Breaking Into the Business (11 page)

Before
I could talk myself out of it, I picked the phone up and called Greg.

I
didn’t want to waste time with small talk. When he answered the phone, I spoke
quickly. “Twenty percent and I am in.”

“That
was fast,” he said. “You were pretty set against not doing it.”

“Are
you trying to talk me out of it now?”

“No,”
he said quickly. “I just can’t believe it.”

“Believe
it,” I said. “I need the money badly and your proposition sounds promising. Do
you accept the twenty percent?”

“Of
course,” he said. There was a pause on the phone. “So what do we do now?”

“I
guess we need to come up with a plan,” I said.

“Do
you want to meet somewhere?” he asked.

I
had been away from the house a lot lately and didn’t really want to leave
again. I would have to pick the kids up in the afternoon, so I wanted to be
close. There was something strange about mixing my new sordid business life
with my home life, but I knew that the combination was inevitable.

“Come
to my house,” I said.

“When?”

“Now,”
I said. I gave him the address. “The only thing I ask is if you see my
children, do not say anything to them about what we’re doing.”

“You
have kids?”

“A
fifteen and fourteen year old,” I said.

“Okay,”
he said. His tone sounded strange, but it may have just been my imagination.

“See
you in a minute,” I said and hung up.

He
arrived a few minutes later. I was surprised at how quickly he made it.

“Come
in,” I said as I opened the door. The moment my eyes landed on him, I felt the
raging inferno in my chest and pelvic area that I had felt the night before. He
was unreasonably attractive, and even the way that he carried himself exuded
raw sexual energy.

“You
have a lovely home,” he said. His eyes traveled all around, looking at the
columns and archway that marked my front entrance.

When
he walked into the foyer, he glanced around, and the widening of his eyes
indicated that he was clearly surprised at how large my home was. I led him
into the kitchen where I had set my laptop up on the breakfast table where
Betsy and I had spent the morning talking about my issues.

“Correction
to my earlier statement,” he said with a smile. “You have a
really
lovely home.”

“Thank
you,” I said. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Do
you have water?” he asked.

“Sure,”
I nodded. I grabbed one from the refrigerator and fixed myself a glass of sweet
tea.

“So
can I ask you something?” he said as I returned to the table.

“Shoot.”

“You
acted like you need the money real bad,” he said. “But looking at your home
now, you don’t seem to be hurting in the financial department.”

“Well,
my ownership of this home is the reason that I called you,” I said. “I should
be honest with you about my reasoning.”

I
took a deep breath and told him the story of Frank’s abrupt departure and the
impersonal divorce proceedings. I told him about my children, the school that
they attended, and the need for them to finish their education there.

“Wow,”
he said when she was finished. “There’s more to you than I originally thought.”

“Yes,”
was all I could think to say. “I really need to bring in some extra income to
keep up with my house payment and related bills.”

“At
twenty percent, you should definitely be able to earn a good chunk towards
that,” he said.

“So
how do we do this?” I asked.

“I
was thinking about the details on the way over,” he said. “I’m thinking that we
need to get a new cell phone for you that you use exclusively for this
business. We get new cards and new ads printed up with that phone number on it.
That way they call you and you take care of the scheduling.”

“How
will I know when you can work?”

“I
guess I could give you my availability in advance and those are the times you
are free to book me for,” he said. “I don’t really need much vacation, but I like
to have a night or two off once a week.”

So
I set up the blocks for appointments on the schedule,” I said, half to myself.
“What about travel time.”

“You
can figure that into the schedule,” he said. “Just get their addresses. That’s
the main reason I need you.”

“Okay,”
I said. “This is much simpler than I thought it would be.”

“It
really isn’t that bad,” he said. “You seem to have innate organization skills,
so I don’t think this will be a problem.”

“So
what about payment?”

“I
deal in cash only,” Greg said as he took a gulp from the bottled water. “I
collect from them before the session. I will pay you your share the next time I
see you following the visit. In fact, I could set up a daily visit in the
mornings and drop off your portion. You will be able to track the amount I
should be collecting from the schedule that way you know that I’m not scamming
you.” He grinned at the last statement.

So
this was an arrangement that would make it so we were seeing each other every
day. I could still feel electricity when he was around me, and now I was going
to put myself near him on a very regular basis. I knew that somehow that would
spell disaster.

“Okay,”
I finally nodded. “So what do you think we can earn with this venture?”

“If
I continue make what I’ve been bringing in, then your cut would be about thirty
thousand a year. Does that sound okay?”

“That’s
great,” I said.

Another
thought occurred to me. What if I had multiple men that worked for me? Could
business do so well that I could afford to manage the schedules for more than
one man? If I could make thirty thousand managing Greg’s business, what if I
had could have several other men working for me? Then I could begin to double
or triple what I was bringing in?

I
thought immediately of Derrick and Ben. Both young men were good looking and in
need of money. One of them, I had even had sex with and I could testify that he
was indeed worth paying for. How would Greg react to the idea? There was only
one way to find out.

“Okay,
let me ask you something,” I said. “What do you think about expanding?”

“We
just had our first meeting,” he said. “Do you think now is the time to start
expanding?”

