by Cj Howard
Chapter9
The air was cold that morning. Delilah had always quite enjoyed colder days over the hot, sweltering days that sometimes enveloped the city. She liked putting on her slippers – which were shaped like hedgehogs – and gliding around the room.
She liked wrapping a blanket around herself until it felt like she were inside a heated igloo. She liked the way that she could stay hidden and feel safe. When she was little, her parents used to make her a blanket fort. They’d grab all the blankets from around the house and then turn the living room into one big fort.
Blankets would be hung from places and pegged down in places, until the room had about eight different “rooms” for her to crawl into. In some of the “rooms” she’d place books and torches, and she could easily stay in those for hours – especially when her parents sneaked in with hot cocoa or snacks.
Those were happy days. And cold weather always reminded her of that time when life was simple and the whole world seemed to be on her side.
She woke up feeling better about everything. She’d had a nice evening with James where they did nothing but watch funny movies and eat popcorn. And she’d decided to put the Eric event out of her mind. After all, James was right – the world was filled with idiots like him. She couldn’t let him get to her, and she had to be the bigger person through it all.
Eric had a girlfriend, and she could easily go and tell her what had happened. She’d even do that – she decided – if he tried it one more time. He’d get what was coming for him.
She was grateful that James hadn’t tried anything with her last night, although she’d be lying if she said the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. Sex with James – both times – had been incredible. But she didn’t want to complicate things further.
Delilah had never had a proper sex life, but that was because she’d never had a proper relationship. She had certainly seen it all, though – from men who wanted to do strange things with her to men who wanted nothing from her but to talk.
She’d gotten to know a lot about the human psyche from her time at Betsy’s, and it had shown her that every person in the world has a vulnerable side and that everyone is just searching for something to make himself happy.
Delilah had spent far too many years of her life making other people happy. As soon as this whole thing with James was done, she wanted to spend some time making herself happy.
“Hello, Delilah speaking,” she said when the phone rang. She was still wrapped up in her blanket and managed to reach for the phone without actually getting up. She didn’t often get phone calls. She assumed it was either James or Melissa.
She hoped it wasn’t some reporter again. She’d had a few of them discover her number and hound her for interviews. But she always politely declined and put the phone down.
“Lilah. It’s Aaron.” Delilah breathed a sigh of relief at hearing his voice.
“Aaron! Wow, I haven’t spoken to you in such a long time. How long has it been? Six months?”
“I think more like nine or ten to be honest. Time has flown.” Delilah couldn’t believe it. There was a time when she had spoken to Aaron almost daily. Back at the start, she had only called him Mr. McFarthom, no matter how many times he had asked her not to.
But over the years, he had gradually become a friend and she’d switched to Aaron. Of course the term ‘friend’ was used loosely – because it wasn’t the sort of friendship where they met over coffee and gossiped about people. Perhaps the correct term should be ‘friendly’ rather than ‘friend.’ They were friendly with one another, and Delilah had grown to like and respect him.
Aaron was her lawyer. The very same lawyer she had spoken to when she had discovered the death of her parents. Because of this, he knew a lot about her. But what she had never told him was how she was getting her money. He’d asked at first – amazed that she was able to pay each month – but she always gave a very brief and uninformed answer.
Eventually he’d stopped asking. She wondered now if he were phoning because he had seen her all over the media. She cringed at that. She was hoping that he would never have to know the truth.
“How are you?” She hoped that her voice didn’t betray her fear.
“I’m very good. It’s cold today, though, isn’t it. I think we’re in for a cold winter this year, although I say that every year. I’m sure my body was built for summer and not winter – I’m terrible in winter. I’m on my second cup of coffee already.
But listen, I didn’t phone to talk about the cold.” He paused, and Delilah took a deep breath and braced herself for what was to come. “I’m here to tell you some good news.”
“Good news? I could do with some of that.” Delilah pulled her blanket in tighter.
“I wish we had a drumroll for this moment. Maybe try to picture one if you can. Ready? Dum, Dum, Dum… You are officially debt-free.”
“What? But I thought I still had a few more months to go. Are you sure?”
“Oh, I’m very sure. You know I never get my numbers wrong. It’s the only thing I’m really good at. Trust me on this one. You’re done. You paid a bit extra some months and you finally did it. You did it, Lilah! Not only is the house officially yours, but you don’t even owe any money to the bank. You did it all on your own. I bet you cannot believe that this day has finally come.”
Delilah could feel her hands starting to shake. She didn’t know what to say. She tried to speak, but the words caught in her throat. A sob escaped her.
“I know this is a lot to take in, and I know that it’s been a very long ride to get to this moment, but I just want to tell you how proud I am of you. That day when you told me that you were going to find a way to pay it all back, well… you were so determined.
I had never met a girl your age like that. But I honestly did not think it would happen. Not that I underestimated you – but I knew the figures. I knew how hard it was going to be. Your parents would be so proud to know that you kept their family home.”
“I did it,” Delilah finally managed to whisper.
