Meet the Cast of TDC:


The Divas:



Yvonne Shelton

Age: 35

Occupation: Corporate Attorney




Carlotta Hayes

Age: 34

Occupation: Biochemist




Jeanine Gardner

Age: 35

Occupation: Victoria Secret Model

Roxanne (Roxy) Jordan

Age: 36

Occupation: Marine Biologist




The Dukes:




Mike Shelton

Age: 36

Occupation: Freelance Writer, currently unemployed




Stephen Walsh

Age: 37

Occupation: Fire Fighter




Roger Moore

Age: 34

Occupation: Composer




Greyson (Grey) Capshaw

Age: 30

Occupation: Construction Worker (aspiring Architect) and Model.




The Devil (Not really, but he is the temptor and I wanted alliteration hehe)




Jacob (Jake) Daniels

Age: 51

Occupation: Senior Corporate Attorney and Consultant

~~~~~

Prologue –

~ The Challenge ~



Naughty By Nature. They didn’t care that half of the lounge was too young to have any idea who they were; it was their jam. It was tradition that every second Friday night, they would play “O.P.P” as they drank their round of apple martinis and feasted on oysters and calamari. It was girls night, the meeting of the O.H.P. was in session. The chorus of the song arrived, and four manicured, drink-filled hands raised in the air.

“You down with O.H.P? Yah you know me!” they all sang in unison, before settling into a fit of giggles.

“You’d think after hearing that song like 500 times that at least one of you would know the lyrics,” the comment came from Angelo, the waiter that worked at La Cantina almost every weekend. He emptied the tray of shooters onto the table.

“You just wish you knew what we’re talking about, Angel” Jeanine said as she brought her glass to her lips. Angelo snorted.

“Oh, please. Despite what you may have heard, it’s not every gay man’s fantasy to hang with the ladies.”

“Just yours then, huh?” Roxy replied with a raised brow. Angelo gave her an annoyed glance before taking her empty glass.

“Why do I even serve this table?” he grumbled as he turned to walk away.

“Because you love us, boo, and we love you back!” Yvonne called after his retreating back, eliciting giggles from around the table.

“And we tip him way too much,” Carlotta added after swallowing some calamari. “I always shudder at my bank statements after one of these nights.”

“Girl, you always worry about money,” Jeanine replied. “And you’ve probably got more than all of us.”

“And I’d be richer too if I’d stop hanging out with you heifers,” Carlotta said. Yvonne threw her balled napkin at her.

“Hey! You were the one who begged to hang with us, remember? I do believe you offered to do my chemistry homework for a month.”

A small smile crept to Carlotta’s lips as she recalled that day some 14 years ago.

“You can’t be serious about this, Yvie!” Jeanine whined. She formed a pout on her glossed lips and folded her arms. “I have a rep to think about!”

“Don’t be such a snob, Jeanine,” Yvonne chastised. “She’s a nice girl.”

“She’s weird!” Jeanine hissed.

“Jeanine-“

“She spends three hours afterschool doing extra credit work for Chemistry! Who does that?” Jeanine asked, casting her eyes in Carlotta’s direction.”Not to mention the clothes and the glasses – need I go on?”

Carlotta pushed her horn-rimmed glasses up her nose as she waited a few feet away. She hated this, not knowing what was going to happen. She could hear snippets of Yvonne and Jeanine’s conversation, but not enough to know their answer. It wasn’t everyday one would offer themselves on the altar of dignity and ask – no, beg – to be part of a group that they weren’t supposed to know about anyways. Carlotta had heard about it incidentally – well, she was eavesdropping, but she really had little choice.

Carlotta started tutoring Yvonne in Chemistry several months ago, when Yvonne received a less than stellar grade on her midterm exam. Carlotta had never spoken to Yvonne before that first tutoring session, primarily because Yvonne was in a completely different league. In a word, Yvonne – like Jeanine – was gorgeous. It was an effortless beauty that radiated from her, and all the guys loved it and most girls were jealous of her for it. It made her instantly popular, always surrounded by people that either wanted to date her or be her. But Yvonne wasn’t blue-blooded like other girls in her physical league. She was kind and friendly to just about everyone, and seemed to have a good circle of friends.

But there was a closer circle, a tight-knit inner clique that Carlotta had become almost obsessed with ever since she heard about it. In one of her tutoring sessions a few weeks earlier, she’d overheard Yvonne and Jeanine talking about a challenge – a game that they’d played only days before. Apparently, Yvonne and Jeanine had a game they called “limits” that they played every so often for “points”. Carlotta only heard bits and pieces, but she was able to gather that the girls had nominated a string of guys from their school (and others) and gotten them to do various tasks of differing levels of humiliation. It was childish and degrading…and completely intriguing.