“We’re
just getting off the ground,” I said. “What if I knew a couple of other guys
that we could bring in?”

“It’s
not a bad idea,” he shrugged. “It would help to make your income greater, but
it would mean more work for you.”

“I
could handle it,” I said. “But are you afraid that it might cut into your
income if you have other escorts that people are calling for.”

“Not
really,” Greg smiled. “I have quite an extensive list of regulars that make up
a good portion of my sessions. I don’t have too many new customers, but when I
do, most of them become regulars.”

I
laughed. “So you’re that confident, huh?”

“I
have quite a bit of experience,” he said with a wink.

“Whatever,”
I waved him off. “I’ll get in contact with a few more guys, and maybe we can
set up another meeting. They will be new to the business, so they might need
your help a little in the beginning.”

“I
won’t mind at all,” he said. “Just let me know.”

“So
I guess that’s it,” I said.

“There’s
one more order of business that I would like to attend to,” he said.

“What’s
that?”

“Come
here,” he commanded.

“Greg,”
I sighed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. If we’re going to have a
professional relationship, we can’t mix it with sex.”

He
started undoing the buckle of his pants without getting up. “Are you saying you
don’t want to?”

“Of
course I want to.”

“Then
what’s the problem?”

“No.”

“What
if we do it just one more time?”

He
raised his butt off the chair slightly, and slid his jeans down his thighs and
past his knees. I got a full view of him sitting there in the chair, completely
naked with his body letting me know that he was ready.

How
could I resist that? He was so handsome, so irresistible, and he was without
pants in my kitchen. I stood up and walked over to him.

At
first, he was gentle. He reached both arms around my waist and lifted my shirt.
He kissed along my stomach, both hands rubbing my sides, rotating lower and
lower until they reached the elastic band of my shorts.

In
one fluid motion, he dropped his hands, taking my shorts with them. I giggled
softly as I stepped out of the shorts, which had fallen to the ground.

He
patted his thighs and I complied by sitting exactly where he indicated.

Chapter Ten

Once
Greg left, I could finally get some real work done. I went back to my laptop
where I created a few folders to manage revenue, appointments, and return
clients when we were able to collect their information. Based on what Greg had
said, many of the clients required anonymity, which was something I could
definitely sympathize with.

I
found a program in which I could create a calendar and I went about setting up
a color code system, in hopes that my little plan of including additional
people would work. I assigned the color blue to Greg, since that matched his
eyes.

I
was adept with my word processing and database skills, so none of those tasks
took me very long. Once I had finished setting up the calendar, I stood up and
walked into the kitchen to prepare some lunch.

My
cell phone rang.

My
heart stopped for a moment, but then I realized that the mysterious caller had
always called the house phone. I assumed it was only a matter of time before
the prick had my cell phone too. Part of me didn’t want to answer that phone,
much less look at who was calling, but then I decided that I probably should
just go ahead. My stalker seemed persistent and ignoring his calls probably
wouldn’t do a bit of good.

I
didn’t recognize the number and it was an out of town area code. At least the
caller didn’t block their number from showing up – that was a good sign.

Picking
up my phone, I hit the talk button and greeted the caller on the other line.

“Lana,”
I heard someone say. It took me a moment to realize that it was Jeremy.

“Hey
there,” I said, trying my best to make sure my voice was quivering.

“I
just wanted to call and see if you wanted to have dinner with me tomorrow
night.”

“I
would love to,” I said quickly. I needed a little normal in my life right then.

“Great,”
he said. “Should I pick you up at around seven?”

“That
sounds lovely,” I said.

“Great,
I’ll see you then.”

“Okay,”
I said. “Have a nice day.”

He
didn’t hear that last part, because he had already hung up the phone. I
imagined that he was busy and prolonged farewells only consumed too much of his
already packed schedule.

Whatever,
I said to myself as I set the cell phone on the counter. I wasn’t really a big
fan of farewells either. In fact, I hated small talk altogether.

My
least favorite expression was the ‘how are you today’. Never, in the history of
mankind, had there ever been a more impersonal, worthless expression. The way I
saw it, if anyone cared enough to worry about someone’s well-being they would
not use that expression. Instead, those words were reserved for those people
that the speaker didn’t particularly care about enough.

One
of these days, when some acquaintance wasted my time and asked me that
question, I was going to unload on them. “My husband left me two years,” I
would say. “He then made me sign my divorce papers by myself with no
explanation for why our marriage was ending. He left me with an overpriced
house, two children to raise, and a job that paid next to nothing. If that
wasn’t enough, I was a control freak prude who wouldn’t let a man anywhere near
me, but one night I decided to change that and in a span of less than
twenty-four hours, I had sex six times with two different people.”

I
actually laughed out loud at that. I could just see the other person running in
terror. They would have had no idea that their pointless little question would
have elicited such tragedy.

The
rest of that afternoon, I spent preparing for the impending business venture
that I had just signed myself up for.

My
first stop was the cell phone store. I decided to go with a different phone
carrier altogether to purchase my second phone. All precautions must be
observed, I thought to myself as I started filling out the form on the
clipboard. The first blank asked for my name. There was no way I was putting
“Lana Ford” on that form. I could not risk having this traced back to me, or my
children.