by Blythe Reid
Several minutes had passed since Linc had told me to meet him. I think he enjoyed keeping women waiting for him. Or maybe it was only me. Melody said she never had to wait for him. But he didn't have control over her. She came and went as she pleased, and I would never stop envying her for it.
I sat up straight again. My morning report about James Richter was going to be difficult to tell Linc about if I wanted to be honest. If I told Linc that James had come close to breaking his contract a few times, Linc would put him on the blacklist, and I’d definitely never have to go on another date with him. Then, I’d also have to deal with Linc raging and pretending like he was saving me from a horrible fate by blacklisting James, but it was really only because he was pissed that someone would disrespect him by not honoring his contract.
Linc's office door opened. Linc stepped out, his hands crossed over his chest like he was a young boy.
“Come on,” he said. “I don’t have all day.”
I tried to walk as normally as possible to his office with a deep and wonderful ache in my whole body, but he didn’t seem to notice anything different about me. He walked over to his side of the desk, but he didn’t sit down. He arranged some envelopes on his desk, moving them from one side of the desk to the other. He ran his hand over the wood, getting rid of some dust. He crossed his hands over his chest again.
“So, talk. What happened with James Richter? Did he get his revenge on his ex? Was he happy?”
“I think so,” I said, sitting down in the chair where I always sit. “He made a video for his ex to try to convince her we were dating. We spent a couple of hours at The Oval Connection, had some beer, and I left.”
“Great,” he said. "So, he was happy? He did everything according to the contract?"
"Yes," I lied. I'd rather have to deal with James again than have Linc convincing himself he was my savior. "He was happy, and he did everything according to the contract."
"Great," he repeated. He sat down. “You can go.”
I stared at him. He always wanted a complete breakdown of the date. He always told me about the next date I had. I didn’t have any clients lined up. My busiest time of year was two weeks before Christmas until New Year's Eve. I’d usually have a date set up every night, but Linc was acting like it was August when there weren’t any holidays to remind people they were lonely, and the temperature was too blistering hot for anyone to care about anything.
Linc was quick to anger but there was very little for him to be stressed out about in his life. He lived a life of luxury. He had his Maserati and an apartment on a street devoid of crime. I had heard he had another house too. He wasn’t married. He didn’t have kids. In general, he didn’t care about much other than earning money, and if his problems were economic, his anger would have accumulated slowly. And this wasn’t quite anger. It was frustration.
As I left, I knew this had to do with the investigation Chris had been talking about. Linc's empire could be under attack, and nothing would unnerve him as much as the thought of losing his source of money. Everything was tumbling down around Linc, which meant I had to prepare myself for his downfall.
***
When I got home, I turned on my laptop and pulled up my secret email account, [email protected]. There was one new email from Jonathan Riviera.
Hello Sarah,
Thank you for the article on drug rehabilitation and its effects on loved ones. It was as interesting, intimate, and educational as always. We have another article for you that I’m wondering if you could write, concerning the ingredients in energy drinks and the effect on the body. Would you be able to write it?
I hope you've had a great week.
Jon
I chewed on my thumbnail for a couple seconds, arranging the perfect response in my head before I hit reply.
Jon,
I would love to write that article! I’ve never specifically written about energy drinks, but I have written articles about sports drinks. I’ll attach them to this email to see if that’s the kind of material you want. Hopefully, we’ll talk soon.
Thanks for the message.
Best,
Sarah
When I told Chris that I wasn’t majoring in psychology at college, it was technically true. Still, I had been intently interested in learning about addiction because I wanted to understand my mother. I didn’t study it very long in school, but I kept studying it after I left. Melody knew of my interest in it, so when one of her clients mentioned his brother owned a company that regularly released articles concerning physical and mental health including addictions, she got me in touch with him. At first, Jonathan didn’t like me at all, which I suspected was because he knew I was an escort, but after I submitted my first article, he became a lot friendlier. I supposed it was an indication that hard work could lead to job security.
It wasn’t the most glamorous work, but it had been my secret gem of hope. I’d never been certain Linc would set me free from working for him, but if he ever did, I wanted to know I would have something to fall back on. I’d already saved up a fair amount of money he didn’t know about. If he ever found out, I was certain he'd take it from me, claiming I was obligated to give it to him to cover the debt between us. But with the news about this investigation, I knew my time with Linc might be coming to an end after these past four years.
Knowing my time as an escort could be coming to an end soon felt close to how I imagined it would for kids with amazing parents on Christmas day, feelings of endless hope and anticipation. It didn’t even matter that I didn’t know what was coming after this.
But I couldn’t afford to be too hopeful. Linc had many, many faults, but if I could praise him for one thing, it was that he never went down without a fight, and he could fight like hell.
Chapter 13
Christopher
I knocked on Stacia's door. When she opened it, there was a little girl with pale blond hair clinging to her leg.
I showed the little girl the present in my hands.
"This is for you, Amanda," I said. "It's a little heavy, so is there a place we can set it down? Maybe in the living room?"
Amanda, Stacia's daughter, ignored me, running back into the house.
