Courtesan Ch. 11

I looked back at Kelly. "When Traci was telling us about April and Ponce she said something that puzzled me."

"What was that?"

"She mentioned that she wished that Ponce and Danny had asked her to help them finance the house they were trying to buy."

"Okay, why does that puzzle you?"

"Traci's a cocktail waitress. I'm certain that she's a very good cocktail waitress and I don't doubt that she gets fabulous tips, but we're talking about financing the purchase of a house. That requires significant financial assets, very significant financial assets, assets that you wouldn't normally associate with a cocktail waitress." I laughed. "Or for that matter, a hack copy editor for an neighborhood advertising paper."

Kelly grinned. "Or a part time clerk at a convenience store."

"Yes, that's correct. I couldn't finance the purchase of a house either." I shrugged. "I'll grant you that Traci probably makes significantly more money that I do, but I doubt that she earns enough to make a financial move like putting up the cash to buy a house."

Kelly nodded. "Traci is quite wealthy; but you're right, she didn't amass her fortune by working as a cocktail waitress."

"So how did she do it?"

"Timmy it's only partially true that Traci and I became friends because I used to regularly eat dinner in this restaurant."

"All right."

"The firm occasionally employs her as a hostess."

"Really?"

"Yes, Martin knows her very well. When Traci was younger she worked as a headline dancer at the Black Knight."

"The strip club on the outskirts of downtown. You mentioned it earlier this evening. Are you telling me that she amassed a fortune working as a stripper?"

"Partially, from what Traci has told me the dancers at the Black Knight earn a very good income."

"But you said partially."

"Yes, Traci told me that the Black Knight has a policy of only employing dancers who are under the age of thirty."

I nodded. "That makes sense. Nude dancing is certainly a profession where youth is an advantage. Men like to look at young women."

Kelly laughed. "Maybe most men, but I'm not so sure that's true about you. Neither Tonya nor Traci appeared to have any trouble catching your attention today."

I shrugged. "Hey what can I say, I'm an open minded guy."

My wife shook her head. "Open minded guy? You're a degenerate perv."

I grinned at her. "Okay, I'll admit that."

"And Timothy Jamieson, it's one of the seven million reasons that I'm madly in love with you." Kelly was giggling.

"All right, so I assume that Traci had to quit dancing when she turned thirty. How was that relevant to her financial status?"

"She became an escort, a very highly paid escort."

"You mean a prostitute."

My wife shrugged. "I guess that's technically correct, but that word evokes the image of a woman standing on a street corner wearing black thigh high boots and a miniskirt. That certainly wasn't what Traci was doing. She was meeting affluent businessmen in upscale hotels."

"That's the same thing you were doing, isn't it?" The words just popped out and I immediately regretted saying them.

Kelly stared at me for a moment and then she sighed. "Yes, I suppose you're right. I was a prostitute too."

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that, it just popped out."

"You can't deny that what you said was true."

"Yes, but I think we already had this discussion. I don't believe there's anything inherently wrong with being paid to have sex."

"So you wouldn't object if I decided to become a paid escort."

I smiled at my wife. I don't think it was deliberate on her part, but we both knew that she'd just backed me into a corner. Suddenly I found myself confronting the fundamental question. Could I handle being married to a prostitute?

I thought about the question. After a moment I asked, "Would that mean you'd have a pimp?"

Kelly shook her head. "No, I would never want to be involved with a pimp. During a flight to Evergreen last summer Traci described her life as an escort. She told us that she always had what you might call an administrative assistant. She needed someone to take telephone calls when she was occupied with a date, assist her with her calendar and help her stay on schedule."

"Stay on schedule?"

My wife giggled. "Traci told us that it's sometimes easy to lose track of the time when you're busy fucking. She always had her assistant call her when her session was scheduled to end."

I laughed. "Yes, I suppose that would be necessary."

"She also used the assistant for another very important purpose."

"What was that?"

"Security."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"When she was doing incall her assistant..."

"Incall?"

"That means she provided the hotel room. Outcall means that she would go to her dates hotel room. Traci told us that she rarely did outcall. If she went to a strange hotel room she always felt that there was a greater risk that she was walking into a trap set up by the police."

