Cocotte (2 page)

“I don’t.”

“Exactly. Everyone here in this establishment is clean, we are all tested.”

I paused
. “I just got my hang-ups, it doesn’t feel...right.”

“
Oh! You must be one of those religious types?” She moved closer and put her hand on my inner thigh, her fingers tracing along the outside of my pocket. 

“
Not really, a preacher told me to watch out for seductive women.”

“So you think
I’m seductive?”

I held my tongue
.

Emily
put out a cute chuckle. But her presence was arousing, her thumb and forefinger were stroking, the outside of my watch again.

“
Oliver, everyone needs a release. It is what I do…”

Her charms were starting to engulf me and the pockets of
cash were calling out to spend it on a night, of intense pleasure with Emily. I closed my eyes for a second to get the image of her on top of me out of my mind.

“
Oliver… Let’s be honest, when you go home, you are just going to masturbate anyway…”

My eyes opened and I caught her stare. I was falling into her trap.

I swallowed, and looked at my watch it was already four thirty a.m. “Can I ask you question?” I said.

“Sure.”

“How much do you charge?”

“For an hour
, its $250 dollars, plus extras.”

“What would you do?”

I swallowed when she smiled. She got comfortable and explained. A part of me wished I hadn’t asked the question.

“I would take you in the room and strip you down, I would run a hot bath and bathe you.
Once you are relaxed I would start on your cock, stroking it and sucking it, till it’s nice and hard. Once you are aroused, I would start on a missionary position… Then from there it’s anything you want.

Being hung
over didn’t help. The way she said it made me feel I was already there. My hand was in my pocket ready to take the cash out. I took a deep breath to sober up and think straight. I nearly threw my drink on my face. 

“And out of that you make?”
I said, trying to change the subject.

She paused for
a moment. “About a hundred. The rest goes back to the establishment.”

“What did you mean when you said extras?”

“Some clients like to do threesomes, which is $450 all up. We cater to most fantasies.”

I raised my eyebrow
, intrigued by the shopping list. 

“I don’t do anal though
,” she said quickly.

“I wasn’t asking.”

She laughed.

I took another sip.
“How many guys would see in one night?”

“On
an average night, maybe about six or seven.”

My jaw dropped, and
a sense of respect and my arousal for Emily fell even further.

B
eing business minded, I calculated her take home pay to about seven hundred bucks. Not bad for a day’s wage. She would clear about $3500 a week which equated to $14,000, a month which was $168,000 tax-free. Gosh, her salary was the same as the sales manager at our firm, and that’s an average night!

“
Emily, do you enjoy what you do?”

She didn’t respond
.

“Why do you do it? I know you must have kids huh?”

“No. I’m way too young to be thinking of having kids.”

“How old are you
? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“
Twenty-three. You?"

“
Thirty-two.”

I shook my head
. I had this feeling, of sadness and pity for her. I thought about Marc’s beautiful family and their two-year-old daughter. Gosh, how would Marc feel if her daughter, grew up to end up in joint like this. I leaned back in the stool and smoothed my face. “You’re just a kid. How did you end up here?” Emily placed her necklace in her top and leaned back. “Oliver, I made my own decision being here and I’m not a kid.”

“So you had a choice
. Between this, and what?”

I noticed her glance towards my watch.
“I studied towards a bachelor of business, where I graduated with honours. I continued on to get a post grad, when I ticked up almost $90,000 in tuition fees. I didn’t want to be in so much debt, that when I did land my dream job, I wouldn’t be paying off my student loan.”

“How long have you been doing
all this?”

“A year and a half.”

My business mind starting counting, until Emily interrupted my train of thought. “I paid off my student loan within a year.”

“
Why aren’t you chasing your dream job? Gosh, you just have to persevere like everyone does, out of study. You find something eventually.”

Emily
folded her arms again. “Money. Do you have any idea, what a graduate starts out at with no experience? I applied for jobs. I got turned away. No one was willing to give a young woman a chance. I settled on an intern role, filing bullshit paperwork and making coffee.”

She paused
for moment, getting riled up.

“
Oliver, I got paid a starting salary of $32,000 per year and when I paid off my loan, with the nights I did here I realised I was making more money than my C.E.O.”

“I take it this must be your dream job
now, by the amount of money you are making huh? You’re on top of the world…” I added.

A
thin sheen of tears began to emerge in her electric blue eyes. Her head angled down to look at the watch my father had given me.

“
Emily, your father must be really proud of you…” I said.

Her
head rose and her eyes widened, and she slapped me in the face.

It was so loud everyone turned, stunned. Emily stood up to leave and I grabbed her by the arm to sit her down.

“Let go of me!” she said
, trying to pull her arm away. The commotion unsettled everyone, so that the barman and the bouncer by door came over and tried to grab me. I took out all the money, in my left jacket pocket and put it on the table. There was ten thousand dollars in cash, on the bar.

“
Emily, I want you.” I said firmly.

