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

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      ‘Alison, I tell you what. I bet I can prove how much me and Melanie are just good friends,’ I challenged as the barman poured out our drinks.

      Alison licked her lips, then turned her face directly to me. She had pretty features, which were given strength by the assertiveness in her eyes.‘Oh, I’m always open to a gamble. And how might you do that?’

      ‘Pass me your mobile,’ I said to her as I paid for the drinks.

      Alison did so, raising an eyebrow. She duly picked up three of the glasses and watched as I tapped my number into her contacts page. I slipped the phone into her shoulder bag.

      ‘Call me,’ I mouthed to her. She nodded silently, turned, and made her way through the crowd back to her friends.

      I picked up the remaining glasses, and followed her back across the room.

      I was sitting at a small table with my eye on the door of the bar, waiting for Alison to arrive. I’d only been here around five minutes and we’d arranged to meet at eight p.m. so she still had another quarter of an hour. I didn’t mind that she wasn’t here yet. It gave me time to collect my thoughts and wonder about what I was doing with her.

      And then Alison herself came sweeping through the door and strode straight towards me.

      ‘Luke!’ she exclaimed.

      I rose to greet her as she gave me a warm hug.

      There wasn’t an awful lot of romance in that,but then again maybe that was fitting, seeing as we didn’t know each other very well yet. We’d been out a couple of times since we met at the club and I for one was happy to be taking things slowly. It meant our relationship was still casual enough for me to swat away any niggling worries about how it might affect my time spent with Melanie.

      ‘You had a good day at school?’

      ‘You don’t really want to know that, do you?’ she laughed.

      She was right in one. The trouble was that I wasn’t sure where to turn from there.

      Because there was so much we couldn’t talk about when it came to seeing Alison. It was difficult to even mention Melanie because of the discomfort I felt about being out meeting Alison instead. But it was also because I had to conceal so much about how I had come to know Melanie in the first place.

      ‘You due for another night out clubbing with the girls any time soon?’

      She nodded: ‘Hope so. But you know how it is. Teaching takes up so much time. You’re at school during the day, then after that you’re at home marking books until the early hours. We’re certainly due a break.’

      ‘I like it that you go out as a gang,’ I admitted. ‘Teachers on the prowl!’

      I chose not to mention Melanie by name, as I suspected Alison was trying to avoid doing too. I knew I felt that asking Alison out betrayed my friendship with Melanie, and I wondered if Alison might somehow feel she was cheating on her friend? But then again, why should she?

      I was getting paranoid. I’d made it quite clear to Alison and in my own head that Melanie and I had nothing going on, so the three of us were each free to date whoever we chose. Yet somehow Melanie was still getting in on the act, demanding to be noticed. It made me shiver.

      ‘“Out on the prowl”? I like how you put it,’ smiled Alison. ‘But sometimes I think I’d like to break out of that mould. I love the clubbing, but being surrounded mostly by teachers can feel a bit claustrophobic at times. I guess like you Aussies!’ she teased.

      That got my attention. I thought back to me and the lads out on the pull.

      ‘Used to be,’ I reminded her. ‘My mates are back home. I’ll be returning too pretty soon.’

      Alison sucked in her lips and I realized I might have said the wrong thing. I’d just signalled that if anything was going to happen between her and me, it wasn’t going to be anything long term. Not that that bothered me. But I could see it might not be what she wanted.

      To be honest, due to my guilt about Melanie, I couldn’t see whatever I had going with Alison lasting very long at all anyhow. Even as I was trying to concentrate on the girl in front of me, I was mentally arguing with Melanie to shut the fuck up.

       I haven’t let you down, for God’s sake. You’re only my fucking client, Melanie. I owe you NOTHING. Except to turn up on time and give you what you want for the duration. The rest of my life is entirely my business.

      But the trouble was that there was a quieter voice at the shoulder of my inner Angry Person, reasoning with me that, even so, I was still sitting here, wasn’t I, and having a drink and a date with a good friend of Mel’s. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that I was betraying her.

      The truth was that I wasn’t quite sure how to play my evenings spent with Alison. With Melanie and any of my clients I was ‘Escort Luke’, a friendly, happy-go-lucky bloke with a perpetual smile on his face. They could never see me having an off-day.

      When not working, I was able to be more myself, though even with my flatmates I could never tell the whole truth. But because of who she knew, Alison fell between the cracks. Which meant that I needed to come up with a third persona to fill that gap. Just finding something to talk about over a drink while not letting on too much was proving exhausting.

      Alison picked up her glass of wine and drank from it, watching me as she did so, as though she was mulling something over in her head.

      And then she spoke. ‘Luke, how and where did you and Melanie meet? I’m curious.’

       Aren’t you just?

      I played for time. ‘You really want to know?’

      She nodded, and there was a quizzical look across her face.

      ‘It’s just I can’t make out how or where a teacher like her would meet an Aussie working shifts.’

      I had nothing to fear after all. She’d tossed me a damn easy ball. ‘It’s not that difficult!’ I laughed. ‘I was a barman and she wanted a drink. Simple as that. We just hit it off. That’s all.’

      I stressed that the subject was effectively closed with that final ‘all’. Alison took the hint.

      ‘That makes sense. And it doesn’t surprise me. Anyone could hit it off with you, Luke,’ she teased, and reached out to squeeze my wrist.

      I couldn’t help wondering if she realized what she was actually saying. That as regards my sex life, I could indeed hit it off with anyone. That’s what made me a damn fine escort, wasn’t it? And I couldn’t help wondering too if she was hinting that she had continued suspicions about my real relationship with Melanie. She presumably hadn’t guessed about any money changing hands between us. But when she referred to us ‘hitting it off’, she seemed to be saying that me and Melanie were still somehow linked up.

      She’d hit the nail on the head there. To be honest, try as I might to get Melanie out of my mind as no more than just another one of my clients, I couldn’t. Perhaps because of СКАЧАТЬ