Sadie and Sarah talk about sponsorships and cars

Sarah and I fall easily back into our rhythm of streaming. I even put up a poll in the afternoon and let my audience decide what I’ll play tonight. It isn’t a big surprise that they pick another date night stream. Feeling more warm than sexy I make the final choice of playing Dream Sugar Daddy II as opposed to Obey/Command Me!. With tomorrow’s stream it will be two in a row of that game, and it might garner some extra attention.

So long as I already started my diet cheating on breakfast I compounded it with some tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. I’m surprised to find out that I can’t finish the meal I’d set out. I just filled up faster than I thought. I reflect back to my ‘Nick’ life in my apartment when tomato soup and grilled cheese was a real treat, and I’d finish off a full can of Campbell’s soup and two sandwiches easy. Today I made the same meal but split it even with Sarah… and I couldn’t even eat half of my half!

While streaming that evening I play along as always but I also keep my tablet on my desk, just outside of the view of the camera. While my avatar preps for her ‘Sugar Daddy’ I keep going through the for-sale listings. I start with the internal university listings as I know it will be local and easy to deal with a fellow student, but there isn’t one for sale that I’m interested in. After teasing my audience with two outfits for the date, one that I could wear live for them, the other that would be in game only, I check into the nationwide Creag’s List focusing it down to a 50-mile radius. There’s one that might work, but it’s expensive enough that I couldn’t do any custom work to it. Finally, while I’m letting my audience decide how I make out with my Sugar Daddy in his convertible, I find what I’m looking for on a nation wide site that lets me narrow down my search radius, price, and features. I’m sure my audience assumes I’m smiling slyly while watching my avatar kissing her date while in fact, I’m considering my purchase. I had a lot of criteria, and it matched them all. It’s inexpensive enough that I could do it now and add some customization to make it really scream ‘Princess BabyDoll’, while being able to go back to stock and work for my ‘Nick’ life. And maybe the best thing is that it’s available here in town.

After my stream and a longer chat with my audience… a new perk I was offering to some of my higher paying subscribers… I prepare for bed. When I feel the bing on my wrist announcing Sarah’s chosen devotional, I see that there’s a new option on the phone. Instead of ‘Press here for five required devotionals’ the phone displayed ‘Press here for five required sexual devotionals or press here for affirmational devotional instead’. Smiling to myself I pressed the selection that gave me an affirmational devotional, enjoying lying back and touching my body, saying to the world at large ‘I am beautiful, Men love me, I am elegant, I arouse, and I am a girl’ over and over.

After my workout with Marly in the morning he stays a bit longer and shows me a couple locations he’s considering for the gym. I give him my honest opinion, mentioning that the big location in the strip mall might help with foot traffic, but the retail location on its own plot of land would lend an air of exclusivity.

After shooing Marley out, and setting up some social media posts to go through the day, including a cutesy photo of me mimicking my avatar kissing my Sugar Daddy, I jump in the shower and prep for the day. Just as I’m laying out a simple lunch of vegie and hummus sandwiches I see Sarah come out of her studio and ask her to join me for lunch and a discussion. When she sits down and I put her sandwich in front of her, I imagine she’s feeling the same as me, wishing that it was roast beef instead of hummus, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and romaine lettuce. After a bite that makes me realize it’s not as bad as it looks, I start into the discussion I wanted to run past Sarah.

“So, I’ve given the sponsorship more thought and I think I’m going to take it.” I try to keep my voice casual but I’m staring at Sarah’s eyes to see her reaction. When there isn’t a large response, good or bad, I continue.

“It’s not necessarily because it will get me more money sooner. You’re right in that I’m on a path of getting all the money I absolutely need by the end of the month and most of the money I want by the end of next semester. If I decide to go back to being Nick for the next school year, I’ll be able to start fresh and use the knowledge I’ve learned from you to get rolling fairly quickly again. But that gets me what I was already hoping to get. My college degree, a start in streaming, and enough money to buy my equipment and set up my apartment and life again. With the sponsorship, I can add something to that life. Something big that I’ve wanted and couldn’t really consider before.” I slowly turn my tablet around so that Sarah can see the photo of what I’m talking about.

