by Belle Aurora
Her voice quiet, she reminded me, “You’ve got to go.” I grunted in confusion. She added an amused, “Your appointment. You’ve got to go, right?”
That brought me back down-to-earth with a jarring jolt. I had a client in less than an hour. If I didn’t hurry, I’d be running late. I jumped off the bed and rushed out, “Shit, yeah, I do. Thanks for reminding me.”
“You’re welcome, Quinn. Talk soon?”
The soft lilt of her voice made me want to yell ‘fuck it’ and stay talking to her all damn night, but I couldn’t. I had a job. Responsibilities. Trying not to sound like an over-excited puppy, I stated, “Tomorrow. If you’re free again, call me tomorrow.”
I heard that smile of hers as she said, “Tomorrow’s good.”
“Have a good night, Maya.”
“You too, Quinn.”
I thought twice before adding, “Sweet dreams, babe,” but said it anyway. Before she could say anything in return, I disconnected the call then got ready for my client. But I thought about Maya.
I thought about her the whole damn night.
Chapter Fourteen
Mia
My day passed relatively quickly. I couldn’t believe Ella, Pip, and I managed to organize a charity event from top to bottom in only two days, but that was why we worked for Addison Ltd. We were good.
After my meeting with Nicholas the morning prior, I was called into the office of Addison Dietrich. It surprised me an awful lot that she still carried her ex-husbands last name. But then, that wasn’t my business.
The stunning blonde had been facing out of the window when I knocked. Then she turned and my heart started to race. She didn’t look happy.
“Mia. Sit, please.” She added the please, but I don’t think she meant it.
I didn’t dare speak. This woman was fierce. A mental image of Addison Dietrich in female Viking armor, holding a sword and shouting as she felled a man with a single swipe of her blade crossed my mind, her blonde hair braided at the sides, her current scowl present. The man felled was Nicholas.
I gulped. “Have I done something wrong?”
Oh, God, I sounded weak. And like a bear, she smelled fear on me. I know this, because she grinned, catlike. “I don’t know. Have you?”
My head tilted in thought as the previous day ran through my mind in fast-forward. “No.”
She ran a delicate hand over the front of her little black dress, smoothing it over. “Firstly, I wanted to welcome you to the team.”
It seemed the right time to say “Thank you,” so I did. But I added, “I’m happy to be here.”
Her grin fell from her face and she looked me up and down as if to say, ‘You should be.’ Rather than saying that, she uttered a cool, “I saw you had the misfortune of meeting Mr. Dietrich. I’ll not apologize for his behavior, because I’m not his mother, but you’ll be glad to know he doesn’t normally work from the office so he won’t be seen.”
I was confused and made the mistake of stating, “Mr. Dietrich was a complete gentleman. He seemed very nice.”
Her eyes flashed and her voice turned an eerie quiet. “A gentleman was he?”
I realized I had fucked up, and tried to fix my relationship with my in-office boss. By fix, I mean fuck it up further in a huge way. “What I meant was that Nicholas helped prepare me by giving me a few tips.”
Oh, shit. Had I just called my outer-office boss by his first name?
The air around Addison turned ice-cold to match the frost forming in her eyes.
But I didn’t stop there. Almost wheezing in distress, I added, “Mr. Dietrich was completely professional. At all times. Even when I accused him of following me. Not that he was. He was just a guy on my bus. I didn’t know he was my boss when he smiled at me.”
Well…shit.
Addison’s cheeks had flushed Barbie-pink. “I see,” she stated, and I wanted to yell, ‘No, you don’t!’ but I feared anything I said further would be held against me in the court of Addison. Clearing her throat, she ran a finger down the cool wood of her desk. “I need you to understand something, Mia, because you’re a pretty girl.” Her icy gaze met mine. “If you fuck my husband, I will end you.”
My mouth rounded in shock.
Before I could speak, she went on, “I don’t make threats. I make promises. I’ve been in this industry a long time, and if I find that you and…” she gritted her teeth and hissed out, “Nicholas have been disregarding our office fraternization policy, you will never work in events ever again. Not in this city, anyway.”
