"I basically had to go buy an entirely new wardrobe because of you," I inform Micah over the phone on Wednesday night.

"Why did you do that?" He questions. I have the phone on speaker so his voice echoes through my small bathroom.

"This job at your dad's office. I'm starting on Monday and I didn't have any business-y clothes. I spent hours at the mall, searching bargain bins for blazers and dress pants," I explain as I'm working on perfecting the wing of my eyeliner over top of my bathroom sink. Tonight is the night of the Hudson business party and I have to be at the hotel in an hour.

"I'm sorry," He jokingly apologizes. "I'm excited for you to start work there though, we'll see each other almost every day instead of just on weekends."

"I know, it'll be really great," I agree with him, just smiling a bit to myself at the thought of being able to see Micah so often. "I'm excited too. And now, I have a crap load of professional clothes so I'm going to look like a million bucks."

"You already look like a million bucks," He promises me. "Did you get any pencil skirts?"

"I got one. Why?"

"No reason," Micah insists. "I'm just thinking that you'd look like maybe a billion bucks if you were wearing a pencil skirt."

"You think so?" I wonder, smiling again at how freaking adorable he is. I try not thinking about the fact that in just an hour, I will be in a hotel room probably giving a lot of very rich men some very sleazy dances.

"Definitely," He confirms. "You know, it sucks that you have to work tonight. I don't have any early classes tomorrow. I could probably be able to spare some time to come see you."

"It's for the best," I say to him while I finish up my eye makeup and choose a lipstick. My eyes aren't very bold so I go with a bright red lipstick. First, I apply the lip liner and then twist out the tube of lipstick. "You probably have some studying to do anyway."

"Yeah," Micah sighs. "I'd rather be with you though."

"Trust me. I'd rather be with you instead of working too," I tell him honestly. Before we got together, I didn't mind my work and I sometimes even enjoyed it. But now, I just feel disgusting and guilty all of the time. And paranoid, worried that he's going to find out that I'm an escort and then he'll break up with me, hate me. He definitely won't be thinking that I'm a million-dollar girl anymore.

"Can you call in sick?" He offers.

"I can't afford it," I say to him. "But I'll see you this weekend, and then on Monday. We can make it just a few more days without seeing each other."

"I know that we can, I just don't want to," He explains.

"You're sounding especially sappy tonight," I notice with amusement. "I'm not complaining, I'm enjoying the sap, it's just really adorable."

"I've just been thinking about you all day," Micah admits to me. I have to stop applying the lipstick so that I can smile again because whenever he says something cute like that, I can't help but smile. "And now I'm thinking about the pencil skirt. I think that I'm just horny."

"Really, I didn't wear you out Saturday?" I ask him curiously.

"Oh, no, you definitely wore me out," He assures me. "But in a good way and I'll never get tired of being with you. Plus, my stamina is pretty great so I bounce back fast."

"I'm pretty aware of your stamina," I respond with a short laugh before I quickly finish putting on the lipstick so that I don't smudge it by laughing or smiling too much. That finishes my makeup, so I run my fingers through my hair one last time to make sure that it looks okay and I head out of the bathroom.

"You're killing me," Micah groans.

"The feeling is mutual," I admit to him. "I have to get going to work but text me later if you're still awake."

"When is your shift over?" He asks me. I look at myself in the full body mirror for one last look-over before I leave the apartment. Ashe really had bought me a new dress when we went shopping and it's pretty... revealing. It's a short, tight dress with long sleeves and not very much cleavage, which makes the dress almost look classy. Almost. On the sides of the dress, there are wide cutouts that are kept together with string-like pieces of fabric, like how a shoe lace is looped through a shoe. The same cutout pattern runs down the sleeves.

It's almost a t-shirt fabric, so it's comfortable when inside but it's getting pretty cold outside so hopefully, I can get to the hotel quickly.

"Three. But they might ask me to work overtime," I say to him. The Hudson men have pre-ordered our services until three a.m. but if there are men who would like to pay for some more time, we're allowed to accept. We don't have to but I will if I'm asked. I need the money. "So I'm not completely sure."

"Okay, I'll try to stay awake."

"Micah, don't do that," I tell him with another laugh. "You have class tomorrow. Maybe we can do dinner tomorrow? Since you're so desperate to see me."

