The Deal

by Sarah J. Brooks

  Instead, Theo lay on his half of the bed and closed his eyes. I turned and looked at him, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Did he want me to get on top of him? What was he waiting for?

  I turned toward him and pressed my body up against his. My hand starting at his chest and slowly moving down his abs toward his throbbing body. But he stopped me. Theo grabbed my hand and wrapped it around me while he flipped me onto my side and cuddled up behind me.

  He pressed his body up behind me and held onto me as he kissed my neck. He was still throbbing hard with excitement, and I knew he wanted me. But from what it looked like, he wanted us to go to sleep.

  “Good night sweet blue-eyed girl,” Theo whispered.

  “Goodnight,” I said with trepidation.

  Was that it? Were we really going to sleep? I had spent many nights with men naked next to me as they tried to have their way with me. I had made up so many stories about why I was sick and couldn’t take things any farther. But I had never been naked in bed with a man and had him so eager to just go to sleep. It baffled me, and I spent the next thirty minutes contemplating the situation before I finally let my body give in to the total exhaustion that I felt. I was used to being tired all the time, it was nothing new, but I certainly wasn’t used to falling asleep and feeling so damn comfortable in the bed of a man.

  ***

  I had woken up in strange men’s beds before, that was nothing unusual. The unusual part of my morning was that I didn’t feel like I was in a strange man’s bed. As I started to wake up, I felt like I was at home. The smells, Theo’s touch, everything felt so familiar to me, it was hard for me to determine where I was at first.

  I opened my eyes and then closed them again as I made myself more comfortable on the bed. It took almost a full minute before I opened my eyes again and looked around the room. Theo was asleep next to me, and the room was softly lit by the sun that had started to rise. For the last several years, I hadn’t had the joy of feeling comfortable very often. Normally, I was on high alert and worried about what I needed to do next. That morning was something totally new and different for me.

  He looked so peaceful as he slept; plus, Theo was even more handsome; if that was even possible. I slid out of his bed, went to his dresser and pulled a T-shirt and pair of his boxer briefs from the drawers. Then I made my way to his kitchen to see if I could whip up something for breakfast. I was a horrible cook, but the least I could do was try and make the man some eggs.

  Men were always waking me up to breakfast cooking in their attempt to get me to finally sleep with them. The least I could do was give it a try myself. At least, give the breakfast making part a try.

  His apartment was insanely large, and I hadn’t seen anything like it in New York City. It was at least 3,000 square feet, and I couldn’t even guess at how much money it must have cost him. Millions, it must have cost millions of dollars. For the first time that I could remember, though, I didn’t really care how much money Theo had. I genuinely enjoyed being around him, and if I had woken up to a small one bedroom flat, that would have been just fine with me.

  His fridge was a very large side by side model, which I had never seen in person before. Sure, I had seen them on television shows and in movies, but I had never stood right in front of one and opened it before.

  I held onto the door as I stood in the large opening and looked at all the food he had in there. My stomach growled in anticipation, and I couldn’t help grabbing a strawberry and starting to eat it right away. A single man didn’t typically have so much food and certainly not so much fresh food. I was impressed.

  I grabbed the necessities to make an omelet and found my way to the stove to start cooking. My specialty growing up had been making eggs for my sisters and I. It always brought me back to my childhood when I had the chance to get in front of a stove and make eggs.

  “I’ll take a veggie omelet,” I heard a woman’s voice say.

  As I turned around, I saw a severely beaten woman sitting in the recliner in the living area. My heart sank as I looked at her face, but I quickly tried to hide my horror the best I could. When Isabella and I stayed at the women’s shelter, we often saw women who had been beaten up; it always put us on alert and made us especially careful of the men we chose to spend time with. But we knew that the world was a dangerous place, and it was entirely possible that one of us could have a really bad night sometime.

  “Are you Kimberly?” I asked. “Theo said you were here.”

  She smiled and seemed surprisingly fine with me being there as well. It made me feel like his story was legitimate, at least. The idea of having another woman in Theo’s house hadn’t been a good one when we were in the car, but I had totally forgotten about her until I turned around at that moment.

  “Ah, yes. The lowly girl that got the shit kicked out of her. That is me,” Kimberly said.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s alright. I’ve never had much of a problem before. He was just a jerk. There are jerks everywhere.”

  I decided not to comment on the fact that she mentioned she was going out with men that beat her. I assumed Theo had no idea that was really what had happened to the poor girl. But it was nice that he was making an effort to help her, at least.

  “Veggie omelet, coming up,” I said turning around.

  “Are you dating Mr. Stern?” Kimberly asked as I cooked.

  Mr. Stern, I had to laugh a little at her calling him by his last name. He didn’t seem like a Mister to me at all, and I couldn’t imagine that there were people out in the world who looked at him as their boss. To me, he had just been a really sweet guy who I met at the club. But it was obvious that he had money, and I knew he could only get that kind of money by being the boss of something.

  “Not really dating,” I laughed and I turned around and shrugged.

  “Oh, I get it. He is a handsome guy. Way to go on getting an invite here. I heard he never invites girls home with him.”

