The Billionaire's Call Girl: A BWWM Billionaire Romance (2 page)

"What would you both like to drink?" the good-looking bartender asked in a friendly tone.

Mary and Felicia placed their orders and then looked around at the rooms and people as they stood there waiting for the bartender to make their drinks.

"Do you believe this place?" Mary gasped in delight. "No wonder everyone is talking about it! This is fantastic!"

Felicia nodded and gazed around her, eyes falling momentarily at a woman sitting at the bar who was looking directly at her. The woman looked older than the rest of the crowd at the club, but not by too much. It was difficult to discern her age. She had a slightly Asian look about her and her black shiny hair was pulled back and knotted at the back of her head. She was dressed in a black and red silk dress that clung to her body in all the right places, but didn't expose too much at the same time. She looked elegant and powerful, and for the life of her, Felicia could not begin to guess why the woman was watching her so intently.

Felicia offered the woman a smile and then turned her eyes away and surveyed the rest of the room. A small table with two chairs opened up not far from them and Mary walked over to it with Felicia in tow and they sat down.

They talked to each other about the club and sipped their drinks, settling in and relaxing. Felicia glanced back at the woman seated at the bar and saw that she was still watching her. It made her feel slightly uncomfortable, but she ignored it and continued visiting with Mary.

Just as they were finishing their drinks, the good-looking young man who had greeted them at the door and given them their tour and drinks walked over to their table with two more drinks.

"I saw that you were low on your beverages and wanted to take care of you," he said with a smile and a wink at them. They thanked him and then he turned his attention to Mary. "Would you like to dance?" he asked.

She shot Felicia a quick grin and stood up, taking the young man's hand and walking away with him to the dance floor.

Felicia took another sip of her drink and was just setting it down when someone appeared next to her. It was the woman from the bar. She was standing over Felicia, looking down at her and smiling.

"May I sit down, please?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

Felicia wasn't sure she wanted to have a conversation with a woman who had been watching her since she walked in the door, but she was curious about what the woman wanted to talk with her about.

"Please, feel free. My friend is off dancing right now, so the seat is open for a few minutes, at least until she comes back." Felicia shrugged her shoulders.

The woman crossed her long shapely legs and leaned back in the chair, her eyes canvassing Felicia from head to toe for a moment before she spoke.

"I'm Margaret Halstead." She introduced herself with a smile as she extended her hand toward Felicia.

"Felicia Bennett." She answered, watching her to see what she was up to.

Margaret tilted her head and inclined it toward Felicia, so that she could speak and be heard over the music.

"You're quite a lovely young lady. You're in college, right?" she asked as if she was sure she knew the answer. "About twenty-four years old?"

Felicia stared at her. Whatever she was expecting her to say, it wasn't that. "Yes, I am." she answered, unsure what to say. She paused and then asked, "How did you know that?"

Margaret smiled confidently. "It's my job to know. I saw you when you walked in, and your look is quite striking. It's not often that I see girls who look the way you do; sort of girl next door, but also quite beautiful."

Felicia returned the smile but still felt uncertain.

Margaret continued. "I own a special business here in the city that gives incredible and rare opportunities to ladies as lovely as you are. I imagine that school is probably quite costly for you and that you are on a rather tight budget. I would like to discuss the possibility of your working for me, if you are interested in doing it. I think you would be just the right fit for the services I provide, and you could make a lot of money in a very short amount of time."

It sounded fishy to Felicia. "What kind of job is it?" she asked hesitantly.

Margaret smiled a little. "It's a social job. It's ideal for pretty girls who like to go out, have a good time, and be spoiled by wealthy men. It pays very, very well."

Felicia felt a bit nervous and she had learned early in her young life that it's always best to listen to one’s instincts.

"Thank you for discussing it with me, but I don't think I'd be interested," she said in a polite tone.

Margaret watched her for a moment and then nodded. "Alright, Miss Bennett, but if you decide to change your mind and you'd like to find out a little more about it, please feel free to call me anytime. I will be glad to talk with you about all that you could do.

I know without a doubt that you would be extremely successful at it." She reached into her purse and pulled out a business card, handing it to Felicia, and then she stood and walked away, vanishing into the crowd of people.

Mary returned a few moments later, out of breath and completely thrilled. She took her seat beside Felicia and fanned herself as she grinned at her friend.

"Oh my gosh, I love this place. It's the best!" she gushed. "That guy is such a great dancer." Mary went on and on and Felicia nodded and smiled, listening to her friend as she talked about the guy, the club, and the drinks.

She thought for a moment that she would tell her about the woman who spoke with her, Margaret, but then she thought better of it and let it go. There was no need to bring it up. There was no reason to talk about it. She wasn't going to do it, and that was that, so why even waste a breath on it?

