Bunny Tales by Izabella St. James

freedom of the Mansion—it was exhilarating. I did want a break from studying, though the Mansion presented the extreme of anything I could have possibly had in mind. But I believe in destiny. There was a reason this opportunity had presented itself to me. This was a fork in the road, and I had to choose. It wasn’t a fair choice. Of course I would choose the road less traveled; the way of the Bunny.
    Even though we were Hef ’s Girlfriends, there were certain benefits that Emma and I were not getting and could not get because we did not live at the Mansion. The most important was the weekly allowance—only the girls that lived at the Mansion could get a weekly allowance in exchange for living under Hef’s set of laws. This is very surprising to most people; they have no idea that we are given an allowance as Hef ’s Girlfriends. Initially, the financial issue was one of necessity; we were going out with Hef all of the time, yet we did not have the money to buy new outfits, and when you go out several nights a week, you quickly run out of things to wear. Secondly, the late-night partying is not conducive to maintaining a nine-to-five job, so we needed an allowance to pay our bills. However, the benefits of living at the Mansion, like most things in life, came with many strings attached. To live at the Mansion, you had to follow the rules, and there were many rules. But the one that we really got stuck on was the curfew: Everyone had to be on the Mansion grounds by nine o’clock every night—unless we were out with Hef at a club or a function. People honestly did not believe us when we told them we had a curfew at the wild and crazy Playboy Mansion. Nine o’clock? But nothing fun happens before 9 p.m.! And that was exactly the point. From this one rule derived many consequences: I couldn’t go out to dinner with my friends; I couldn’t go out to clubs with my friends; I couldn’t have a night off and go sleep over at a friend’s place; I could not take acting classes because most of those took place in the evenings; and on and on. Though we later learned how to bend this rule occasionally, this was a major hang-up at the time. Secondly and generally speaking, our freedom was limited; our lives were no longer really our own, we were now a part of the group. Interestingly, it wasn’t always like that. The girls that came before us were allowed to do much more than we were, but they screwed up and Hef learned from their mistakes. Emma and I would constantly debate whether we could handle it if we did move in, and it became an “I will if you will” type of situation.
    I really didn’t know if I could live at the Mansion; I didn’t know if I could play the role that was expected of me. And make no mistake, most of the time we were all playing a role: playing Hef’s Girlfriend, playing like we were friends, being chatty and polite with all of the random folks always coming over. It was exhausting. It is a show. I really should add all of that experience to my acting resume: dumb blonde eye-candy. It’s like when you long to get a certain job, or long to meet someone famous, and then you have the chance and you ask yourself: Can I really do this? It is much safer being a “normal” person and admiring from afar, but it takes a certain resolution and courage to actually step up and live in a world so unfamiliar and that is not as safe as the one you live in.
    I literally made a list of pros and cons to help me make up my mind. The cons included my relationship with Justin, the sex issue at the Mansion, and falling off my career path. The pros included having a unique experience, taking a chance, and living life to the fullest. After I sabotaged the Bar exam, there was nothing for me to do besides wait for the results, though I already knew the outcome. Once I had decided that I would hang out with Hef and the girls and become part of the “party posse,” moving into the Mansion was inevitable. After all, why