My blood ran cold. My face pale, and I sputtered feebly, “I-I-I-I don’t even know him.”
Addison Dietrich smiled. “Good. Then you don’t have anything to worry about.” She extended her arm to the door. “That will be all for now.”
As I numbly stood and walked out of the office, Addison called out, “Oh, and Mia?”
I turned and waited. She searched my face a moment before adding sincerely, “Nice work on the Johnson’s charity dinner.”
Walking back to my desk, I sat and wondered how I could go so quickly from yesterday’s highest high to today’s lowest low.
The sad truth of it was that some things could only be cured with a doughnut. Or three.
My brother had been pestering me for some time now about coming to my new apartment, so when he called offering to pick me up and take me to dinner, I accepted immediately.
The truth was Harry was my biggest fan, and I was his. Oh, sure, I tried to act the grownup, but sometimes, all I wanted to do was vent then cry on his shoulder like I had done so many times during high school. He was my hero, my champion, the only man in my life I would ever truly trust and feel safe enough to rely on. My brother was a good man with a gentle heart. I loved him a lot.
He pulled up out front of my work and wound down the window as I walked to the car. “Excuse me. Have you seen a short, annoying girl with gigantic ears and a gimpy leg? Chews gum like a horse and answers to Minnie?”
Shaking my head, I stepped into his silver sedan, buckled up, and then punched him in the arm. Hard. “Good afternoon to you too, butthead.”
He chuckled. “Why am I suddenly allowed to see your apartment? Are you out of food already, or did you just give in knowing I’d wear you down?”
My smile was weak. “I know you’re busy. You don’t need to babysit me.” A jolt of pain in my arm stunned me as my brother punched me. Rubbing my arm fiercely, I shouted, “What the hell was that for?”
Harry looked irritated as he drove on. “You think the only reason I wanted to come see your place was out of obligation?”
I stared at him with a face that read, ‘You’re trying to tell me it’s not?’
He glanced over, read my face, and shook his head. “I’ll admit I’ll always feel responsible for you, Mia, and I won’t apologize for that. But did you really think I only wanted to see your place because I’m checking up on you? Maybe it’s because in the past five years I’ve only seen you at holidays. Or maybe it’s because you make me laugh and I have fun with you.” His voice turned quiet. “Maybe I just missed my damn sister, Mia.”
I felt the beginnings of an emotional outburst starting at the way the bridge of my nose started to tingle. Blinking away tears, I confessed quietly, “I missed you too, Har.” Coughing away my haywire feelings, I asked, “But you’ve got Quinn, right?”
Harry snorted then teased, “He’s my friend, Mia, not my boyfriend. We hang out a few times a week. Most nights, he’s busy, which suits me just fine considering I work nights.”
I couldn’t help myself. “What does he do at night?”
Harry stilled, thinking of his answer. “He dates a lot.”
I smiled to myself at my brother’s blatant lie. He was a good friend. I thought back two years ago. It was Christmas, and Harry had a little too much to drink. He had caught a cab straight from work at the bar to Christmas dinner at Mom’s, and by the time he arrived, he was already three sheets to the wind. It made for
an interesting dinner, with Mom yelling an appalled, “Oh, my God, Harry. Are you drunk?”
Harry just hugged her, picking her up and spinning her in circles, laughing. “Yeah, Mom. I’m drunk. But guess what? I’m over twenty-one and spreading the Christmas cheer!”
He spotted me then and his smile waned. “Mia?”
I had lost a considerable amount of weight before coming home for Christmas. I smiled. “No. My name is Juanita. I’m here for the food.”
Harry grinned and came at me, hugging me tightly. “Get over here, smartass. Jesus! You look great, Minnie!”
Mom huffed. “She’s losing too much weight. It’s not healthy.”
But Harry just looked at me with pride. “Well, I think she looks beautiful.”
After our feast, Mom had retired claiming a headache, and being jetlagged from my flight home, I said goodnight to Harry, leaving him to watch TV on his own. I made my way upstairs, changed into pajamas, and brushed my teeth. Christmas dinner was heavy, and I desperately needed a glass of water to keep by my bedside, so I made my way downstairs.