They stayed and enjoyed the club together for a while, and then headed back to their own neighborhood and homes. It was late when Felicia slipped in quietly through the door. She had seen that all of the lights in her home were off except for the kitchen light. She tried to be quiet enough that they wouldn't hear her, but that was tricky in an old house with squeaky doors and creaky floors. Somehow she managed it, slipping her coat off and hanging it up on the coat tree. She was just about to tiptoe up the stairs to her room when she heard her mother and father talking in the kitchen.

They often talked in the kitchen, especially when the rest of the family had already gone to bed, but something in her father's tone, and a muffled sound as if her mother was crying, made her stop in her tracks and listen closely.

She wasn't quite able to hear all that they were saying, only bits and pieces, and certainly not enough to make out any of it. She moved silently toward the kitchen door and tried to still the pounding of the blood in her ears so she could hear their conversation.

"Maryanne, we've been through tough spots before, and we will make it through this one, too... somehow," her father said in a comforting tone.

Felicia peeked through the crack between the door and the doorframe, and she could see her father's arm wrapped around her mother as they sat at the table.

Maryanne shook her head. "Cal, there's no way we can do this! Even if we both got second jobs, there's no way that we can afford to keep up with the monthly payments and keep the house. There's just no way! Our house payment just tripled. It's so far out of our budget that nothing we do is going to make it possible for us to pay it."
 

Cal was quiet for a long moment. "I wish we had never re-financed with that balloon mortgage. This is a tough one, baby. Maybe I could get a second and third job."

Maryanne gave him a disapproving look. "Be reasonable. You can't do that! When are you supposed to sleep or see your family or even have any time to yourself?"

Cal didn't say anything. He just nodded.

Maryanne rubbed her hand over her forehead. "We're just going to have to face it, Cal. We're going to lose the house. There's nothing more we can do. Not if we sold everything we could, not if we got into our little savings account, not if we both got two more jobs. There's no way we could keep it. There's just no way. We're going to have to let this house go."

Cal stood up and started pacing. "What in the world were we thinking, listening to that banker? What did we ever do this for to begin with?" he asked miserably, his hands on his hips as he walked a line over the kitchen floor.

Maryanne sat back in her chair and looked at her husband. "We did it so we could send Felicia to college, remember? We were so sure it was the right thing to do. She's going to do so well in her future."

Cal stopped and turned to look at his wife, planting his hands on the back of the chair he had been sitting in and looking at her seriously. "Maryanne, we're going to lose the house because of it. Our house. The house we moved into right after we were married; the house that we brought all three of our babies home to; the house that we wanted to live in for the rest of our lives and to have for our grandchildren. This isn't how this was supposed to go at all."

Maryanne shook her head. "I know that, Cal, but there's just nothing at all that we can do about it now." She began to cry again and he gave her a sympathetic look and walked over to her, hugging her from behind.

Felicia's stomach had hardened into a knot and her lungs were burning from holding her breath. Tears stung her eyes and spilled over her eyelashes as she moved toward the staircase and crept up the stairs as silently as she could.

She slipped into her room and closed the door without a sound, other than the soft click of the doorknob as it latched in the frame.

She collapsed on her bed and buried her face in her pillow, drawing a huge breath of fabric softener scented air and letting the waterfall of tears gush from her eyes. How was it possible? How could they have taken out a second mortgage on their house to pay for her to go to college at the risk of not being able to pay it back and losing the house? How could they have kept it from her and not told her anything about it?

Felicia thought back to the day when she registered for college and they gave her a check for the amount of her first year's tuition. They had done the same thing her second year, and neither time had it ever occurred to her to ask where the money came from. She just assumed that they had been saving it for her and been able to provide it with no problem.

Now, two years into school and with four years left to go, they were going to lose their house because of it. She was devastated. How could they make the choice to do that without consulting her first?

She knew why they had done it: they believed in her, they loved her, and they wanted to help her. She had never taken it for granted. She worked hard to get the best grades and be one of the top students at her school, and she had qualified for scholarships, but it hadn't been enough to pay for everything. She needed her parents help, and now they were going to lose their home for it.

Felicia sobbed into her pillow, muffling the aching cries of her broken heart, clenching the softness of it in her tight fingers. After a long while, she rolled over and looked around her room, her eyes puffy and her body worn out from crying. She sniffled and hugged herself in the darkness, looking at the places in her room that were dimly lit by the streetlight outside across the road. The same soft pale light that lit her room all of her life.

Everything she had ever done was in this room. Photos from almost every year of her life hung on the walls, or stood on the shelves. There were books she  read when she was a child, there were bits of artwork and awards for various things, there were ribbons and dried flowers, a little jewelry box, and a few stuffed animals. It was all of her childhood in one precious place bound together with wonderful memories, and now at the cost of her future, she was going to lose her past. Her parents were going to lose their home.

She thought about her younger sister and brother down the hall, sleeping peacefully in their own rooms. They had no idea that the future was so dark and empty; they had no idea that they were going to lose their childhood home because of the cost of her college education. It was the worst thing she had ever known in her life, and she could not bear it.