Paying the Rent

It takes less than you might think for life to spiral out of your control. You lose your job. You struggle to find another. Money gets tight. Someone does something desperate to make sure the rent gets paid. Next thing you know, you come home one day and your entire life is upended. That's what happens to Eric, though it ends in a place you might not expect.

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After nearly two months of fruitless searching, Eric had come to dread the moment where he’d walk through the door of their tiny Lower East Side one bedroom apartment and inform his girlfriend that he'd once again failed to find a job, that he'd managed to make some money on TaskRabbit but that it wasn't nearly enough to make ends meet, that he'd head out the next day and begin the search all over again.

He could have applied for jobs at the apartment, of course, but Eric preferred to set up in a coffee shop to send out resumes. Somehow it felt less embarrassing than doing so with his girlfriend working on the other side of the room. Plus, he hadn't told Maria, but he'd started applying in person for lower paying jobs - working at a grocery store, for instance - in the hope of finding something to try and make ends meet before the situation got desperate.

On this particular day, Eric felt especially defeated so he headed home earlier than usual but he found himself unable to go inside, which is why he was standing outside the building and looking up at their fifth floor window. In some buildings it was nice to be on a high floor. In theirs, it meant walking up and down five flights of stairs multiple times a day, which was not a luxury.

As he stood there, the landlord's son – who managed the building – came out with a big smile on his face.

"Eric!" Tony said before clapping him on the shoulder. "How's it going?"

"Not bad, Tony. Not bad. How are you?"

Tony smiled like he was the son of a rich man who'd never have to worry about money. Then again, that's precisely what he was, so of course he was smiling that way.

"I'm fantastic, Eric. I'm absolutely fantastic. You have a good day."

He clapped Eric on the shoulder again and headed down the sidewalk with a genuine bounce in his step. Eric, feeling even more worn down than he had just a minute prior, headed upstairs. As always, he was breathing heavier than he would have liked as he approached the door to the apartment he shared with his longtime girlfriend Maria.

He slipped his key in the lock, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.

Eric expected to see Maria working at her desk in their cozy - small, really - living room, but the room was empty. Her laptop was open, a mug of tea rested on a coaster, and her chair pushed back like she'd gotten up in a hurry, which led him to conclude that she'd merely gone to the bathroom.

Eric set his laptop bag down and found himself smiling as he thought of hugging Marie, of hearing her tell him that everything was going to be fine, that he'd find a job before long, that things would soon be looking up for them.

"Are you back for more?" Maria's voice rang out as her footsteps approached. "Not that I'm complaining, but I think twice is more than enough."

She stepped into the room and her face dropped.

"Oh, shit," she said.

Maria wore a white satin robe with lace trim that Eric had never seen before. Her nipples were quite visible through the material and Eric surmised she wasn't wearing a bra. It seemed quite possible she wasn't wearing anything at all under the robe, in fact. Her hair was messy, too, and given what she'd said, only one thought came to mind.

"Are you cheating on me?" he asked.

"No. Well, yes, but no."

"How could the answer be yes and no?"

Maria's shoulders sank and she walked past Eric and dropped onto the couch.

"It's embarrassing," she said.

Eric's brain didn't seem to be working, because he couldn't make his mouth do anything other than hang open.

Maria looked up at him and then directed her gaze to the floor before saying, "I've been having sex with Tony...with the landlord's son...in exchange for not having to pay the rent."

The apartment seemed to spin around Eric as he processed the news. "Did you just...that's why Tony was leaving?" he asked.

Maria nodded without looking at him.

"So he was just...he was just in here...having sex with you while I was out...is that...and he had sex with you twice?"

"Yes," she said softly.

Her words came back to him. "Not that you're complaining? Is that what you said? Does that mean...I mean, does that mean you enjoy having sex with him?"

Maria said nothing and Eric found himself sinking to the floor. He leaned against the wall by the door and took his head in his hands as it felt like his whole world came apart.

"Maria?" he asked, the desperation obvious in his voice. "Are you...are you enjoying it?"

"Eric, please."

He looked up. Her eyes looked wet, as if she'd just managed to hold back her tears. Eric felt no inclination to cry, mostly because he was baffled more than anything.

"I don't understand. How does...I mean, how does something like this even happen?"

She took a deep breath. "We ran into each other in a bar right after you'd lost your job. I was out with my friends. I'd had two drinks already. Tony asked me how I was and I just spilled everything. I told him I was so stressed about getting evicted. I told him I wasn't sure you'd be able to find a job with any kind of speed - I was right about that, by the way - and that we didn't really have much in the way of savings."

"And then you offered to fuck him if he'd forgive the rent?" Eric asked at a much higher volume than he intended.

Maria shot him an angry look and then turned away. "We had a drink together. We danced a little. He flirted. We ended up kissing. I felt horrible about it. I told him I shouldn't have kissed him. He took my hand. He looked at me. He told me it was an incredible kiss. He told me he couldn't believe how much it had turned him on and that he thought the same was true for me, but that he'd leave me alone. Then I kissed him again. We ended up back at his place. We fucked. Twice, actually. It was really good. I told him I couldn't do it again. That I felt terrible about it."