I expected Harry to have fallen asleep. I didn’t expect to overhear him on the phone.
“Come on, Quinn, I’m bored. Let’s go out!” I had only heard one side of the conversation, but it went something like this: “Are you fucking kidding me? A client on Christmas?” A slight pause. “Yeah, well, I guess rich housewives get lonely on the holidays too. I hope DFT’s paying you triple-time, bro.”
My brow creased. What was DFT? Was that where Quinn worked? I made a mental note of the business name.
Harry sighed. “Yeah, yeah. Go service your lady of the night. At least one of us is getting lucky and getting paid for it.”
Curioser and curioser.
Harry had ended the phone call as I made my way into the family room. He looked up at me. “Can’t sleep?”
“Just need some water.” I smiled as I walked to the kitchen, quickly retrieving a glass of water, bidding goodnight to Harry and heading back upstairs. I was stopped at the sound of Harry’s voice.
“Mia?”
I stilled at the foot of the stairs and turned to face him. “Yeah, Har?”
He looked at me then, but it was different from the many times before. He searched my face as if he was looking at someone he no longer knew. “You look good, kiddo.”
As soon as I entered my bedroom, I closed the door behind me and retrieved my laptop from my bag. I typed quickly, searching for Matt Quinn and DFT, but no searches matched. Trying once more, I simply typed in DFT and waited.
I clicked on the first entry and began to read.
Women’s services… Hire-a-date… Satisfy your hunger… Escorts for every occasion…
I replayed what I had heard of Harry’s conversation with Quinn. “Yeah, well, I guess rich housewives get lonely on the holidays too. I hope DFT’s paying you triple time, bro.”
It all made sense. My mind was blown. That was the night I discovered Matt Quinn was an escort for hire. A prostitute. And that would cement my plan two years in the making.
My brother drove in silence as the radio played in the background. An idea hit me and I turned to him. “Do you remember when Josh Turner backed out on me at prom and you came as my date?”
Harry’s brow furrowed. “Yeah?”
“Remember where you took me afterwards?”
He shrugged. “Sure. We went to Giovanni’s for pizza.”
Nodding slowly, I turned to face the road and uttered a nonchalant, “I could really go for a slice right now.”
Without a word, he made a turn at the next traffic light and started driving in the opposite direction. “A Giovanni’s pie it is.”
The groan that escaped me was long and low. I rubbed my belly and turned to Harry. “Oh, God, I ate so much. Why didn’t you stop me?”
He looked down at his own slightly protruding stomach then scowled at me. “Why didn’t you stop me? This is all your fault. I was doing so well before tonight.”
I snorted then uttered, “You can do without steamed vegetables and tasteless chicken for one night, you know? You’re pushing yourself too hard. If you don’t treat yourself every now and again, one day, you’ll snap and eat everything in sight.” Eyes wide, I looked at him and assured quietly, “Trust me. I know.”
His face pinched as if he were thinking. “You wanna workout together sometime?”
A pleasant smile crossed my face. “Sure. Actually, that’s a great idea. That way if one of us wants to miss a day, the other can chew their ass.”
The car slowed as we approached my building. He parked in my allocated space, considering I had no car, and we made our way up to my apartment. As we walked to my door, Harry made an awful joke about a Rabbi and his dog, and even though it was stupid, I laughed so hard I snorted.
My snort-laugh alerted Terry to my return, and the apartment door opposite mine flew open. A very gay, very attractive man in white shorts and a light pink tank emerged holding two cocktail glasses of some sort of concoction with tiny umbrellas and a pineapple garnish, and he sang, “Margarita night! Holla!” But then Terry saw Harry standing behind me. “And who is this?”
I smiled at my friend. “Terry, this is my brother, Harry.”
Terry stomped his foot lightly and made an awww-face. “Your brother?” He handed both Harry and me the margaritas and pulled us into a group hug. “It’s so good to meet you, brother Harry.” He let go and grabbed our free hands, pulling us toward the open apartment door. “Come on in. Bill’s making more drinks, and nachos are just about ready.”
