A+ Credit

The haze of Las Vegas was still wearing off as Sarah struggled to hook her bra back on. She had taken the trip to celebrate landing her teaching job, and she had made the mistake of trying to drink like she had back when she was an undergrad. For the first time in four years the 23 year old had actually blacked out drinking and couldn't for the life of her remember what exactly had happen.

Sarah looked up at herself in the hotel mirror. Pretty blue eyes framed by dark circles looked back at her from under blonde shoulder length hair, and she pushed it back away from her face to ascertain that her attractive features were unmarred. Breathing in, she clipped on her small c-cup bra and turned it around properly, then exhaled, letting her toned stomach out slightly. She then took inventory of her things.

Her money was gone. She remembered gambling the previous night, up to a point. Credit cards all there, but jumbled. Room key on the night stand. Phone untouched. Social media untouched. No used condoms lying around the room or strangers in her bed. She could almost believe that she would make it out of Vegas unscathed. A quick check on her banking app informed her that her account had been emptied. Apparently she had gotten the bright idea at some point to empty out her meager bank account in order to continue gambling. She could believe it: she had been hot at the gaming tables last night until things had started turning against her. First at blackjack, then at the roulette wheel. She remembered quaffing drink after drink as lady luck proved herself to be a complete bitch.

"Well, at least I can cut my losses," she murmured to nobody in particular as she pulled on her blue jeans.

***********************************

"Oh my god, I can't believe it!" Sarah cried.

"Shhhh," whispered the brunette across the table from her.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, I'm serious."

"Oh my god..."

"It's not a big deal."

"You were totally a-"

"Sugar baby, yes. Keep your voice down."

The cute brunette across from Sarah squinted at her over their coffee. The small coffee shop was noisy enough, but Sarah's exclamations were enough to have drawn a glance or two.

"Well..."

"Well what?"

"What was it like?"

The brunette, Libby, thought about it for a moment.

"It wasn't a big deal really. I mean they just paid me for my company."

"But you-," she paused as Libby gestured for her to be less loud, "but you had s-e-x with them right?"

"Yeah, that was usually how a date went."

"Man, and I thought working at a sandwich place kept me on my toes."

Libby laughed.

"Yeah, it was kind of exciting there for a while."

"How many guys did you, uh..."

"Just two or three. A few dates a week. Just enough to pay for tuition."

"And do you still?"

"Well..."

"Well?"

"Only one. Just to pay my bills."

"Do you pay taxes on it?"

"No. I just pay my groceries and utilities in cash."

"Wow... I can't believe you're a prost-..."

"Business woman," Libby interjected.

"Right..."

Libby was Sarah's closest friend from college. Now successful in the corporate world, it was a surprise to Sarah that her friend was willing to risk selling herself to pay her bills. Resolving not to judge her friend, Sarah smiled at her.

"I can't imagine doing it. Was it hard to find clients?"

"No. You can find anything on the internet."

"Oh, I see..."

She had a niggling impulse to check out the sites that Libby had used. Not out of any financial interest, but just to see what they were like.

"Would you show me?"

"Sure."

Pulling out her phone Libby showed Sarah a series of web sites catering to people seeking sugaring arrangements. As she got to one she frowned and quickly skipped to another one, wrinkling her nose.

"Why did you skip that one?"

"It's more of an escort site than a sugaring site."

"There's a difference?"

"Escorting is more money, but you have to fuck more people."

"Oh. How much more?"

"Well, if you're only seeing maybe three to five a week, they'd pay about three hundred for an hour to two hundred for thirty minutes."

"Holy shit, that's..." she did some mental math, "an average of over a thousand dollars per week!"

"Yeah, and that's not even high volume. You sound intrigued."

Libby quirked an eyebrow at Sarah.

"No, of course not! Just... surprised is all."

"At?"

"How much money there is..."

"Sounds like you need a daddy!"

"No, no, I couldn't..."

"It's better than a mountain of debt, that's for sure."

Sarah sighed at the though of her student loans piled up and waiting to eat up her income.

"Yeah, that's for sure..."

*******************************

Sarah nearly fainted as she read the bill over and over again, comprehending but refusing to accept. Her credit cards were maxed out. All of them. All from getting cash in Vegas. She was $20,000 in debt total, and when she couldn't pay it she was going to find herself owing $4,000 in interest on it. That was more than she made a month before taxes on a teacher's salary in a small town.

"This can't be happening," she whispered.

