Jericho paused, looking pensive. I was hoping I’d said enough to convince him. I took a nervous sip of my drink as I glanced again at the clock. Not much time left.
‘I’ll tell you what, Cassie. We’ve got ten minutes left, ask me whatever you want, and then if you want to have another chat at a later date, we can carry on where we left off. As you’re new to this, I can probably go through how these arrangements typically work too.’ He grinned wolfishly and leaned back, his straight, white teeth gleaming.
‘OK, cool,’ I said in mock defeat. I decided to get the main questions out of the way. ‘I’d like for you to answer the following questions – in the same order – and if I’m satisfied, I’ll think about maybe booking another phone call. Deal?’
‘Gotcha,’ Jericho replied, looking amused.
‘OK. Answer the following please; one – what’s your skincare routine? Because your face is flawless and I can’t honestly believe you’re thirty-four. Two – you’re a gorgeous man, why are you here? Three, which is kinda related to two – do you have a girlfriend outside of this? Four – are you looking for said girlfriend? Five – who’s the oldest person you’ve had sex with on here? And six, do you honestly find me attractive?’ I exhaled and leaned back, allowing the lapel of my robe to gape slightly, showing a little cleavage. Jericho caught onto this and grinned his wolfish smile again. I was enjoying this little game of tennis we were currently playing.
‘Oh, we really went in, didn’t we? OK. One; it’s just pure soap and water, I’m afraid. All of this—’ Jericho points to himself cockily ‘—is genetic, baby. Second question, that’s really an answer for a much longer conversation but, to cut a long story short, I’m using the money I earn here to save towards my future and to supplement my current income. Three, no. I’m single. I’m not really sure how it would work if I had a girlfriend while doing this job so I’ve stayed clear of that for now. Four. Wouldn’t you like to know? Five. Again, wouldn’t you like to know? And six. I think you’re beautiful, Cassie. Given the nature of our interaction, I can see why you’d find it hard to believe, but you’re a cutie.’
‘Thanks for answering,’ I replied, smiling awkwardly. I leaned back even further into the sofa, pondering his answers. We had four minutes left before he had to go and I wasn’t really sure where to go from here, so I just asked the first thing that was on my mind:
‘So, um, I saw on your menu thingy that you don’t have a text option. Is that something you’d probably consider doing in future? You seem really nice and, I have to say, I like the cut of your jib. It would be cool to chat to you again sometime.’
Jericho smiled at this dozily, and scratched his perfectly square chin, as if pondering. After a moment’s silence, he responded. ‘You know, you’re the first person to ask me that? I’ve never thought about the text thing because it seems silly to charge for a few messages back and forth each time – I wouldn’t really know how to price it really. For now, I think I’m gonna stick to my current price list but if you ever want to talk again, you can always book another call, or—’ at this, he took a dramatic pause and I held my breath ‘—or you can book a date night and we can talk some more – if you can afford me, that is.’ At this, Jericho leaned back and burst into laughter.
‘You’re a bit of a cheeky shit, aren’t you?’ I baulked, also breaking into a chuckle at his insolence. ‘I’ll have you know I can definitely afford you … CHALLENGE-FUCKING-ACCEPTED, MATE.’
‘Iight, cool. Well, until we speak again, Cassie. This is truly one of the strangest phone dates I’ve ever had.’ He again stared at the camera intensely, drawing me in.
‘Meaning?’ I replied, a tinge of disappointment arising in my tone. Hopefully I hadn’t offended him. ‘Meaning,’ he replied, ‘this is the first time I’ve had a chat with a woman via the app who hasn’t tried to accost me for phone sex or dirty talk. You seem like somewhat of a wholesome woman. I like that.’
I grinned, excited to have differentiated myself from the rest of the women he talked to. At that moment, I almost knew that I wanted to speak with him again.
‘Well, I’m glad about that. I wouldn’t count myself as wholly “wholesome”, but that may be something you get to find out in time perhaps.’
His coy, wolfish smile returned as he looked into the camera hungrily. ‘Game on. Goodnight.’ He winked, as the phone cut dead.