Eric could hardly process what he was hearing, so much so that he offered no response.

"Tony said he was sorry that I regretted it, that it was the best sex he'd ever had, and that he'd be willing to let us skip out on paying the rent if I was willing to continue having sex with him."

"What the fuck?" Eric managed to say. "What a fucking asshole."

"Yeah, well, you're not wrong about that."

"But you kept fucking him?"

Eric expected to see a look of regret or remorse on his girlfriend's face. Neither appeared, though. Instead, he saw anger.

"Not at first, no. I had faith in you, Eric. I fucked up with Tony, but I had faith that you'd find a job. That you'd find a way to stand out among all the people looking for jobs. That you'd find some way to make at least a little bit of money - and no, not fifty bucks on TaskRabbit - but that faith was misplaced, wasn't it?"

She stood and moved towards him. Eric remained on the floor and studied the sudden fury on his girlfriend's face.

"After two weeks of total failure on your part I was worried, especially since it seemed like you were making less and less effort. There were days when you left here without showering, for fuck's sake. Who's going to hire someone that can't be bothered to shower in the morning?"

"I...I was just going to the coffee shop on those days."

"After three weeks I called Tony. I told him I wanted to accept his deal if it was still on the table. He invited me to his place that very day. I was there for two hours. He fucked me three times. He told me he wanted to see me once a week and that he wanted me for at least two hours each time."

Eric was certain that Maria's nipples had gotten harder and it wasn't especially chilly in the apartment. He noted, too, a gentle stirring between his legs as Maria stood above him with her hands on her hips, her voice quivering with anger. He tried not to think about that feeling, though, as it said something about him he had no interest in confronting.

Instead, Eric chose to fight anger with anger. "So you've been whoring yourself out to our landlord's son for more than a month now?"

Fury flashed across her face, but Maria didn't take the bait. Instead, she laughed. She looked down at Eric and laughed at him.

"You're pathetic," she said.

"What?"

"Yeah, Eric, you're fucking pathetic. Every day you go out there and fail. You fail at polishing your resume. You fail at impressing anyone enough to get an interview, let alone a job. You know what else you've been failing at recently?"

He shook his head.

"Satisfying me, Eric. You fail when you fuck me. Sometimes you even fail at getting hard!"

"I'm stressed out!"

"Aww, poor baby is all stressed out so he can't get hard for his girlfriend. You're a fucking man, Eric. Act like it! Your dick should be able to get hard for me. It's not like we're some married couple that's been together for thirty years." Maria untied her robe and it fell open as she gestured to her lean body. "This should be enough to get you hard, Eric. The idea of getting to climb on top of me and slip your cock into my tight cunt should be enough to get you hard no matter how stressed you are."

Energy surged through Eric and he moved to push himself off the floor. Maria's swiftly placed a foot against his chest and applied enough force to push him back down, though.

"Now you have the desire, Eric? Now you want to fuck your girlfriend? Now, after someone else satisfied me, you want me?"

"Yes."

"Pathetic. Why the fuck would I want you now? I just had a better man. I just had him twice. I just had four orgasms with his cock inside me. Why the fuck would I want you inside me?"

Eric grasped her ankle to try and pull Maria's foot free from his chest, but she applied more pressure and he struggled to free himself from her control.

She lifted her foot and Eric thought he was free. A moment later it was pressed against his face with enough force to cause more than a little discomfort.

"You know what you should do? You should lick my fucking foot. You should sit on your ass and lick my fucking foot."

Her toes covered one of his eyes, but Eric saw the look on Maria's face. He saw the intensity, the anger, and what looked like just a hint of lust. He was confused and annoyed, but a strange sense of curiosity emerged in him and his tongue parted his lips and moved over the sole of her foot.

"That's it," she said coldly. "Lick it. Lick my filthy fucking foot."

Maria moaned softly and pulled back just a little, relieving some of the pressure on his face. He had a chance to get up, to break free from the erotic chaos that had suddenly enveloped him, but Eric didn't take it. Instead, he doubled down. He licked her sole from heel to toe. He moaned a little. He found an odd kind of pleasure in it and was surprised at the sudden relief of the stress that had weighed him down him for months.

"Suck on my fucking toes," she demanded.

Eric took her toes in his mouth. He sucked while running his fingers up her calves. Maria moaned softly and took a breast in her hand, kneading the flesh and closing her eyes as her lips parted and more moans followed.

Her toes departed his mouth and moved between his legs, where Maria found and massaged his erection. Eric ran his fingers up her calf and moaned.

"The last two weeks, I've let him have me more than once a week," she said.

Eric moaned as unexpected pleasure surged between his legs.