"You know how they say there are terrible twos?" Stacia asked. "It's actually terrible twos, terrible threes, terrible fours, terrible fives, terrible sixes, and terrible sevens."
"You and Maggie are the ones who decided to go through the whole process of adoption," I said.
"Oh, I love Mandy. She's my life," Stacia said. "Sometimes, I just wish there was a switch on her that I could turn off. Come in. We're packing right now."
Stacia's house was incredibly beautiful. Everything was pastel-colored, but it was contrasted with leather furniture and children's toys.
I found Amanda in the living room. She was scribbling in a color book. I had never been the best with kids. I didn’t even understand people who were good with kids. It wasn’t like an adult could have overlapping interests with anyone under the age of ten.
"Amanda," I said. "How are you doing?"
She glanced over at me before bouncing on her feet. For the first time, I noticed she was wearing a cape. I hadn't seen it before because it was partially tucked into her pants, making it look like it was part of her shirt.
She ran away from me, the cape streaming behind her.
"Sorry," Stacia said. "She just discovered Wonder Woman on the cartoon channel."
"Wonder Woman doesn't wear a cape."
"I don't remember you being a fan of comics."
"I'm not. I never was. But no man, or gay woman, would ignore Wonder Woman's outfit."
She smirked. "True. I truly am sorry about her. She's been very moody since she found out we were leaving for Christmas."
"Maybe she's worried Santa won't find her."
Stacia tilted her head. "That could be it."
Maggie stepping into the room, her frizzy blond hair reminding me of a halo. "Where's Amanda
?"
"I think she ran to the kitchen," Stacia said. They exchanged a quick kiss before Maggie left the room again. She hadn't even looked at me.
"Maggie still doesn't seem to like me."
"She likes very few people, which is good for me because that means I don't have to worry about her wandering off to find a new girlfriend. I'm her perfect little diamond in the rough."
"You're certainly something," Maggie said, returning with Amanda in her arms. "I think Mr. Day brought you a Christmas gift, Mandy. Why don't you open it and see what it is?"
"But it's not Christmas," Amanda whined.
"We're going to Minnesota to see Grandpa and Grandma Cruz tonight. You know that. We're going to be gone until January," Maggie said. "So, Mr. Day won't be around to give you a present on Christmas Day. I'm sure he put a lot of thought and effort into it, so let's check it out."
Amanda eyed the box in my hands and jumped onto the balls of her feet again as she realized how big it was. She took it from me, the weight causing her to stumble backward. Maggie caught her before she fell, but Amanda seemed to barely notice. She tore off the ribbon that the gift wrapper at the store had put on it and tore into the wrapping paper.
In a record amount of time, she had the box unwrapped, and she was trying to figure out what the present was.
"That had to be expensive," Maggie said, looking at me for a half-second. "You didn't need to do that, Chris."
"I owed Stacia for some things," I said.
"Of course you did."
I could hear the resentment in her voice. Maggie had never been my greatest fan. To her credit, she was not outright malicious, but I could sense she considered me a possible threat to her relationship. Her reaction used to confuse me since, as far as I knew, Stacia was as gay as anyone could be and, while Stacia was affectionate toward me, I had never crossed any line that would make it appear like I was interested in Stacia. But since I had met Sarah, I could understand her bitterness toward me. There were only two other people in Sarah's life who I knew of, Linc and one of her friends she had briefly mentioned, and I was jealous of both of them. I didn't think she was involved with either of them--I hoped not--but they both knew her in a way I would never know her. They had a part of her that I could never have.
“It’s a robot dog!” Amanda yelled, shaking the box a lot harder than it likely should have been shaken. “Mom! Mom! It’s a robot dog!”
“I see it,” Stacia said. “Why don’t you open it up? I’ll go look for some batteries.”
My view of kids had always been that they’re loud, entitled, dependent vessels of germs, but as I watched Amanda open her present, I couldn’t help but think of the kid that Sarah and I could have. It was way too early to think about that, or at least I hoped it was, considering I couldn’t be certain Sarah was on birth control, but I had never foreseen a future where I was settled down before. All my dreams of the future concerned being rich, traveling, and maybe becoming a late-blooming rock star or an inventor of something world changing. But the future didn’t seem awful if I stayed where I was with the same job and the same income as long as the only difference was having Sarah and this wonderful kid we’d have together. I wanted it all, but only if it was with Sarah. Maybe that was crazy, but it was true.
Time slipped by slowly as Stacia, Maggie, and Amanda figured out how to get the electronic dog walking. I stayed, thinking about Sarah. I thought about her body, her spirit, and the way she refused to talk about being an escort.
The only possible explanation was that she worked for Linc against her will. I had to help her out of this situation.
After an hour, I called for a taxi and said my goodbyes to Maggie and Amanda. Stacia walked me out to the street.
"Did you ask Sarah about Linc?" she asked.
"Yeah. She denied she was being forced to be an escort, but I don't believe her. She's ... she acts different when I bring it up."
"You should trust your gut."
"I didn't know you gave out cliché advice. I thought you were all about being original."
She playfully punched my arm. "All right, buddy, you know what? You want some original advice?"
