Living in Sin (The Escort Series) (28 page)

Goddamn that stupid fucking bitch! She’s managed to ruin my relationship with the only woman I’ve let myself care about, the only woman who I’ve allowed to learn about the real me. I know I didn’t tell Adrienne about being an escort, but I felt letting her know about my personal life was more telling. She may not know, but in doing that, I let her know more about me than any other female has ever known. Adrienne knows me. The real me, and she didn’t want me to be anyone else. I fucked it up, I know I did. I know I should have told her about what I did a long time ago, but I didn’t know how. I knew it would hurt her, and that’s something I didn’t want to do.

I’m sure Vivian made it seem like there was more going on between us. She was really trying to get me to fuck her in the bathroom of the club. I’ve never had a girl follow me to the bathroom and proposition me. I told her I wouldn’t sleep with her, and since I wasn’t an escort anymore, she couldn’t hire me either. She didn’t like that. After we left the bathroom, I tried my hardest to get away from her, but she followed me and kept talking about how we could go to her house. My plan was to let her believe I’d take her home, which is why she was waiting outside. What I really did was go back inside and look for Adrienne. I was going to tell her to come home with me and I was going to come clean about everything then. Only Adrienne found Vivian first, and all went to hell.

I understand why Adrienne is upset and she has every right to be, but she needs to give me a chance to fully explain to her everything. I need to see her; I need to make her listen. Our opening is coming up next weekend and she has to be there. I know it may not be the right time or place to have this conversation, but it may be the only chance I get. I could go to her house, but I know she won’t let me in. All I can do is wait.

This week was the slowest week I’ve had in my life. I tried, unsuccessfully, to contact Adrienne, but she’s been ignoring any and all phone calls and messages. After the first three days, I stopped. There was no point in continuing to try when I knew she wouldn’t respond to me. Troy and Marc have spoken to her regarding our grand opening, but they’ve both said that she hasn’t mentioned anything about me. She’s been strictly professional, and I’m not surprised. Part of me worries that she’s moved on and is fine. Maybe she doesn’t want anything to do with me. I just can’t let her go that easy. I know we’ve only known each other a few months, but when you have someone you know is special, someone who makes you
feel
, then you don’t let that go without a fight.

Tonight is the night I’ll see Adrienne again, and I plan on making sure she doesn’t leave without hearing what I have to say. I’m already dressed in a black suit with light blue pinstripes. A baby blue button up and black tie to set it off.

I’m both excited and nervous about tonight. I can only hope for the best for both the club, and Adrienne and myself. Walking out of my building, I nod to John behind the desk.

“Good luck tonight, sir.”

“Thanks, John,” I respond without stopping.

Getting into my Bentley, I text Troy to let him know I’m on my way.

When I arrive, I park in the back and enter through an employee only entrance. There’s already a line at the front door and it gives me hope that tonight will be a success. At least business wise. I find Troy and Marc in the office on the first floor.

“You see the line out there?” Marc asks with a smile.

“Yeah. Gonna be a busy night,” I respond with my own smile.

“Uh, Adrienne is out there somewhere. She’s making sure everything is set up,” Troy says. “Just in case you wanted to know.”

“Oh okay. I think I’ll wait until she isn’t busy.”

“You haven’t talked to her since that night?” Marc asks.

“Nah. She hasn’t really given me the time of day. Once she found out I was an escort, fucked that Vivian bitch, and had sex with someone else after I had sex with her, she was finished.”

Marc gives me a sad look. “I’m sorry, man. It was me who asked you to join in with me and that client.”

I shake my head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s work, or was. Plus, I didn’t know what was going on with Adrienne then. She took off after our first time together. She didn’t give me time to explain that.”

“Well, hopefully you’ll get the chance to talk to her,” Marc says.

I nod. “So, is everything good to go? We don’t need to do anything before the doors open?”

“I think we’re all set,” Troy answers.

“Good. Want to go to the bar and take a shot before we get this thing started?” I ask.

“Of course,” Troy responds and Marc smiles.

We walk out of the office and down to the bar. All of the employees are in place and ready to start working. Marc’s level is the first level, and it has an elegant feel to it. There are cream colored leather couches with dark red pillows, facing low, rectangular-shaped tables. Those are on two walls of the room. The other wall has little sections with small walls enclosing a small table and booths for more of a private feel. Each table has a small chandelier hanging above them, and the ‘room’ is soft and plush, colored the same red as the pillows. The bar sits towards the front, and the dance floor is in the middle of the room.

“To a successful night, fellas,” Troy says as we lift our shots in the air.

“Well, ready to go to our levels?” I ask Troy.

“Yeah, let’s go have one last look while they’re empty. Marc, have them open the doors in about fifteen minutes.”

Troy and I head up the stairs to his level. There’s also an elevator, but we put that in mostly for the drunk people who won’t be able to walk up and down stairs very well. It’s helpful to their friends who will end up having to take care of them.

