Bianca scanned her living room, marveling at the luxury of all the things around her. The Italian marble floor. The hand carved, antique mantel piece. The paintings that would be just as at home on the walls of a museum as here in her living room. Plush velvet and silk couches cuddled together in the large space, making cozy what could be cold. It was beautiful. It was wonderful. It was more than she had ever imagined having before Esteban swept her off her feet. The dollars that paid for all these wonderful, beautiful things wasn't the real cost, though. Once again, she'd pay in loneliness.

Bianca leaned back into the couch with a sigh. “I hate it when you have to go away for so long.”

Esteban slid his warm fingers along her jawline and cupped the back of her neck. “I know, my love. But business is business. Did you call Rachel?”

“I did. I asked Roger to pick her up on his way back from the airport. But… can't you stay for another hour?” Bianca arched her back and smiled, her fingers toying with her top button.

“No, mi amor. My plane leaves in three hours. I really have to go.”

A knock at the door announced the arrival of his driver, Roger. Esteban pressed a brief kiss to her forehead, ran his thumb across her cheek and whispered in her ear. “Two weeks. I will be home in fourteen days, mi Dulce Flor.”

And with that, he swept out the door.

“Rachel, I've lost him.” Bianca tucked her long legs underneath her and wound a strand of her long blonde hair around her finger.

“Did you do that thing I told you about?” Rachel boosted herself up onto the bar stool and turned to face her friend.

“Oh my god, no! That thing you made me buy? I can't even imagine…” Bianca's pale face flushed a bright red.

“What, that? I was talking about that position I was telling you about. The one I tried with Renee. You haven't even used the toy? Come on, that's training wheels stuff, babe. I have a half dozen of those things. How are you ever gonna please your man when you can't even please yourself?”

Bianca stared at her brazen friend, so different from herself. Rachel was all raw sexuality and pushed up boobs. Her hair was dark and her tumbling curls always gave the impression that she had just gotten out of bed.

“I just can't. I can't.” The blush of Bianca's cheek heated to what she knew was a deep crimson..

“You need to try, girlfriend. You say that you would do anything for him. Well anything, to start with, is a great big purple dildo.”

Bianca retreated into her own thoughts. She and Esteban had been married for 2 years, most of which he had spent traveling for his family's importing business. He had always said that he loved her precisely because she was such a sweet flower, his Flor Dulce, but every time he left she obsessed over the exotic women he must be meeting in his travels. Esteban was lively and worldly, handsome and powerful. Bianca just knew women, much more experienced and confident women, were throwing themselves at him. The best seduction she could muster was tugging on a button. Sometimes she desperately wished she had taken Rachel's advice when she was younger and that she'd lost her virginity before her wedding day. But it wasn't Bianca's way.

Rachel spent the day keeping Bianca busy, too busy to think about Esteban or the lonely days that stretched out in front of her. There was brunch, then shopping, then lunch, then more shopping; now it was happy hour and both Rachel and Bianca were working on being the happiest gals in the whole place.

“Rach, I know it's a pain… but would you mind staying with me while Esteban's gone? I hate being in that big house all by myself.”

Rachel stared at her friend with dead eyes for a moment and Bianca feared a quick and disgruntled no.

“I dunno. It would be a terrible inconvenience for me to leave my crappy studio apartment and hole up at the palace for a week. I mean.. the guest room has what? A giant king-sized bed? And the bathroom has four shower heads and a jacuzzi tub? I don't know if I can be pulled away from the comforts of my nineteen inch television, window unit air conditioner and sixth-floor water pressure.”

“L O L, aren't you hilarious?”

“I have articles to write and some editing to do, but as long as I have my lap top it shouldn't be a problem.”

“Things are real different, huh?”

“Ya think? From sharing Ramen in our dorm room to you inviting me over for long weekends at the palace…”

“It's not a palace.”

“Might as well be.”

“Did I tell you? I got accepted to the MFA program. I start in the fall.”

“Just what Southern Florida needs. Another writer.”

Her words were sour but Bianca knew how proud her friend was of her.

“You're a writer.”

“I'm a journalist. Far more practical. Or at least, I thought it would be. Turns out, I'd been better off majoring in Latin and other dead languages. What are you gonna do when you can't spend every waking minute sitting around the palace? Who will clean? Who will move things around so it looks like people actually live there?”

“Hush. We live there. I live there. Actually, Esteban wants to hire a maid.”

“A maid's daughter with a maid. That is either poetic justice or the most screwed up thing I've ever heard. I'm not sure. Let me think about it for a minute. OH! He could hire your mom. That would put it squarely in the most fucked up thing ever category.”

Bianca rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Ohhhh… wait! Is the maid position a live in gig? If so, I'm applying. I'll be your Alice. Your Mr. Belvedere. Your Rosie. Your Lurch.”

Bianca laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Roger can take us by your place so you can pack up some stuff.” She pulled out her phone and sent a text to the driver, letting him know they were ready.

“Mmmmmm… speaking of Roger. He is quite delicious.”

“Roger isn't…” Bianca cut herself off. There was no way to finish that sentence without lying.

“Right. Tall. Built like a Norse God. All yummilicious with those freckles and that sexy ass scar on his face? Tell me again what Roger isn't?” A mischievous smile split Rachel's face.

“On the menu. He works for my husband. Don't you go after him.”

Esteban insisted that he was just a driver, but the way Roger moved suggested military training, which further suggested that he was really a body guard of sorts.

“Ohhhhhh… forbidden fruit!”

The sleek black Town Car drove up to the curb in front of them.

“Hush up and get in the car. You are such a…”

Roger was at her side, taking the bags and opening the door in one swift move. Bianca let the sentence die and just glared at her friend.

She turned to Roger, “We need to stop by Rachel's before we head home. She'll be staying with me till Esteban gets back.”

“Yes ma'am.” He closed the door behind them and took the driver's seat.

“And Rach, don't take forever. I have ice cream melting in this bag. Just get what you need and come on.”

“Oh, I'll get what I need to come.” She said it loud enough that Roger couldn't have helped but hear her. To his credit, Bianca noticed, his eyes never left the road.

Bianca studied the huge purple dildo with its faux veins and its balls discreetly hiding the large suction cup. The only thing Bianca had used the thing for, thus far, was slapping it up against the shower walls and giggling as it hung and bobbed.

When Rachel had forced her to buy it, Bianca had been mortified. Doubly so when she suggested she learn to use it by watching porno. No. She couldn't even. The very idea of something that size… It was beyond ridiculous.

Nope. What she needed was her best friend, a pint of ice cream and a sappy rom com on DVD.