“I was so jealous of your car when I met you. Not just the fact that you had one, but the fact that it matched your personality so well. And as this semester has gone by, that’s only been emphasized more by seeing Marley with his big Mercedes and Louis with his cool Corvette. You would all still be yourselves without the cars, but it’s like they’re extensions of you. They make you all more you. And then there’s just the fact that having to take the bus or rely on you or someone else to get me anywhere is really getting old fast. It was bad enough as Nick, but I recognize it’s a whole new problem as Sadie. I mean just you missing picking me up after my last…” I let my voice fade off and focus on not following that memory. I promised myself I wouldn’t be angry at Sarah for leaving me hanging and getting caught in Todd’s clutches, but there’s still a burning ember there that I don’t want to give air to.

I can see Sarah looking at the car and choose to talk about it specifically. “It’s a Mazda MX-5 Miata. 2019. It only has 25,000 miles and while they’re listing it for $30,000, I think I can get them down to $25,000. Especially when I tell them that I want to put a paint job on it that they can do and will cost $5,000 on its own. You see, the dealership has that body shop tied to it, Auto Body & Soul. Now while it’s pretty nice looking in that dark blue, imagine it like this…”

I spin the tablet around and bring up the photo I found on a Miata fan forum. It was a dark dusky pink in front and slowly faded to a brilliant purple in back. I noted Sarah’s eyebrows rise significantly when she saw it. “I wouldn’t choose those specific colors, and I certainly wouldn’t have the Japanese text going down the side, but I’m sure you can see the Princess BabyDoll connection. Add a few accessories inside along with the paint job and it’s the girly girl car you’d expect ‘Sadie’ and ‘Princes BabyDoll’ to drive. And if or when I change back to Nick, I can just remove the accessories and get it painted back to it’s normal blue and I still have a hot little car that I can take to the track.”

I watch as Sarah moves from the pink and purple Miata photo and back to the sales listing. When she seems to be looking over the equipment I continue, “I checked my accounts out and I can afford to not only buy the car but get it painted and accessorized now. When the sponsorship money comes in, I’ll pay off everything that I intended this money for including the last payments to you and the first payment for next semester. It’s perfect. It gets me a car, something I’ve always wanted, it doesn’t push me further into debt for it, and Isiah, the Marketing guy at LogitalTech, says that payment only commits me to six months of sponsorship. In other words, I’ll be back to debt free in February and paying off the next school year by Summer break!”

Sarah takes a long time to silently go over everything. I let her mull it over in her own time as I eat my lunch and watch her do everything from comparing the car price to national averages to looking at my streaming income and making a budget through the end of next semester. When it’s clear she’s getting the same numbers as I am… the car is a good price and my income plus the sponsorship will cover everything I’ve listed AND the car… she turns the tablet off and looks me straight in the face. It’s clear she’s not angry or even disturbed, but even before she opens her mouth, I can see that she disagrees. “Your numbers look good Sadie. If everything continues as is, if the sponsorship works out, if the car is a good buy and doesn’t break down in any expensive way, you’ll be able to cover everything. That being said…” Sarah shrugs, clearly not feeling that she’s able to articulate her position properly “…I just don’t like it. Not the car, that’s as cute as I can imagine you driving around in, but the sponsorship. I like LogitalTech, I really do, but they’re a huge corporation. Maybe this Isiah dude is being straight with you, maybe he’s not. But it’s a big enough company that maybe they’ll still screw you over.”

With a shrug, Sarah finishes off her statement, “But look, it’s your choice. I can’t blame you in the least for wanting a car. I’ve had one since I was in high school, and it comes naturally to me. You’d have to spend all summer streaming as Princess BabyDoll to be able to afford a car like that otherwise, and that means you couldn’t transition back to Nick until the following summer. So, you do what you want Sadie, and I’ll support you wherever you land.”

