Mason

Mason sat in his office with a file on his desk, he has been staring at the documents for the past thirty minutes and still hasn't been able to make sense of it. And the reason for that is because he couldn't get her off his mind. Ava. Right from when his brother showed him her picture on the site, he wanted to see her, and now that he has seen her, he couldn't get her off his mind.

She seemed so fragile, he wanted so badly to wrap his arms around her and shield her from all the troubles of the world. He wanted to protect her.

Mason pushed the documents away from him, his mind kept going back to her, the way she sat across from him at the table, she had to be the cutest and prettiest girl he had ever seen. Her soft voice made him want to listen to whatever she had to say. The way heat rose to her cheek when she was embarrassed about something. She seemed naive, but he could tell that she had been through a lot in life, he could see it from her eyes. The way she reacted when he told her that he was no longer interested in going on with the deal. Why he said that to her, he has no idea, probably he was trying to figure out the reason she was doing it. Was she in debt? No, he doubted it, she was too young to be in such a huge debt. Probably she needed the money to fund her lifestyle. Mason has seen and met a lot of girls who live way above their means, buying clothes and going to places that they couldn't afford to pay for, maxing out their credit cards just so they can belong to a certain social class. Probably Ava was one of those.

Mason shook his head as he tried to picture Ava doing any of these things, not that he knew her, but she seemed decent and he could tell from the dress that she wore, she wasn't some 'wannabe girl.' The dress was cheap, it was no designer, he could tell.

So if she wasn't in debt, and she wasn't looking for money to fund her lifestyle, then why did she need that kind of money, that she had to auction her virginity online? Only someone desperate would do that.

"I guess I would never know," Mason muttered. Or what if he had her checked? That way he could get all the information that he needed to know about her. Mason picked up his phone from his desk and dialed Stan's number. Stan is Mason's friend and a private investigator.

"This had better important," Stan's grumpy voice came on the phone.

"Hey man, wrong timing?" Mason asked.

"Yeah, but it's fine. What's up?"

"I need you to help me find out about someone," Mason said.

"What exactly would you want me to find out about this person?"

"Everything, what the person does for a living, where she lives. I want to know everything about her."

"All right, send me her name, and I will let you know when I find something."

"I will do that, after this call, thanks man," before Mason ended the call he heard a female's voice telling Stan to come to join her in the shower. Of course, he had female company, it was Valentine's day and everyone was either out having fun with their partners, or they were indoors cuddled up with their partners. Mason was having neither of that, instead, he was in his office working.

His phone started ringing, and it was his step mum calling. "Hello Deb," Mason answered the phone.

"Mason darling, how are you doing? I hope I didn't call too late?"

"No Deb, it's fine."

"Your brother mentioned that you were going out on a date, I wanted to check and know how it went."

Mason cussed under his breath as he thought of all the things he was going to do to his brother when he saw him next. How could he go and tell their step mum about his date? Technically, it wasn't even a date.

"Mason, are you there?"

"It went well Deb," Mason replied without any further interest in pursuing the subject.

"Oh, that's good. So would I be seeing her soon? Or you know what, why don't the both of you come over to the house for dinner this weekend? I would tell the chef to__"

"Deb, please stop. I'm not coming to the house with her."

"But why not? Don't you like her enough to want to introduce her to your dad and me?"

Mason was so going to kill his brother.

"Deb, it was just a date. We are not... I'm still trying to see where it's headed, I'm not sure of her yet," he hoped that his step mum would believe him and left him alone.

"Hmm, okay, if you say so."

"Yeah," Mason started flipping through the documents that he was previously going through.

"Wait a minute, are you back at the office?" His stepmother asked when she heard the rustling of papers.

"Um, yeah."

"Oh my God Mason, was the date that bad that you had to go back to the office?"

"I needed to finish up with some work," Mason said.

"Mason it's Valentine's day, you are supposed to be___"

"Aren't you supposed to be having a date with your husband?" Mason asked, interrupting her.

"Your Dad and I just got back from having dinner at our favorite restaurant," his step mum said.

"Good for you both. Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to work."

"You need to get a life, Mason."

"I already have one."

"Outside of work," his stepmother said.

"I love you too Deb, bye." Mason ended the call before his stepmother got the chance to say something else. He knew she cared, but sometimes he preferred she left him alone and showered her attention on his younger brother instead. After all, Jason loves attention.