Chocolate Dove
Authors: Cas Sigers
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Basra Sadiq intensely stared at her dark brown reflection in the mirror. Without a hint of makeup, her skin was flawless, and her complexion perfectly even. Even still, she never felt dressed without her face painted with creams, powders, and bright colors. She studied makeup as though it were her profession and experimented with colors most women her complexion would shy away from. But Basra was well aware of her beauty and could get away with more than the average woman, for her confidence could easily flip a sketchy look into an instant success.
Still analyzing her face, Basra took her pointer fingertips and stretched out the corners of her eyes.
“I sometimes wish my eyes weren't so round,” she called out to her roommate, Lucia.
Basra loosened the tension on her eyes, finally stopped analyzing her face, and placed her focus on the color palette of shimmery hues of silver and blue. While applying her first layer of foundation, Lucia walked in and stood over her shoulder.
“What did you say?” Lucia asked.
“My eyes are too round. Do you think he wants to go out with me because I'm black?”
“That's not what he said, but probably. More so because you're Somali.”
“Gee, that makes it better,” Basra mumbled.
“It's no different than men wanting to go out with me because I'm Italian. Men have this half-baked fantasy about exotic women, like we do it better or different.”
“He didn't know I was Somali.”
“He knew you were exotic, and that's all that matters.”
Basra shrugged her shoulders and continued to decorate her face.
Lucia, who was just as long and skinny as Basra, propped her scrawny body up on the counter, and pushed the makeup over with her bum.
“We need to talk,” she said.
Basra kept her face toward the mirror, but cut her eyes toward Lucia while applying eye shadow.
“Are you sure he's going to want to have sex?” Basra asked.
“You work for an escort service.”
“So ...”
“This may be a new concept to you, but men who go out with escorts expect sex.”
Basra placed her makeup on the counter and looked Lucia squarely in the face. “Then I might as well be on the street corner.”
“Oh, hell no. Streetwalkers don't wear two-thousand-dollar shoes,” Lucia said, handing over a brand new pair of Jimmy Choos. “I can't believe I'm letting you wear these.”
Since the age of nineteen, Lucia Giovanni had been at Choice, one of the world's most elite private escort services, known for their international beauties. She was discovered on a photo shoot for a top Italian shoe designer. Lucia and Basra modeled under the same agency and Lucia knew she'd be a great candidate for Choice, but didn't know how to approach her. When Australian native Lawson Hughes, heir to one of the largest coal mining productions, approached Lucia about Basra, it was the perfect opportunity to bring her into this new world.
Basra rubbed her hands across the expensive pair of soles and her eyes sparkled as though they were diamonds and emeralds. “Thank you,” she said.
“You are quite welcome. I want you to look and feel your best. How many hookers on the corner get one thousand an hour, and health insurance?”
“I'm not having sex. And I made that clear when we talked on the telephone.”
“Well, things always change in person. You might change your mind. He is very sexy, very charming, and very, very rich.”
“I am not like you. No offense, but I can't just sleep with a man and blank it out like it doesn't mean anything. I wish I could, but I can't. If I didn't need the money so bad, I wouldn't even do this.”
“I think it's extremely noble that you're helping family back home, however ...”
“Why are we still talking about this?”
“Fine!” Lucia yelled.
Basra started applying her eye shadow and Lucia was compelled to give a last tidbit. “I wasn't always like this, it's just that the money numbs you after a while.” With a sullen expression, Lucia left the bathroom.
“I didn't mean anything by that,” Basra called out to soothe her friend, but there was no reply. She peeped out of the bathroom but Lucia was gone, and so Basra quietly continued to prepare for her date. Thirty minutes later, she sauntered downstairs in her shimmery crimson mini-dress, curly hair, and five-inch designer heels. Basra looked like a supermodel.
Lucia looked at her roommate and smiled. “He's in so much trouble. How many marriage proposals have you had?”
“None that I would take seriously.”
Lucia smirked and shook her head.
Basra nervously fumbled through her purse and grabbed her phone. “Okay, you're going to call me in an hour and check on me, right?”
Lucia nodded.
“If I don't answer, call right back. We're going to dinner at Masa and jazz at Smoke. Make sure you call me, and keep calling until I answer.”
“You're going to be fine. This is your first time; I promise it will get so much better.”
Basra took a deep breath and blinked her big doe eyes. “Do I look okay?”
“
Assolutamente bello.
”
Assolutamente bello.
”
“
Mahadsanid,
” Basra replied, giving thanks in her native tongue.
Mahadsanid,
” Basra replied, giving thanks in her native tongue.
It was a humid summer evening in New York, and the thousands of bright taillights lit up the evening. Basra nervously sat in the back seat of a black sedan. She repeatedly rehearsed the evening's future events. She would greet her date; they would have succulent Japanese cuisine and great conversation, and then listen to jazz over cocktails. She expected to be home by one in the morning, two at the latest.
“Oh, God, what if he wants to have sex?” she whispered to herself amid the thoughts.
Basra's stomach was turning flips. The more she practiced her programmed responses to his possible advances, the more nervous she became.
“Why did I agree to do this?” she quickly pondered. “Oh yes, four thousand dollars,” she quickly responded.
When she looked up, the car was pulling up to the restaurant, but Basra couldn't move.
“We are here, Ms. Sadiq,” said the driver.