  “He invited you,” I said with a smile to put her at ease.

  “Well, he’s just got a soft heart and didn’t want me to stay at a shelter.”

  “Oh, he’s got a soft heart?” I said as I brought her the omelet and sat down next to her. “Tell me more.”

  “He’s a great businessman. Really knows how to make money and treat his employees well.”

  “Yes, it appears that he does.”

  “He’s tough, though. If you mess up, he’s going to call you on it, and then you won’t get work for awhile until you can prove you won’t fuck up again.”

  It seemed a bit tough to prevent people from working if they made a mistake, but I wasn’t a business owner, and I certainly didn’t know the first thing about running one. I had to assume it was pretty damn difficult to run a successful business in New York City.

  “How long have you known Theo?” I asked.

  “Oh, Mr. Stern picked me up at a club about a year ago or so. It was the best decision I ever made to come work for him.”

  Her words cut through me, and I suddenly felt really cheap. He had picked her up in a club too? Ugh, I didn’t like the sound of that at all. I tried to put my own insecurities to the side, though. I supposed that if you needed waitresses for your restaurant, finding cute girls at a dance club was probably a good way to go.

  “Oh,” I said quietly.

  The look on my face must have surprised Kimberly because she instantly tried to comfort me.

  “I was looking for a job. He didn’t pick me up as a girlfriend or anything? You aren’t going to work for him?” she asked me.

  I laughed.

  “No, I don’t want a job. Just a good man,” I said.

  “Well, that’s good because I want a good woman,” Theo said as he came into the room from the hallway.

  My heart skipped, at least, a thousand beats when he walked into the room. He glanced at Kimberly, and I thought I saw him put his finger to his mouth in a mo
tion telling her to be quiet. But I didn’t know what that was about. She wasn't rude at all. She was very nice.

  “Good morning. Kimberly and I were just discussing how nice a boss Mr. Stern is,” I teased him.

  It was awkward, though, because Kimberly was near, although she did her best to look away and pretend like she couldn’t hear us. Theo wasn’t concerned at all if Kimberly was there and saw us so that further perpetuated the idea that he had been telling the truth about his story of her working for him.

  “I am a really nice boss,” Theo said as he kissed me.

  The moment continued to feel awkward as I pulled away and looked over his shoulder at Kimberly. I could honestly say that I had never woken up in a man’s apartment and found another woman sitting in his living room. And certainly not another woman who had such horrible injuries to her face. It didn’t feel appropriate to be making out in front of her.

  “Let’s eat. I’ll make you an omelet,” I said, trying to get through the awkward moment.

  Theo just smiled and went to sit next to Kimberly. I cooked and watched as the two of them discussed something quietly. He glanced back toward me and smiled and so did Kimberly, but I could tell they were hiding something. I didn’t exactly know what it was, but the way they were leaned in toward each other gave me a bad feeling.

  He didn’t spend much time over there before he came back to me, wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck. I kept cooking as I tried to make sense of the whole situation. Maybe she was really his wife or something? Maybe he had done that to her, and her punishment was that he brought another woman home? My mind swirled with insane possibilities. It was entirely possible that I had read too many mystery books and watched too many crime television shows over the years.

  That was one thing I was really good at, insane possibilities. My mind worked so well to develop reasons and answers for things. Sometimes, I thought it was why I wanted to be an actress so badly. The idea of being able to make up a story for a character in my head and then act it out was fun to me. It didn’t seem daunting or like work at all. Someday, I hoped to be able to act for a living, but for the time being, I’d just have to stick to waitressing and dancing.

  “I have to meet a colleague quickly this morning, but then I’d like to spend the day with you. Do you have any plans for the day?” Theo asked as we sat down to eat our omelets.

  “I’m supposed to dance later tonight, but I can get out of that.”

  One of the benefits of always asking for additional shifts at Glance was that I could ask for a day off without retribution. Amelia was a good manager and paid attention to the people who showed up all the time and the ones who called in a lot. I knew she wouldn’t have a problem filling my shift for me.

  “Then why don’t you call your work when we are done, and I’ll get things arranged for the day.”

  Theo smiled like he was super excited to spend the day with me. It was so confusing to me. Only a few feet away was a woman who had been beaten and appeared to be ignoring our conversation. We were in a multimillion dollar penthouse near Time Square, and I was sitting across from one of the best-looking guys I had ever spent the night with. Although, we literally just slept together and nothing else. He hadn’t even made it past second base. The whole situation was somewhat comical to me.

  “I need to grab some clothes from my place if we are going out. Can I just meet up with you later?” I asked.

  “I’ll take you over there when we are done. No worries.”

  I cringed at the thought of Theo seeing that ‘my place’ was really Centerville Storage on the upper west side of Manhattan. Surely that would kick me out of the running of being anything to Theo other than some poor girl he met at the club one night. I couldn’t let him see where I kept my things or know that I really didn’t have a place of my own.

  “It’s alright. Where should I meet you? I’ll just run over there right now,” I said, scrambling toward his bedroom to grab my things.

