Breaking Into the Business (25 page)

“I
thought you had work,” I said to Ben.

“I
called in sick,” he said.

“That
was sweet of you,” I said.

He
shrugged it off.

“Can
I borrow your shower?” Mike asked. “I want to be clean for my first client.”

“Certainly,”
I said. “There is one down the hall past Greg’s room. Towels are in the linen
closet.”

“Thanks,”
he said as he disappeared.

My
heart leapt when my personal cell phone rang. I looked down at the caller ID,
and I cringed.

Chapter Twenty-Two

There
was just so much going on, that I didn’t feel like taking time away from it
all. I had the new business which I was still trying to get accustomed to, and
my children and I were being stalked by some crazy guy asking for money that I didn’t
have.

Talking
to Jeremy Towers would only break me from the tornado that my life had become
and send me to some dreamy place that I wasn’t sure could ever exist for me.

The
feelings I got from seeing his name on my caller ID were all good though. The
first image in my mind was that of the Eiffel Tower.

I
picked the phone up and greeted him.

“Hello,
Lana,” he said.

“Hey,
Jeremy,” I replied.

“I
just wanted to call and see how you were doing,” he said.

“I’m
great,” I lied. “Just working hard on my novel.”

“That’s
wonderful to hear,” he said.

“How
are you doing?” I asked.

“I
was sitting here, trying to outline one of my later chapters and I’m having a
really hard time concentrating.”

“Writer’s
block?”

“You
could say that, although writer’s block usually indicates something that the
author has trouble identifying. I know the exact source of my block.”

“And
what is that?”

“You.”

That
was all he said. After he uttered that one word, he didn’t say another for
several seconds. The pause echoed like a stone being thrown into a canyon, and
although neither of us was talking, I could hear the silence as if it had taken
on a life of its own.

I
opened my mouth to speak, to ask him what it was about me that kept him from
writing, but I found myself without the words. Ben was still staring at me, so
I got up from the table and walked into my bedroom.

“I
fear I’ve been too forward.”

“No,”
I said, as I closed my bedroom door.

“I
can’t explain it, but every time I go to write a word down, all I come up with
is your name,” he said. “Ever since meeting you the other day, I have become
smitten with the mere thought of you.”

“That
is kind of you to say.”

“They’re
not just words.”

“Nobody
has ever spoken to me like that.”

“Not
even your ex-husband?”

“No,
Frank was a simple man and not good with words. Even if he had been wordy, he
never expressed his feelings so openly.”

“I
wish I could see you,” Jeremy said. “I really need to see you.”

“I
wish I could, too,” I said. “But I do have a lot going on right now.”

“Can
I stop by soon?”

“That’s
probably not a good idea.”

“Yeah,
I guess a guy at the house right now wouldn’t be best for the kids, huh?” he
asked.

“I
want to be careful when it comes to introducing them to whoever I’m dating.”

“So
we’re dating?”

“I
guess you could say that.”

“Well,
I will let you get back to your writing,” he said. “I’ll try to get you the
first few chapters for editing soon.”

“I
look forward to getting them,” I said.

We
said our goodbyes, and then I hung up the phone. Sitting down on the bed, I
thought about Jeremy and the soothing sound of his baritone voice. The voice
was as sexy as he was in person, and I dreamed of a day when I could get past
this whole financial dilemma and could move on with him. He was the whole
package: brilliant mind, creative intellect, and sexy on both the inside and
out. Paris was going to be heaven.

When
I went back inside, Greg and Ben were sitting on the couch talking. Greg
animatedly waved his hands in the air, apparently in the middle of some juicy
story. When I appeared, he stopped, so I couldn’t figure out what they were
talking about.

He
turned and looked at me. When I saw his green eyes staring back at me, my mind
was filled with this image of both Jeremy and Greg standing next to each other.
Their respective stances symbolized the difference in how I felt about them and
all the emotions that those feelings elicited.

On
one hand, I had Greg, the man who sat on my couch and had made himself so
readily available for me. What he provided for me was raw animalistic passion.
Sex with him had been so intense that I saw angels descend from heaven and the
ocean opened up, giving me the power to move into this new segment of my life.
Without his intervention, the way in which he reached inside of me and opened
up my worldview, my sense of self, I never would have established the
confidence to solicit the men in my life so that we could come together in a
cooperative effort to benefit all of our positions.

However,
there was a limit to what he could offer me. Even if he weren’t an escort and
could remain sexually faithful to me, it still wouldn’t be enough to make us an
ideal match. I barely knew him, but I was already skeptical that there was much
more to him than the debonair attitude he exuded. He seemed defined by sex and
sex only. Even if other layers existed, they were so deep down and buried under
this ego and lack of pragmatism.

Jeremy,
however, provided so much more. I had spent even less time with him, but
something told me that he had so much more to offer. He was handsome, maybe not
in that heart stopping, cover-of-a-romance-novel way like Greg was, but he was
still easy on the eyes. He was at least forty, but I could tell that he still
had the hardness of body that could make twenty year olds jealous. His fast
mind churned out bestseller after bestseller, and his sales numbers were one of
the few from medium level publishers who could consistently produce the sales
numbers that he had.

Somehow,
I felt like I had to choose between these two men, but then there didn’t seem
to be much of a choice there. Despite the electricity I felt when I was with
Greg, I knew that he wasn’t the right choice for me.

