For Hire: The Intimate Adventures of a Gigolo. Luke Bradbury

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СКАЧАТЬ Carrie and co had decided that I was their ‘project’ and they were determined to pair me up with someone. We were at least agreed on that score, though what I thought of as ‘pairing up’ was, I suspected, rather different to what they meant.

      I hadn’t yet told them that I wasn’t on the market, but that for me a nightclub was purely a prime place for pulling one-night stands. Just because I was having plenty of sex for cash didn’t mean I didn’t give it away for free when the opportunity arose. No-strings sex suited me and my lifestyle just fine—though I wasn’t sure that my flatmates would see it like that.

      Fly-by-night guys with a different girl coming out of their bedroom each morning could get their own reputation. I imagined seeing disapproving looks between my flatmates as I let the latest conquest out the front door. It’d surely be ten times worse if they knew what I did for a living!

      In the nightclub, I hovered by the wall while the others danced in front of me, so I still had a relatively clear view of the rest of the floor—and any available talent.

      And then I spotted her through the shifting crowd on the other side of the room. I recognized her but I had to rifle through my mental Rolodex to realize who she was.

       Melanie.

      I was more used to seeing Melanie dressed in sexy lingerie in her bedroom than anywhere else. But here she was, in the same club as me. A completely different venue. The incongruity shocked me.

      Fortunately, Melanie hadn’t yet noticed me as far as I could tell. And I didn’t want to point her out to Carrie in case that drew her attention.

      I took a swig from my beer bottle and kept an eye on Melanie as I lent a casual ear to the girls’ talk. They were pointing out hot guys to each other while trying not to be caught gawping. It made me think of how Mark and the gang and me liked to give any babes we spotted marks out of ten.

      I’d never thought of Melanie like that. Sure, there were your nines like Sasha and Chloe, the delicious yet intimidating twosome from my early escorting days, or a rare ten like beautiful model, Mae, but the rest of my clients merged into ‘a better than average shag’. But what surprised me about Melanie as I glanced at her through the crowd was that she was one of the last of my clients I’d expect to see on a night out. She was off sick from work because school teaching had taken its toll on her. She’d always struck me more as someone who’d prefer a quiet night in. And at the moment that I was realizing how mistaken I’d been about that, she caught sight of me too.

      Our eyes met and we nodded a greeting at each other. Melanie made a step towards me from the other side of the dance floor, but stopped dead when I didn’t make any move myself. I could tell that I’d spooked her a bit; that she wasn’t sure whether to approach me or not.

      The problem about escort work was that there was no rule book. I had to make the protocol up as I went along. I’d been fortunate that I’d never yet bumped into a client when I was out with another—I’m not sure quite what I’d do if that happened. Presumably I’d ignore the one I wasn’t with, and pray that they’d do the same for me. But when I was having a night off and I spotted one of my regulars, then things were a little less cut and dried.

      From experience I’d worked it out that it was best dealt with if I at least acknowledged them with eye contact and a warm smile, but had also decided that it wasn’t my place to do anything more—as much for my own ‘safety’ or peace of mind as theirs. After all, a client could be shit scared that I might put them in a really awkward position by forcing them to explain themselves to any friends they were with. My reason for not approaching them was simply because I wanted to live my own life apart from the escorting.

      I’d been seeing Melanie almost once a fortnight for the past three or four months. And, if I was being honest, I wasn’t altogether sure that I was happy being forced to acknowledge, even to myself, what our relationship was while I was on my own time.

      Seeing a client when I was in a different groove of my life muddied the waters too much. The first time it happened shocked me, because I’d imagined London to be such a large place that it simply wouldn’t be possible. God, how wrong I’d been about that! It stood to reason that some day I just would end up hitting the same club or major shopping street at the same time as one of my customers. Coincidence was just the law of chance. But whichever way I looked at it, I had to admit that things were so much easier when we all stuck to our demarcation lines.

      If Melanie wanted to touch base with me this evening, then it had to be completely up to her. But even if she didn’t, the very fact that we’d caught sight of each other meant I would have to ensure that some time later in the evening I’d text her just to say ‘hello’ and hint at why I hadn’t gone over.

      In my experience, clients seemed to like that. The next time they contacted me, they’d mention it in an understanding way—and then book another session. Which suited me just fine.

      I turned back towards the Girls. They’d each made a real effort tonight and it was nice to see them out of their student uniform of jeans and T-shirts. I looked down at my own white shirt, jacket and jeans—smart casual—and trusted that they thought the same of me. I knew standing here with my back to the dance floor was a cop-out, but I wasn’t sure how else to deal with seeing Melanie.

       Just ignore her and hope she goes away.

      In the very next moment, she was at my elbow.

      ‘Luke?’

      I took a deep breath, and in the next second had switched into ‘escort mode’. I swivelled on my heel to look directly at her with my carefully composed smiley face, and she had a huge grin for me. We embraced and kissed in greeting.

      ‘Fancy seeing you here!’ she gasped, like it had never crossed her mind that I might have any sort of life outside her flat.

      ‘I didn’t expect that you’d be here either, Melanie. It’s a small world, eh? It’s lovely to see you,’ I beamed in return.

      I now had the full attention of my flatmates. I could sense them at my shoulder, checking out the competition, the way girls did. I could only hope that none of them would dig too deep to find out how Melanie and myself really knew each other. ‘We met on the Internet’ was a pretty useful explanation to keep in my back pocket.

      Melanie scrubbed up as well as my friends. She had a good figure and was tall, with dark-brown shoulder-length hair, but she was older than them which I suspect reassured them. Early thirties sounded ancient to a young twenty-something. An age away.

      Melanie turned to three girls standing behind her who had followed her across the dance floor in clear curiosity. They were around the same age and not bad looking either, and immediately struck me as quite a raucous bunch. They were dressed similarly in high heels and short shift dresses that left little to the imagination and were damn easy to remove. The message was loud and clear: ‘That’s what we’re here for.’

      ‘Everyone, may I introduce Luke? He’s a friend of mine.’

      Friend. The catch-all term. There was a chorus of ‘Hi Lukes’ from the other three.

      ‘And Luke, these are my other friends: Hanna, Alison, and Jayne. They’re teachers too.’

      ‘Pleased to meet you,’ I smiled back.

      I realized then that I had nothing to worry about. СКАЧАТЬ