“Good Day, Niz.” I walk out of the cafe with hot coffee in hand.

My legs take me to the lake house as I finish my coffee. Nowadays I spend lots of time there. Next month the whole place would be swamped with noisy tourists. This is the best time to sit alone and listen to the seagulls.

In the cold bench, I sit facing the lake the wind is low, but biting. Sam would whine.

I'm planning to call the braille card company. I want to hear his side of story before confronting mom. I know both the phone recordings by heart. My search for others, wasn't successful. Mom must have used her mobile phone.

One thing is evident. They both were talking about me from the beginning and they both never mentioned it to me.

Why? That's what I couldn't answer. Is it straight forward leave my son and I'll pay you threat? If it was, Sam would have told me. Wouldn't he?

If he had taken her money, mom would have flaunted it. He refused her money and still left. He had plans to leave even before we started dating. So why did mom offer money in the first place? Was Sam planning to stay back? There is also—

“Are you taken?” A voice shakes me out of my thoughts.

A voice, I have been dreaming about. A voice I needed to listen daily, to find sleep.

“Sam?” I stand up, unable to believe my ears. Even though, I knew– my ear drums never deceive me.

My hands were taken in cold, lean fingers. The touch is as familiar as my own. My head swims in euphoria.

“Answer me first.” Sam commands. God, please let this not be a dream.

I pull my hands out of his grip and place them on his face. Joy erupts from all corners of my being. This is Sam, I know this nose, this lips, this jaw. This is real. Sam came, he fucking came back.

His thumbs trace my cheek.

“No. Are you?” I ask, fighting my grin.

“No. I th—” I stop him with a bruising kiss. His scent, his wonderful scent envelopes me before his arms.

Everything else can wait.

He pushes my shoulder when I don't pull away on my own. “Oh, God Erin, as much as I want to, I missed— we need oxygen.” His voice shakes, as he jumps from sentence to sentence without finishing them, he must be cold. I can warm him.

“I don't.” I pull him flush against my body. “Where were you?”

He steers me to the bench and sits next to me without answering. I guess, we should get the serious talks out of the way before getting in to bed.

“In jail.” Sam replies, I secure his hand inside mine.

Okay. It was one of my theories. Not the worst one.

“For what?”

“Drugs. I was on parole. Had to go back.”

Okay. Not bad.

“Now you're free? But how did you leave Switzerland in parole? You can't go out of country. Can you?” I don't know much about jails, I should talk to our lawyers and find out everything about it.

He chuckles. His other hand reaches to my hair and sweeps away my loose strands behind my ear, sending a shiver through my veins. I don't remember when he took away my glasses. I didn't even realize it until now.

“Do you seriously believe that? I was just…” Sam stops.

I'll believe any circumstances that was out of his control. I just can't take it if he stayed away from me by his own free will. I'd break him in half in that case. I clutch his hand tighter. “Stop playing, Sam.”

“I thought I'll say something outrageous so that you would feel less hurt about the truth. But I guess it doesn't work that way.” He sighs. I want to pour his voice in a jug and drink it. Fucking missed it.

“Just spit it out.” My heart rate hasn't come back down from the excitement of finally having Sam. It speeds up again in anxiety. What could be worse than jail? I know of a few, but I'm not ready to go that route yet.

“Do you remember what you said about me meeting your mom at the engagement party?” He asks. He has taken his hand away from my hair, I already miss his fingers.

I shake my head. Too giddy to answer. It has to do with mom. I fucking knew it. But anything mom created is solvable. It's definitely not worse than jail. Maybe Sam thought so.

“You said that I was the first person who wasn't chosen by your mom. That's—that’s not true. I was hand picked by her.” Sam's voice wavers.

“What?” It didn't make sense. She should have been happy that I liked Sam if that was the case.

“She booked me as your escort, I offer escort services for a fee. I came as your escort Erin, because she wanted you to have a date for your sister's party. She paid me a lot for seven days, I needed that money. I have no other excuse.” I heard the bitterness loud and clear.

I sit there, thinking. Sam – escort. Escorts offer sexual services right? If I had known I'd have paid him for the whole year and kept him with me. Oh my god, how many people got to sleep with him in the last year? I didn't get to have sex even once.

“I'm sorry I hurt you, I wish we had– it doesn't matter. Now I would like to date you for real. If you… if you can forgive me.. that is. I don't expect you to..” Sam is rambling on, while I'm still thinking about sex.

“Sam, stop. I can't think with you talking. You're distracting me. I need to think. Do you see an apartment complex to your left?”

“There are two.”

“Not with the number two-four-three. I live in the second floor."

"You moved?" Sam sounds surprised.

"Yes, Come in an hour. Or come with me, but stay quiet. This is a lot to think. You can't say you're an escort and expect me not to think through it.”

He presses his fingers in my palm. “I understand, I'll come later.”

"Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't you fucking vanish again!"

"I won't."

I get up and walk home in a trance. I'm not even sure what I'm thinking, all I know is I need to be alone to think through this. If I sit next to him, I can't think.

Once comfortably settled on my couch, I think back to what Sam said.

