by Candice Dow
The next morning, when Rick went to work out, I called Thorne. He picked up, saying, “London, you’re in Vegas, right?”
Nervously, I said, “Yeah, what’s up?”
“Well, I had a girl who was supposed to be there. She thinks she has the flu. I know you’re on your personal time and all, but can you step in for her?”
“What are the arrangements?”
“Tonight around eight, and then Monday evening. I can text you all the specifics.”
“Same client both days?”
“Nah. Two separate clients.”
“Tonight may be shaky, but I can probably do Monday. I’ll have to change my flight because I’m supposed to leave Monday morning.”
“I appreciate you. I’ll send you the specifics, and how soon can you let me know about tonight?”
I sighed. “Okay, Thorne. For you, I’ll do tonight also.”
Going on those other engagements would make up for Rick’s subsidized payment. Later that evening I told Rick that I had something to do and I’d be back later. I wasn’t sure if he knew in his heart that I was going to see another client or not. I’d always given Rick my undivided attention whenever we were together for a weekend. I felt the need to give him an excuse. “One of my girlfriends is also out here, and I’m going hang out with her for a while.”
Since I never asked questions, I figured he thought he would provide me with the same respect. “That’s cool, I’m going out too. I gotta get my gamble on.”
“I understand.”
I showered and put on a nice dress and headed out of our hotel en route to another client’s place. The client had a stocky build and it appeared that he could have easily been a ballplayer. I smiled as I entered and he smiled back. He reached out to shake my hand. “Zach.”
“Nice to meet you, Zach.”
“And you are?”
“Kyra.”
He wore a wife beater and a pair of boxers. There was nothing sensual about the mood in the room. I wanted to get it over with and get back to Caesar’s Palace. I said, “So, whatchu need?”
He sat on the bed and rested his head back. “Whatchu gonna give me?”
I pulled my dress over my head and said, “I can give you this.”
He didn’t really have much of a personality so I wasn’t interested in seeing why he needed me. With his type I like to get in, do my job, and leave. These gigs were usually uneventful.
I took off my clothes, grabbed a condom from my bag, and climbed on him. I began kissing his neck. He cupped my butt and once he got an erection, I slipped the condom on him and slid down on him. He was what I considered a gymnast. We were from this position to that position. The constant position-changing prolonged the climax and I hated that. Anyway, it was finally over. He gave me a thousand dollars, and I showered and headed back to Rick’s room.
When I got there he was nowhere to be found. I popped a couple of sleeping pills so that I would be so zapped when Rick came in that he wouldn’t be able to wake me if he tried. I sent him a text: “Felt like I was coming down w sumthin. Took some medicine. I’ll b knocked out when u get in.”
My bases were covered and I lay down, praying that he wouldn’t even try to wake me. I was wrong. It seemed like a few minutes after I put my head on the pillow when Rick started shaking me. I tried to talk but words wouldn’t come out. I was in between a deep sleep and a light consciousness. I heard him yelling at me. “Bitch, when I hire you for a fucking weekend, you belong to me!”
“Rick,” I slurred.
“Don’t Rick me, bitch!”
I could see him tossing my things from the room but I was too sleepy to reason with him. I tried to lie down, hoping Rick would just relax. But he pulled me by my leg from the room. My body was limp and too weak to resist. I was still a bit dreary as I tried to sit up outside his door. Shortly after he slammed the door security guards came and flashed lights in my eyes.
“Ma’am, can you hear me?”
“Yes, I can hear you,” I said.
“Have you been drinking tonight?”
Another guard knocked on Rick’s hotel room door. When he opened it, the guard asked if he knew me. He said, “No. Never seen her before.”
“Ma’am, are you staying in this hotel?”
I looked up at Rick and said, “This is my room.”
“The gentleman says he doesn’t know you.”
I was too tired to fight and too embarrassed to dispute what Rick was saying. But I called out for him one last time. “Rick,” I said, almost as if I couldn’t believe he was acting this way.
Rick looked sternly at the security guards. “Get this bitch away from my room.”
The guards began to gather my things. “No problem, sir.”
They spoke to him with the utmost respect, and I’m sure they knew he was bullshitting, but it didn’t matter. As they helped me to my feet I felt like a hooker, and it didn’t feel good.
The guards asked if I wanted to go to guest services to see if I could get a room. There were rooms available and the security staff escorted me to one. They didn’t want me harassing Rick, but at least I didn’t have to go out on the Strip partially drugged up. I lay in the bed and almost immediately fell back to sleep.
I didn’t feel the effects of everything until the next morning. I woke up feeling like I’d run five miles. My muscles were hurting. There were rug burns on my arms and legs. I was in so much pain, both physically and emotionally. When I had knocked on Zach’s room door, I should have turned around instead. A piece of me knew that he knew Rick, but I figured they both knew what business I was in and it wouldn’t be a big deal. Rick’s reaction seemed as if he had been taunted by the guys and forced into a senseless rage. Then again, Rick had been extremely sensitive lately. I wanted to apologize for offending him, because it hurt me that he was offended and I wanted to make it right. I just wasn’t sure that I’d ever have the opportunity.
