[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.My attention immediately went to him.He stood up and groggily walked over to me, offering me a pat on the back.“Did you do a good job, London Bridge?”For the sake of not lying, I shrugged.I felt like I’d done my job.I felt like the guy was satisfied.He’d even told me that I was good, but I wasn’t totally confident that he’d request me again.Thorne ignored my concern.“I’m sure you did well.Go ahead up and get ready for bed.”I stepped away from him and headed up the stairs.It was as if he were the father of the group and he pimped out all his daughters.I noticed that each girl pretty much did what he said and yearned for his approval or praise.He seemed to treat everyone with sensitivity, certainly a gentleman across the board.I wondered if he’d always be so kind or if that was only during the initiation phase, but the fact that some of the girls had already been working for him for some time made me believe that despite selling sex, Thorne was the perfect guy.After changing into my nightclothes, I lay in bed looking at the ceiling fan and out of nowhere I felt engulfed by guilt.I felt like I’d gone against some morality code, but I couldn’t say I would refuse to do it again.While I flipped around trying to get comfortable emotionally and physically, I heard a knock at the door.“London?” Thorne said softly.I quickly sat up and said, “Yes?”He turned the knob and walked into the room.I moved over in the direction of the sliding glass window, hoping he’d climb in, and he did.I faced away from him and curled into a fetal position.He spooned me, wrapping his arm around my waist.After pushing my hair away from my neck, he began kissing it.“You okay?”“I’m not sure.”“It’s normal to feel that way.”“You sure?”“Yes.I’m going to hold you to make it all better.A’ight, London?”I nodded and he pulled me tighter and closer to him.His arms removed my feelings of guilt, leaving me with the conclusion that a woman just needed to feel connected to someone after sex, not necessarily the man she’d shared her body with.“So how do you make money? Am I supposed to give you a portion of what I make or what?”He laughed as he softly kissed on my shoulder.“I’m more like a booking agent instead of a pimp.I make my money straight off the top.So whatever they give you is your money.I give them a rate, and for booking I get a flat fee of one half hour of that hourly rate.At minimum they will pay the stated rate, but if you exceed their expectations they may give you more.I have nothing to do with that.”“That makes sense.”“Always.”The room-darkening window treatments made me feel like it was the middle of the night, but when I finally awoke it was eleven-thirty.I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes.Thorne wasn’t beside me, but I didn’t feel abandoned.In fact, I felt fulfilled and peaceful.The range of emotions was frightening.I got out of bed, grabbed my case of toiletries, and headed to the bathroom.After I put on some clothes I headed downstairs.A lady was cooking brunch for everyone in the house.I automatically searched for Thorne, but they told me he’d gone out.Although Jasmine and the other girls seemed friendly, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be around them 24-7.I didn’t know them that well.I asked them if I could call the same limo driver so I could go shopping.Jasmine told me Thorne kept a car there and she’d tell me where to go.I pulled the convertible Benz out of the garage and headed to the Beverly Center.Shopping was always a stress reliever.I took an initial walk through the mall to scope out the stores.Everything was screaming my name and the money in my pocket was telling me to answer, but I kept thinking, What if I get no more requests or what if I decide I can’t do this? I opted to hold on to my money and just try on the nice things as an incentive to keep doing it if there were interested clients.In a way it seemed like fate: As I was going back and forth with myself standing in the Dior store, my cell phone rang.It was Thorne.It seemed like he didn’t hear me say hello, but he began to speak.“What’s your availability this evening?”I was thinking he should know better than me.My flight didn’t return to DC until Monday morning, and as far as I was concerned I was on his schedule.I said, “Uh, I guess free.I don’t know.”He laughed.“Okay, you have an appointment at twelve.You down?”Standing in the mirror, looking at the form-fitting leather jacket with a two-thousand-dollar price tag, I said, “Yeah, I’m down.”It was at that moment that I knew this lifestyle would be the only way to afford items like the one I was wearing.For some reason, looking at expensive clothes and trying them on made me feel like this was where I belonged.I left the Dior store and headed to Louis Vuitton.I had a few Louis bags that I had scraped up money in college to buy, but I wanted a new one.As I stood there, posing in the mirror with my bag, 650 bucks didn’t seem like a large amount to pay after what I’d made in one evening.I copped it and felt like I was walking on air as I headed out of the store.Once the buying bug bit I was ready to spend more money.Maybe I needed to splurge to console myself and make me feel like my new career was worth it.A pair of Gucci shoes and a denim Dior jacket later, I left the mall with 120 dollars in my pocket.When I got to the house it was around three and no one was there except Thorne.I sashayed in, carrying my bags and feeling proud of myself.He frowned at me and I smiled.“So what’s up?”“The photographer will be here to take your head shots in about two hours.The makeup artist and hairstylist should be here any minute.”“A photographer?” I asked, with a perplexed stare.“Now that you’re in the club…” He paused.“You are committed to being in the club, right?”With all the money I just spent, I thought, how can I not be in the club? I nodded
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]