Carlotta couldn’t stop herself from asking Yvonne about it the next day, and Yvonne had told her that she and two of her best friends had formed a little club of sorts, that they called the Order of the High Pimpstress, a play on the term “high priestess”. It wasn’t a public thing, like a known clique that people could line up to get into. It was simply an exclusive hub of friends that liked to hang out together and do “challenges” like the one she’d overheard, and more.

Carlotta couldn’t stop thinking about it after Yvonne had told her. She noticed the smile and brightness that Yvonne had when she talked about her little group, and how much fun they had. She didn’t have a lot of friends. In fact, if you didn’t count her family members, she didn’t really have any friends, outside of a few acquaintances in the science club. She’d always wanted to be part of a close group of friends, and the Order seemed like just the thing to make that happen.

But sadly, it wasn’t up to only Yvonne. The only way someone else could join was if all three of them agreed. And so now, here Carlotta stood, waiting nervously as her fate was decided by three complete strangers.

“She seems nice,” Roxy commented as she glanced at Carlotta again. “God knows we could use the help in Bio and Chem.”

“Will you two stop thinking about the nerd benefits here and focus on what’s really important?” Jeanine hissed. “She’s awkward! Not to mention that I heard she’s some kind of like, freak-genius and is graduating this year anyways and won’t even be here in the fall. So what’s the point in letting her in?”

Carlotta gulped. She could hear practically every word that Jeanine said as Jeanine was closest to her. She’d almost forgotten that most of the school knew about her early graduation now, thanks to Principal Gaherty’s big mouth. Almost everyone looked at her like she was some kind of genetic freak ever since, even some of her science club friends that had been friendly to her cooled off out of jealousy. And that was another major reason that she wanted into the Order so badly. In six short months, she was going to be in University with students as much as twice her age. She needed friends, people who would understand what she was going through, girls that she could pour her heart out to. She needed something chase away the loneliness.

“Can you stop being a stereotype for like, five seconds, J?” Roxy said. “There’s nothing freakish about being really smart, so don’t hate on someone just because you aren’t.” Jeanine opened her mouth to rebut, but Roxy quickly added, “I personally think it would be nice to have a new face in the group.”

“You just want someone else to speak geek with,” Jeanine huffed. “Can we just do the vote already? I have practice in ten minutes and I’m supposed to me Ellis first.”

“Ellis Brooks? Really?” Roxy asked, wrinkling her nose.

“Ellis is damned hot, Roxy. I’ve heard you say it.” Jeanine defended.

“Uh, yeah, he’s hot,” Roxy admitted. “But he’s also the biggest man-whore in school.”

Jeanine shrugged casually as she glanced at her polished pink nails.

“Yeah, I know. But he’s a damned good kisser.”

“Gross.”

“Jealous much?”

“Let’s just vote!” Yvonne said exasperatedly. She then raised her hand. “I vote that we induct Carlotta into the O.H.P. Ladies?”

Roxy raised her hand next, a lopsided smile crossing her face.

“I vote yay.”

Both girls looked intently at Jeanine, who still had her hands folded under her arms.

“Well?” Yvonne prompted when she made no attempt to move. Jeanine let out a sigh before turning and looking at Carlotta. Carlotta was met with fierce brown eyes, heavy with disapproval. She closed hers, saying a silent prayer that by some miracle, when she opened them, Jeanine’s hand would be raised too.



“I was young and desperate,” Carlotta defended. “And you took advantage of my social handicap.”

“Correction, we helped you with your social handicap,” Roxy said. “We took advantage of your mad science skills.”

“You should have become a mixologist,” Jeanine said after finishing her martini. “You could have created the world’s first ultimate martini. That would have been useful. Instead you’re wasting all that talent on – what are you wasting it on again?”

Carlotta shot Jeanine a hard look before picking up her shot glass.

“Anti-wrinkle cream.” Carlotta retorted. “It’ll be the saving grace of aging models like yourself.”

“Hardy-har,” Jeanine replied before sticking her tongue out. “And I’m not aging, I’m…seasoned.”

“Blah, blah blah. A’ight, enough. Let’s drink our Blowjobs and start this thing. I have to go into the office tomorrow morning.” Yvonne ordered. The other women all rolled their eyes as they reached for the shot glasses in the middle of the table.

“When are you gonna realize that Saturday is part of the weekend?” Jeanine asked as she raised her glass.

“When I make partner,” Yvonne answered easily. “Now, bottoms up!”