"Sure. If it comes from you, I'd love some original advice."
Stacia looked back toward the house. I followed her gaze. Through the window, we could see Maggie and Amanda dancing. Stacia looked back at me.
"When you find the right person, you move heaven and earth to keep them. Sometimes, the other person might have doubts, but one of you needs to have faith or else it won't last. Sometimes, it won't even get off the ground."
I force a smirk, trying to ignore the truth in her words. "I never thought I'd hear you talk about faith."
"Well." She smiled. "It is Christmas, and at its basis, Christmas is about faith and family. Christmas would become pretty boring if there weren't kids putting all their faith into the idea that a fat old man will come down the chimney, enjoy their cookies, leave them presents, somehow get back up the chimney, and get carried away by flying reindeer."
"That does require a lot of faith."
"And if a kid can do that, you can have a lot of faith too." She clapped her hand on my shoulder. "Chris, light of my life or, at the very least, the light of our office, Sarah is a beautiful woman who is kind and tolerates you. If you feel strongly about her, you should act on it because if I get back to Chicago and you still haven't done anything, I may have to get her to fall in love with me."
"Maggie would still kill you for that."
"And I'd die happy." She gave me a tight hug. "I'm only trying to give you some motivation, Chris. You know I love you."
"You're not so bad yourself."
"I knew you couldn't say the words." She smiled, taking backward steps toward her house. "Merry Christmas, Chris, and a happy New Year."
"Merry Christmas and a happy New Year," I echoed as the taxi arrived, stopping right in front of us. I gave the taxi driver my address and called Sarah.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hey. I was just thinking about you," she said.
“Yeah?” I cleared my throat. “What were you thinking about me?"
"Mmm. Just, you know, about the nights we've had together. And how I could charge you an endless amount of money for the time we've spent together since your Christmas office party."
"Honestly, if that's what you want."
She laughed. "No, of course not. How are you doing? Have you been thinking about me?"
"Only every once in a while, like every five seconds or so," I said. "I was hoping to see you again sometime, though. When are you free?”
“Well, right now I’m free. Hmm. That’s not a very good term when I’m an escort.”
I laughed. “Right. Maybe we can say payment is some takeout food? Do you like Chinese? Thai? Pizza?”
“Chinese sounds good,” she said. “Thank you. That's very kind of you.”
It was a little heartbreaking to me that she thought me offering to bring her food was a huge act of benevolence.
“What kind of Chinese would you like?”
“General Tso’s chicken is always good, but I’m happy if you have some other preference.”
“No, if you want General Tso's chicken, I have no problem getting that. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
After I hung up, I redirected the taxi driver to a local Chinese restaurant and called ahead, ordering two quarts of General Tso’s chicken. I had to pay the taxi driver to wait for me while I waited five minutes at the Chinese restaurant for the food, but none of this bothered me. It all felt worth the chance to see Sarah again.
After I had a paper bag filled with the takeout, I got back in the taxi and had the driver take me to Sarah’s apartment.
After running up the stairs because the elevator was still broken, I knocked on Sarah’s door.
After several seconds passed, I knocked again. Her apartment
wasn’t that big. The only place I could think she could be where she wouldn’t be able to hear me was if she was in the shower.
As I was about to knock again, the door swung open.
"Hey, I got—" I stopped talking. Sarah stood in front of me, her bare skin visible at every angle except her waist where she had tied a red ribbon.
Needless to say, the takeout got left on the table to go cold.
Chapter 14
Sarah
There was a small bruise near my right wrist from last night, and I could still feel the heat of Chris’s hand gripped around it. I had never had sex that lasted more than a few minutes or had enough passion that it left its mark on me, but it was worth the wait. I felt like a pious woman on the day after her wedding, finally blessed to know what the obsession with sex was about and knowing she would be obsessed for the rest of her life.
I turned onto my side. Chris was snoring lightly. I couldn’t blame him. After having sex twice last night, I should still be sleeping, too, but the sunlight was starting to seep through the shades, and, for once, I woke up feeling like the beginning of a new day mattered. It felt like I could start off with a clean slate, and that was better than any dream I could concoct while I was sleeping.
I ran my hand over his chest, feeling his breathing quicken. He peeked at me with one eye before his hand moved over mine, encasing it like a small treasure.
“Morning,” he mumbled.
“Good morning.”
“It is a very, very good morning.”
“We could make it better.”
“Oh?” he asked. “Maybe I should bring over takeout more often. It seems to perk you right up. It must be the scent of that General Tso’s chicken.”
I moved my hand under the sheets, finding his cock and rubbing my thumb over the head. I felt it stiffen, and I smiled down at him.
“You’re a little trickster, aren’t you?” he said, his voice strained. I swung a leg over him, settling myself over his growing erection. I slowly moved over him, rubbing up against him. He felt so good. He felt like power and surrender at the same time. He grabbed my arms, pulling me toward him and kissing me, his mouth moving so hungrily over mine that I remembered we still hadn’t eaten the takeout food he’d brought. His tongue moved into my mouth, and it made me want him inside me even more.