"I guess that makes sense."

"When she did incall she always had her assistant stationed in the hotel lobby. Her dates never knew what room she was in until they got to the hotel. That way, when they arrived they had to call her cell phone from the lobby. Traci and her assistant were on a second cell phone and if her date was alone her assistant would tell her and Traci would give him the room number and tell him to come up to the room. Once her date got to the hotel room Traci would make casual conversation with him for a few minutes while her assistant monitored the hotel lobby. As soon as her assistant felt confident that nobody was following Traci's date she would call Traci and tell her that everything was all right."

"Did the system work?"

"Traci said that she never got arrested."

I smiled. "I guess it worked."

"She also used the assistant for one other purpose."

"What was that?"

"She said that when you're meeting strange men in a hotel room for sex, there's always the concern that you're going to run into a real freak. You know what I mean, a guy who likes to hurt women."

I nodded. "Yes I understand. So, one of the assistant's duties was to always know where she was and have some information like a cell phone record of who she was with."

"Yes, and that was another reason that her assistant always called her at the end of a session."

"You mean to make sure she was okay?"

"Yes, and she called again when she saw the date leaving the hotel."

"Okay, so you wouldn't have a pimp, but you would need someone to work as your assistant."

"Yes." Kelly grinned at me for a moment and then she said, "Maybe you could be my assistant."

I suppose that it shouldn't have, but Kelly's suggestion took me by surprise. My jaw must have dropped to the floor because Kelly started laughing.

"Hey it's not such a bad idea. That would allow us to be together all the time and you could have a lap top computer and work on your book while I entertained my dates." Kelly paused. After a moment she added, "Traci's fee was four hundred dollars an hour. I think I could probably get at least that much. If we worked four days a week and I entertained five dates on each of those days I could earn eight thousand dollars a week. Timmy that's four hundred thousand dollars a year."

"How would the men find you?"

"Traci said that there are Internet sites where escorts advertise."

"Doesn't that also let the police find you?"

"We'd have to be very careful."

"What if you did get arrested? It's very likely that your mother and sisters would find out? Could you handle that?"

Kelly closed her eyes and sighed. It was obvious that she hadn't considered that possibility. After a moment she said, "I don't know, I'll have to think about that."

For several seconds we were both quiet and then my wife started to smile. She looked at me and said, "You still haven't answered the question."

"What question?"

Kelly rolled her eyes. "The original question silly. Would you object if I decided to become a paid escort?"

I closed my eyes for a moment and thought about my answer. Finally I said, "I don't know. I don't think I'd be bothered by any moral issues and I certainly wouldn't be jealous of your dates, but I think it's dangerous. No matter how careful we are, there is always the possibility that you could get arrested and I would always be worried about the possibility that you might run into a freak who would hurt or even kill you."

My wife shrugged. "There would be risks, but Timmy we could make a lot of money and work together. And both of us would have time to write."

I nodded, "That's all true, but you could also make a very good income and have time to write if you went back to your old job at the firm, and you wouldn't have any of the risks."

Kelly stared at me. "Timmy are you saying that it would be all right with you if I went back to my old job?"

I smiled at her. "It's a safer choice for you than becoming a paid escort. It wouldn't allow us to work together, but I think that's good trade off for the security and safety the job offers. Bedsides, if you're not trying to hide what your doing from me, we'll still have more time to spend together than we had in the past year."

My wife's face lit up. "Oh Timmy thank you! I promise I'll always be very honest about what I'm doing and I'm absolutely certain that we'll be able to spend a lot more time together."

I held up my hand. "Hold on, I haven't fully agreed. There is one last matter that we still have to discuss and frankly money might not be an issue for us."

"Sorry it took me so long to get your cocktails. I sort of fell behind with my tables while I was talking with you. I had to do a little hustling to get caught up."

Kelly and I turned. Traci was standing behind us. She was holding a tray with two small glasses filled with amber colored liquor and ice cubes.

Kelly smiled at her. "That's okay, as you can see, we were so busy talking that we weren't paying any attention to the time."

