Beautiful Entourage (2 page)

“Then we’ll get along just fine.” I didn’t know Laura very well. We were barely on a first name basis. But she seemed cool. And, of course, she was pretty.

We made small talk about sports and TV shows. She used to play the violin when she was young but quit when she entered high school. Soon after, cheerleading consumed her life. And then in college, all she did was study. I told her a little bit about myself, skipping over the fact I was an escort, and tried to stick to safe topics.

Like always, I was fairly bored. Laura was very nice and beautiful but I didn’t feel that pull that should come naturally in romance. It seemed to be impossible for me to feel a connection with anyone. It was odd because I got along with everyone I met. I wasn’t judgmental and I didn’t think anyone was beneath me. But I just didn’t feel anything—period.

She brought up her job even though I didn’t ask. She was a jewelry saleswoman for a place in Soho. It seemed like she enjoyed it. She was knowledgeable about diamonds and distinguishing their quality. It was a subject I knew nothing about.

“What do you do?” she asked. “Troy never told me.”

Lying would be the easy way out. I could make up something, we would finish dinner, and then I would probably get laid. She was clearly interested in me, and her leg kept grazing mine under the table. She looked into my blue eyes like it was too hard to look away. “I’m an escort.” I said it simply and didn’t beat around the bush.

She stared at me like she hadn’t heard me. “Sorry?”

“I’m an escort,” I repeated. I wasn’t ashamed of it and I didn’t care if people judged me for it.

“Like…you have sex with people for money?” Disdain was in her voice. All the interest she had completely disappeared.

“No, never,” I said calmly. “People mainly hire me so they can pretend they have a boyfriend. It gets family members off their backs or it makes their exes jealous. While there’s handholding and innocent touches, there is no kissing or anything else physical involved. It’s very professional.”

She nodded slowly. “I see…”

Yeah, I lost her.

Some girls didn’t care and thought it was interesting. Others, like this one, immediately hated the idea. I could see it in her green eyes and the rigidness of her shoulders. “I’ve been doing it for a while. It’s also a companion service. I have one client that I meet at the park once a week and we play checkers. I do various things like that, not just pretending to be someone’s love interest.”

She nodded again. “Okay…”

I was immediately irritated but I didn’t show it. What I did for a living wasn’t that odd. It wasn’t traditional, I admit that, but it didn’t make me a bad person. If people understood what I did, the fact I actually help people, they wouldn’t look down on me like this.

Fortunately, dinner was finished and the tab was sitting at the edge of the table. I slipped the money inside so we could go our separate ways and never see each other again.

She held her silence, her lips pressed tightly together in agitation.

Laura liked the rest of me, my hobbies and my personality. But all that was irrelevant compared to how I made a living. I tried not to take it offensively. Everyone was different, and some people just couldn’t handle something so unique. “Well, it was nice to meet you, Laura.” I stood up to embrace her.

She grabbed her purse and turned away. Without saying thank you for the meal or the evening, she walked out. Never once did she look back. The last thing I saw was her blonde hair as it disappeared out the door.

Aspen

Every year since I could remember, Harper and I gave each other flowers on our birthdays. We always left them on the doorstep in the morning, so as soon as the other woke up, the start of our birthday, no matter how old we felt, would make our day start off right.

I walked into the floral shop on the corner of fifth and Lankershim and perused the arrangements. Most people spent a long time choosing birthday cards because they had to be just right. Half an hour could pass and they wouldn’t realize how much time they had wasted until they checked the time. That’s how I was when I picked out flowers for my best friend. They had to be perfect.

They couldn’t be the same color as last year, and they couldn’t be the same flower either. I doubt Harper would even know since she wasn’t a flower expert and didn’t have the best memory, but that didn’t matter. It was important to me.

I browsed through the rows and examined the various arrangements. I preferred to get her something in a vase so it would be ready to place on her kitchen table once she noticed them on her doorstep. She didn’t even need to add water.

Deep maroon petals caught my eye when I heard a voice that immediately sent my body into defensive mode.

“We have to have lilies,” the woman said. “Roses are tacky and overdone. I can’t count the number of weddings I’ve been to this year alone where the roses were overkill.” She had the voice of a fashion girl who flicked her wrist with every word she said. Without looking at her, I knew she was wearing a three hundred dollar pair of shoes and a purse that could pay someone’s monthly mortgage.

I was in the back of the store, blocked in. If I moved, I would be seen over the arrangements of flowers.

