by Hadley Knox
“What do you mean by ‘soiled bed’? It’s not like we shit on it or anything. We just had sex.”
“I think it’s hot,” Pearl said. “I really need to get laid.”
“Book yourself an appointment,” Betsy said. “I know if I did your job, I’d be booking myself all kinds of appointments.”
“I can’t do that,” Pearl said.
“That’s why I asked Pearl and not you,” I smiled at Betsy.
“You could book yourself an appointment with Mike,” Betsy said to Pearl.
“Shut up,” Pearl snapped.
“Why don’t you tell him how you feel?” Betsy asked.
“That’s too complicated,” Pearl said. “He’s got the job with the Madam and he’s making good money. I’m like Lana in that I can’t be with a man who is also a gigolo.”
“I don’t see what you two are fussing about,” Betsy said.
“It’s different when you’re talking about a relationship,” I told her. “You’re talking about hiring one of the guys, and Pearl wants to have an actual relationship with Mike. Not just sex.”
“True,” Betsy conceded. She turned back to Pearl. “But I will tell you the exact same thing that I told Lana. He might leave the business for you, but then he might not. You will never know unless you just come right out and ask him.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Then you’ll never know,” Betsy said.
I could see the look on Pearl’s face and knew it all too well. I had known her for years now, and the vast majority of the time, she had a lively spirit and an upbeat personality. But sometimes, life had a way of hitting her on the side of the face, slapping her cheer with an unhealthy dose of reality. Pearl had never had a long-term relationship, and even the short-term ones had been few and far between. She blamed it on her heaviness and her over-the-top personality.
But no matter why, if I didn’t change the subject, she would sink down into a depression like she had done a few times over the years. Those spells of sadness were always short lived, but I hated to see one of my friends in any sort of pain.
I had to change the subject. “So did anyone see that slutty dress that Erica was wearing?”
“Oh my god,” Betsy laughed. “I thought her tits were about to pop right out of it.”
She and I started laughing, but neither of us took our eyes off Pearl. It took my other friend a minute to enjoy the comment, but finally her mouth widened into a smile, and just a few more seconds, she was laughing with us.
Chapter Twelve
I got back to the house and immediately Pearl and I planted ourselves on the couch. We spent a few moments trying to fight off the impending food coma and the relaxation that came with a few cocktails.
We finally mustered the strength to get up and get to work. The voice mailbox and the e-mail box had filled up with messages, so I decided to help Pearl get caught up.
She put on her headset and started returning the voice messages that were left while we were at the funeral, and I began responding to the e-mails that we had received. We did our best to put their appointments out until late the next week, but a few customers were willing to pay for three and four-hour blocks, so we made exceptions on those cases. That was too much money to pass up.
The office door opened, and Derrick walked in. He no longer wore the suit from earlier that day, and instead wore his typical swim shorts and a light blue tank top that showed off his perfectly sculpted, smooth skinned arms.
“Hey, ladies,” he said.
“Hey, Derrick,” I said. “Have a seat.”
I finished the message that I was working on and then hit reply. When I was finished, I turned in my chair to face him.
“Thanks for bringing the money,” I said.
“No problem. I’ve been meaning to stop by, but then when all this murder stuff went down, it just slipped my mind.”
He reached into the pocket of his swim shorts and pulled out a wad of cash. I took it from him and counted it. Writing the amount on the bookkeeping sheet, I stuck the money in a lock box in the desk drawer. I hadn’t been to the bank since the week before, and if the thick pile of cash that was sitting in the box was any indication, I needed to get there soon.
“So how have you been holding up?” he asked.
“I’m good,” I said. “It’s just a hard to wrap my head around it. I’ve never really faced someone close to me dying.”
“Did you consider Hugh close?” he asked.
“Not really,” I said. “He was an employee, and we had a few conversations. I consider him close only in proximity, but not in any sort of emotional way.”
“It’s strange though,” Derrick said, but his voice trailed off.
“The murder?”
“Yeah. It’s just weird that one of us was murdered. I mean, he was only one of us for a few days, but he was still one of us.”
“Are you afraid?”
“Why? Because he was a gigolo and was murdered, and I’m a gigolo? No, not really. I don’t think he was murdered for this job.”
“What do you think he was murdered for?”
“Who can say? I think it was probably because of his other job.”
“Who do you think did it?”
Derrick opened his mouth to answer, but then stopped. His eyes narrowed at me, and I knew the first name that he was going to say.
“You think it was Adam?”
“I didn’t – ”
“It’s okay, Derrick. You can be honest with me.”
“Based on everything that happened, he would be one of two of my top suspects. I’m sorry, Lana.”
“Don’t apologize. I’ve already heard that. Who else do you think is a suspect?”
“His boss. That Lucas guy. He looks like he’s up to something.”
“Yeah, I agree. He looks a little shady.”