"I have a study group all evening tomorrow. I'll just keep it in my pants until Saturday," He mutters, obviously unhappy about that. I definitely wish that I was getting naked with him tonight instead of these strangers from Hudson, so it sucks that we can't spend tonight together but I have to go to this party. It's so much money, it will pay for the shopping trip I just went on with Ashe where I had to buy all of those professional clothes.

"Okay. See you Saturday. Goodnight, Micah," I grab my purse and make sure everything is inside before I hang it over my shoulder and head out the door.

"Goodnight, El," He responds and then we say our goodbyes and our phone call ends. Talking to my sweet boyfriend definitely doesn't help the guilt factor when I'm about to go to work. It actually multiplies by ten because I can't get all of those romantic things that he'd said out of my head. I don't care if he only said them because he was thinking about me naked, or in a pencil skirt, he still said them.

Ironically enough, thinking about Micah thinking about me, it makes me think about being with him. Feeling his skin against my skin, seeing his muscles flex and relax with his movements, hearing his moans and groans when I push the right buttons. Maybe thinking about Micah cooking breakfast naked in my kitchen will help me get through this night with a smile on my face.

While we were shopping, I agreed to meet Ashe in the lobby so that we can go up to the hotel room together. I get to the hotel first so I sit in the lobby for about five minutes until Ashe comes along wearing a dress just as skimpy as mine only hers is a deep red color which really pops against her dark skin.

"Gina is coming too but she won't be here for another hour or so," Ashe tells me. "I love that lip color, I need to raid your makeup stash. I think that I'm going to hit up Sephora next week."

"I didn't get this at Sephora," I assure her as we get on the elevator. "You're shopping at Sephora now?"

"I was away for a month and a half, you know," She reminds me. "That guy paid me a grand a day to stay with him, not including the fact that he paid for the hotel we stayed in and all of my food. I told you, I made bank. I'm living in luxury now."

"You're lucky," I mutter.

"I know that you had to start taking less clients because of your shitty foster dad," She says because I had told her that story when we went shopping earlier in the week. "So if you need me to lend you some money, you know that I have your back."

"I'm okay. My boyfriend got me a second job that I'm starting on Monday," I inform her. "That's why I had to buy all of those blazers and skirts. So I'm fine, really, but thanks for the offer."

"Anytime," She promises me.

The gig tonight will help me out a lot too because of all of the men that will be here. I guess that there could be women too, that aren't paid to be there, but I highly doubt it. There never have been, in my experience. But I guess that it is possible.

Once we arrive at the hotel room, Ashe gives the door a few knocks and we're quickly greeted by a tall man wearing a suit and a wide grin on his face. "The girls are here," He announces to his friends in the room before he addresses us. "Come on in, ladies."

There are seven men in the room and no women, as I had predicted. They're all varying degrees of middle-aged and still wearing their business attire from a hard day at work. The room is a living space with three pastel couches in the shape of a U and some plush matching chairs. There's a TV but it's turned off and a long table by the wall with a few big glass containers of varying types of alcohol.

All conversations stop when we walk into the room and all eyes are immediately on us. It's been a while since I've worked a party like this but I remember that I loved being the center of attention. Now, the only attention that I want is Micah's so I'm not nearly as excited about this night as I would have been just a month ago.

"You girls are looking fine tonight," One of the men sitting on the couch compliments us with a dark drink in his hand that I can only assume is alcohol.

"Honey, we know," Ashe gives him a sultry smile. "It's all for you. Are we going to get some music playing or what?"

"Sure, sweetheart," Another one of them (I can't tell any of them apart) agrees and then he turns on a stereo system that's set up near the TV.

"What kind of fun are you men looking for tonight?" I ask to the small group of them, all sitting on the couch now with their drinks and eager smiles on their faces.

"Just want to have a good time. We're in the middle of a big merger, we need some stress relief," A man with a red tie informs me and then he grins wider and pats the guy beside him on the shoulder. "Not too much relief for this one though, he's married."

"Fuck, I'm married too but Janet hasn't looked like that in thirty years," One to the left, his tie is silver, bellows a deep laugh.

With the music playing, Ashe and I start dancing in the middle of the couches and the men around us watch appreciatively as they tease Silver Tie about his wife, who they apparently think is a bitch. I feel bad for Janet even though I don't even know her. I hope that she somehow finds out how her crappy husband has spent his night. I know that makes me such a hypocrite because I'm here too without Micah knowing. At least I'm not calling him a bitch or badmouthing him to my friends, so that's something.