Basra looked out the window and for two seconds thought about telling him to keep driving. But she knew this money would help her family back in Somalia. She was hoping that her sister could use this money to go to school until she was able to come to the States. Many women in her family never got the opportunity to get an education, and this small sacrifice was worth it.
“Do I call you when I'm ready to be picked up?”
“Yes, ma'am,” replied the driver before passing off his card.
Basra smirked and responded, “I could get used to this.”
Immediately, she tried to eat her regretted words.
I am going to school to get my psych degree so that I can afford things like car service,
she thought.
This is only a means to an end for now.
I am going to school to get my psych degree so that I can afford things like car service,
she thought.
This is only a means to an end for now.
“I will call, thanks.”
Basra stepped out of the car, inhaled the night air, and walked inside to the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center. She'd never been to Masa before but had heard the wonderful reputation of its fresh fish and delectable truffles. She'd eaten a small meal before leaving the house so as to not look like a greedy date, but still couldn't wait to taste what she'd heard was the best sushi in New York City. Basra, standing six foot two in her borrowed shoes, leaned over and gave her name to the petite receptionist, who seemed a bit of a snob.
“I don't see your name, who's the reservation under?”
Just then, Basra's date, Lawson Hughes, wrapped his arm around her waist.
“Ah, Mr. Hughes, good to see you again,” expressed the hostess.
“You too, Minami,” he replied.
“Right this way,” she said.
Basra and Lawson followed the woman, who was suddenly less snooty, over to the bar made of exotic Japanese wood.
“You must come here often,” Basra asked.
“The chef and I are old friends,” he answered. “Now pronounce your name again?”
“Bahs-rah,” she replied slowly and phonetically.
“Very pretty,” expressed Lawson.
They only sat for one minute before the server came over carrying a beautiful bottle of Kimuri, Akita.
“Hope you like sake,” said Lawson.
“I do,” replied Basra, who'd only tasted sake once in her life. Partly, because she wasn't much of a drinker, and secondly, because being only twenty-three, she hadn't had much partying in her two legal years in the United States. However, when she did partake it was white wine. Yet after a few sips of the very expensive sake, she was hooked, and kept her little cup filled most of the night. Lawson took the liberty of ordering for them both.
“We'll start with crab salad with yuzu and shiso flowers, toro tartare with osetra, and truffled uni risotto.”
Basra was very quiet as she drank her sake and looked around at the minimalist decor. It was apparent that she was still very uncomfortable.
“You can relax,” said Lawson.
“I am,” she replied with a nervous chuckle.
“You look extremely beautiful tonight,” he said.
“Thanks,” she responded without eye contact. “Your accent is different. It's proper but has a weird rhythm. You don't sound Australian.”
“It's what you get when you're raised in Australia but lived Texas for thirty years.”
“Oh,” Basra replied softly.
Lawson let a few seconds of silence pass and then he opened the floodgates. “So, why is it you don't want to have sex with me?”
Basra nearly choked on her sake.
“Didn't mean to startle you, but you've been so quiet. I was hoping to get a good conversation started. You okay?”
She nodded her head while clearing her throat. “Your comment surprised me, that's all. It's not that I don't want to have sex with you in particular. I don't have sex.”
“You're a virgin?”
Releasing a demur giggle, she answered, “No. But, I don't have sex for money.”
“Sure you do. Everyone does. A man takes you out, you eat or go to the cinema, or the opera, or maybe he takes you shopping, eventually you and he have sex.”
“But we have sex because I like him, not because he spends money on me.”
Lawson gave a look of doubt.
“Are you saying you don't believe me?”
“I'm saying that whether or not you thought you were doing it for free you weren't. In his mind, he'd paid for it. Unless you meet a man off the streets, introduce yourself, and then immediately have sex with him, he's paid for it.”
“Not true.”
“Yes, true, even if he only paid with time, and attentiveness, he still paid.”
“If that's the way you see it,” she said.
“That's the way it is,” he replied.
Basra said a silent prayer and took a bite from one of the appetizers. “This is very good.”
“One of New York's finest.”
“So I've heard.”
Basra was used to men staring, but Lawson's eye games were making her increasingly anxious.
“Please stop staring at me.”
“You seemed annoyed,” Lawson said.
“A bit.”
“Discuss.”
“I don't agree with you and your opinions about sex, I don't like how you are staring at meâ”
Interrupting, Lawson asked, “How am I staring?”
“Disrespectful.”
“I don't mean it that way. I think you're beautiful.”
Basra could no longer control the thoughts running through her mind. Lawson wanted to have sex and his looks confirmed it. Was this delectable meal the enticer? What had she gotten herself into?
“This is a very expensive restaurant, right?”
“Some would say that.”
“So tonight, you might spend, what? Just on dinner and drinks?”
“I don't know, maybe $2,500.”
Basra's eyes nearly popped from her skull as she dropped her food onto her plate.
“You paid at least four grand for an evening with me, two or three grand for dinner. So it's fair to say you may spend almost eight thousand dollars tonight.”
Lawson nodded and commented, “More like ten,” then gave a curious look to see where Basra was going with her statement.
Other books
Dead and Kicking by Lisa Emme
Narrow Escape by Marie Browne
The Third-Class Genie by Robert Leeson
Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes) by Melody Anne
Keep Me: A HERO Novella by Del Mia, Leighton
Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts
Wilder (The Renegades) by Rebecca Yarros
Storm Maiden by Mary Gillgannon
Evening in Byzantium by Irwin Shaw
Edge of Control: (Viking Dystopian Romance) by Megan Crane