19
I stayed in Vegas for the additional day to hook up with the second client that Thorne had booked. During the two days between the fallout with Rick and the next client, I had a lot of time for self-reflection. I began to wonder if it was time to call it quits. Maybe I should do something different. I’d saved up a substantial amount of money in the hopes of purchasing a condo, but I’d begun to think maybe I’d live off that money for a while until I could figure this all out.
I wasn’t feeling as confident as usual as I knocked on the door of the new client. I was dressed in a semiformal black dress because the client wanted me to attend a banquet with him. A short, light-skinned, nerdy guy opened the door to a fabulous room at Bellagio. He reached his hand out to shake mine.
“Hello. Very nice to meet you. I’m Clyde.”
“I’m London.”
It was pretty easy for me to determine whether I would tell a guy my real name or not. This guy seemed like he was on the up-and-up. He invited me in and offered me a drink. I said, “I’m fine.”
His skin looked a little patchy and his hairline was receding horribly. When he smiled it seemed to camouflage all his imperfections. His teeth were light, bright, almost neon white. It appeared as if they were perfectly chiseled porcelain. I wasn’t surprised to discover that he was a world-renowned orthodontist and dental surgeon. He had perfected the smiles of many celebrities and obviously his own as well.
Clyde almost immediately proclaimed to me that he was a lifelong bachelor as we headed out to the event. That was rather odd. Most of my clients were married men and it was pretty much a rarity to have an engagement with a single man.
He seemed to be pretty open about everything. I asked if there were any dos or don’ts to follow when we met up with his colleagues.
“Not at all. They know that I’m pretty strange.”
“And what does that mean?”
“I mean, like if you told them that I hired you through an escort service, I don’t think anyone would be surprised.”
“I think I’d ra
ther just keep that between us. That would probably spark too many questions of me.”
He laughed. “Yeah, probably.”
Clyde seemed like a geek, but he was actually cool and adventurous. The evening slightly pushed those uncomfortable thoughts about Rick out of my mind. I was unexpectedly enjoying myself. We mingled with his colleagues, danced, and had pretty good conversation.
When we returned from the event Clyde asked me to come in. He was quite an interesting person, so I was curious to know more about him.
“So why did you deem yourself a lifelong bachelor?”
“Well, I’ve never been married. Never lived with anyone. Never really even been committed to anyone.”
“And why is that?”
“I guess I’m too selfish.”
“That would make sense.”
“I like my freedom. I work hard. I play harder.”
“And you don’t feel that you could do that while in a relationship?”
“Now what woman do you think could handle a spontaneous man?”
“I’m sure there are some.”
“I doubt it. I’ll never be tied down.”
“I understand.”
When we returned to his hotel room he wasted no time getting down to business. He unbuttoned his shirt and had a really nice chest, to my surprise. After he took the shirt off there were more goodies in store. His arms were nice and muscular. He wasn’t a bad catch. The entire time he was proclaiming how he’d be single forever, I was thinking, Clyde, please, you are not all that.
He asked if I would get in the shower with him and I agreed. I took off my dress, grabbed a condom from my purse, and followed him into the bathroom. He closed the door and steam began to fill the room as he kissed me in the middle of the bathroom. We clung to each other and I could feel him rising. He pushed me up to the door and lifted my legs.
As he slowly entered me, I moaned. Clyde was gentle and passionate. He took pride in his lovemaking. Usually I fake orgasms but I didn’t have to with him. That was a first. Everything in this business was an act, but it just happened. I kissed his shoulders and rubbed the back of his head. I could tell he knew he was genuinely satisfying me. Being with Clyde made me long for real affection.
We showered together and shared a glass of champagne afterward. Lying in bed, Clyde and I just talked about nothing. He was telling me about all his adventures. I just listened and I think he appreciated that. When he said he loved to deep-sea dive, I perked up. “I’ve always wanted to dive.”
“You know, I’ve never once had a black woman say that to me.”
“Really.”
“Really. You should come to Mexico with me tomorrow.”
Talk about spontaneity. I wasn’t sure I was in the mood to up and go to Mexico the next day. “What part?”
“Puerto Vallarta. C’mon. It’ll be fun.”
Why not? I thought. All I really needed to be concerned about was Bruno, but that would just be a matter of calling the kennel and extending his stay. So I agreed.
The next morning Clyde got me a last-minute flight to Puerto Vallarta. We weren’t on the same plane, but I arrived within thirty minutes of his. When we got there I had to immediately go shopping for some beach clothes because I didn’t have any in my suitcase. Clyde went with me. He helped me pick out clothes. He was an all-out active participant in the shopping spree. I enjoyed that. He was extremely funny and people seemed to gravitate to him.
One girl asked, “Is he always so funny?”
I was thinking, Girl, I know as much about him as you do. Instead I smiled and nodded. I had to purchase a wet suit for my diving lessons. Clyde was a seasoned diver. I wasn’t quite sure why he’d asked me to join him in Mexico because we would be spending our days apart, as he’d be out in the sea. I, on the other hand, would be learning how to dive in the resort pool with a bunch of other amateurs.