Derrick studied me for a minute. “So is Adam really coming over later?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Do you want me to stick around and hang out?”
“I’ll be okay.”
“Are you sure? In light of all this, it might be a good idea for someone to be here.”
“Don’t worry, Derrick. I’ll be okay. I know that Adam looks suspicious in all of this, but I don’t think he did it. And even if he did, I don’t think that he would hurt me.”
“But the kids,” he said.
“Really, we’ll be fine.”
“Okay, just making sure.”
The sound of Pearl’s voice on the phone stopped our conversation.
“I’m sorry, sir, but our business is not set up for male clients,” she was saying to the person on the other line.
I looked back at Derrick and smiled. That was not the first time that a man had called the service requesting one of the escorts. From what Greg had said, there was good money in that, but none of my guys were open to male clients.
“Sir,” Pearl said. “It doesn’t matter how much money you offer, we are not set up for male clients.”
Derrick waved his hand vigorously in her direction. Pearl looked at him confused for a moment, and then put her hand over the mouthpiece.
“What?” she asked.
“Tell him that we’ll do it for four hundred per hour,” Derrick said.
“We can’t,” Pearl hissed quietly. “We don’t have anyone who would cover this.”
“I will,” Derrick said.
Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor and her eyes looked like they might pop out of her head. “What?”
“Seriously. Just tell him.”
Pearl leered at him for a moment, but didn’t make a move or say anything to the guy on the end of the line for a several awkward moments.
Finally, she took her hand off the headset. “Okay, we just had a new policy implemented. We can book you at four hundred per hour. When would you like to schedule the session? Okay, we can do that. I have you down for three hours next Monday evening. I’ve got the address as well. Tha
nk you, sir.”
She pressed a button on the phone to disconnect the call. Then she ripped the headset off her head and swung around in her chair.
“I hope you aren’t playing with me, kid,” she said.
“No, I’m not kidding. I’ll do it.”
“That’s twelve hundred dollars you are going to get next week.”
“Derrick, I didn’t know you were open to that,” I said. In fact, I wasn’t sure if any of the guys were open or not, because frankly, I hadn’t even asked them.
“It’s not something I like to just bring up when I first meet people,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“That I’m bisexual.”
“You are?” I tried my best not to sound surprised. When he agreed to the call, I assumed that he was only doing it for the money.
“Yeah, I realized it my senior year in high school,” he said very matter of factly. “It’s no big deal. I normally just date women, but I’ve had some experiences.”
“Wow,” Pearl said. “So do you want me to start scheduling you with the guys that call?”
“Can we charge four hundred an hour?” he asked.
“I don’t see why not,” I said. “Greg told me once that there’s more money in this business with male clients. I just assumed that none of you would be willing to do that.”
“Honestly, I’m okay with it from time to time, especially if the money is that good. I prefer the female clients, but really, it’s whatever.”
“Okay,” I shrugged. “Then we’ll keep that in mind. That will definitely help you make some money.”
“I guess I should go back to the male clients I already have and up my rates,” he said.
“You already have male clients?”
“Yeah, I didn’t think it was worth bringing up. It’s not always women that stay home during the day.”
“Oh,” I said. I didn’t want to ask any more questions about the topic. My rule was that the less I knew of their clients, the better.
“Well, I probably better get going.”
“Thanks for stopping by and dropping off the money,” I said.
“No problem, Lana,” he replied.
I led him back into the living room. As always, he had parked out back and came in through the back gate.
“I’m serious, Lana. If you need anything, just call me. I can be over here in minutes.”
“We’ll be fine,” I said. “But I promise if I need you, I will call.”
“Good,” he said. Then, he was gone.
Chapter Thirteen
Later that evening, the kids and I sat down for dinner. Like most days, Pearl stuck around and ate with us, and it was nice to have her company. I knew that Jake could tell something was off about me, and for the past few days, he had suspected something. The fact that Adam hadn’t been over was a significant clue.
I hated that I had to be deceptive with my children. Lying was not something I had ever been good at or comfortable with. But the last thing I wanted to do was expose either Jake or Mallory to this world that I had gotten myself sucked into.
Just as I was putting the dishes in the dishwasher, the doorbell rang. I didn’t have time to go and answer it before Jake was running through the kitchen for the front door. Pearl gave me a strange look when we heard Adam’s voice greeting my son in the front room.
“Am I making a mistake?” I whispered to her.
“I don’t know,” she said quietly. “Like you said earlier, you don’t even know if he’s the one who did it. But even if he did, he would never hurt you or the kids.”
“That’s all I need to know,” I nodded.
Jake led Adam into the kitchen. When I saw him standing there in the opening to the dining room, my heart started beating faster. I was flooded with two completely different emotions all at once. On one hand, I wanted to walk over, start punching him in the face, and then scratch his eyes out. But the other part of me, the larger part, wanted to go over there and rip his clothes off. Either way, the simultaneous urges were strong and ferocious.
