Desperate Measures

by Stephen Leather

  I had four customers yesterday. They were all new customers and they all stayed for one hour each. All four of them asked me for my phone number, can you believe that! Two of them were quite nice and I gave them my phone number but I didn’t like the other two so much so I said no, that my agency wouldn’t allow ti.

  Both of them sent me text messages after they had gone, telling me how happy they were to have met me. It was funny because they used almost exactly the same words. One said ‘I had such a great time with you, you made me so happy, Tom’ and the other said ‘It was great meeting you, now I am so happy, Dave’. I sent them both the same message. ‘Thanks, honey. I hope to see you again soon’. Last thing at night I sent messages to ten customers. ‘Good night, baby. I miss you.’ When I woke up, eight of them had sent me messages back.

  Chapter 31

  Wednesday May 6. Sandra phoned me yesterday morning and asked me if I’d go with her to see Bee. I said okay and she came around to my flat and then we went to buy some fruit and chocolates and then we went to Bee’s flat which is in Paddington, close to Edgware Road. Actually it is not far from Nancy’s apartment but it is much nicer. It is a two bedroom flat in a new block and all the furniture was new and it had a big television. I think Bee must be paying a lot in rent.

  Bee’s eye looked really bad. The skin was almost green and she had a plaster over the cut. She was happy so see us but she said that she hated Alice and that if she ever saw her again she would kill her. Sandra asked her when she was going to start working again and Bee said she didn’t know but Oliver had said that she couldn’t work until her eye looked okay. She went into her bedroom and came out with an envelope full of money which she gave to Sandra. Sandra counted it. There was £3,000. Bee said she would give Sandra more money when she was working again.

  Bee kept saying bad things about Alice but I just smiled and nodded because I didn’t want to get involved. I have no problem with Bee but I have no problem with Alice, either. Then Bee said that she might stop working for the agency and that surprised me. I said that I didn’t think that Oliver would be happy if she went to another agency but she said she didn’t mean that, she meant she would start working on her own. Sandra said working on your own was stupid because then you had no one to take care of you but Bee laughed and pointed at her black eye and said that Oliver couldn’t even protect her from one of his own girls. She said it was easy to work for yourself. All you needed was a website, and that only cost a few hundred pounds. On the website you had sexy photographs and your phone number and then customers called you instead of calling an agency. That meant that you got to keep all the money that the customer gave you.

  I could see that Sandra was getting worried. I think she was scared that Bee might run away and she wouldn’t get her money back. Sandra kept saying that it was better to work for an agency but I think that Bee had a point, especially if she had a customer like the American banker who bought her the Rolex watch. If you had three or four customers like him you would hardly have to work to get really big money.

  Anyway, we ate some fruit and Bee made some Chinese tea and then we sang some karaoke songs. I asked her about her family and she said that her mother and father lived near Udon Thani but I don’t think she is telling the truth. I think she is from Laos, but I don’t know why she is lying. Maybe she is ashamed that she comes from Laos.

  I asked her about the American banker and why he gave her so much money. She laughed and said it was because she had made him fall in love with her. I didn’t understand. I thought that maybe she was talking about the GFE but it was more than that. She said that she had gone to an old lady who lived near her village, a sort of medicine woman who could heal people and tell fortunes. Bee said she had paid the old woman five hundred dollars for a magic potion. I thought she meant five hundred baht but no, she really did mean five hundred dollars. The potion was in a small perfume bottle. She showed it to us. It was black glass with a metal stopper. And on it was tiny writing which I think was Khmer. Actually the bottle was quite beautiful. Bee said that if you put a small drop of the perfume on your skin and then let a man smell it within three minutes, then he would fall in love with you. Well, not love exactly, but whenever he thought of you from then on for the rest of his life he would want to have sex with you. It didn’t matter if he was married or if he loved someone else, he would always, always, want to have sex with you. Bee said that whenever she met a rich customer she used the perfume and every time she had used it the man had come back to see her. She showed us her mobile phone. There were lots of messages from America, from the banker, saying that he loved her. And there were more messages from a man in Italy who said that he didn’t love his wife anymore and that he wanted to marry Bee. Bee laughed and said that the potion had never failed her. When I heard that I was sure that she wasn’t from Thailand. Magic like that doesn’t happen in Thailand but I have heard of it happening in Laos and Cambodia.