  Just keep moving. He’ll let you leave if you just keep moving.

  I tried to keep moving and get myself dressed so I could go to my place alone, but there was one big issue. Shoes. I still didn’t have any shoes and certainly couldn’t take the subway all the way back to my storage area just to grab some shoes. I was stalled at that point and looked up at Theo as he stood in the doorway of his room.

  “Now will you let me take you?” he said, looking down at my feet.

  “Yes, but you can’t come up. My roommate is a slob, and I don’t want you to see the horror that is our apartment.”

  “Deal. And you can slip on my tennis shoes for now. Just until you get to your place.”

  He handed me a pair of his size 12 shoes, and I slid them on without untying them. I looked like I was wearing clown shoes. But at least, I wouldn’t have to walk barefoot through the city.

  It was killing me that I hadn’t figured out what Theo’s fatal flaw was yet. He was smart, funny, handsome and rich; there had to be something wrong with this guy. As I stood there in his size 12 shoes and his beautiful apartment, I couldn’t figure out what his big secret was, but every perfect guy had a reason that he really wasn’t all that perfect after all.

  We said our goodbyes to Kimberly just as a nurse arrived to help care for her. I felt flutters in my stomach as I walked with Theo to the elevator and down to the front of the building where his driver was waiting for us. It was bizarre that I still felt so damn nervous around this man. Everything about him felt perfect, yet made me nervous; all at the same time.

  As his driver headed toward my storage building, I panicked as I thought about how on earth I was going to explain where I needed them to stop. I couldn’t remember if there were any apartment buildings nearby and had absolutely no idea how I was going to get to my storage building from wherever he dropped me off without him noticing me walking down the street. I felt my little secret about to come out. Once he knew that I was really homeless, it wasn’t likely he was going to want to hang around me much.

  “Mario, while Abby is in her apartment, can we grab some coffee? I didn’t have time before we left,” Theo said. “Do you want something?”

  “I’d love a hot chocolate,” I said with relief.

  “Does that sound good Mario?”

  “Of course, sir.”

  That was my saving grace. I would just have them drop me off in front of the apartment building next door, and then I would wait for them to leave and sneak into my storage building. It was perfect.

  Chapter 8

  THEO

  She was cute, the way she thought I didn’t have any idea where she was really going. As Abby got out of the SUV, I saw her walk into the apartment building next to the storage units. I had been there before; many girls I knew kept their things in there. Sometimes it was just because they didn’t want their roommates stealing them, and sometimes it was because they didn’t have a place to stay at all. I wasn’t exactly sure what Abby’s situation was, but I was positive that she would eventually tell me.

  For the time being, I knew it would be easier for her if I just left to get some coffee. She had seemed so nervous about me bringing her to her apartment. It was a sign I had seen many times before.

  Most of the girls I found to work for me were genuinely good girls, they had just come on such hard times that being an escort seemed like a really good way to get back on their feet. I didn’t fault them for it; I loved the women who worked for me and only wanted to do what I could to help them.

  Being an escort was very lucrative for my girls, and it was true, they could get back on their feet very quickly. Within a month of starting with my VIP Escorts, most girls had their own apartments without even needing to have a roommate. Although, sometimes they liked to have roommates while they saved their money up for something special that they had wanted for a long time.

  “Mario, watch in the mirror to see if she leaves the apartment,” I said to him as we stopp
ed at a light two blocks away.

  “Yep, she’s going to the storage building next door.”

  I just smiled. There was no need to call her out on it, but I did want to know if she had a place to stay at all. If she didn’t have a safe place to live, I needed to do something about that. Whether she came to work for me or not, I hated the idea of any woman being on the streets and not having a safe roof over her head; especially in the winter.

  “Can you get me the usual and grab a large hot chocolate for Abby please,” I said as we pulled in front of the coffee shop.

  Mario had turned into my assistant on some days and my driver on others. Sometimes, he was both. I made sure to pay him well, especially because he often got put in precarious positions; like the one the previous night with Kimberly. It was hard to find good help, and I knew a good man when I saw one. So I was happy to pay him well and keep Mario happy so he would continue to work for me.

  We took our time driving around the block to make sure Abby had time to sneak back over to the apartment and pretend that was where she was coming out of. When we pulled up, she quickly came back out to the car.

  She was dressed in a pair of tight black slacks and a blue T-shirt that matched her eyes almost perfectly. She had on a pair of black converse shoes and literally won my heart over in that moment. Her style was business casual with a splash of hipster; I loved that. It was what my own personal style was, but I hadn’t run across many women who could pull it off.

  “Chuck Taylor’s?” I asked as I pointed to her shoes.

  “A girl has to be comfortable,” she said, flashing me that killer smile.

  I hated that I had to bring her with me to talk with Aldo, but it should be a quick conversation, and then I had a surprise for Abby. I still hadn’t decided if I was going to keep her for myself or not. Although I was leaning for giving it a go. So I was going to move forward with exposing her to the rich lifestyle that I led. Just in case, I wanted to move her into working for me. I had a huge surprise for her after our meeting with Aldo.