—except the terms of the contract that protected her were void because of the memory wipe and she was sold as a lifetime investment. Basically, the new man who had bought her from Sleeping Beauty Inc. had bought all the work of her life for pennies, but if he hadn’t bought her, the situation would have been far worse. 

Paige shrugged her shoulders. She had no choice but to roll with it. She had to concentrate on her duty to the man who bought her. On the tiny viewscreen on her bracelet, it said, Harrison Fox. If she didn’t do a good job, he could throw her into prison or sell her again. He could even rent her out if he wanted to. He owned her.

It didn’t matter. If she was willing to gamble everything then she had to be prepared to lose everything.

And she had.

It was a long drive north. Flowers were blooming in her city, but as they drove, Paige saw fewer and fewer flowers opening. Mountains she had never seen before were growing in front of her. The weather got colder and it seemed that time turned back, making spring winter. She was being taken to the absolute middle of nowhere, but she didn’t mind. She was too unhappy to be bothered by anything. Nothing could bother her.