  On our way home, Sandra said that she thought Bee was stupid and that there would be big problems if she worked on her own. There were robbers who robbed working girls who worked alone and sometimes the immigration people would go to check their visas. It was safer being with an agency, she said. I could see that she was worried but I didn’t know what to say to make her feel better. She said she would tell Oliver that Bee was planning to work on her own. I didn’t think that was fair but I didn’t say anything. Actually, I would be happy if Bee left the agency because then the only girl who will be earning more than me will be Alice.

  Something very funny happened when I got back to my flat. Oliver rang me to say that a customer wanted to book me for two hours and that he wanted me to wear my rubber dress. The red one that shows my breasts. I said okay, even though I didn’t like wearing it. It’s really hard to get on and it feels so uncomfortable. I have to use lots of talcum powder to get it on and it sticks to my skin. Ten minutes later Oliver phoned again to say that the customer also wanted me to wear the thigh-length boots I have. I’m wearing them in some of the photographs on the agency’s website. They’re made of shiny plastic and they have very high heels. I said okay. Then ten minutes later Oliver phoned again asking if I still have the dog collar. In one of the photographs I’m wearing a dog collar with spikes on it. It was Cat’s idea. She said it was sexy. I told Oliver that I didn’t have the dog collar, it belonged to the photographer, and Oliver said okay. Then five minutes later he phoned me back. The customer had cancelled. I didn’t understand it. I had the dress, I had the boots, but because I didn’t have the dog collar he cancelled? Oliver said it was because the customer wanted me to crawl around in the boots and the dress and bark like a dog. I laughed so much. I mean, how crazy can some men be?

  I didn’t worry too much because I had three customers one after the other, one at two o’clock, one at half past three and one at five o’clock. I think I am busy because Nancy and Sandra have their periods again. Then at seven o’clock Oliver rang me to say that Robert had booked me for four hours outcall. Just as I was getting ready to go to Robert’s house I got a text from Simon. He said that he’d tried to book me but the agency said I was busy. I sent him a text back saying I was sorry but that I would be available tomorrow and that I missed him. I always say ‘available’ and I never say ‘I am free’ because then the customer might get the wrong idea. I am never free. I am a working girl and men have to pay to see me. Then I sent Robert a text message. ‘I am coming now, Daddy,’ I said. ‘I will be a good girl for you.’ I wished that I had had some of Bee’s magic potion, then I would have Robert as my customer for ever.

  Chapter 32

  Thursday May 7. Vince came to see me again yesterday. It was so funny. He booked me under the name James like he did last time but I remembered him straight away because of his shaved head and the ‘LOVE’ and ‘HATE’ tattoos on his knuckles. He took out his roll of £50 notes and gave me three and then he asked me for a beer. I gave him a can of Carlsberg and we sat on the sofa. I was
dressed in stockings and suspenders that I had bought from Anne Summers. He kept frowning and looking around the apartment and eventually he asked me if he’d been there before. I laughed and said yes, he’d come to see me but that he’d been really drunk. He laughed. He had a nice laugh. He looked a bit scary but actually he was a nice man. He was a good kisser, too. We kissed on the sofa for about ten minutes and then we went into the bedroom. I was very surprised at the way he made love. He was very soft and gentle and kept kissing my neck and whispering sweet words.