24 hours later Sarah and I are driving off the lot for the test drive in what I’m already thinking of as my car. Admittedly the 181 horsepower of the little sports car was nothing to brag about. And while it’s high revving little 4 cylinder sounded nice, it wasn’t as rumbly as Sarah’s, Marley’s, and Louis’ big V8s. I could see Sarah’s suspect look and just smiled at her, knowing I wanted to take it to an area of town with emptier, curvier roads. When we finally got to the area I wanted, I opened up the Mazda and showed Sarah the difference between a sports car and a muscle car like hers. While both our cars maxed out at the same speeds around these curvy city streets, this was able to keep more of that speed around all the corners. With the car turning almost flat I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading over my lips or the fun happy laughter from spilling out between them. I even remember the heel toe method of driving Dad taught me all those years ago on his old Datsun 240Z.

I probably could have driven that car for hours like that, just going back and forth over that snaking concrete if it wasn’t for my chunky heel slipping off the pedal occasionally and almost making us spin out.

When we got back to the dealership, and after a few minutes fixing our hair from the top-down driving, Sarah and I sat down across from the salesman. In a sick patronizing tone, he starts going over how good the car is. When he mentions it’s 155 horsepower, I try to interrupt him and explain that this was the first year that they improved the engine to 188, but he talked right over me, “Look darlin, the engine is fast enough for a girly girl like you, trust me.”

After 10 minutes of him going on and on, clearly not getting the fact that he was trying to sell a car to someone that was already ready to buy, he started laying out the price. He explained that the $30,000 sticker price was a promotion that ended ‘yesterday’ and that it was in fact going for $34,000. “Still a real steal for this little number!”

I didn’t even have time to object before he started in on various financing options, extra warranties that “a little girl like you should have”, maintenance programs, under body protection, window and tire insurance, and even “pretty little chrome door stops that I know you gals will love!”

When he finished talking, I looked over at Sarah and immediately knew she was thinking the same thing as me. I didn’t matter if this was the perfect car, there is no way I’d be buying anything from this asshole. Especially at his quoted $45,000 final price. I only had to shake my head once when Sarah started to talk to make her relax back in her seat. Turning my full attention to the salesman I picked up his business card… remembering that he hadn’t even introduced himself to us… and laid into him. “Okay Trevor, first… No. No, I will not be buying this car for $45,000 from you. I wouldn’t even buy it at $30,000 from you.”

Trevor leaned forward with his smarmy “oh you don’t know what you’re talking about darlin’” smile before I pointed at him and raised my voice loud enough to be heard all over the sales floor. “No, you cut me off enough and wasted my time for the last hour. First, the price STARTS at $30,000. That wasn’t a promo, and you damned well know it. And even then, it’s at least five grand above the national and regional average. Hell, even that stupid nation-wide chain Car Maximus sells an MX-5 like this for less money. Second, why the hell did you waste my time talking about financing and not even ask how I wanted to pay? Hmm? Because IF I were to buy this car from you, I’d be paying in C A S H CASH! Debt is for losers like you. Third, I find it insulting that you just assume that I can’t take care of a car. We didn’t even get into the fact that I felt a wobble while taking a high-speed corner and you’re going to fix that bearing before I even consider driving it off your lot. After I drive it off your lot, I’ll maintain it myself because I not only know how to do it, I like doing it. For example, the manual calls for four quarts of 0W-20 oil but since I’m going to be driving it a little spicy, I’d put a fully synthetic 5w-30 in it. And yes, I have access to a torque wrench to make sure the oil pan plug is put back in between 22 and 30 ft-lbs with a new crush washer. And your maintenance plan doesn’t even cover changing out the diff fluid which I’ll want to keep good and fresh. Oh, and that warranty, you probably knew it would be voided out when I changed the suspension and brakes to something better, right? I mean you wouldn’t let someone like me buy something for thousands of dollars that would go to waste with my first improvement, right? And I’m not even going to acknowledge the useless under body protection and insurance packages you were trying to scam me with.”

I take a quick look around and see that I have just about everybody’s attention on the sales floor. Customers and employees alike. There’s even an older gentleman with salt and pepper hair that’s grinning like mad as he slowly approaches us. Leaning forward I splay my fingers out on Trevor’s desk and finish with, “Look, you fix that bearing and take $25,000 out the door and we got a deal. Otherwise, me and my girl walk!”