“You did. Congratulations. I know it’s early, but I was too excited to phone you, and I figured you wouldn’t mind. You now have the pleasure of owning that house all to yourself. So now, any money that you make can go toward you.
No more paying money back. You’ve made a complete turnaround here, and you are now actually better off than most people your age. Heck, you’re better off than most people, period. Trust me, some people never pay back their house.”
“Thank you, Aaron. For everything. I couldn’t have done this without your support. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem, Lilah. You’ll have to invite me over for coffee one of these days so I can see the house that meant so much to you.”
Delilah looked around. The house was hers. All hers. “Of course I will. I’d love to see you.”
“Well then, I’ll wait for your invite. Have a wonderful day, Lilah.”
But just as he was about to put down the phone she stopped him. “Wait. Aaron?”
“Yeah?”
“You know, hey?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how I got that money. I mean… everyone knows now. It’s all over the news these days.”
She could hear him sigh, and she could almost see him nodding to himself. “Yeah. I know.”
“Thank you for never bringing it up with me. I’m sorry, Aaron. I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“Because that wasn’t very brave of me. I took the quick way out. And in the process, I lost so much of myself. I am ashamed about everything. And that tape – I hate that the whole world has seen that side of me. I’ve already had guys come up and ask me for sex. Because now everyone thinks that I’m easily bought. I made a mess of it all.”
“Lilah – Betsy’s is a strip joint, right?”
“Yeah?” She wasn’t sure where he was going with this.
“So most of the time you just had to
take off your clothes? What else did you do on a normal night?”
“Uh… we just had to dance up on stage. Sometimes we had to go and interact with the customers. Mostly, that was it.”
“So, the sleeping with the guys? Was that extra? How often did you do that?”
“I hardly did it at first. I said I didn’t want to, and as a new girl, I was allowed to refuse. I started getting asked more toward the end – especially since I was more confident on stage. I never went home with anyone else.
Only James. He asked and my boss said yes. I guess because he offered so much money. Because, really, that was all she cared about. I guess it was all I cared about, too. Uh… so normally we could go in these separate rooms and do extras with the guys.
It was hardly ever full-blown sex. It was almost always blow jobs. And a lot of the times the guys wanted to do nothing but talk. That happened more than you’d think.”
“What I’m trying to say, Lilah, is that you weren’t a prostitute. You were up there on stage providing a service and doing your best to get yourself out of a horrible situation. There are millions of women and men who are doing the same thing.
And you know what – there are people who are doing even worse. You’re not out there killing people to get money or selling drugs. Yeah, so maybe you didn’t feel proud of yourself. We all have things we’re not proud of. But you’ve done so much that you should be proud of, and you should concentrate on that. This is just going to make you stronger -- I know it.”
Delilah felt the tears rushing down her face. What had she done to deserve such kindness from this man?
“Thank you, Aaron. For everything.”
“Don’t thank me -- you’re the one who made this happen. I’ll see you for that coffee soon, then?”
She laughed, “You sure will.”
She’d done it! She had paid off all her debt. It was a strange feeling. She had thought of this moment many times in the past and wondered what she would do. Would she go out and celebrate? Would she cry? Would she immediately quit her job? Well, that last one was already taken care of.
She considered opening up a bottle of champagne, but it was too early. Also – she had always hated drinking alone. Maybe she’d phone James later to see if he wanted to celebrate. They were gearing up for their big breakup, so they might as well have some fun beforehand. That’s when she heard a big thud outside.
She jumped up in fright until she realized it was just the mailman. He always threw the mail down that way. She’d opened the door once and caught sight of him doing it in front of another house. It was as if he wanted to tell people that he had been there.
Delilah peeled off the blanket around her and went out to fetch the mail. She never received much except junk, so she wasn’t sure why she even bothered. But from the sound of that thud, there was probably more junk than usual. She opened the door and saw a few letters, as well as the morning newspaper, and a thick magazine that she didn’t normally receive.
She picked it up and saw that it was one of those gossip-type magazines that all the girls at Betsy’s used to read. Which meant that they were all probably reading it today as well. Why was it here? She didn’t subscribe to any magazine – especially not a gossip one.
Her heart quickened and a feeling of dread filled her entire body. Someone had put it there on purpose. Someone wanted her to read that magazine. She quickly took it inside and locked the door behind her.
For a while, she just ignored the magazine. She put it on the kitchen counter and set about making herself some breakfast. She put two slices of bread into the toaster and then lathered them with butter as soon as they popped out.
She topped that with some slices of cheese and poured herself a cup of coffee. Then she sat at the counter and stared at the front cover of the magazine. It showcased a young celebrity with a smiling face. Her teeth were too white and her skin was too flawless to be real.
Delilah was finished with her toast and halfway through her coffee when she finally decided to open up the magazine. She did so tentatively, peering slowly at each page as she turned, worried for what she might find. Three-quarters of the way through, she started to relax. There was nothing so far.
