“Whitaker. Yours?”
“Jesse.”
“Would you like me to buy you a coffee?”
“Sure.”
He hands me his credit card and I stare at it. “Get whatever you want.”
Is he really going to let me take this? I could memorize the number and charge whatever I wanted to it before he gets it canceled. Is this man naive or is he testing me?
Without hesitating any further, I head up to the counter and order a sandwich and a coffee along with some cookies that I tuck into my jacket before returning. I sit down across from him and slide the card over before savoring my lunch.
“Have you tried getting a job somewhere?”
“Of course I have. Without a parent’s consent or a license, I can’t get shit.”
“Do something under the counter.”
“I have. You know how much mowing lawns or raking leaves gets you? Not as much as blowing some rich guy in the bathroom.”
“I’ll pay you to mow my lawn and I promise it’ll be enough to cover your room. How about that?”
“Is that code for sex?”
“It most certainly is not. I am as straight as one can get. I have thirty minutes left of my lunch. I can drop you off and Zach can get you settled in.”
“Who is Zach? Is Zach the one who’s going to dice me up or are you?”
Whitaker laughs. “I don’t think either of us are going to, but you can remind him not to. Come or not, I don’t care,” he says, and off he goes.
Of course I follow him, I get right into his car, even though I don’t know where I’m going and am aware that absolutely no one cares or would ever worry about what happened to me if I never made it back.
He doesn’t talk much as he drives, just taps his finger to the music on the stereo. And when he pulls up to a large estate with a gate and a huge yard that definitely doesn’t need to be mowed, I realize I’ve hit the jackpot… or am about to die.
Whitaker parks and honks the horn. A young man a year or so older than me comes over to the car.
“What’s up?”
“This is Jesse. He’d like a job here. Have him mow the backyard so he can prove that he can properly mow the front.”
“Oh like… you’re being serious, I’m mowing this?” I ask, wondering why the immaculate yard would need to be mowed again.
“I’ll be back after work,” Whitaker says, ignoring my question.
I get out and he drives off, leaving me in an odd state of confusion. Zach doesn’t even hesitate, just points to the back where a lawnmower awaits me.
For two months, I do everything Whitaker says. I mow the lawn, I clean the house, I run errands and get groceries. And then one day, I find myself not leaving his estate. He has so many rooms that I just decide that I might as well stay in one of them, and when I’m still here at ten o’clock at night, he doesn’t throw me out or seem to care that I’ve just helped myself to a room. This goes on for a few nights before Whitaker waves me over.
“Jesse, could you do something a bit… unorthodox for me?” he asks.
“I’m sure I could figure it out.”
“A friend of mine, she thinks her boyfriend is cheating on her with another man. I want you to flirt with him and send him to this hotel room. If he shows up, we’ll know he’s unfaithful. Just… lie, tell him you’re eighteen, act cute, promise to meet him there and send him on his way. That’s all I need. I’m not asking you to have sex with him or kiss him or do anything.”
“Yeah, I don’t care,” I say. “That’s simple?—”
ELEVEN
