Breaking Into the Business (16 page)

Finally,
after I don’t know how long, we were ready to leave. Well, I wasn’t actually
ready, but the night was growing late.

He
stood up first and then held his hand out for me to rise. I stood and wrapped
one of my arms through his and he led us towards the door. His goon was behind
us a short distance, but I wasn’t really that concerned now.

The
maître d’ got the door for us, and as we walked down the steps to the curb, one
of the valet attendants ran off to get his car. Without thinking about it, I
found myself leaning into him as I gripped his arm.

As
we waited on the car, he turned and looked at me. “So you had a nice time.”

“I
sure did,” I said.

And
indeed I had. The first part of the dinner had been a little tense, but his
prodding had gotten me to think about aspects of my life that I had long ago
lost. The remainder of the dinner had been the two of us just having fun,
telling jokes and laughing. Even his anecdotes from his latest work were a
little on the humorous side.

His
car stopped in front of us and the valet rushed out. As Jeremy and I slid into
the back seat, the goon took his place up front, and soon we were on our way
back to my house.

When
I situated myself next to Jeremy, I nuzzled in close. Between the self-realization
and the thought of dinner next to the Eiffel Tower, I felt drawn to him.

This
was different from what I felt with Greg. He and I had a more feral connection,
as if merely being next to him could produce enough electricity to run a city.
We had passion, but I suspected that was all that was there.

With
Jeremy, I still felt attraction, but I also felt this emotional connection and
synchronization of spirits, as if all of our goals and aspirations entwined.
For the first time, I could see my future stretching out before me, as well as
Jeremy’s, and these two separate futures circled one another like entangled
strands.

He
didn’t get out of the car when we pulled up to my house, but that didn’t really
matter. I was too busy trying to keep breathing as he kissed me. My body fell
back against the seat, as his left hand held me, while his right hand explored
my side. He never touched my breasts or moved his hand lower, and I assumed
that he was trying to maintain some level of respect and decorum, but the
passion emanating from his mouth was enough to leave me hungering for more.

After
nearly a half hour, he helped me back up, and then I stepped out of the car. He
blew me an air kiss, and then drove away.

Chapter Fourteen

Even
though I didn’t get in until late, I knew that I couldn’t sleep in too much.
There was too much to do, and I knew that the day would be even busier than the
one before.

As
I rolled out of bed, I could still recall every detail of the night before. The
heavy consumption of wine had not dulled my brain to the point where I couldn’t
recall. In the shower, I was a split second away from breaking out into song.

As
I started getting dressed, I actually started making a mental list of all the
places in Paris that I wanted to visit. The obvious first location we would see
would have to be the Eiffel Tower, but one of my most desired attractions was
the Louvre. History and art was something that had always interested me, and I
would spend hours in the halls of that Museum.

After
dropping the kids off at school, I decided to go straight into work. Not only
did I need to meet with Mr. Leighton, I also needed to talk to Ben. My recent
enterprising had left me with an idea to help my struggling co-worker.

I
got in early enough to the office that it was still fairly calm. Everyone else
either hadn’t arrived or was still too tired to roam the halls. I passed
through to my desk to drop off my purse, grabbed my tablet computer, and then
went to Mr. Leighton’s office.

His
secretary wasn’t there, so I assumed that she had been sent to fetch his
morning coffee, so I let myself in since I was two minutes past my appointment
time. The meeting was brief which I was glad for.

We
went over different ideas for Jeremy Towers’ latest book, and since the draft
was still in progress, our conversation was more conceptual. I actually found
it to be rather unnecessary, but Leighton always erred on the side of over
meeting.

I
was relieved to be out of his office finally and on my way back to my work
area. When I arrived at my desk, I could hear Ben typing away next to me. He
had always been a morning person, a trait that I had never been able to achieve
even as I grew older.

“Hey
there,” he said as I sat down.

“Hey,”
I said.

“What
brings you in this morning?”

“A
meeting with Leighton.”

“About
Towers?”

“Yes,”
I said. “He wanted to talk about his upcoming manuscript.”

I
heard Ben’s chair squeak as he stood up. He walked around and a second later,
he was standing in the entrance to my cube.

“Let
me get this straight,” he said. “Towers is still writing the damn book, and
Leighton already wants to hold planning meetings? No offense, but why would he
want to meet with the editor? Wouldn’t he want to meet with marketing or cover
design? Or even research? What in the world would he want to meet with editing
for?”

I
chuckled. “You know how he does. I think he holds those meetings so that he can
listen to himself talk.”

“So
what are you going to do until the manuscript is ready?”

“Jeremy
is going to e-mail me the first ten chapters so that I can get started,” I
said. “I should have that by next week, so I can get started.”

“So
you’re just taking a couple of ‘you’ days?”

“Actually
I’m starting up a side business.”

“Oh
wow, good for you.”

I
looked around, and listened to the cubes around me. I could hear a few people
on the phone and more than a few typing at their keyboards. We didn’t have the
privacy that I needed to have this discussion with Ben.

“Can
we go somewhere private?” I asked.

“Yeah,
what’s going on?”

I
grabbed his hand and led him down the hallway towards the west side of the
office. The break room on that side was rarely used as it was smaller and the refrigerator
had never been repaired.

When
we arrived, I turned and faced him. Before speaking, I scanned the hallway that
ran along the front to make sure that nobody would eavesdrop.

