by B. M. Hardin
I picked up the glass from the shattered window and call the police to make the report and at least board the window up for the night.
I was sure this would be the last break-in attempt. For their sake, I sure hope so or next time my aim may be just a little bit off.
~***~
"I'm so glad you were here. Maybe you scared them enough to where they won’t try to break in again" Niecy squealed, hugging my neck.
Only a month and some change had passed since I moved in and what can I say, we had definitely become the best of friends. Whenever she was home we hung out or girl talked for hours. We were even to the point where we borrowed each other’s clothes and did each other’s hair.
I have to say that at first, it took me by surprise. I mean I guess I just didn’t expect us to become so close, so fast. I wasn’t complaining because I truly needed someone that I could somewhat depend on. I had sisters and more than enough family but they were all back home, and I was here all alone.
But nevertheless, we had bonded and for the first time in a long time, I was somewhat happy with my life. I was still waitressing. Things were still, up and down but I always had enough to get by.
The funny thing was that I still had no idea what Niecy did for a living and she never ever bothered to mention it either.
Even when I would hint around the subject she would completely blow the conversation off. Whatever it was though, kept her traveling a lot, sometimes twice a week. I just couldn’t help but wonder what it was. I was just curious.
Does curiosity always kill the cat? Dear Curiosity...please don't kill my cat.
“It was no problem. I wish you had been here to see how fast his ass jumped back out that window. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen."
Okay, I was in the mood to be messy.
“You were right when you said they think you are never home. Why? Just what is it that you do?" I questioned Niecy.
Her smile quickly faded. She didn’t want me to know how uncomfortable she was by my question but by now, I knew her well enough to know that she was dreading having this conversation with me.
But why?
She still hadn't answered the question, so I continued, determined to finally get an answer.
“I mean, it can't be that bad. And so what if it is, it's your life. You are entitled to do as you please with it." I tried to reassure her that I wasn’t her judge and jury, I was her friend. But obviously she wasn’t convinced because she said nothing.
Finally, she walked out of the room and returned with her purse. She reached in it and pulled out four stacks of money; all one hundred dollar bills. I had never seen so much money in one place, at one time, in my entire life. What was she? A drug dealer?
No, she was way too timid for that. A stripper...maybe? No the money was too much for that.
Just what the hell was it that she did...and furthermore where the hell could I sign up?
“Well, if you must know, I'm kind of, uh, an escort, for rich men, very rich men." she said ashamed.
So, what, was she something like a well-paid prostitute?
"When you say escort, what does that mean? Going on dates with them, sleeping with them, what?"
“It means, whatever they want it to mean."
“So you have sex with some of them too?"
"All of them. Sex is a given."
I was floored. She said all like it was hundreds or something and my nosey ass couldn’t help but try to get a head count.
"All?" Damn, how many was all? Niecy was a hoe. I mean, not a hoe-hoe, but she was definitely borderline hoe.
“I have about twenty clients."
Twenty sure as hell wasn’t a hundred but it was still a lot of penis's to be screwing around with and all at the same damn time.
“Well, why do they use you as an escort? Why can't they just find a woman?"
"Most of them are married Kasey, and prefer to keep their wives at home. So they call me to accompany them in public, on 'trips', and of course in the bedroom. And check this out, most of their wives, know, but don't seem to care as long as they keep getting the one thing they want the most... their husband's money. And I can't say that I blame them, their husbands are very, very, wealthy men. What you see here is $40,000, all from my last trip; three days of fun in the sun and blow jobs." Niecy said, putting the money back in her purse.
My mouth was wide open. I didn’t have the slightest clue as to what I was supposed to say.
I almost hated myself for asking the question in the first place. I almost felt like she had just confessed a murder or something to me and that I was now an accessory.
But most of all I was surprised. I would have never guessed that she was a very expensive prostitute...if those are the correct words.
Nor was I too fond of the fact of her sleeping with married men. Marriage was sacred. Well, I'll take that back, it used to be something sacred but in today's society that just wasn’t the case. Still yet, I wouldn’t want anyone else's leftovers. Every woman was equipped with everything that a man, one man, needed and wanted and they sure as hell didn’t have to share someone else's...unless...they wanted to.
But again to each is their own, and I wasn't there to judge her so I put my thoughts and beliefs to the side and tried to encourage her. It’s always so easy to be negative about things that you didn’t understand.
"Well, at least now I know what my friend does for a living. If you like it, I love it." I giggled in attempt to lighten the mood or at least make her feel accepted, better, about what she had just shared.
“I don't like it." she said bluntly.
“Then why do you do it? For the money?"
“At first, yes. But I have over $350,000 in the bank. So now, I'm simply doing it because I'm under contract."
“What? You are under contract to be a pros--, I mean to be an escort?"