Maybe she’d been worried for nothing. Maybe she had just gotten someone else’s magazine. She started to turn the pages faster, eager now to get to the end. And that’s when she saw it.
A six-page spread, all about her and James. Six pages of photos and words that Delilah was too afraid to read. But the heading said it all.
Delilah and James faked a relationship to keep the world from finding out the truth. Turns out James is not quite the innocent boy his father thinks he is. In this exclusive, we found out more…
So, that was it. The truth was out. Everyone already knew what she had done for a living. She’d come to accept that over these past few weeks. She was happy that she was at least telling the truth for a change and happy to be out of it. But now everyone would know that she’d been paid by James.
That he’d taken her home and not only paid to have sex with her but also paid to film it. The article said it all. Somehow the truth had all come out. And she was put in a worse light than before. Because now it wasn’t a romantic story about two people from different worlds that had fallen in love.
The story was now about how she would do anything for money – even pretend to be in love. And she had accepted it because she needed the money – and it had seemed like a better alternative than working at Betsy’s. Maybe they were right – maybe she really would do anything for money.
She had no more tears.
She phoned James. “Did you see the story about us in Gossip?” she asked, not even bothering to say hello.
“Sorry?” James sounded as if he might have just woken up. She looked at the time. It was going on nine-thirty, so there was a possibility he had still been asleep. She knew he liked to stay up late and get up late.
“Sorry, good morning. I just wanted to know if you had seen the story about us? I guess not, though.”
“Story? No, I woke up about half an hour ago. I’ve barely done anything since then. What story? Is everything okay?”
“Nothing is okay.”
She detailed everything to him, reading passages aloud when she couldn’t explain it properly herself, and she could hear him breathing heavily on the other side of the phone. She’d woken up to such good news, and her high had immediately been plummeted down. James was just waking up to bad news. She felt sorry for him, even though he was partly the reason why this had all happened in the first place.
“Are there any photos?” he asked.
“Oh yeah. Quite a few. There’s a blurred-out still from the video showing us in a very compromising position. And there’s also a photo of me onstage at Betsy’s where you can clearly see that you are sitting in the audience watching me. It’s a bit grainy, but it’s still easy to see us. I have no idea how they even got that picture.”
“Your boss.”
“What?”
“Your boss must’ve sold them that photo. I could be wrong, but it’s highly possible.”
“I guess so. It could be. But what about the rest of the story? I mean, where did they even get all this from? And is that part about your ex-girlfriend giving you a blow job true?”
The phone went quiet for a while. Delilah hadn’t believed that part. The James she had come to know these past few weeks had been a gentleman. He wouldn’t do that. He’d told her just how awful his ex-girlfriend had been and how glad he was to get rid of her. Surely he wouldn’t have allowed that to happen. Surely?
“I’m sorry,” he finally said.
Delilah couldn’t believe it. “Seriously? You’re sorry? So it’s true. Wow. I guess it’s impossible to really know someone after a few weeks. And I guess because we weren’t really sleeping with each other, you’ve probably been having sex with other girls on the side. I highly doubt you can go this long without sex. Why would you do that? It was ju
st three weeks, James. Three weeks to pretend and then you could get rid of me.”
“I don’t want to get rid of you. And no, I didn’t sleep with anyone but you in that time. That thing with Tammy – yeah, that did happen. But that was before we decided that we were going to do this whole fake romance. At that time I didn’t even know she had stolen the tape. I would never have put our situation in jeopardy like that.”
Delilah sighed. She believed him, but she still didn’t like what he had done. “You know what, James? This whole thing is such a mess. I’m going to walk away from it now. I’m going to walk away from you. This whole thing has been nothing but trouble. I’ll pay you back for everything you’ve given me these weeks.
I’m going to do my best to get a job – somehow. And when I do, I’ll pay you back. But let’s just leave it now. The truth is out. I already have the eyes of the whole world on me. They know who I am and what I did. I’m not going to deny it. I am what I am. I did what I did.
Maybe it’s time you own up to your own mistakes too. It’s been great knowing you. And, despite all this, I really did have a good time. I’m sorry that you feel that you have to hide and pretend like this. It’s a pity because the person that you were in front of me was actually an amazing man. Goodbye James.”
“Lilah. Wait!”
But before he could say anything more, Delilah had put down the phone. The phone rang immediately, but she ignored it. She’d made up her mind. She was done with playing games. When the doorbell rang, she jumped out of her seat. It couldn’t be James. It was too soon. Unless he had been outside her door when she was speaking to him, which she knew he hadn’t been. What if it were Eric? She decided to leave it. It rang again. Then she heard Melissa’s voice.
“Hello? Lilah? Are you home?”
She ran to open the door. Melissa took one look at her face and her eyes widened. “Lilah, what’s wrong? Have you been crying?”
That was all it took. Just one kind face. Soon she was in tears, her shoulders heaving up and down as she let it all come out. For someone who never cried, she was certainly making up for it lately. It was as if she had let it build up for years and years, and it was now finally getting released.