Vegas was supposed to be fun. A last hurrah before she buried herself in keeping up appearances and grading papers. Her credit rating was already less than stellar, and tapping out the limit on four different credit cards was going to destroy her credit rating.

"I'll dispute the charges. This can't be right."

********************************

Sarah discovered that she could not, in fact, dispute the charges. The casino had kept video record of her accessing bank machines to get cash from her credit cards. All of them. At three different casinos.

"I'll consolidate these loans! I'll... call one of those TV accountants!"

**********************************

Sarah discovered that loan consolidation was not, in fact, as easy as commercials suggested. For starters, her credit was awful and banks were reluctant to lend her anything. Secondly, she hadn't proven herself unable to afford the minimum payments, and hiring tax attorneys was too expensive for her to afford.

However, she finally found a credit union that would help her. She just barely qualified for the minimums needed, but things were going to be fine, or so she hoped.

*********************************

It was the first day of class, but Sarah could barely focus on her job. Her Principal had told her not to be nervous, and that everything would be fine, but how could she possibly know what Sarah was actually nervous about. Steeling herself, Sarah turned to face her class of middle schoolers.

"Good morning class."

She waited on them to respond, and pretended not to hear the handful of voices that responded.

"I can't hear you. I said good morning class!"

"Good morning!"

"My name is Ms. Ashford. Welcome to the sixth grade..."

***********************************

"What do you mean you can't help me anymore!"

She was practically crying. After the semi-apologetic conversation she found herself actually crying. Something with her credit had changed. An email notification from her credit card providers explained it: they had lowered her credit limits on her cards, which in turn lowered her credit score for some reason that she wasn't prepared to comprehend just yet. Sobbing, she started googling for answers.

[How to find money fast]

Nothing useful.

[Paying off loans]

Personal finance junk.

[Loan arrangements]

Nothing new to her.

[Seeking arrangement]

"Whoa."

She recognized a few of the websites that popped up. They were the "sugar baby" sites that Libby had told her about. Hesitantly, with a knot in her stomach, she clicked on one.

[Log in]

[Register]

She clicked the register button. What was the harm in just looking?

[Are you seeking a sugar baby?]

[Are you seeking a sugar daddy?]

She clicked on 'sugar daddy'. A set of questions popped up, and she filled out her information as she tried to convince herself that she was just browsing.

[What allowance range are you seeking?]

Sarah did some less reluctant than she was comfortable with mental math. If she was going to pay down her credit cards, she was going to need at lest $4,000 per month every month to cover the interest while using her salary to chip away at the principle $20,000. She STILL wouldn't be able to pay it in a year.

[$1,000-$1,500]

She hoped it would suit her. As she completed her profile, she was asked to post pictures. She opened up facebook in another tab and scrolled through. Nothing that she had posted on facebook seemed quite appropriate for an... arrangement finding site. Reluctantly realizing that she was slowly becoming more and more committed, she retrieved her webcam from the drawer.

********************************

The pictures that she took in her lingerie weren't half bad. They could be better, but for being amateur selfies they weren't bad. She had definitely made sure not to show any face, and as she uploaded them to her profile she pushed down questions like 'am I really going through with this' or 'how desperate am I really'.

********************************

"These people are insane!" She snarled as she went through her messages.

Sure, there were a few guys who had already taken an interest in her toned body, but what they wanted for their money was outrageous: dates multiple times a week, sexting, spending several nights a week over, modeling outfits for them, catering to various fetishes, and in a few cases completely unprotected sex contingent on her getting tested for STDs first. The amount of 'companionship' that they wanted from her for that amount was crazy.

'Well, if you're only seeing maybe three to five a week, they'd pay about three hundred for an hour to two hundred for thirty minutes.'

The memory of the conversation with Libby came back to her. Opening up her other tab, she checked out the escort site that she had been shown.

*********************************

It was amazing how quick it had been. Within 30 minutes of making a profile and an introduction she was already getting emails and messages requesting her services.

[Hey!]

[In town?]

[Incall or outcall]

They stacked up in her inboxes. Biting her nails, Sarah considered her options. If, and there was much less of a hypothetically about it at this point, she was willing to see five of these guys a week, mostly on the weekend, she could easily pay down her interest. That was just as a start. If she saw even a half of the guys commenting on her post or messaging her, she would have her debt paid before the first half of the year was over. It could all be fixed: her credit rating, her debt, her world crashing down around her. While she was at it she could even pay her student loans.

It was just going to mean that after writing lesson plans she was going to have to check into a hotel room and fuck a procession of complete strangers on a regular basis. She gulped at the thought and asked herself again just how desperate she was.