When we got back to our room both Clyde and I were tired so we jumped in the sack and drifted off to sleep. It was around a quarter to eight when we woke up. We were starving and headed out to find something to eat at the resort.
Over dinner Clyde said, “I’m glad you could join me. Sometimes vacationing alone gets boring.”
“I would think it wouldn’t be a problem to find someone to join you.”
“Well, I like too much weird stuff and I don’t want to deal with a bunch of eewing.”
I laughed. “What’s eewing?”
“You know how women do, ‘Eew, that’s nasty’ or ‘Eew, you want to do that?’ That’s eewing. I can’t stand it.”
“So are you saying women mess up your flow?”
“No, I’m just saying women live by a bunch of damn rules and I like to break the rules. If I feel like pissing in the pool, leave me the hell alone.”
Eew. I decided to keep my thoughts to myself and smiled.
“All women aren’t like that.”
He nodded toward me. “Obviously. That’s why you’re here with me.”
I hadn’t totally figured Clyde out, but I got a feeling that being single was his defense mechanism. It protected him from himself, because it was clear that he was lonely. Somewhere in his past someone had done something to hurt him and he had subsequently become a rebel. I wasn’t certain I’d figure it out this week, but if he became a regular I was sure I’d be able to read him a little better.
The first couple of days there I explored Puerto Vallarta after my two-hour diving lesson. Finally, around the fourth day, I was brave enough to take the plunge. It was breathtaking as I submerged. All I could hear were the peaceful sounds of the ocean. Fish swimming by, tropical-colored fish in schools. It was beauty in its rarest form. The sounds of the Earth were so far away. I could hear nothing but my own breathing. The compression tank on my back felt lighter under the water, just like all my issues—they floated to the top of the ocean as I sank deeper. At twenty feet below, I was convinced that I belonged here. No noise. No weight. No worries. I loved it.
When my compression tank began to signal that it was time for me to ascend, I was thinking Damn, not now. It was either now or that would be my last dive. I swam up to the surface and Clyde was climbing onto the boat. He slapped me a high five as I followed. Once we were both on board, he took off his goggles. Clyde seemed so sexy in his wet suit. It clung to his short, stocky body. Maybe it was the dive, but I wanted to lie close to Clyde and make continuous love to him. Or maybe I was trying to solidify my position in his life. I wanted to be his ride-or-dive chick.
20
Kari loved the attention she got wearing a sexy short dress, but she still didn’t know how to shop for herself. So whenever I was in town I tried to make time to be her personal shopper. I gave her a call to see what time she wanted to step out. She answered, sounding frustrated.
“You would never believe this.”
“What?”
“My AC is broken. I’m going to have to come over there until it gets fixed.”
“When did they say it would be fixed?”
“It could be days. Several units in my building are broken and I just don’t know.”
How could I say no? But I wasn’t sure I wanted her in my space, especially considering I was scheduled to see someone at midnight. Reluctantly, I said, “You know you’re welcome to stay here.”
“When Ian leaves, I’ll come over.”
I kidded, “Ooh, Ian. So he spends the night.”
“Quite frequently.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I just wanted to make sure first.”
“I can’t blame you.”
“Yeah, you know how it is.”
“He can come too if you want.”
“Nah, he’s going out of town.”
I wondered if that was true or if she was uncomfortable with me around her man. I had yet to meet him but I’d thought it was because of my schedule. It could have been intentional.
Around noon Kari came over, looking as blissful as I’d ever s
een her. This Ian guy was panning out to be everything she wanted. She sat on the couch and began to tell me how she really wasn’t interested at first, but that he was such a nice guy she gave him a chance.
“I mean, he’s not tall, dark, and handsome, but we are so compatible.”
“That’s all that matters.”
“Yeah, man. You’re going to be shocked when you see him. He’s not cute at all but he makes me so happy.”
She had no clue how many unattractive men I had been with over the past couple of years. “Everybody wants somebody fine, but in the big scheme of things looks don’t make you happy. Temporarily maybe, but not forever. That’s why there are so many divorces.”
“You’re right.”
It was hot and muggy outside so Kari and I decided to stay in and just have girl talk. I missed having someone around. Being with a different man every night was lonely. There was no substance to any of my relationships.
Later that evening Kari cooked dinner and I opened a bottle of wine. We laughed about old times and talked about our futures. She suggested that I do something more with my life. She couldn’t understand how I was wasting all my qualities being the other woman. I insisted that I walked dogs for a living.
Kari looked at me with such concern that I couldn’t be defensive. “London, the only dog you walk is Bruno. What happened to you? You were so smart. Now you’re just chilling waiting for a married man to take you shopping. I miss my girl. When we were in school, you seemed so focused.”
“Kari, I’m still focused. Trust me.”
As I dressed to go out I thought about the things Kari was saying. From the outside looking in, I was wasting my life away. I hated being perceived that way, but I wasn’t motivated to get up every day and work a nine-to-five for pennies. Then again, there were days when I’d rather sacrifice the money for normalcy. There were conflicting emotions raging in me as I headed out of the house.