Harry’s face screamed ‘help me’ and I swallowed down a laugh. Gently extricating myself from Terry’s falcon-like grip, I tried to save us with, “Actually, Terry, Harry just came down to see my apartment.”
Terry simply snorted. “Oh, honey. There’s nothing to see there.”
My face bunched. “Hey!”
Terry looked to me and uttered a contrite, “Sorry, sweetie,” then turned to Harry and made a face that said, ‘No, really, it’s hideous.’
Seeing I wasn’t following him, Terry rolled his eyes, raised his hands above his head, and gave in with a curt, “Fine!” He turned to Harry and muttered, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He threw a smile my way. “When you’re done in…” Terry fought a shudder as he pointed in the direction of my apartment, “…in there, come over so we can watch trashy reality TV together.”
Terry sashayed into his apartment, closing the door behind him, and Harry turned to me slowly, holding up his cocktail glass. “So, that was the freakiest thing I’ve ever experienced.”
From behind the closed door of the apartment opposite mine came a sassy and loud but muffled, “You’re welcome, brother Harry!”
Laughing under my breath, I unlocked my apartment and went inside. I turned on the light, dropping my bag by the kitchen counter, and explained, “Yeah. They’re a little nutty, but they’re super sweet and really funny.”
Harry closed the door behind him then sipped at his margarita. “So, I’m guessing that was Terry, of Bill and Terry.”
I sipped at my own drink, nodding with my eyes full of humor. Harry just shook his head, muttering, “Margarita night, trashy TV, and nachos.”
His eyes scanned the small space that was my home and his brows lifted. “Sheesh. He wasn’t kidding, was he? It’s kind of bare in here.”
My shoulder jerked in a small shrug. “I like to think of it as charming.”
“Charming? To who, a hobo with no other options?”
That didn’t offend me. I simply grinned. “I like it.”
Harry smiled then. “You would. Always did like unusual.” He lifted his margarita in a toast. “To your new place. And may God have mercy on your soul.”
We clinked glasses and drank. I sat on the counter while Harry took the only seat available in the apartment. A bright pink beanbag.
Chapter Fifteen
Quinn
Work had officially become tiring.
It had been a long while since I had worked this hard in a week, but the clients were there and my time was free, not to mention the money for this week alone would amount to what some people would earn in a year.
Money had always motivated me, but for some reason, it was no longer doing its job at making me happy. I was tired. Exhausted. All I wanted to do was go for a walk along the beach then get a full night’s sleep. It didn’t seem like a difficult request.
Okay, so maybe there was an underlying fact to my bad mood. Perhaps it was because I had waited for Maya to call¸ as she said she would, and then she didn’t. I waited till the very last minute before I gave up on her, and showered before meeting with Camilla.
Camilla was a woman in her late-forties who had an obsession with erotic romance novels. She was a divorcee with three children who were all in their teens. Camilla was lonely. She craved intimacy, and she chose me to deliver.
I didn’t see Camilla all that often, perhaps two or three times a year. It made me feel like shit that she had to save her money for that long to secure a visit with me. It bugged me so much that when her last appointment, three months ago, was booked on her birthday, I called Candy to tell her to charge the appointment to my credit card.
It didn’t seem fair that she pay an arm and a leg for an hour of my time on her birthday. Needless to say, Camilla enjoyed her birthday present immensely.
I had received my instructions beforehand, as per usual. It was pretty straightforward stuff. If I were a new escort, it would probably creep me out, but I knew Camilla, and if what she liked was to recreate some of her favorite erotic romance scenes, then who was I to judge?
I was Camilla’s only real option. Some of the scenes she wanted to try were pretty racy, and even dangerous. I was touched that she trusted me to keep her safe.
When I arrived at the hotel, I made my way to the concierge and requested the room key that had been left for me. Candy sent me an email to let me know Camilla would be in the room for an hour prior, preparing herself. I received the key in a shimmering cream envelope and made my way to the elevator.