“Are
you okay?”

I
shook my head to clear away the thoughts. Greg had stopped talking to Ben and
was staring at me. I realized that I was just standing there in the entrance to
the living room.

“I’m
okay,” I said finally. “Just thinking.”

“About
what?” he asked.

“This
meeting with my sister; I’m not looking forward to this at all.”

“You’ll
be fine,” he said. “Are you about ready to go?”

“Yeah,”
I said.

Before
we left, I gave my work cell phone to Ben with instructions on how to answer
and schedule an appointment. He looked like he could handle it, but I felt
uncertain about the voice on the other end being a male. It just didn’t seem
right.

I
realized that this was going to be difficult to manage the business if I was
the only one answering the phone. What would I do when business picked up? I
still had a life to maintain and things like picking up the kids from school
and grocery shopping were tantamount to keeping my household running, but it
would be hard to do either of those things while trying to schedule one of my
gigolos a session.

That
was just something to add to the list. I would need to consider hiring someone
to come in and help me answer phones if this ever picked up.

Greg
and I headed towards the spot where we had agreed to meet Pam. While I had
maintained closer relationships with my brothers, I had avoided contact with my
sister whenever possible. I could never get to the source of why she seemed to
hate me, but somehow I suspected that she was jealous of me.

I
don’t know why, because I was the one who had gotten pregnant and married my
high school boyfriend and barely managed to scrape by enough to graduate. I had
earned the eternal disapproval of my parents, even though they had stepped in
to ensure that both Frank and I graduated and attended four years of college.

Pam
had the picture perfect life. She was the one who had met her husband right
after college, was engaged for a year, and then had this beautiful wedding.
Over the course of the next few years, she had three children, all evenly
spaced one and half years apart, and all them were brilliant.

Somehow,
despite having everything, she had found something to hate about me.

Right
after Frank left, and I fell into that dark place, I had made the decision to
stop caring about the fact that she disliked me and disapproved of everything I
said or did. There just wasn’t enough time in the day to pay any attention to
her.

We
arrived right on time, but had to park a few shops down. When we had arrived at
the little eatery, she was already seated at a table on the patio, leaning back
in her chair and watching our approach with her usual look of disdain. She
still wore her sunglasses, despite the fact that the umbrella overhead blocked
the sun.

“Hey,
sis,” I said.

“Hello,
Lana,” Pam said in her most formal tone.

“I
want you to meet my friend, Greg,” I said.

“Nice
to meet you,” Pam said. She didn’t bother raising a hand in greeting.

Greg
picked up on all of that and extended a hand to her. She looked at it and
upturned her nose as if she might snub him, but then decided not to. My sister might
be a bitch, but she always maintained her manners, especially in front of
people she didn’t know very well.

“I
see that Lana’s good looks run in the family,” Greg said with his seductive
half-smile.

Pam
partially opened her mouth to say something and I knew that the words she was
prepared to say were going to be acid, but then I saw something strange. Her frown
contorted into something almost resembling a smile. Her left hand went up to
her chest in the same way that mine had when I first saw Greg, and I recognized
that look. We sisters were more alike than either of us cared to admit.

I
tried to hide my smile and took a seat next to Pam. Greg took the chair to my
right and directly across from her.

As
I reached for a menu, I started the conversation. “Thank you for meeting me.”

“I
didn’t have much of a choice,” she said quickly. “You called me in the middle
of the night and bullied me into this.”

“I
didn’t call you in the middle of the night.”

“Some
people don’t stay up until four in the morning. Lana, most people operate under
schedules. We regiment our lives so that we see to everything during the day
that needs attending to.”

“Like
what?”

“What
do you mean, like what?” she asked.

“Pam,
I’m sorry, but every time we talk, it’s as if you want to say something to me.
So I stay up late. Who the hell cares? I called you at a time that most adults
are still awake. I apologize if I forgot your schedule and called you after the
time you normally go to bed. I don’t see that as a reason to keep beating me
up.”

“You
think I’m beating you up?” she asked in a condescending way, as if I were one
of her children.

“No,
I think you’re harping on me. It’s like you’re intentionally trying to channel Mom.”

“Maybe
you could take a few pages from Mother’s book, Lana.”

“See
what I mean?” I asked. “You do this all of the time. Stop being so passive
aggressive.”

“Did
you call me here so that we could fight?”

I
sighed and twisted my neck around; trying to relieve the tension those mere
seconds with Pam had caused me.

“No,
I really need your help.”

“Before
we discuss that,” Pam said. “May I ask who Greg is?”

“He
is a friend of mine.”

“Define
it,” she said flatly.

“Excuse
me.”

“I
didn’t stutter. Define your friendship.”

“What
does it matter?”

“You’re
my sister for one. Now you’re about to ask me for help, which I assume has
something to do with him or else you wouldn’t have invited him. I want all the
facts. Who is he?”

“Greg
is actually just a friend of mine I met recently. He was present when part of
my current predicament went down, and he’s helping me right now.”

“Okay,”
she nodded, but even through the dark tint of her sunglasses, I could see her
eying Greg with suspicion.

“A
few months ago, I started getting phone calls,” I explained. “Now they’ve
escalated and the person on the other line is demanding that I pay him a
hundred thousand dollars.”