  Afterwards we lay in bed talking. He was quite funny. He sells drugs. He used to sell just cannabis but he said the price had fallen a lot so it was harder to make a good profit so now he sells cocaine and heroin too. He said that if any of my customers wanted drugs I could phone him and he would deliver. He said he was like Domino’s pizza and that if he didn’t deliver within thirty minutes it was free. I didn’t understand and he said that he was joking. Domino’s is a pizza company in London and if they take more than thirty minutes then they give you the pizza free. Vince doesn’t give his drugs for free, though. That was a joke.

  He said Covid had been really good for him. People had to stay in and that meant they were bored and bored people use a lot of drugs. They would call them and he would deliver. He had a Deliveroo jacket and a Deliveroo sign on his bike and no one suspects that he is delivering drugs. And he said the police don’t care because all they care about is people not obeying the Covid rules. If they think that a hairdresser is open they will send a dozen policemen to close it down. But they do nothing about Vince delivering drugs.

  Some of my customers do ask if I have drugs but I always say no. It’s usually Americans who ask me and they want cocaine. Vince said he would sell to me at a good price and then I could charge the Americans what I wanted because they wouldn’t know how much drugs cost in London. He gave me his business card. It said PIZZAMAN and had a mobile phone number. Vince said he was the Pizzaman.

  I actually liked Vince. He was so different from the way he looked. I suppose it is like people say, you cannot judge a book by its cover. We talked about that expression last time I was at school. It means things aren’t always the way they appear. It’s like when I used to walk into a hotel. I would be dressed well and carry an expensive handbag and so everyone assumess that I am a rich tourist. I think a lot of people would look at Vince and think that he was a dangerous thug but in fact he is really nice and quite gentle.

  I told Vince that we were alike in that we both sold people what they wanted but that really we were breaking the law when we did it. He laughed and said that there was a big difference because actually prostitution wasn’t illegal. I said he was wrong because if it was legal then more people would be doing it. Vince said that in fact being a prostitute isn’t against the law in England. It’s okay for a man to pay for sex with a girl, there is nothing illegal about that. What is illegal is if a girl goes around offering sex for money. That is illegal which is why the police don’t want prostitutes walking on the streets. One girl working on her own was okay, but Vince said that if there was more than one girl working in the same flat then it was called a brothel and that was against the law. I said that was why Oliver said that we all had to have our own apartments.

  Vince asked me some questions about Oliver but I said I’d better not talk about him and Vince said that he understood. He said that sometimes the police did arrest the people who ran the agencies because they were pimps. I said that Oliver wasn’t a pimp, he just found customers for us. Vince thought that was funny. He said a pimp was someone who controlled prostitutes and that included the people who ran escort agencies. So the police could arrest Oliver if they wanted, but not me. But Vince said the police didn’t bother prosecuting escort agencies because they were happy that the girls weren’t walking the streets. Vince seems to know a lot about working girls. He seems to know a lot about everything. It was funny because when I was talking to him I didn’t feel like I was talking to a customer. He was more like a friend. And he made me laugh. He asked me if I wanted some cocaine and I said no. I have never taken drugs, ever. Some of my friends in Udon Thani took ecstasy and some smoked Ya Bar, but I have never taken drugs and I don’t think I ever will. In Thailand they kill people for selling drugs.

  Chapter 33

  Saturday May 9. Simon came to see me in the evening. He had booked me for three hours this time, and he brought sushi with him. We ate the sushi and watched a horror movie on Netflix. Because Simon had booked me for three hours we had time to make love which was okay, but Simon is so small that I always worry about the condom slipping off. I don’t take the pill and I am really scared about getting pregnant. Afterwards he asked me if I would be his girlfriend. He isn’t the first customer to ask that. I always say the same thing. I am not doing this job because I want a boyfriend, I am doing this job because I want to make money. A lot of money. Simon said that he wanted to marry me and take care of me. He said he didn’t like me doing this job and that he wanted me to only make love to him. He wanted me to be his wife and to have children with him, which is sweet, but I don’t want a husband or a boyfriend or another child. I want money. I told Simon that I can earn more than £3,000 a week at the agency so if someone wanted to really take care of me they would have to pay me £150,000 a year. He thought I was joking but I wasn’t. If he was serious about wanting to take care of me and could pay me £150,000 then maybe I might stop work. But I don’t think he can afford that.