"You two ever play with each other?" The man beside Red Tie asks us with a perverted smile curving on his wrinkled face. He looks to be the oldest one of the bunch, maybe fifty or sixty.

"Costs extra," Ashe answers him.

"Shit, I'd liquidate my goddam house and everything in it to see that happen," Red Tie mutters.

"I'd sell my wife," Silver Tie laughs and all of his friends laugh too. Poor Janet. I wonder who raised these men, and when they learned that it was okay to talk about women like that. Who told Silver Tie that it was okay to joke about hating your wife, and joke about selling her, like she's his property? Doesn't he ever think about what if somebody talked about his mother like that, or his daughter or sister. There has to be some woman in his life that could teach him that it's not okay to talk about his wife like that.

If Casey ever started talking like that about anybody, I'd never forgive myself for failing to raise him well. I'd also beat him up until he learned that it wasn't okay to talk about people like they're property.

I know that it might sound ridiculous to some people that the hooker doesn't like people talking about other people like property but I don't consider what I do selling myself. I'm not property, I'm selling a service.

Like it's not okay to harass a plumber or the person mowing your lawn, it's not okay to harass a hooker. We are not selling our bodies as a whole thing, and we're not selling our souls. We're selling a show, a dance, or some girl on girl making out. And if they give us more money, we're selling a service—a lap dance or a blow job maybe. That doesn't mean that they own us.

"Alright, let's do this then," There's a man with a baby blue button up shirt on the far right of the group who holds up a stack of cash. Ashe takes the stack, counts it and then hands me my half. It's $500 each, which is enough for me and Ashe takes the money too so I guess that it's enough for her too.

When the men see that we've accepted the offer, they all start howling and cheering. I wonder if they've ever hired escorts before because they all seem very enthusiastic about what's happening, like an eighteen year old boy going to his first strip club or something.

We put our purses down on the coffee table near us so that they're in reach but they're not weighing us down while we work. Then, we give them the show that they've been waiting for.

I don't know why they enjoy it so much, watching Ashe and I make out in front of them, but they seem absolutely captivated by it. They've probably never seen two girls kissing before but I don't think that it's much different than seeing any two people kissing so I don't understand the hype. I don't mind though, I got an extra $500 out of it.

When Gina arrives to the small party, the making out stops and we start dancing again. This time, on top of the men. I'm giving Blue Shirt a dance with his hands on my hips as he's having a conversation with Red Tie about the meeting that they have tomorrow. Because that's apparently what comes to mind when he's getting a lap dance.

After he's had more to drink, his hands grip my hips with a firm hold and pulls me down onto his lap some more. He's stopped talking to Red Tie and starts murmuring sexual comments into my ear like how nice my butt looks and he starts listing a lot of vulgar things that he'd like to do to me. Because I'm facing away from him, I fade into a second reality where it's Micah telling me those things and it helps me get through it easier. Pretending like I'm grinding against Micah's erection actually starts to turn me on a little bit, I'm kind of ashamed to admit.

I don't know how long I'm grinding against this man's lap until he reaches around me with a hundred dollar bill and slowly tucks it between my dress and my right breast. With his lips close to my ear, he mutters, "That dress does look nice, but I think you'd look better without it."

He releases my hips from his grip so I stand up and put the hundred in my purse on the coffee table. I don't tell him that I would have taken the dress off for free because that's sort of expected of us when they pay the base price. I stand in front of him and smoothly slip out of my dress, kicking it to the side.

The dress is backless so I'm not wearing a bra which means that I'm standing in front of seven strangers and two of my friends only wearing a pair of thin panties and my heels. It's not uncomfortable for me and it's not the first time that I've done this so I easily go right back to dancing on Blue Shirt like I was before.

When the other men see that we'll take our clothes off, they start asking the same thing of Gina and Ashe, who follow suit.

The men get drunker as time goes by and they relax some more. They start conversing with each other again and the lap dances stop for a while. I take a break to get a drink of water and then start dancing in the middle of the group with Ashe and Gina instead of grinding against Blue Shirt. Some of them even start dancing with us.

It's not the worst night that I've ever had but I sure do wish that I was with Micah instead.

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