“What does John like?” another girl asked. It was Casey, her best friend.

I hated hearing his name. It was like a poison dart just penetrated my skin and impaled me with a deadly substance. My heart palpitated as the memories swept through me. But now I saw them behind my eyes with nothing but regret.

“Oh, John doesn’t care.” I actually imagined her flipping her blonde hair over one shoulder. “He’ll do whatever I say. No questions asked.” She said it like it was something to be proud of, that her man was either too weak or too stupid to question her. I wasn’t sure why I was ever with John to begin with. I preferred a man with a backbone.

I needed to get out of there. Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard. My ears burned with every spoken word. How did John put up with the sound of her voice? I guess it didn’t matter because he probably only listened to her when her back was on a mattress and he was thrusting inside her.

“Would you like to look at our arrangements?” the florist asked.

You’ve got to be kidding me. Now what do I do?

“Yes, let’s do it,” she said.

Okay, I could try to sneak out like a coward or I could just hold my ground. Honestly, I just wanted to flee, and if I could slip out without being noticed, I would. But that didn’t seem possible.

I turned my head sideways and pretended to be particularly interested in a vase of roses since I knew she wouldn’t look at them. It seemed like a safe place to try and obscure my face.

“Most of these are ugly,” she mumbled to Casey. But if I heard it, so did the florists. And that was pretty rude.

The fact she was so abrasive and inconsiderate made me question myself. I could talk shit about her all I wanted, but when it came down to it, John preferred her over me. So, I obviously had worse flaws. But I didn’t know what they were because he never told me.

“These are okay,” she said when she stopped a few feet away from me. “What do you think, Cass?”

I touched the rose gently like I was seriously considering it.

“Is there anything I can help you with, miss?” the florist asked.

Goddammit, leave me alone
. “No, just browsing.” I kept my face turned the opposite way.

“Pardon?” she asked, clearly not hearing me since I hadn’t looked at her when I spoke.

“I’m okay,” I said a little louder.

“Like, oh my god.” When my arch nemesis said those words, I knew exactly why. “Casey, guess who’s here?” Her whispers turned to excited taunts.

I’d been found. And there was nothing I could do about it.

“Hey, Aspen.” She said it enthusiastically, like she was absolutely delighted to find me cornered and alone. “Just buying yourself some flowers? To cure the blues?”

“I bet she’s sending them to herself too,” Casey said. “To make it seem like a surprise.”

I’d met a few bitches in my day, but these women were the queens. I turned to them and mustered a fake smile. “I’m buying flowers for my best friend. It’s her birthday.” These bullies couldn’t intimidate me if they tried.

“Oh, how lovely,” Isabella said with a fake smile. Her blonde hair framed her face and her perfect body was highlighted by the skin-tight dress she wore. Any time I saw her, whether it was in the morning or late at night, she was dressed like a celebrity. “At least you have someone to spend time with.”

“Yeah, it’s nice to have a friend that won’t say mean things the second you turn your back, not that you would know what that’s like.”

“Well, you can’t be talking about John since all he did was complain about you when he was cheating on you with me,” Isabella snapped.

“Ooh,” Casey said. “Good one.”

That was cold, ice-cold. I kept a stoic face and pretended like she didn’t slap me in the face with a tennis racket. “And he’ll complain about you to the next mistress he finds when he grows tired of you.”

“Well, I’m not a shitty lay,” Isabella argued. “So he won’t get tired of me.”

Knowing John paraded our personal life to anyone who would listen hurt most of all. And the fact he complained about it, said whatever he said about moments I found personal and beautiful was enough to make me cry. But I kept it together, refusing to give this witch that satisfaction. “Have fun choosing your flowers for the big day. But make notes for the ones you’ll have for your divorce.” I casually walked away, keeping my head held high.

“Don’t let the door hit your fat ass on the way out.”

I stopped before I walked out. “If you fit through it, then I should be fine.” I gave her a smile as rage contorted her face. She opened her mouth to speak but I walked out before giving her the chance to make herself look even more ugly than she already was.

***

As the assistant director of Refined Oil and Gas, I was tied up a lot. I didn’t take lunch very often because I simply didn’t have the time, and breaks were unheard of.  But at least the time went by fast.

I handled all the finances, averted legal processing, and controlled the distribution of oil and energy. I was also in charge of research, and currently, we were working on new methods of clean energy. While oil was extremely profitable, the company wouldn’t survive years down the road when climate changes were unavoidable or we simply ran out of resources. My boss didn’t always agree with me, but I knew it was the best move.