I fell back onto my sofa, allowing the exhilaration to take over in that moment. I could feel my heart pounding a million miles a minute as I went over the last hour’s events. Maybe it was just me overthinking, but I had felt an undeniable sexual tension in the air throughout that entire phone call – the kind I hadn’t felt in who knows how long, even when out on a date. Usually, I’d fake a connection just to bring a guy home for some boring, passionless, mediocre sex. But this? This was different. This felt real, somehow. Maybe it was simply lust. Or maybe I was just a delusional single woman desperate for an ounce of passion in whatever form that came in. I was leaning more towards the latter. Whatever that was, I knew one thing for sure: I needed to fuck him at some point.
Chapter 5
‘So how did it go? Did he look like his picture? Wait, send me a screenshot of his page, I wanna see!’ I’d called Sade to give her the rundown of the night’s events as I made my way to bed, rather proud that I’d gone through with the whole experience in the end. Sure, there was some awkwardness in the beginning, but as the night went on it felt more like chatting with a new social media friend on FaceTime than a co-ordinated, paid-for date with a male escort. Despite our brief conversation, Jericho had had a way of making me feel at ease and comfortable, and it was that feeling that I was desperate to experience again.
I lay on my bed, kicking my feet up in the air like a girl having her first crush. ‘Sis! It was actually really nice, you know. He was such a gentleman, and he had this way about him, man …’
I took a screenshot of Jericho’sOuiMeetpage and sent it through to Sade. ‘What do you mean “a way about him”? Finish your sentences, please!’ Sade pressed, gagging for the tea as only a best friend would.
‘Did you see the screenshot I just sent?’ I replied, skilfully sidestepping her question. The truth was, I was still sorting through my feelings about the encounter – and, more importantly, whether speaking to him again was a good idea. I had started down a path, and I needed to be sure I didn’t lose myself in it.
‘Well, well, well. He’s a hottie, isn’t he? He’s fucking sexy, I can see why he charges that much boy.’ Sade swooned. ‘What’s he like? Did he give off “prostitute” vibes? Were you guys talking dirty and shit?’
‘Rah, look at this one!’ I replied, sounding mock-stunned. ‘First of all, I think you’re supposed to call them “sex workers” now. You’re supposed to be the progressive one! Secondly, no, we didn’t talk about sex, actually; we kept it nice and wholesome. Some might even say demure.’
‘Ohh booo!’ snapped Sade. ‘I’m here trying to fish for dirty, sordid tales and you’re here doing up Disney Princess with Prince Charming. This was your opportunity to get DOWN AND DIRTY Cass. DIR-TEE.’ I laughed at her last sentence, thankful that I had a friend who encouraged all of my random exploits.
‘Girl, we’ll get to that in time, I suppose! I’m thinking about maybe booking another phone call with him, but actually I’m wondering if I should just take the plunge and go on a date with him? I’m struggling with it, to be honest.’
As empowering and fun as the last hour had been, there was still a huge part of me that was struggling with having to pay for a date. For me, it still felt like an admission of failure as a woman. There had to be some way I could twist the narrative so I didn’t feel like such a loser.
‘Well, babes,’ summarised Sade in between what I could hear were sips of tea, ‘if he was as nice as you say, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t chat to him again. If I were you I’d just go all out and book him for the evening. You only live once, and at our age, you gotta start creating random life experiences for the plot, and to do shit for the fun of it, because life only goes downhill from here, man.’
‘Thank you for the life-coaching session, Oprah,’ I replied, rolling my eyes. I knew she had a point; I supposed that oneday when I was older, this would be a great story to tell the kids, that’s if I ever went on to have any. They’d know all about Mummy’s brief, torrid affair with the escort and how it led to nothing but probable heartbreak.
‘Oh wait, he’s just sent me a message!’ I told Sade, noticing my phone’s notifications going off.
‘Wonderful!’ Sade responded. ‘I’m gonna go to bed, but catch me up on it later, yeah? I need to share some gossip with you at some point too, actually, so let’s maybe make a night of it – we’ll sort out the details tomorrow!’