He is an escort. He must have had lots of sex. So much. Do they have lap dances in Switzerland? Does he do lap dance? Oh, God that would be—

Shit! Stop thinking about sex!!!

Sam is escorting because he needs money. Yes, I need to think about that. That's the problem here. I already knew he had loans. If those are paid, he should be free. But is that why he stayed away? What changed now? God, I should have brought him home. So many questions.

I take a swig of water to clear my head. I need to concentrate on one thing.

Sam's loans.

I'm wealthy but mom hasn't released most of my inheritance. What I control is a small portion, surely I can pay off his loan. It won't be that huge, will it be?

When I pay off his loans, he won't have to escort anymore. I can have him all to myself, lap dances and all.

I grin.

My phone rings. “Babe?” Lydi asks when I pick up.

“Who else would I be?” I'm still grinning.

“Definitely not my brother. You sound chirpy.” Lydi teases.

“Guess, who is in town?”

“Who?” She thinks it's town gossip.

“Sam.” I'm almost singing his name.

“WHAT!!!” Mom's voice screeches.

“Fuck you Lydi!” I cut the call. Lydi never learned not to use home phone.

I'm not ready to talk to mom.

I've to think about how to pay Sam's loans. Will he accept my help? I'll convince him in one way or the other if he doesn't.

Does he think he can date me and escort as well?

I frown. No, I am not that good a person. I want Sam all to myself.

The distinct sound of lock turning makes me frown harder. I should have taken back her keys or changed the locks.

“Go away!!” I scream as soon as I hear her footsteps. I'm not yet done thinking. Now I've to convince her to leave.

Another set of steps rush to me.

“Erin, please. Listen to her.” Lydi hugs me.

“I don't want to. Go away. Both of you!!”

“I won't, you will listen to me. I won't let a fraud cheat you out of your money.” Mom shouts back.

I scoff. Ed was right, mom is paranoid.

“I paid him to.. to.. service you. He is a prostitute! There... I said it. I don't care if he sues. That's his plan. I knew it.” She sits opposite to me with a thud.

“Wait, why would he sue you?”

“He made mom sign an additional contract stating that if she ever reveals that she paid him to date you, she has to pay him a hefty sum. It's a very hefty sum Erin. It's all here written and signed in front of our lawyer.” Lydi thrusts a file in my hand.

“Read it, the important bits.” I command.

“What important bits? Didn't you hear me! I paid him. He—”

“MOM! STOP!” I shout.

“I’m reading. Please don't fight.” Lydi clutches my shoulder.

“This is signed on February Seventh of two thousand and fifteenth between them. Because the escort is going against his work principles and hiding his true intentions, I agree to compensate him in case I reveal our contract to my son during or after his services.”

“What principles?” I knew what, Sam didn't want to hurt me.

“It's nothing. Just to make me pay more. Aren't you shocked? You don't look very shocked.” Mom says.

“I'm shocked you are telling me this even after he asked you not to.” I snap. They're wasting my time. I've to think of ways to convince Sam to take my help to settle his loans.

“He is a male escort Erin, a fancy sex worker.” Lydi repeats mom's words.

“He told me.” I say.

Mom gasps. “I told you, he is clever. He wants—”

“Mom, one more word, and I'm walking out.” I warn her. “You don't know him. He wants nothing, except me.”

“Oh, babe. That's not possible. Don't you realize? All your dates, all his actions everything is a lie. He's an experienced escort, he knows how to keep his clients happy. He was acting around you. That's not real Sam.” Lydi really believes it.

“You know what? I don't care. If that was him just acting, I'd pay him to act until the end of my days. I'll hire him for life.”

Lydi's fingers tighten around me. “You don't mean it."

“He has seduced you with his bedroom techniques. It's my —”

I laugh at mom's reasoning. Bedroom techniques.

“We haven't fucked once! We did nothing! You're stupid. You're so arrogant of your working eyes, you stopped using your brain.” I want to push them both out of the house.

“Babe…” Lydi tries to get in a word.

“No, listen to me. He loves me. I believe that. You don't have to.”

“He isn't correct for you." Mom says.

I have heard enough. "There's no one more suited than him. He isn't repulsed by my eyes, in fact he never allows me to wear my glasses. He loves it when I laugh. He doesn't think it's creepy when I laugh out loud. He likes my touches and when I smell him, he doesn't think that it's weird. He always finds a reason to touch my hands and face and head and hair... Oh my fucking heavens, I'll give everything for him to touch my hair. I started wearing my beanie askew, so that he'll correct it.” I pause to take a break.

“You don't know the real Sam!” Lydi cries.

“I know him. Most important thing is he knows me. Like the back of his hand.” I shoot back.

“That was his job!”

“He was seducing you.”

They both say at the same time and my doorbell rings. I panic.

“That's him! Go away. Hide somewhere. If you make a sound I'll disown both of you. Leave when we go to the bedroom. Understand? Stay only if you want to know how we fuck. Because, I'm not letting him go anywhere until we fuck.”

I wish they weren't there, but I can’t let them take over our reunion.

Time to convince Sam to forget about escorting.