“Don’t be so naive Kasey, we are talking about billionaires. They are not simply going around and picking women of the streets to be their escorts. Of course there's someone at the top; a 'top dog' in charge. Luckily, I only have two more months left and I'm free. Almost two years of this mess has really taken a toll on me. Mentally, sexually, and emotionally.
I'm so ready for love and a real relationship. It's been a while since I've had that, being that one of the stipulations of the contract is no dating." she said dryly.
I didn’t say a word. I just listened to her with true concern, and interest. The things people do and the sacrifices people make for the love of money. After all this time, money was still the root of all evil.
~***~
Since my conversation with Niecy the other night, I didn’t feel so bad about my situation anymore. It’s so true that when you think
you are going through something, that there's always someone going through worse. I mean financially Niecy was in a better place than I was but other than that I was by far in a better situation, mentally. She was miserable. I still didn’t quite understand how she did it. I wasn’t a fan of feeling used no matter what the reason was.
It saddened me to see her giving herself to various men for financial gain but yet she was losing everything that would actually matter in the long run.
I had a cousin, Michelle, back home who had the same mindset. At such a young age she learned to use what she had to her advantage. She understood the power of the coochie and she wasn’t afraid to use it. She gave herself to all kinds of men for different reasons whether it was for money, cars, clothes, hell even food. She failed to see the problem with the whole situation but her mind was made up, and greed had long since taken over her heart.
She kept right on giving until someone finally gave her the biggest gift of all. She was diagnosed with AIDS at only twenty three
years old and the sad thing was that she didn’t know who or where she had gotten it from. Or who she had given it to. By the time she found out that she had it, she had given it to so many other men that when they found out they be
at her to death.
Literally. They left her beaten, naked and dead right in the middle of the street.
I was saddened by my thoughts and even more so by my reality. I had to convince Niecy to get out of the lifestyle. Some way, somehow.
~***~
"You can't fire me, you know why, because I quit!"
I screamed at the bald headed, short man that stood in front of me. I couldn’t believe the ultimatum that he had just presented me with. For some reason, the last few days I had been over sleeping and I had been late for work for the third time in a week.
I tried to explain to him that I had just started an online class for
my Master’s degree, and that the only time I had to study after working twelve hour shifts for him, was late at night.
He pretended to sympathize at first, but then this morning he asked me just what was I willing to do to keep my job. I pretended as if I didn’t understand and he flat out asks me to get on my knees, and well, you know the rest.
Who the hell did he think he was? How dare he ask me something like that? I called him each and every thing that was not like God that I could think of. He let me curse and fuss for a while. Guessing that he grew restless of the whole conversation he flat out says that if I didn’t plan on doing what he asked me to do, I was fired...again. He must have forgotten who he was talking to? Didn’t he know by now that I was used to being jobless?
I took off my apron, spit in his face, pulled my gun out of my purse daring him to put his hands on me, and then I walked out of there with my head still held high.
Yes, I was jobless, again, but I still had my dignity. I wondered if I could sue his ass for sexual harassment but I just didn’t have the time or the energy to waste on garbage.
On the drive home I thought about the long dreadful process of finding a job. This whole job thing was really becoming a pain in my ass. I mean, yes, I had managed to save up a couple hundreds of dollars but eventually that would run out.
I just couldn’t understand why my life was always so up and down. Why was stability so hard to come by these days? That's all this sista’ wanted and needed.
Pulling up, I immediately spotted Niecy's black Lexus in the parking lot. I wasn't expecting her to be home from one of her little trips until tomorrow night. I was actually looking forward to being home alone to do a little crying and praying but I guess now I could do that with her. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the “I lost my job” conversation with my roommate--my friend.
~ *************~
~*Be careful for what you ask for because you just may get it but the catch is that you are not guaranteed to get it in the way you had hoped for. Be careful with your wishes. And specific with your prayers*~
~*Anonymous
*Chapter Four*
God, what was I thinking? This just isn't me.
I was on my way to my first 'trip'. All the way to the airport I thought of how I had ended up in this situation.
It had been about a month since I had lost my job. I searched day and night, but to no avail. I was really trying; it was just so hard to find work. The fast food joints weren’t even hiring. Niecy continued to tell me not to worry about it. Now that we were friends, she didn’t mind helping a friend in need and that I could stay there as long as I needed to. Though she had said the words, everybody's knows that you can only live off of someone for so long before they got tired of it. And besides I was a grown ass woman, I did have just a little pride and dignity about myself.
I just didn’t feel right asking her for things, especially money.
So, even though I was totally against her so called job when she first told me about it, each and every day, each and every stack she brought home, it became more and more appealing.
Finally, one day on our way to dinner, I asked her if she could point me in the direction where I could get into the business. She sat quietly and simply stared at me. It took her awhile to speak.
“Kasey, are you sure? I wouldn’t recommend this lifestyle or this so called job to anybody, especially not you. You’re not made for it. I know times are hard but they will get better."