Troy’s level has a red glow around the entire room. Along one wall is a huge couch that breaks into smaller sections with small tables placed in each section. Behind the couch, across the length of the wall, is something that looks similar to a large bookshelf. There are different size lanterns on each shelf and a few large mirrors. In other sections of the room are curved booths with small candles resting on black tables. He has three round, small stages that are a few steps higher than the ground floor, for people to dance on. Near the outside deck are cream colored benches and tables, His bar is at the back of the room and the dance floor is in the middle.

“Looks good, man,” I say.

“Yeah, I like it,” he responds with a grin.

“Well, I’m heading up to mine. See ya later.”

I leave him on his level, and go up to enjoy mine while it’s still clean and quiet.

My level has black leather, curved seats with three tables at each couch. There are cream colored curtains that you can pull if you happen to only be taking up one table and want more privacy. Each table in the club has a fairly large chandelier above it. Another section of booths curve around a large area and face each other. In a back corner of the club are larger booths that also have curtains that can be put to use. There are dim lights giving off a red glow, similar to Troy’s level, around those tables. The chairs at the bar are large and have backs on them so people can sit comfortably. The dance floor is in the middle like the other levels.

Each of our outside decks holds another smaller bar with more tables and chairs. Marc’s bar also serves small finger foods.

I start hearing voices and footsteps and know that the doors have been opened. The DJs begin playing their music and our opening night has officially started. A smile crosses my face. I’ve finally moved past being paid for my company.

Moving to a door in the corner of the room, I remove my key and unlock it. Once through, it locks automatically and I make my way to the office that gives me a view of the whole level. I watch the people trickle in and tour the level. After about half an hour, I exit the office and slowly head down to the first level. I need to find Adrienne. I need to make sure she doesn’t do what she needs to do and then leaves. All I can think about is explaining everything and hoping she believes me.

I stop on Troy’s level and look around there first. If she’s with Emilie, then maybe they’ll be here and talking to Troy. After about fifteen minutes of searching the tables, booths, and bar, I decide to head to the first floor. When I get to the darkened stairs, what I see not only shocks me, but pisses me right the fuck off.

I’ve been dreading tonight, and if I wasn’t so concerned with my job and being professional, I wouldn’t have come. I know that Jace is here somewhere. He has to be since it’s the grand opening of his club, but I hope that there will just be so many people that I won’t run into him. Knowing we’re in the same building has my nerves on end. Even though I’ve hoped that I don’t see him, I made sure to go buy a new dress for the occasion. I bought a black, above-the-knee length dress. It’s completely backless and the opening stops right above my ass. The dress is equipped with five faux pearl necklaces down the back. They drape along the length of the cutout. The front of the dress has three, shorter-length faux pearl necklaces as well. I was able to find the perfect ivory and black Swarovski crystal shoes to match. Because of the back of the dress, I decided to wear my hair in a tight, high bun.

I keep telling myself I didn’t go all out in the hopes to make Jace eat his heart out…but I did. My plan was to come early, and make sure everything was setup and then leave. I had to make sure the raffle stations were set up on each level where I wanted them to be. I also had cake, cupcakes, fruit, and chocolate fountains set up on each deck. This job was fairly easy. After getting the prizes figured out, we printed out photos of what people were trying to win and blew them up to post near the raffle ticket stations.

When I told Emilie that I wasn’t planning on staying, she pouted and had a mini tantrum. She was coming and didn’t want to stay here alone after I had left. After tons of begging and bribing, she convinced me to stay. She’s also the one who helped me pick out my outfit. I told her about my phone call with Jace, and she understands why I’m upset, but still thinks I should talk to him some more. When I asked why the hell for, her response was because there are always two sides to a story, and I didn’t give him enough time to explain further. Whatever. I’m thinking a little bit of space will help me figure things out. Maybe he doesn’t care anymore. I know I didn’t answer his calls, but he did only try for the first few days after I found out about everything. Since he hasn’t tried since then, maybe he thinks I’m not worth the trouble. Men only go after what they want.

Tonight I’m going to try not to think about it all, and just have a good time with Em. That might be hard to do since I’m in his club and know he’s lurking somewhere. However, maybe he’ll be too busy to worry about me.

After I made sure all my work was done, I found Emilie and we got some drinks on the first level of the club.

“Thanks for staying,” she says with a sly smile.

“Uh huh. You owe me,” I respond with a smirk.

“Whatever. We’ll have a blast tonight and you’ll forget why you didn’t want to stay.”

I give her a pointed look.

“Okay, maybe not forget completely, but let’s drink!”

We throw back shots of Atomic Fireball, and then drink our Long Islands.

“So, have you talked to Troy?” I ask.

“Yeah. Two days after everything went down, he called me. As soon as we got on the phone, it was kind of that awkward silence, so I broke it. I straight up asked him if he was an escort too. I think that’s what he was waiting for. He told me that he was, and still is.”

“Still?”

“Yep!”

“And?”

“Well, nothing. He said he never thought about when he’d quit. This is what he’s done for a while now.”

She stops talking and takes a drink.

“I know y’all hadn’t gotten serious, or even had sex, but I know you liked him. What are you going to do?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I do like him, and I told him that, but I also told him I don’t think I could handle him being with other women all the time. He understands that. We pretty much left it at that.”