Traci placed a napkin in front of each of us and set our rusty nails on the napkins.

As she was doing that Kelly glanced at me and said, "Timmy give Traci a twenty dollar bill."

While I was taking out my money clip and finding a twenty dollar bill Kelly said to Traci, "We're only going to have one drink. If we settle up right now you won't have to worry about us for the remainder of the time were here."

Traci nodded. "That's a good idea. It looks like I'm going to be pretty busy for the rest of the evening. By the way, your little act with the five dollar bill was very good for business." She raised the hem of her skirt. The straps of her garter belt were stuffed with five dollar bills."

Kelly laughed. "I'm glad I could help you out."

Traci shook her head. "I'm getting some very good tips, but I'm also having to slap a lot of wandering hands away from my ass and my pussy."

I didn't actually have a twenty dollar bill so I had to hand Traci two tens. As she took them from me Kelly asked, "Is that enough to cover the drinks and a tip?"

Traci nodded. "The rusty nails are eight dollars each." You've really already given me my tip, so why don't you let me give you four dollars back."

Kelly shook her head. "Absolutely not."

Traci stared at Kelly. "Are you sure? Honey you're out of work and I remind you that I really don't need the money."

Kelly smiled. "Thank you, but I am sure. Timmy and I are both very frugal. We have a nice nest egg stashed away. We'll be all right for quite a while."

"Okay." Traci picked up her pen, scrawled something on one of the napkins on her tray and handed the napkin to Kelly. "Here's my telephone number. Let's get together some evening when I'm not working."

"That would be very nice. You could come over for dinner. Timmy is a wonderful cook."

Traci smiled. "I'd like that very much." She glanced around the bar. "Hey the natives are starting to get restless again. I'd better get going."

"Traci before you leave can I ask you one question?"

"Sure Kelly, but it has to be a quick one."

"I have the impression that during the time you were working as an escort you put away a fairly large sum of money. If that's true, why are you working as a cocktail waitress?"

Traci laughed. "That question is easy. You're right, while I was working as an escort I did put away enough money to live on for the rest of my life, but I just turned forty. I'm much too young to move into the old people's home. Working as a cocktail waitress is fun and it gives me a good opportunity to meet new people."

She looked around again. The men sitting at a table on the other side of the bar were trying to get her attention. "Hey listen, I gotta go. Call me okay?"

"I'll call you this week Traci."

Traci nodded and then she turned and hurried to the table on the other side of the room."

As Traci left our table I glanced over at the bar and noticed that the man who had been brazenly staring at my wife when we walked in was still there, and he was still staring at Kelly.

Kelly picked up her cocktail and smiled at me. "A toast."

I picked up my drink. "All right."

"To a fresh start."

I smiled and clinked her glass. "I will definitely drink to that."

We both took a sip of our rusty nails. As I set mine down Kelly asked, "Well what do you think? Do you like it?"

I nodded. "Yes, I do like it. It does make a wonderful after dinner drink. It's sweet, but it still has that nice smoky flavor of scotch.

My wife grinned at me. "Good, I was hoping you'd like it." She set her glass down. "Okay, what's this big mystery that you and Wendell were talking about?"

I thought for a moment. I wasn't quite sure how I should begin. Finally I took a deep breath and said, "Do you remember that I mentioned that I had a meeting with Martin Jackson this morning?"

"Yes, of course I remember. I gather that it's one of the reasons you were willing to talk to me this afternoon."

"That's right. Martin Jackson spoke very passionately on your behalf."

Kelly smiled. "He really is a good man." She suddenly stopped and stared at me. "I'm actually kind of surprised that you agreed to meet with him."

"He bribed me."

"He bribed you?"

"Yes, he bribed me. He offered me five thousand dollars if I would agree to meet with him for thirty minutes."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Did he actually give you the money?"

"Yes he did."

"In cash?"

"Of course."

"You mean you have five thousand dollars in cash with you right now?"

I laughed. "That's correct."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"We had too many other things to talk about. This was my first opportunity to tell you."

Kelly nodded. "Yes, I guess that makes sense."