Yvonne then hit the table once, followed by Jeanine hitting the table twice, then Roxy hitting it three times and finally Carlotta hitting it four times.

“Pimpin’!” They all shouted at once before downing their whipped cream-topped shots.

“Woo, that still goes down so smooth,” Jeanine said as she licked the excess cream from her lips.

“I still think we could find a more tastefully named shooter,” Carlotta carped, picking up a napkin. “I always feel so dirty asking the bartender for four blowjobs.”

This elicited giggles from around the table and Carlotta rolled her eyes.

“Okay, on to the agenda,” Yvonne said after settling. “It’s that time again, where we need a new challenge. So who’s got some ideas?”

“I love how she still calls it “our” challenge, when her ass hasn’t played for the last ten years.” Roxy muttered. Yvonne shrugged.

“Hey, don’t hate on me. I’m the one who has the ball and chain at home keeping me on the bench. You should be pitying me.” Yvonne replied.

“You married him,” Jeanine added. “I always told you that you should have married some old rich codger who was too weak to follow you anywhere. Then you could cheat and he’d be too old and tired to do shit about it.”

“How about the Digit Dash?” Carlotta suggested. Carlotta was referring to the challenge that Jeanine had come up with when they first started hitting dance clubs. The object was to attain as many phone numbers from as many attractive men as they could in one hour. Jeanine had been the reigning champion for six years running. “There’s a new high-end club in Soho I heard about that will have plenty of fresh meat itching to give us their numbers-“

“Who told you about this club?” Jeanine interrupted.

“A friend at work, why?” Carlotta replied. At this Jeanine started shaking her head.

“We ain’t even tryin’ to deal with a bunch of science nerds who’ll spend the whole night trying to impress us with the size of their intellect, Carlotta,” Jeanine said flatly. “This is supposed to be fun for everyone, remember?”

Carlotta folded her arms and sat back.

“Fine, what’s your suggestion then Miss. Partytime?”

“What else – Limits!” Jeanine said, her face lighting up. “There’s this one arrogant S.O.B. at the agency that is just dying for some humiliation. We could set up a whole new gauntlet of undignified tasks for the victims to do-“

“I have no desire whatsoever to put some poor man through picking lint out of my toes for a whole week, J.” Roxy said with disgust. “The last time we did this I ended up being stalked for two months, remember? Next suggestion.”

“Not to worry ladies, I have a new and unique challenge proposition for you.” Yvonne said as she reached into her bag. “I had a feeling you all wouldn’t be able to agree on something, so…”

“Oh no,” Jeanine said, eying the bag suspiciously. “You’re not thinking of sending us to a religious camp to try and corrupt studying priests or something are you?”

Yvonne laughed as she handed out small leaflets to each of the girls.

“Uh, no J, though now that you mention it, that is a pretty hot idea.” She replied. “I had something a little less sinister in mind.”

“A date auction?” Roxy asked as her eyes scanned the paper. “For real?”

“For real,” Yvonne confirmed leaning forward. “It’s for a good cause. My firm has been a supporter of the Safe Harbor Women’s Shelter for years, and this year I’m chairing the fundraising committee. I want this to be the most lucrative event we’ve had yet, and that’s where you ladies come in.”

“Aw hell,” Jeanine griped. “I shoulda known that this had to do with money.”

“Like you ain’t got some?” Yvonne replied. “Come on, it’s for charity and more importantly, the protection of women and children.”

“What you meant to say was ‘more importantly, to make you look good to the senior partners in the firm.’ Right?” Roxy challenged. Yvonne gave her a shy shrug.

“You know me too well, Roxy.” She admitted. “But seriously – this could be really fun, guys! The men that volunteered for this auction are all really sweet. They come from varying careers and backgrounds and I’ve seen some of the headshots – some of them are fine. I’d bid myself if I wasn’t spoken for.”

“Fine men for sale…I suppose it’s not a terrible idea,” Jeanine said thoughtfully. “And you’re sure that these guys are hot?”

“Oh yeah,” Yvonne nodded as she spoke. “Like, change of underwear hot. We even have some firemen.”

“Sold.” Jeanine said raising her hand. “I could use a big strong man throwing me over his shoulder to have his way with me after the stressful month I’ve had.”

“Do you ever think about anything other than sex?” Carlotta asked, shaking her head.

“Of course,” Jeanine answered. “Shoes, bags, nails, hair – did I say shoes already?”

Carlotta rolled her eyes and then turned back to Yvonne. “What exactly is expected once you…uh…purchase your date?”

