Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 80699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER 1
Leah
The New Modesty would never have worked for me. I knew that, at the bottom of my heart, at the back of my mind, even in the pit of my stomach, from the very beginning.
What I didn’t expect was that they knew it too. The NMA. The New Modesty Authority, if you want to dignify them with the ‘official’ title they put on the signs they plaster onto the storefronts of the failing towns they buy, more or less.
Selecta, really: the megacorp that claims they don’t buy towns, and even that the NMA functions as an autonomous corporate-governmental partnership.
That’s what the lady across the desk from me at Harristown’s NMA office said. The Selecta bottled water with which they had stocked my fridge during my disastrous two weeks in the New Modesty told me a different story.
“We have a relationship,” Mrs. Covenant explained, “with certain programs run through Selecta’s lifestyle division.”
Yeah, right. It’s all a front for corporate shenanigans. And this is an excuse to take my subsidy away because I didn’t want to go out with any of the losers you matched me with.
“Like what, Mrs. Covenant?” I asked innocently. I even batted my eyes—not theatrically, because I had enough intelligence to know I shouldn’t antagonize her—but just twice, to suggest that my failure in the New Modesty could be attributed to my inexperience. Maybe she wouldn’t kick me out today.
I definitely didn’t think I’d get better suitors, but another two weeks of the subsidy, nestled away in my bank account, might well keep me going for a year in the city or even in a non-corporate town. True, things had gotten dangerous out there without corporate security to shore up the resources of the dwindling police, but despite the appearance I put up for Mrs. Covenant, I had street smarts. I felt confident I could at least avoid the labor camps, with the help of the New Modesty’s money.
The middle-aged woman with the iron-gray hair gave me a patient smile.
“The one I’m thinking of for you, Leah, is called Selecta Arrangements. I’ve sent a link to your email. Why don’t you go out to the lobby and take a look at the materials on your phone?”
I frowned at her, genuinely confused but trying to make my puzzlement as winsome as possible.
“Maybe I could take a look at home?”
Mrs. Covenant’s smile didn’t waver as she shook her head.
“You won’t be going back there, Leah. Your bags will be packed for you and brought here. You’ll be leaving Harristown on this afternoon’s bus to Los Angeles. The only question is where you’ll be getting off that bus: if you don’t sign a contract with Selecta Arrangements today, you’ll get off in East LA.”
My jaw dropped. I realized to my horror that it wouldn’t make any difference to argue: my New Modesty contract undoubtedly had words to that effect, in harmless-seeming legalese.
“And if… if I…”
“If you do sign a contract, you’ll go to Beverly Hills, where a small but luxurious apartment will be waiting for you. As a courtesy, girls coming out of the New Modesty have the opportunity to join Selecta Arrangements as associate members at the platinum level.”
Again my mouth opened in astonishment, and again I had nothing worth saying. I didn’t want to look like a complete idiot in front of Mrs. Covenant, so I didn’t say, Beverly Hills?, as if I had somehow both failed elementary school geography and never seen a TV show set in southern California.
“Why don’t you go out to the lobby and take a look?” the woman across from me said, an unexpected note of sympathy coming into her voice.
Out in the reception area I saw, with a hot blush, that my luggage had already arrived. Someone had packed it all up in my nice little New Modesty apartment—nice, but definitely not ‘luxurious.’ Someone had driven it the half mile or so from the housing complex to the office. Someone had put it here, in the corner of the lobby, for me to find—all of it as if to demonstrate to me how Selecta’s famous, seamless customer service could do everything behind the scenes to make our modern world run smoothly.
For those who can pay, I thought. They’re riding me out of Harristown on a rail, smoothly and seamlessly, because I wouldn’t date the men who would pay.
Frowning deeply, I sat down on the chair nearest to my luggage and took out my phone. I opened my email. Before I refreshed, the top mail in my inbox was still the one that had summoned me to the meeting with Mrs. Covenant. I opened it and read it again, in hope of steeling myself against whatever temptation Selecta would send my way next.
Dear Leah,
I hope this mail finds you well. I’m writing to ask you to come into the New Modesty Authority office today at 11 a.m. for a meeting with me. I’ve verified on your calendar that you’re free at that time, and I look forward to seeing you.