"That's how good the sex is, Eric, and that's how miserable the sex with you has been. You're right that I whored myself out to him to pay the rent, but I feel like I'm getting the better end of the deal. I get free rent and all the orgasms I can handle from a handsome man that knows how to use his cock far better than you do."

Eric shouldn't have been as turned on as he was. He knew that. It was insane to feel like he was actually close to cumming. Completely and utterly insane.

He was turned on, though, and he wanted to cum, so he moved to get up. He wanted to fuck Maria. He wanted to show her that he wasn't anywhere near as useless as she'd accused him of being.

Maria responded by grabbing a handful of his hair, shifting his body to the left, and pushing him onto his back. She sat on his chest and pinned his arms to the floor with her knees.

"You're not fucking me, Eric," she said while taking a firmer grip of his hair. "Not a chance."

Maria shifted her hips forward until her pussy was close enough to his face that he could smell it, smell her, smell the sex she'd had.

"I'm going to sit on your face, Eric. I'm going to ride your mouth. More importantly, I'm going to feed you what remains of Tony's cum."

"No!"

She moved her hips forward and sat on his face. Her thighs clamped down around his head, making it impossible for Eric to move.

"He's been cumming inside me for the last two weeks. He asked if he could and I saw no reason to turn him down. Honestly, it's crazy, but I wanted to make sure he'd keep fucking me. That's how good the sex is, Eric. I'm letting him cum in my pussy while you're out there on your pathetic failed quest to find a job."

Eric kept his mouth closed, but he could feel something leaking out of his girlfriend. Cum. Cum that another man had put inside her.

"Put your tongue inside me or pack your shit and move out," Maria demanded. "Do you understand me, Eric? Take your punishment for being a fucking failure and eat his load out of me or get out of my apartment right now!"

Faced with an awful choice, Eric chose what he viewed as the lesser of two evils. He opened his mouth. He put his tongue inside her. He tasted another man's cum. He took it in his mouth. He swallowed it. He watched Maria's face light up. He listened to her moan. He saw her throw her head back and grab her breast. He felt her hips begin to move a little as she rubbed her clit over his lips and tongue.

Eric ate cum as Maria rode his face to an orgasm. She stayed on top of him as her thighs trembled. She enjoyed herself at his expense and he found himself awash in both anger and arousal.

Maria pulled her hips back and sat on his chest. "Did you enjoy that?"

"No."

She reached back to stroke his stiff dick and laughed. "You're even more pathetic than I thought, Eric. We're done as a couple. You can stay in the apartment until you find a job or a new place to live, but you'll serve me whenever and however I desire and I can promise that you'll be cleaning lots of cum from my pussy as I'm going to let Tony have me a whole lot more often from now on."

Maria kept stroking him through his pants and Eric hated how good it felt. The arousal meant he couldn't think straight, either, which is why he said nothing. He didn't have much of a choice, though. None of his friends had even a spare couch to offer and he wasn't about to move back to his parent's house. His job search had just gotten a lot more desperate, but maybe a little desperation is what he needed to find something quickly.

"Do you want me to make you cum, Eric?"

"Yes, please," he said, inducing a wave of shame.

Maria laughed. "You're so fucking pathetic. Get up. Get naked. Get in the bed."

She got off of him and Eric stood and stripped. He walked to the bedroom and stood there contemplating the wisdom of doing as she desired. He'd just about gathered the strength to get dressed and leave when Maria kissed the back of his neck and took his cock in her hand. Just a few strokes and his will disappeared.

"Get in the bed. On your back. I'll make you feel good. You deserve that after the humiliation you've suffered today."

Eric crawled into the bed and Maria moved between his feet. She ran her fingers from his ankles to his knees and he figured she'd go all the way to his crotch, but instead her fingers moved back down and she grabbed his ankles and lifted his legs.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't fight me, Eric," she instructed. "I said I'll make you feel good, so don't fight me."

Maria bent his legs back, folding him like human pretzel until his feet were above his head and he was staring up at his cock. She took his shaft in her hand and stroked.

"Not like this," he said.

"Shut the fuck up and take your facial," she said with a laugh.

Eric saw the head of his cock swell up. It was no more than six inches from his face. His back ached a little from being bent in an unnatural way, but her hand felt amazing.

He closed his eyes and an orgasm exploded from his cock soon after. Maria laughed as cum decorated his face and the pillow beneath his head. It was hot and sticky and disgusting, but the orgasm was remarkably potent, which made it all the more humiliating.

When Eric opened his eyes he saw Maria holding her phone.

"Smile," she said.

Maria snapped a handful of pictures and then backed out of the bed while laughing. Eric unfolded his body and felt both outrage and a lovely sense of post-orgasmic relaxation.

"Please delete those pictures," he begged.

"I will, just as soon as you get a job and get the fuck out of my apartment. Until then, I'm keeping them, and if you're still here a month from now I'm putting them online."

It probably wasn't her intention, but Maria had certainly provided Eric with all the motivation he needed to get a job and move on with his life. With any luck, it wouldn't take long.