I heard her, I really did but she wasn’t the one begging for everything from food, to personal things like tampons. I couldn’t even afford to buy my own damn tampons. She couldn’t imagine how embarrassing that was.
“I understand Niecy, but remember you said you have ninety days at the beginning of the contract to pull out right?"
“Right, but within three months Kasey they will set you up with some of the richest men you could ever imagine, and you will be paid so well that those ninety days will roll right by you so fast and you will be stuck in the game for however many years just like me. There's a whole other world out there when you have money. They will take you places; show you things that you never knew existed. Things you never imagined. And just because the ninety days are there, the 'top dog' is definitely going to have words and issues if you try to use them. Look, I'm getting out soon and I sure as hell don’t want you to get in."
Looking at Niecy's face, I could truly see her concern for me. She was so sincere. I could see that she looked at me as more than a friend. She loved me, and I loved her but fast money was on my mind. I knew I would probably regret this decision somewhere down the line, but I was tired of begging. She just didn’t understand.
“I promise, Niecy. Ninety days and I'm out."
“Kasey in ninety days there's no telling how many men and or women you will sleep with and---"
" Women? You never said anything about women."
“Yes, there are some women that are in the mix as well. In the beginning, I had to service a few but as I became established I built a client list, which means I am the only woman that they will pay for and luckily they are all men. Wait, you've never been with a woman?"
“No, never." I shook my head. Being with a woman had never, and I mean never even crossed my mind.
“See, as I said, you are not made for this Kasey."
Maybe she was right. But what else was I supposed to do?
I just needed to make some fast money that was going to last me a little while and though using my body and my booty to get money wasn’t the normal for me, it's the only choice I had left.
After a few days of begging and after my girl on girl experience with Niecy,
I finally convinced her to take me to see the top dog.
Pulling up at his house, I could see that he was also paid very well. His house was like no other and he had at least five or six cars in the drive way. I just had to have just a piece of this life, and then I would be satisfied.
After all was said and done and after he had "sampled" me himself, he presented me with a two year contract, with the same option to pull out after the ninety days.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but really, could this contract be valid? I mean what was he going to do sue me for not wanting to sell my body anymore? After all, weren’t we doing something that was considered illegal? I was almost positive that selling women to men for a profit was against the law but again in some states prostitution was allowed.
The word prostitution just made me feel so dirty inside and out. I tried not to think too much about it. It really didn’t matter because I truly planned on stopping after the ninety days were up...at least that's what I continued to tell myself.
Everything in me told me that this, this was a lifestyle I wasn't ready for but I just had to do what I had to do. The only good thing about the whole thing was that I had gotten him to agree not to set me up to escort any married men. I still had some of my morals and I just was not going to mess with someone else’s husband. I refused. He explained that the wealthiest of the clients were married but he agreed as long as I didn’t mine missing out financially. I didn’t, not in that area anyway.
That night at home Niecy continued to try to talk me out of it. Obviously it was more to the life than she had mentioned but I at least now I could see
for myself. I made promises to her and myself that I truly planned on keeping.
No matter what.
So here I was pulling up at the airport on my way to meet my first client. The paperwork said he was paying $75,000 for an escort and of that I would get $25,000. My mind was definitely on the money. That was more than enough money to get me by and this was only my first time.
Maybe it was going to be harder to walk away than I thought.
~***~
I had been with Marcus now for three whole days and had two more to go. If I have to say so myself, I was having a blast. I, on so many different occasions had forgotten that I was actually so-called working. It was so easy to forget. I was having the best time of my life and all I had to do was be pretty and display a few smiles here and there. How easy was that? And, surprisingly, he hadn’t asked for sex yet. We simply attended all three of the banquets, with me by his side, and once we were back behind closed doors, all he wanted to do was talk and hang out. He explained that this was his first time as well and didn’t really know what was supposed to be done. I reassured him, as it was my duty that I was there for whatever he wanted and needed.
Now, more than ever I understood what Niecy meant. Living a lifestyle of luxury would be more than hard to walk away from.
Marcus had taken me shopping and had allowed me to get anything, everything I wanted. That was something that I had never experienced but it was definitely something I could get used to. The tab came up to be another $22,000 and he didn’t say a word, except to ask me if there was anything else I wanted.
Almost too fast, I was being introduced to a life far beyond the life that I once knew. I was riding in limousines, eating at the finest restaurants, staying at five star hotels. In, my mind, I felt like royalty. Lord, how was I going to be able to walk away from this? Who in their right mind would want to walk away from this?
This was the life that I had always wanted for myself. Of course it was minus the giving out free pussy passes, but nevertheless, this was the life that I felt I deserved. These people didn’t know what it was like to struggle or to not have to pennies to rub together. If they could live the life, why couldn't I?