Her eyes shifted to
the cash and then to me. Everyone was shocked at the amount. I reached into my front pockets and added to the pile. It was now higher than my tall glass of CC dry. The girls on the couch stood up and soon crowded around us. Emily put her hand on her mouth..

“Is this a joke?”

“No, this is your final interview for a job”

“I didn’t apply.”

“I want you to work for me, as my executive assistant. On this table is $50,000 dollars as an upfront payment and another $50,000 after six months with the option of full-time employment.”

The lady
from the counter hobbled in and interrupted. “What’s going on here?”

“I’m
offering Emily a job.” I said.

“
Emily, is this guy, causing you grief?”

The woman
stopped in her tracks with her hands on her face when she saw all the cash.

“I barely know you…”
Emily said.

I paused and placed my hands on her waist.
“I know you.” I said.

W
e heard the whispers of the women behind us. Some of them saying they would take her place and do anything I wanted. One of the brunettes said she would do me real good for half the cash, which amused me. But I didn’t want Emily for sex and the ladies got the wrong end of our conversation. I saw a glint of opportunity within her and there was a side of me that wanted to take her away from this life. 

“
Emily, our business has been acquired by Cerberus petroleum. They are the largest oil conglomerate in the world. My partner and I, are in the process of working out the restructure and I would love to have you on my team. This is your shot at your dream job.”

I watched as she parted her hair behind her shoulders. When we both looked at each
other dead in the eye, she didn’t flinch, but her eyes began to well up again.

“
Emily, I need someone I can rely on. Your education and skills will be invaluable for a role such as this. I will teach you everything I know, you won’t have to worry about experience. That will come.”

I paused.

“Your father will be proud of you…”

A thin trickle of tears rolled down her che
ek and she sniffled. She finally nodded. I put out my hand to her to shake hers and left my business card on the bar. I glanced at my watch and I couldn’t be bothered, waiting any longer for Marc so I got up.

“
Emily, you start on Monday. Report at my office at nine a.m. sharp.”

***

Monday morning arrived and I stared out my large office window, to revel in the rising sun. In the distance was the national office for Cerberus petroleum. It was a monster of a building, standing out amongst the rest. With the acquisition, eighty percent of our intellectual properties were to be transferred and the terrible task was to lay staff off that already had duplicate roles.

I couldn’t help but be nostalgic
, about the hard yards Marc and I put in and the staff that believed in our cause. I was adjusting my silver cufflinks when Marc burst in through the door. “What's the whore doing here?”

I gla
nced at my watch, to notice Emily was half an hour early.

“I gave her a job.”

Marc started laughing and rubbed his temples. Marc started to thrust his fingers into his straight black hair. “Are you serious? Doing what? Your personal blow job assistant?”

“
Marc, you know our hands are tied up with the changeover. I have to finalise the restructure and go through the handover of all our accounts with Sherry over at Cerberus.”

“
Sherry… mmm…” Marc said with a glint in the eye, stroking his goatee.

“What?”

“I’ll be happy to do a handover with her, in my bed.”

“
Put your balls back in your pants, Marc. It’s important you do your job right, securing all the intellectual property once I announce the restructure. Millions of dollars of our company secrets can’t fall into a competitor’s hands.”

“I know
, Oliver. There’s going to be some pissed off people, some of them have been loyal from the start. I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to take all they can get.”

“
That’s why, when we negotiated the deal with Sherry, we upped the redundancy package. The ones that will be leaving, will go with a golden handshake.”

“You mean diamond…”
Marc laughed.

“I’m just glad
Cerberus accepted, but Sherry keeps dragging this out.”

“The sooner the document is signed the better!”
I added.

M
arc’s eyebrows lifted, then he pointed to my door. “So where does the whore fit into all this? Is she going to work underneath your desk, while you make people redundant?

I held my tongue, Ma
rc had that ability to test my nerve but he was the type of guy that said what was on his mind.

“Her name is
Emily. I hired her as my executive assistant.”

Marc
scoffed at my comment and checked his phone. Oliver, you do what you think is best. I know it’s going to be a crazy couple of months, but I think it won’t bode well. Especially with the staff layoffs you’re going to do. Doesn’t help, her being a hooker either.”

“What she did before should have no bearing.”

I paused. “Should it Marc? You would know…”

Marc paused and stroked his
goatee again. I thought about his wife, if only she knew what he was doing…

I
think he clicked on the hypocrisy of the situation since he said nothing.”

“Can I have your confidence then
, you will keep this between us?” I said.

“
Yeah, I will keep the whore a secret.”

I crossed my arms and raised
an eyebrow.

“
Sorry, I mean Emily.” Marc said.

“One more thing,”

“What?”

“How did you know?”

“Know what?”

“That she worked at Showgirls?”

“Meh, the bitch is picky on who she chooses and what she likes to do, that’s all I can say.”

Marc left and I caught a glimpse of Emily waiting outside my office as the door was closing. She had her makeup pad, using the brush to powder her nose. I paged her to come through.