“Not sex, so get that look off of your face, Carly.” Yvonne said exasperatedly. “It’s actually going to be really fun. You guys get to go on the date the night after the auction. The restaurants have been chosen by our firm – which means that they’ll be very nice and dinner’s free, y’all – and then you’ll do a surprise activity that’s been chosen by your date. After that…well, the agenda’s up to you.”

“A surprise activity?” Roxy asked, an eyebrow raised. “What kind of activities are we talking about here? Will it be supervised?”

Yvonne rolled her eyes dramatically as she reached for her drink.

“Well, it wouldn’t really be a surprise if I told you what it was, now would it, Rox?” Yvonne pointed out. “Could you just try and let go of your control issues for two seconds and try something different?”

Roxy leaned back and folded her arms.

“Well excuse me for being worrying about the fact that this date could consider locking me in his basement and torturing me a ‘surprise activity’.”

“That could be hot,” Jeanine mused, and Roxy shot her a glare. “What? It’s all a matter of perspective.”

“Anyways,” Yvonne said warily. “You guys are in, right? You’ll help a sister out?”

The three girls looked at each other, before Jeanine finally nodded.

“Yeah, we’re in.”

Yvonne clapped happily before signaling to Angelo to bring another round of drinks.

“Yay! I knew I could count on you guys!” Yvonne cooed. “And now, for the challenge.”

Carlotta’s brows knitted together.

“Huh? I thought…I thought that was the challenge?” she asked looking around the table. As she thought, Roxy and Jeanine looked just as confused.

“What - an auction? Girls, please” Yvonne replied with a wave of her hand. “That’s only money, it’s child’s play.”

“Okay,” Jeanine said slowly. “So then what is the challenge, dark master?”

Yvonne tapped the tips of her fingers together in a mock menacing pose.

“Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is that…you won’t be the one’s choosing your dates.”

All three women continued to stare at Yvonne.

“Whatchu talkin’ bout, Yvie?” Jeanine asked in her best Different Strokes impression.

“What I’m talkin’ bout J is that you will all have to pick a date for each other,” Yvonne explained. “Specifically, you will be picking a date for Carlotta, Carlotta will be choosing the date for Roxy, and Roxy will be choosing a date for you. Now the twist is that you can’t choose a guy that the other would normally date. It has to be a challenge. The woman with the best survival story wins.”

The three women again looked amongst themselves before they all started shaking their heads.

“Uh-uh”

“No way”

“You done lost your mind,”

“I can’t trust her to pick my date!”

“That’s a disaster waiting to happen right there.”

Yvonne only smiled as they all voiced their protests, simply pulling out a very familiar purple velvet bag. She placed the bag on the table, and slowly opened it until the contents were revealed. In the middle of the table sat the gold-plated, faux bejeweled cup that they’d all chipped in to buy when they were just teenagers. Inside the cup were four crisp $100 bills.

“The pot is going to be double this time since the last challenge was a draw,” Yvonne said easily, tracing the mouth of the cup with her finger. “Whoever wins this one gets the Pimp cup and eight hundred dollars. That’s a brand new pair of Jimmy Choo’s or a mini-vacation in Paris. Not to mention months of bragging rights.”

Jeanine, Roxy and Carlotta’s eyes all fixed on the obnoxious-looking cup and its contents.

“I’ll even throw in an extra two hundred, and make it an even thousand.” Yvonne added, looking at each woman individually.

“Damn it,” Jeanine said after a moment. “You know I can’t say no to a shopping weekend in Paris. I’m in.”

“Yay!” Yvonne cheered, squeezing Jeanine’s shoulder. “Okay, now how about you two? Come on! You know it’ll be fun.”

“Yeah, come on y’all,” Jeanine prodded. “It’s only one date. And these guys are fly, remember?”

Yvonne then put on her best pout.

“And it’s for charity! Think of those poor women who need empowerment, and those widdle children that could grow up to be the best marine biologist’s ever!”

Roxy rolled her eyes.

“Woman, you are shameless,” Roxy accused.

“Just pimpin’ like I know I should.” Yvonne quipped. Roxy let out a drawn out sigh.

“A’ight, I’m in.”

Yvonne clapped again and turned to Carlotta who held her hand up.

“Girl don’t even come at me with that, you know I have no choice but to do this now,” Carlotta whined.

“That’s my girl!” Yvonne teased. “Alright, we have our challenge – which I’ve affectionately called Switch It Up – and we have our prize. I can hardly wait until next weekend!”

“Of course you can’t, you ain’t the one who might end up dating a serial killer,” Roxy deadpanned.

“Ooh, just in time,” Yvonne said as Angelo dropped off four new drinks. Yvonne grabbed a glass and held it out to towards her friends. “To the O.H. P. May the best Pimpstress win.”

The others grabbed their glasses and raised them to the middle, ignoring the doubt that shone in each of their eyes.