  He wanted to book me for another hour but Oliver had already told me that I had a customer for eleven o’clock so he had to go. Simon seemed sad when he left, but that’s not my fault. It’s not as if he met me in a pub or in a shop, he met me because he saw me on the agency’s website and booked me so he can’t complain that I am working as an escort.

  The customer who came at eleven was an Arab, I think, but he was very white so I didn’t mind. He was actually quite nice and polite and he showered for a very long time. He didn’t want a bath with me, he just wanted a massage and oral sex. I think he was married. A lot of married men don’t want full sex with a working girl because I think they are scared that they might get sick. Actually we are very careful. I never have sex without a condom. He said he worked in London and that he would come to see me again so I gave him my phone number. He wanted to know if he could call me if he wanted to see me but I told him that he would have to book me through the agency.

  Oliver phoned me again at two o’clock in the morning and asked me if I would work with Nancy. A customer had booked two girls for two-thirty and he had wanted Nancy and Wanda but Wanda’s period had come so she couldn’t work. At first I said I didn’t want to do it but Oliver said that I would be doing him a big favour and he didn’t want to upset a good customer. He saw girls from the agency every week and was a good tipper. I wasn’t sure if I could do it, but Nancy is my friend so I thought that perhaps it wouldn’t be too bad. I put on my stockings and suspenders and high heels and put my Kenzo coat on top and went to Nancy’s apartment. She was wearing a dress made out of mesh which showed off all her body and high heels. She had lots of lipstick and mascara on and looked very sexy. I told her how shy I was about being with her and a customer and she said not to worry, it was like being a movie star. You just had to pretend.

  Chapter 34

  Tuesday May 12. I lost so much money at the Sloane Square flat on Sunday night. Well actually it was Sunday night and most of Monday. We just kept playing and playing. We didn’t stop playing until after mid-day on Monday which means that we played cards for more than twelve hours. At one point I was up £600 and then I was losing and then I was winning £400 but when we finally finished playing I had lost £1,300. Most of the girls lost money but no one lost as much as me. I don’t know why I’m not lucky any more. Oliver won a lot. He’s always lucky.

  A new girl has started working for the agency. Her name is Rachel. At least that is her working name. She is from Surin. She is very pretty wi
th very dark skin and high cheekbones like a lot of girls from Surin. She has a really good body and I think she is the type of girl that farangs like. In Thailand, men prefer girls with white skin and round faces, but farangs seem to like darker skin and long faces. She has a tattoo of a scorpion which is a bit scary. I don’t like tattoos and I would never have one. I think they are ugly. It looks good on Rachel, though. It makes her look exotic. She has only just arrived in London and she paid for her own contract. That means she paid £6,000 in Thailand to get a visa and a ticket and I think it was her agent who fixed up the job with Oliver.

  She is good fun. She is what we Thai people call San-nuk. San-nuk means fun. She likes to drink and dance and before we played cards she danced sexily while we sang karaoke. She is a very sexy dancer. She told us that she used to dance in a go-go bar called Angle Witch in Nana Plaza. Nana Plaza is a bar area in Bangkok where a lot of prostitutes work. I have never been there but I have heard about it. Rachel said there were more than thirty bars in Nana Plaza and more than five thousand girls working there. Can you believe that? Five thousand girls! They aren’t all go-go dancers like she was but she said that almost all of the girls in Nana Plaza will go with customers. She said Angel Witch was one of the busiest bars in Nana Plaza and that the prettiest girls worked there. She said they all dressed in black and they did sexy shows that got the customers really horny. Rachel said that if a customer wanted to take her out of the bar he would pay about £10 and then he would pay the girl about another £30. That means a customer pays just £40 for sex. I am glad I am not a working girl in Thailand, that’s for sure.