We were both silent for a moment. I think Kelly was waiting for me to tell her about the meeting and I was trying to decide how to tell her about it.

Finally she asked, "So what did you and Martin talk about?"

I decided that the best course of action was to be perfectly frank. I suspected that Kelly was going to have a difficult time accepting what I was about to tell her, but I realized that the only way we could get beyond this was to confront it directly. I looked at Kelly and said, "He started by telling me that his lawyers felt that I was in a very good position to sue his firm."

"Sue them? Why would you be able do that?"

"I asked him that exact same question. This is what he told me. Do you remember your very first interview with JTandR? It was at the end of our Senior year at Kelroy."

"Of course I remember it. I''ll never be able to forget it. I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep the night before the interview,"

I smiled. "Yes, I remembered that too. They were impressed with you, but they had the same problem that everyone else has when they first meet you. They had trouble getting beyond your beautiful face, long blond hair and sexy body. After the interview was over John Reynolds suggested that maybe they should be trying to recruit you as a hostess."

Kelly stared at me in silence.

"Martin agreed that John's suggestion had merit so they sent their investigators to Kelroy and interviewed everyone who knew us, including the dormitory maids, other students, our professors and anybody else they could find who might know anything about us. I gather that it was an exhaustive investigation."

Kelly smiled. "Yes, they are very thorough."

"You can imagine what they found out"

My wife nodded. "I'm sure they learned about my reputation as the blow job queen of Kelroy College."

"And that really piqued their curiosity, but I was a problem for them."

"Why?"

"We were getting married. They prefer that their hosts and hostesses are single."

"Yes I guess that's right, I was the only married hostess."

"They were about to give up on the idea of hiring you as a hostess, but then their investigators made what they considered to be a rather startling observation. We were engaged to be married, yet you continued to openly date other men and I didn't seem to mind. Suddenly the possibility that you might become a hostess became feasible again."

"But when they hired me they never even mentioned the possibility that I might become a hostess. At that time I never would have even considered it."

"That's correct, and that's what they missed. That's why they feel that I'm," I paused. "Actually we are in a position to sue them and win."

"What do you mean?"

"When we got married they didn't realize that you were taking the vow of fidelity that you made during our wedding ceremony seriously."

"Timmy, I'm still very confused. I was hired in June, but we never discussed my becoming a hostess until the following November."

"Kelly think about it. When they hired you they really couldn't have just offered you a job as a hostess. The moment you realized what that actually meant you could have filed a sexual harassment charge against them."

"But they hired me as a research analyst."

"Yes, and then they assigned you to Chris Kendricks, who just happened to be their most skilled host."

My wife stared at me. Suddenly she gasped. "Oh my god."

I nodded. "That's correct, it was his job to seduce you and find out just how open you were about having casual sex with numerous partners."

Kelly's expression became very serious. In a quiet, but extremely firm voice she said, "Go on."

"As you well know, you resisted Chris's advances for several months. Martin and John were puzzled about that, but they assumed that because you were such a beautiful woman you had an ample supply of willing lovers outside the workplace and you didn't need to have an affair with a coworker. Again I point out that they completely missed the possibility that you weren't responding to Chris's advances because you were trying to remain faithful to me."

"Timmy, are you telling me that Chris Kendricks was part of a plot to entice me into becoming a hostess?"

"Yes I am and do you remember what he asked you the morning after the first afternoon the two of you had sex? You mentioned it to me earlier today and Martin remembers it very well."

"He kissed me and when he was done kissing me he asked me how you reacted when I told you about what had happened on the previous afternoon."

"And what did you tell him?"

Kelly quietly whispered. "I lied and told him that you were just fine with it and then I gave him a blow job." She looked at me. "Martin knew about that?"

"Yes, Chris was making regular reports to Martin about the progress he was making in his attempts to seduce you. Once you and Chris started having sex and they believed that I was comfortable with the situation, they began a course of action that gradually moved you into your eventual role as a hostess."

"Please explain that." There was now a hint of anger in my wife's voice. She was reacting as both Wendell and I feared she might react.