As the day ends, Dog stays close to my side without being intrusive. He follows me from room to room, and then he sits beside the treadmill and watches me run. I serve him a bowl of each flavor of dog food so he can decide which one he likes more and he seems to prefer the chicken and potatoes.
“Is there someone out there who misses you?” Dog and I sit side by side on the hard living room couch. I scratch behind his ear, grateful when he doesn’t ask for more than I’m willing to give. He just waits patiently for my next move. “Here’s the deal, Dog. You can stay until we find your owners. Don’t get too comfortable and make me regret this, but you’re okay here for now.”
Before bed, curiosity gets the best of me and I bring the phone Talent returned to me into my room and plug it in. I sit on the edge of my bed and scroll to the number he called Inez from and press call. My heart leaps into my throat once it starts to ring, but anxiety melts away once an automated message for Ridge & Sons answers, prompting me to enter a three-digit extension.
I flip the phone closed, shaking my head. What would I have said had Talent answered?
Hey, I’m the one who came into your office uninvited and seduced you, and then we met for coffee. Do you remember me? Want to talk? How was your day?
Of course, he didn’t call from a private number. He wouldn’t want a prostitute to have his personal phone number.
Deleting the call log, I click to the contact list to delete Inez’s information before I get rid of the phone for good when I discover more than one contact saved.
Talent Ridge
The number is different than the Ridge & Sons’ office number, and there’s only one way this contact was added: Talent programmed it himself. Why would he do such a thing? To bypass Inez to get on my schedule? We discussed my hourly rate at the coffee shop, so that has to be it. Inez knew I’d land the Ridge account, and that’s why she sent me instead of another girl. She was right. Inez is always right.
I tell myself I’m calling Talent to inform him that I don’t book my clients directly and that if he wants to see me again, he needs to go through the appropriate steps with Inez. But when his sleepy voice answers after the second ring, I hang up and toss the phone to the center of my bed.
The rectangular screen on the front lights up neon blue before it rings. Talent’s calling back. Heat warms my face, and I cover my mouth with my hand like if I keep quiet, he won’t know I’m here.
Once it stops ringing, I retrieve the phone to turn it off when a text message pops up.
You can’t stop thinking about me either?
The right thing to do would be to get rid of the phone. That would eliminate the distraction and indecision about having Talent’s personal number. I haven’t attempted to call him again, but every night for a week, he sends me a text at the same time.
How long are you going to avoid me?
Don’t make this out to be nothing.
Have dinner with me.
You’re driving me crazy, Lydia.
Why can’t I get you out of my head?
I haven’t answered once, but I can’t deny the exhilaration I feel when his name illuminates on the screen as I settle into bed after a long day. The small change in routine gives me something to look forward to. Though they’re only one-sentence messages, I read them over and over and over, imagining the words coming straight from his lips.
It can’t go on forever. He’ll eventually grow bored with me and the excitement of chasing someone he can’t have will wear off, replaced by other women he can have.
“Good morning,” a dark-haired girl I’ve never seen before greets when I arrive at Hush. “Do you have an appointment with us today?”
The last receptionist, Camilla, didn’t last long, I see. Inez has a hard time keeping receptionists in the dark or behind the desk, but I think this may have been record time. Camilla was too timid, too wild-eyed and abashed by the beauty that walks in and out of here all day. I noticed the way she marveled at me anytime I visited the spa. Golden eyes would scan my entire body, and her complexion would deepen. I also saw the way someone like Naomi made her shrink into herself.
How Camilla reminded Inez of me at all is beyond me.
“Excuse me,” the new girl calls after me as I walk by. “You can’t just go back there.”
Knocking twice on Inez’s door, I give the receptionist a look that stops her in her tracks. Determination cowers into trepidation, and she wisely returns to her post behind the desk to answer phones or do whatever-the-fuck it is she does here. That’ll be the last time she tells me what I can and can’t do.
“My girl, you’re here.” Inez welcomes me with outstretched arms. She comes to me as I’m dropping my purse in a chair, holding my face in her hands. Inez kisses each one of my cheeks. “It’s been too long, Lydia.”
“It’s been a week,” I remind her.
“We really should get together more often. Why don’t we eat dinner somewhere? Or you can come to my place and I’ll cook you a meal.” Inez sits in front of me on the edge of her desk. She’s dressed in a navy-blue suit that sets her red hair on fire today.
Retrieving the envelope with Inez’s cut from my earnings this week, I ignore the dinner invitation like I’ve ignored all invitations for dinner I’ve received lately. The grimy, inky-cotton sent of cash disappears once she takes the envelope and places it behind her on the desk. There’s no need to count it. Inez knows it’s all there.
“Fine. No dinner then,” Inez says with a shake of her head. She knew when she asked that I’d refuse. “There have been quite a few calls for you this week. You’re booking out six weeks, and I don’t think we should go out farther than that. Can you double up a couple of days a month? Would you mind that? You’re such a popular girl and the only one who works like this.”
“I’m not doubling my days, Inez,” I say with an air of finality.
Inez hands me a sheet of thick paper with the names of potential clients listed, complete with a short description of each. There’s a doctor, a pilot, and a few men in finance. A lawyer named Talent Ridge isn’t listed, and I don’t admit to Inez that he’s interested. The disaster that happened at Ridge & Sons hasn’t come up again since I told her coffee with the younger Ridge son went well. I’d like to leave it that way.
“How many of them check out?” I ask. By this I mean, how many of them qualify to be on my books.
“All but two. The doctor has terrible credit, and one of the finance managers has been arrested for solicitation of a prostitute. The idiot will never get a chance with any of my girls for being a dirty liar.” Her eyes meet mine. “These arrangements don’t work without honesty.”
Omitting information about Talent isn’t lying. Everything I’ve told her about my interaction with him is all true—the coffee date was a success and we agreed the night in his office was a mutual misunderstanding. She doesn’t need to know that he kissed me, or that he’s texted me almost every night since then. He’s not paying me, and I’m not sleeping with him. Inez has no place in this equation.
I’m allowed a personal life.
Passing the list back, I say, “Put them on my schedule. If they can’t wait, you can fit them with someone else.”