I finished putting the last of the plates into the washer, closed it, and started the cycle. I walked over to Adam and kissed him lightly on the lips. It surprised me how warm they felt. I guess I expected the coldness between us to translate to our physical interaction.
We all sat in the living room and caught up. Except our catching up was in front of the kids, so we had to maintain a significant level of deception. Luckily, I didn’t have to tell Adam that, and he maintained our little ruse.
The reasoning he gave Jake and Mallory for not coming over the last few days was that he had been busy with work. He didn’t go into much detail as to avoid unnecessary lies, but my kids took everything he said as if it were the absolute, unquestionable truth.
That thought made me more than a little sad. Their naivety was something that despite their father leaving, they had clung to. It was both sweet and guilt inducing for me.
After a half hour, Pearl excused herself and left. I was glad that my friend chose to stay, but why I felt that way was beyond me. Maybe it was the comfort of having her there, but it might also be the simple knowledge that she cared about me enough to do that. I mouthed a thank you at her before shutting the front door.
The four of us who remained, talked for a little while before I sent the kids to bed. It was a school night, and I didn’t like them staying up too terribly late.
When it was just Adam and me, I could feel the awkwardness return. I stared at him without speaking for at least a minute or two. He didn’t talk either.
Finally, he broke the silence. “You want to go outside?”
I knew what that meant. Since getting involved in this whole escort business, I had spent much time on the back patio. That was one of the only places to go around here to ensure that the children couldn’t hear.
I stopped at the refrigerator, grabbed two beers for us, and then carried them with me. He sat down in one of the cushioned chairs and I sat on the edge of the chaise lounge chair. After handing him a beer, I opened mine and took a long drink.
We still didn’t say anything for a minute. It was like we kept waiting on the other to say the first word.
I had enough waiting. I had waited days already.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I’m sorry, Lana.”
“Don’t start apologizing. I hate it when people think the word ‘sorry’ magically makes everything better. So cut this bullshit and just tell me what is wrong with you.”
“It’s been tough with Hugh dying. I’m suffering from a lot of emotions that I don’t know how to deal with.”
“Like what?”
“Hugh was my friend,” he said.
“Okay, so grieve.”
“That’s what I’m doing.”
“It’s more than that, Adam.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why are you treating me this way? Usually, couples grieve together. One of them just doesn’t run away from the other. If you needed to grieve, you could have done that with me.”
“I know. It’s just how I react. I needed some space and time alone to grieve.”
“Why?”
“That’s just how I am. I’m not used to being with someone during a tough time. I don’t know how to act.”
“So were you concerned at all about me?”
“Of course I was.”
“Then why couldn’t you call or something?”
“I’ve been busy planning the funeral arrangements with Lucas. And to tell you the truth, I haven’t really felt much like talking lately.”
“This isn’t how relationships work. Adam, we are supposed to be there for each other. You can’t just run away whenever you want and not expect me to be worried.”
“I know. I would apologize again, but you said don’t.”
“Yes, definitely don’t apologize or I will rip your head off.”
“I wish that I could have
handled it differently. But Lana, you have to understand that this is just the way that I am. Sometimes I need space from every human being and just want to be alone.”
“I respect that, but you can’t just leave me high and dry like this. It makes me feel like this separation between us is about us and not Hugh’s death.”
“I’m not upset with you.”
“So you don’t hold it against me that Hugh was going to leave the Steel Hammer?”
“He what?”
“Yeah, he was talking about leaving the Steel Hammer and coming to work for me full time.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“How would you have felt about that?” I asked him.
“It would suck, for sure. But if that’s what Hugh would have wanted, then we couldn’t have stopped him.”
“So you wouldn’t have been upset with him?”
“Are you asking me if I could have killed Hugh?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “But I could see where you might resent me and think that I’m trying to take part of your act away.”
“I don’t think that at all. Hugh was his own person and could make choices for himself.”
“What about Lucas?”
“What about him?”
“Would he have been upset about it?”
“Maybe. But I don’t think he would have killed Hugh either. Why are you getting so suspicious all of a sudden?”
I decided to answer him with actions instead of words. I reached into my pocket and retrieved the cell phone that had been mailed to me. I tossed it at Adam.
“What is this?” he asked.
“That’s one of the phones that I assigned all of the guys for appointments with clients.”
“Whose is this?”
“Hugh’s.”
“How did you get it?”
“Someone mailed it to me. I have been stressed over the fact that the police would have found it and traced it back to me. Hell, I might have become a suspect in the murder. But somebody found it and then mailed it to me.”
“Wow,” Adam said quietly.
“And whoever did it was probably the murderer.”
“That’s a big stretch of logic,” Adam said.
“How is that a stretch? Someone found the phone before the police got there and then mailed it to me to protect me. It’s the only explanation.”