“Okay,
I’ve got to ask you a personal question.”

“Shoot.”

“How
do you feel about sex?” I said.

“What?
Why would you ask me that?”

“I
have a specific reason, but I just need to know how you feel about sex in
general before I ask you the next question.”

“That’s
a little vague,” he said. “I guess I’m okay with it. I lost my virginity at
eighteen during my first week in college. During the second half of that year,
I dated this really freaky girl who appeared reserved and nerdy on the outside,
but she was a freak at night when it was just the two of us.”

“Really?
That’s surprising. I pictured you a little more reserved.”

“I
am normally,” he said. “But I can get a little freaky if that’s what the person
I’m with is in to.”

“Do
you do one night stands?”

“I’ve
only had two of them. Why? Are you propositioning me?”

“No,”
I said with a laugh. “Okay, so now my next question. But you have to promise
that even if you say no, you cannot tell a soul about this.”

“I
promise.”

I
checked the hall one more time. “Okay, my start up business is an escort
business. I only have one guy working for me right now, but I’m gathering a few
more, and since I knew you needed the extra money, I thought maybe you’d like
to be a part of it.”

“Wait
a minute? You want me to be a hooker. No way.”

“Okay,
for starters, hooker is not the best word to describe the job. The proper term
is escort, or I guess you could call them gigolos. Secondly, it’s not as seedy
as it sounds.”

“How
would you know?”

I
decided to come clean and tell him the story about how I met Greg. The whole
time, he had a grin as wide as his face.

“Damn,”
was all he said when I finished.

“So
you see? You could get regular clients like me.”

“Or
I could get some ninety year old woman.”

“Either
way, the money is amazing. You’re single and your schedule is flexible because
of school. I don’t want to pressure you because I feel strongly that this
should be a decision that you make on your own. Greg makes two hundred dollars
per hour and once we get up and running I can probably get you up to twenty or
more hours per week.”

“Wow,”
he said, taken aback at the number. I could see it in his eyes that he was
calculating the potential income.

“It’s
a lot of money.”

“That’s
four thousand per week.”

“Tax
free.”

“But
that’s illegal,” he said. Then he stopped and considered what the main topic
was and smiled. “That’s ten times what I make here.”

“Yeah,”
I said. “I wouldn’t have even asked you, but I know you need the money. If you
did this for even a short time, you could make enough money to finish school
with no problems.”

“You’re
right,” he said. “So I get paid to have a lot of sex, and then I don’t have to
stress over being broke. I could even do this for a year, and I wouldn’t have
any student loan debt when I finished.”

“If
your debt is that high, then yes.”

“Oh
my debt is indeed that high.”

“Then
at least think about it.”

“I
will,” he said. “Give me some time to mull it over. My only issue is the sex of
course. I’m real emotional with sex and get easily attached. I’ll have to
figure out how to turn all that off and just do it for the physical aspects.”

“Well,
don’t turn that all off. A lot of the job is making the woman feel good
emotionally. You have to make her feel like she matters, if even for a few
hours.”

“Give
me some time to think about this,” he said. “I promise to call you as soon as
I’ve made my decision. And at the very least, your secret is safe with me.”

“Thank
you.”

“But
I’ve got to ask you one question.”

“Shoot.”

“Why
are
you
doing this?”

“My
children,” I said. “Don’t tell anyone, but I don’t have the money to afford my
house, and I have to stay in this house or else they won’t be able to stay in
the awesome high school they’re attending.”

“That’s
very noble,” he said. “I applaud you for doing it. I know this can’t be easy
for you.”

“You
know, a week ago this wouldn’t have been a possibility, but I’ve had some
changes of heart lately, and I think I’m going to be okay.”

“I’m
glad,” Ben said. “You really deserve some good things to happen to you. I guess
this new business and your new assignment with Towers will turn everything
around.”

“I
can only hope,” I said.

Was
he right? Could these two things really turn my whole life around? In a way, it
felt like
too
many good things were starting to happen. In the last few
days, I had broken my sex cold spell, received a phenomenal work assignment,
and scored a date with a wonderful man.

Somehow,
it all just seemed too good to be true.

However,
I did still have the threatening voice on the phone and only two days left
until I had to have the money. If I could figure out a way to start getting
some cash flow coming in, I could dump the cash in my savings, and the voice
would go away.

However,
there were still two days left to the deadline, and that bought me a little
more time to figure out what the money was about, and a possible way to stop
it.

Chapter Fifteen

By the
time I answered my e-mails and took care of a few housekeeping items at my
desk, I got back on the road. I had a brief period of time before my lunch date
with Mike, my deliveryman, so I needed to do some research.

Hopefully
the bookstore wouldn’t be that crowded, because I needed to check a particular
section that would elicit embarrassment if I got caught there. When I walked
through the doors of the quiet mega store of literature, I found the section
dedicated to sex on the first floor towards the rear of the store.

A
quick perusal of the titles revealed a plethora of how to guides of various
flavors, and more than a shelf full of erotica. The crazy part, I thought to
myself, was that even though the store carried hundreds of titles, I knew that
it was still not reflective of the available books in the genre. Since the
advent of the e-reader, erotica had seen a considerable boom, mainly due to the
fact that people could read those books in private without fear that someone
would be seen purchasing one.