Price may have said the nicest thing anyone besides Willow or Mom said to me. He may have just upended my view of myself. I still refused to let it show. Refused to give him more weaknesses than I already had. “You had no right to insert yourself into our private conversation that day. Let it be known that I’m still utterly pissed with you.”
“Sure, that’s fine. I like to think it was a happy coincidence. I can’t sayI wasn’t completely shell-shocked to see you, though. I thought I was crazy.”
I laughed. “I think you did go crazy. You could’ve left me the fuck alone like I asked, yet you decided to offer me a job in front of my very easily swayed best friend.”
Price looked very pleased with himself, smiling wider as I went on. “What can I say, Pretty Boy? You truly are exquisite. I couldn’t stay away. In all honesty, I needed someone to help out. With how passionately you and Willow were talking, I assume this has been a discussion you’ve gone through a few times?”
“You’d be correct.” I sighed. “I don’t want to give up what I do. You need to be aware of that. I’m only doing this to make Willow feel better, and that’s it. I’m willing to work with you for three months tops if you don’t annoy me too much.”
The black pen twirled between his fingers as he thought. They caught my eye, bringing me back to when I could feel them on me. When he held me so gently in his hands. “Six and you don’t do any work for the entirety of it.”
Was he trying to negotiate? “That’s fucking rich.” I scoffed.
“I’ll pay four above minimum wage, give you flexible hours, and you can say you really gave it your best. Seriously, I need the help. It doesn’t hurt that you need help staying in Willow’s good graces.”
Incredulous. Absolutely incredulous. I didn’t even want to know what my face looked like. “I’m not quitting sex work for six whole months, Price.” Look at me using the nicer term. Willow would be so proud.
Price shrugged and moved his mouse over the exit button on the open tab he’d pulled up. “Then we don’t have a deal, and you have to tell Willow that. What a shame.”
He was threatening me with the impending disappointment of my best friend. I gave him my best glare, hoping he could see just how pissed I was.
“You can’t think you can do both and make Willow happy. That would just be ignorant.” The indifferent look on his face made me want to punch it. Just once.
“Look who’s calling who stupid now.”
Price opened his phone, typing on it before turning the screentowards me. “No, I called you ignorant. Google exists, Crew, use it.” The definition was pulled up on his Google search, staring me right in the face.
Just one fucking punch. “You cannot buy me for a night and then rope me into a six-month deal with a threat on my friendship.”
“I thought that was what I was doing right now.”
“What happened to that nice guy savior shit?”
“I never said I was a nice guy or a savior.”
Goddamn the flames in his eyes, calling me by name. Damn his soft, gentle hands and beautiful fucking face. Curse the way I wanted to be around him. “You’re an asshole.”
When he smiled, that single dimple on his cheek came through, and I had to hold myself in my seat to not fall over. “Glad we could get that out of the way.” He set the ink pen to the side. “Do we have a deal?”
“If I can’t do sex work, then you can’t go out picking up men either.”
He shrugged. “No problem.”
Right then, I knew why I shouldn’t have agreed to meet with him. Hope sparkled in the flames of his amber eyes, bright and proud despite the shitty office lighting. I should’ve said no. I had every intention of doing so, too. Price was nothing like any client I’d ever slept with. He was persistent, captivating, gorgeous, and gentle in his touch, down to the way he typed on his keyboard. Without meaning to, I’d started to lean forward in my seat, silently gravitating closer to him.
“Fine. What kind of shit are you going to have me do, anyway?”
As long as he didn’t touch me, I’d be okay. If he touched me, I knew I’d break.
What I was doing wascrazy. I knew that. Convincing Matt to take Crew on to the staff was easy. He was so uninvolved, he didn’t even know we didn’t technically have an open position. Brandt was pissed but couldn’t go against his boss’s wishes. It was a win-win for me and a lose-lose for Brandt, which always made me happy.
Crew, on the other hand, seemed to need a lot more convincing. To be honest, I didn’t mind having to. Was how I did it a bit asshole-ish? Sure. I’d stopped trying to pick between a clear-cut right and wrong a long time ago.
Maybe around the time my only friend abandoned me for a better life, and I’d paid the tenth sex worker, I realized just how gray things were. There were no secrets to be kept when I had no one to keep them from. I was tired of existing the way I did. I was sure I’d search the streets for something else if I didn’t find my release through a human body. Something stronger than wine or whiskey. Maybe if my veins burned enough or my nose was clogged with enough powder, I wouldn’t want to tear my skin apart in a desperate attempt to escape myself.
Dad seemed to like it just fine. I could easily follow in his footsteps, and instead of riding the line of morally correct versus incorrect, I could take a deep dive straight to the bad.
I had no idea what I was doing with Crew. Should I be doing something at all? Probably not. Though who was I to interrupt fate? Crew and I crossed paths too many times for me not to.