His resistance to research was financial. It cost a lot of money to recruit college students to the research program. We found scientists all over the world, especially India and paid them big bucks to make us big bucks.

My boss was narrow-minded, and investing in something that wouldn’t be cashed in until his lifetime had come and gone was all he cared about. It didn’t matter if he had kids or something else to work toward. He was a very selfish man.

And he was my father.

My intercom went off. “Mr. Lane wants to see you in his office.”

“Thank you, Cindy.” I left my office then walked to his side of the building. His office was as big as an average house. It was covered in floor-to-ceiling windows, and he had a putting golf course inside. Whenever he was on speakerphone, he putted the golf ball around.

After I knocked, he ushered me inside. He was sitting at his desk, his jacket hanging over the back of his chair. Suspenders covered his shoulders to keep his pants up. He’d always been overweight since I could remember. But he never bothered to take care of himself or join a gym, despite my encouragement.

“How’s your day going, Dad?”

He ignored the words entirely. “Why am I just hearing about a two million dollar investment into the research program?”

We already discussed this—countless times. But I kept my cool. “We can’t expect our scientists to discover something without the right equipment. They petitioned to me several times that their lab tools and instruments were worn down and old. They need the best to discover the best.”

He rubbed his temple then his eye as he usually did when he was extremely annoyed or about to scream. “Aspen.” His voice reverberated off the walls and echoed long after he spoke. “I gave you this money for clean energy, but yet, they haven’t discovered anything. They’re just taking their checks and fooling around.”

“I check on them daily, sir. I assure you, they’re working hard. Most of them work overtime without pay.”

He waved away my words. “This is a waste of resources, Aspen.”

“No, it’s not,” I said calmly.

“Oil is where the money is.”

“And oil won’t always be around.” I realized I was getting irritable. “Sir,” I added.

“That’s not my problem.”

I had this conversation too many times to count. “With all due respect, it is your problem. This company won’t survive the future without adapting and evolving. We must change with the world. Climate change is the biggest problem we face.”

“Climate change is bogus.” He lit a cigar and inhaled it.

Sometimes I wanted to quit. But I knew the company would be mine soon and I wouldn’t have to argue with him anymore. I could add more funding to research and make this company stronger. But while he was still around, all he cared about was money. “Two million dollars is negligible to your net worth.”

“But I’ve already put millions of dollars into this program with no return on my investment.”

“Because these things take time,” I said calmly.

He groaned and rubbed his temple again. He was in a particularly bad mood.

“Dad, they’ll discover something soon, and people will pay any price to have it. Just remember that.”  Money was the only language he understood.

“You better hope so.” He opened his drawer then browsed through some papers. Then he tossed a newspaper on his desk. “Have you read it?”

I looked at it but didn’t pick it up.

“I asked you a question, Aspen.” He stared at me with cold and unforgiving eyes. I didn’t see any part of myself inside him. It was like I was adopted, which was what I hoped for sometimes.

He pushed it closer to me. “John and Isabella’s wedding announcement. You should give it a read.”

I kept a stoic face and pretended his words didn’t cut me to the bone.

“Do you realize how embarrassing this is for me?”

My eyes narrowed on his face but I didn’t explode. I didn’t yell all the things I wanted to yell. I kept my cool and acted like the insults meant nothing to me. They were hollow bullets that went right through me.

“You become engaged to John and then he leaves you for someone else? Now he’s marrying her?”

I didn’t have anything to say. It wasn’t my fault. I had no idea John was cheating on me. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have stuck around. I wouldn’t have accepted his marriage proposal.

“To your own cousin?” he demanded. “Now the whole world knows about it and thinks you’re a fool—that I’m a fool.” He grabbed the newspaper and ripped it into pieces, his anger directing his actions. “It’s humiliating.”

My breathing increased but I didn’t show a single emotion.

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to cry.” He gave me a disgusted look. “I told you to never cry in my presence.”

“I’m not crying.” My voice was low so I cleared my throat and spoke up. “I’m not crying.”

“Good. Because it’s annoying. Maybe that’s why John left.”

I averted my gaze and remained strong.

He was quiet for a long time, rubbing his temple like he was fighting off a headache. “I’ve been thinking…a lot about this fiasco.”

I held my breath.

“I really don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be the face of this company. You brought me shame once. You’ll do it again.”