Mom and I had been struggling financially my entire life, ever since my Dad left us when I was a little kid. I was only 18, so the best job I could find was at the local fast food place working as a carhop. It was kind of embarrassing because kids that I had graduated high school with just months before were always stopping in and asking where I was going to go to college. I wasn’t going to college, though. I had to work to help support my mom and I.
My girlfriends in college were always calling me and talking about the crazy parties they were going to and how much fun they were having. A lot of them were having sex with a different guy every week. Meanwhile, I was still a virgin. It didn’t bother me too much, though, because I knew that eventually the right guy would come along and take my virginity. Besides, I wasn’t in any rush.
My entire life was about to change, though. It was the end of summer after my high school graduation. I had been working all three months at the fast food place, trying to help pay our rent. We still weren’t making ends meet, though. My minimum wage was barely enough to survive on and my mom hadn’t been able to find work in months, since she had gotten laid off from her bank job. She had been trying to stay positive though and decided to put up a profile on an online dating site.
That was when things took a turn for the better. She chatted up a guy on the dating site and the two hit it off nicely. His name was John Powers and he reached out to my mom on the dating site just hours after she had set it up. It was the first date that she had been on in years and I remember how nervous she was when she was getting ready for him to pick her up. We both tried hard to clean up our little apartment. At the time, we were living just outside of L.A. in a small apartment complex. It was all we could afford.
“Maddy, I want you to meet Mr. Powers when he comes to pick me up,” my mom said to me. “You’re an excellent judge of character and I want to hear your first impression of him. He said he was excited to meet you too. One of the pictures I put up on my dating profile had you in it. He thinks you’re very pretty. Isn’t that sweet?”
I remember hearing him knock on the front door. I ran up to the door to get it while my mom was still upstairs. I opened the door to see something I was absolutely not expecting.
“Hi, I’m John,” he said smiling, as he held out his hand for a handshake. “You must be Maddy? I saw a picture of you on your mom’s dating profile.”
I was dumbstruck. I held out my hand in awe. He was gorgeous. He stood at least a foot taller than me. He had a big broad chest, which filled out his suit nicely. I didn’t think my mom had ever dated someone who even owned a suit. He had dark eyes, black hair and a bright white smile. I had guessed he was a little bit older than my mom, maybe in his mid 50’s.
“Yes, I’m Maddy,” I said, giggling.
His presence was authoritative and powerful. I could see why my mom wanted to go on a date with him. He seemed different than most guys.
I glanced beyond where he was standing so that I could see the car he pulled up in. It was some sort of Mercedes. It definitely was the most expensive car that I had ever seen on our street. You could see the nosy neighbors looking out of their windows to try to figure out what was going on.
“Mom, Mr. Powers is here!” I yelled up the stairs to my mom.
I stood there awkwardly with Mr. Powers in the doorway.
“So, what do you do Mr. Powers?” I asked him.
He smirked and said, “Mr. Powers huh? I like that. You can keep calling me that. For work, I do a little of everything. I own a number of businesses.”
I smiled and tried to show interest. I didn’t know much about business, since all I had ever done was bring fast food to people in their cars.
“And what do you do for work, Maddy?”
It was so strange because I immediately felt like I could open up to him. His power
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