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CHAPTER2
Perfect Stranger~Brooklyn
"We should go out Friday night,"my best friend Mallory said from the passenger seat of my Jeep. I gave her rides to work because she and her boyfriend shared a car, and their work schedules clashed. In return, she paid for the gas. It was a nice tradeoff, honestly.
"Hello?" she said as she shut the overhead mirror and flipped up the visor, smacking her freshly glossed lips together. "Did you hear what I said? I want to go out on Friday. I need to get drunk."
"Sorry," I said, coming to the stoplight. "We can do that."
I pulled my phone out and scrolled through until I found my banking app, but before I could open it, she waved her hand across the screen.
"Don't worry about it. Just dress hot, and I'm sure we won't pay for any of our own alcohol." She grinned and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.
I found it odd that she went out so much and flirted her way from free cocktail to free cocktail. It was one thing to do that when you're single. But she and her boyfriend had been exclusive for eight months. Waiting for the longest light to flip to green, I killed the last few seconds and pressed on my baking app. My stomach turned over as I focused on the big negative $40 in bright red. Damn internet bill. The light turned green, and I tossed my phone aside and blinked back tears that teased the corners of my eyes.
"Imagine a world where money didn't matter." She reached over and pinched my love handles in an attempt to make me laugh.
I forced my lips into a smile and pushed the worry that wanted to wash over me to the back of my brain.
"You know my ex-roommate's sister-in-law has this cousin who made enough money in one weekend to pay 3 months' worth of bills?"
I narrowed my eyes and passed a few quick glances her way. "Doing what?"
She shrugged as she picked at her cuticles. "She's an escort."
Her words came out so casually that I almost choked on the spit pooling in my mouth. I returned my gaze to the road ahead and slowed as we turned the corner. "You're not serious?" I said as I darted my eyes between her and the road.
"I am. She works for some madam. It's almost like a dating app, honestly. Except you get paid to get laid." She laughed as the words spilled off her tongue.
I'm not laughing. "Is that even legal?"
"People do it." She shrugged and popped her freshly glossed lips together as we pulled into the cafe's parking lot.
"They're…hookers," I said with more disgust than intended. The idea of it made my stomach sour. I mean, I wasn't a virgin, but the idea of doing it for money with any ole man who paid the fee was disgusting, degrading, and just weird.
"They prefer to be called escorts." Her tone seemed sharper, and she winged a brow. “I don't know. I'd probably do it if I wasn't hopelessly devoted to my boyfriend."
My mouth dropped open. "You're not serious, Mal."
"Why not?" The passenger door whined as she swung it open and dropped her leg out. "It's easy money. Might as well get paid $1000 for doing something you would do for free with some lame guy from the bar."
So much of her sentence shocked me, but the last part had me second-guessing my thoughts. "$1000 a night…?"
Her lips curled into a salacious grin, and she nodded. "And that's not even in the big leagues. Some men will pay up to four grand an evening if they like you." She unclasped her seatbelt and turned to face me. "Just hear me out. Hypothetically. You get a job as an escort," the word dripped from her mouth like honey as she attempted to glam it up, "you do it for a couple nights. A couple weeks tops. And you're debt-free. Worry-free. Stress-free."
I couldn't even begin to wrap my brain around the whole idea. In two nights, the money I’d make would be more than the money I made in two whole months from the cafe. All my problems could be fixed.
"Still. It's paid sex." I shook my head and turned off the Jeep.
Mallory shrugged. "Think about it. It's a lot of money for very little effort."
I wanted to say there's nothing to think about. The idea was insane. Negative forty dollars or not. We made our way inside, and I hung my purse on the hook in the back room. Then I took a deep breath and headed into Estelle’s office. Estelle and her friend Iris owned this cafe and a handful of coffee shops in Stonebridge. They were a best friend duo and served the best coffee and grilled cheeses I had ever tasted.
"Hey?" I knocked on the open door as I leaned a hip into the door frame.
She looked up from her desk. "Brooklyn! Just the girl I wanted to see. You still up for working doubles this weekend?" She perched her cat-like ruby red colored frames up her nose and waited for my reply.
I nodded. "Sure." I let a beat of awkward silence pass as my stomach twisted in knots. "So… I was just wondering about that raise I asked about."
