“I came out when I was sixteen.”
“Damn, I’d guess we’re about the same age, so you beat me to the punch.”
“Hmm, from what I can tell, it’s easier to ignore your feelings for the same sex when you’re still attracted to the opposite sex,” he said with a shrug. “Which makes sense. It would be harder to ignore the fact that I’m gay when, over time, it was obvious I was only into men.”
“Yeah, I could hide, I guess, being bi.”
“As for the escort thing, my family isn’t nosy or private, but there are times when questions pop up. You know, like ‘what are you doing now you’re not in college and working at that bakery?’ and ‘how can you afford all this stuff when we heard you were barely getting by a few months ago?’ Stuff like that,” he chuckled. “Eventually, I had to tell them; obviously not, ‘I’m having sex for money,’ but I let those who wanted to pretend it was only about keeping people company keep that fantasy in their head, and for those who definitely knew it involved me sleeping with my clients, they could politely keep the reality to themselves. All in all, it worked out.”
I grinned. “I bet it wasn’t the sort of thing that came up at family dinners, though.”
“God no,” he said with a laugh.
“Do you...eh, never mind.”
“What?”
“It’s kind of a really personal question,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “A lot more personal than asking what you look like naked.”
He smirked. “I’d say it’s amazing you managed to go this long without a dirty comment, but that felt more like an easy way to make a comparison. Ask your question. I have the choice not to answer it, after all.”
“True,” I admitted. “Do you think they’re upset or...disappointed by what you were doing?”
“Well,” he said with a laugh. “I definitely don’t think they were overflowing with pride that men basically paid their son or brother to sleep with them. Oh sure, it was high-class, rich men who threwa lotof money my way and let me do things with that money that I’d only dreamed of, but...I don’t think they’re disappointed. They accept it, they understand it’s been making me good money, and hell, my family has benefited too. I helped my sister put a down payment on a house, and I helped my parents go on a vacation they’d always wanted but could never bring themselves to drop that much money on. I was able to start savings accounts for my nieces and nephew for when they turn eighteen and hopefully do something smart with it.”
“Huh,” I said, crossing my arms and nodding. “So, you’ve been doing a lot with that money then. Not just buying yourself expensive things and a bunch of drugs.”
“Oh, there’s been plenty of that, though I have to say my biggest expense has been food,” he said with a chuckle. “Going from living off ramen and cheap fast food to suddenly having money to take myself to nice places was quite a shift. Well, it helped that a lot of my clients enjoyed the idea of a ‘date night’ fantasy, so they’d take me to dinner, and because they were playing into the fantasy that it was a date, they would often pick places to impress.”
“So, you ate well on and off the clock,” I said, looking him over and frowning. “And no offense, but you don’t look like you’ve been eating like that.”
He smirked. “You know, it’s amazing. When you make the kind of money I was making, you can afford to invest in a personal trainer who understands the life you’re living and can help guide you.”
“If you say so.”
“I could tell you about the plan he drummed up for me that I was actually devoted to following if you’d like. It’s not a very interesting topic of conversation, though.”
“I believe you,” I said with a snort. “So, uh, you do that job for long?”
“About five, six years,” he said with a shrug.
“Damn, and you made enough money to do all that?”
“And still have plenty to live off after I leave here for a while, so I have time to figure out what I’m going to do with myself,” he said with a shrug.
“Damn, clearly I should have considered getting into the escort business,” I said with a laugh.
“I’m not sure you could have done it,” Isaac said, appraising me. “You have the looks for it, and while anyone can be trained to do well in bed… Well?—”
“You’re trying not to make a crack about my personality, aren’t you?”
“Mmm, no. I’m definitely giving you shit for your personality, but I’m doing it in a way that forces you to puzzle out what I’m saying so the landing stings more than it would if I said it outright.”
“Didn’t you just get done talking about how you weren’t playing mind games?”
He grinned. “I can’t help but poke you just a little.”
He was begging for me to comment about pokinghimwith something, but I held back. Shit, I’d already turned him down when he’d been willing to sleep with me. “Hey, you, uh...were you serious about sleeping with me or was that you like...messing with me?”
