The J-Girl Model Ch. 03

"Not everyone gets jealous like that. You could find someone who is understanding, I'm sure," Sato reassured me.

"I appreciate your concern," I said, putting my napkin down. Although I had delivered much more eloquent lines, the last one was necessary. I was having difficulty staying one step ahead, and the conversation was getting too heavy. Escorts have to know when to pull the escape lever, and the way I said it also let him know it was time to dispense with the dinner chat. He got the message.

"Hanako, thank you for joining me for dinner. The night is still young, if you would accompany me back to the hotel, I have something for you."

"I would love to." I smiled and wiggled my shoulders as relief recharged my libido. However, it was an ordeal returning to the hotel. We had to split up, and there was a lot of secrecy involved. Still, half an hour later, I was in his room. I walked around and looked at everything, waiting for him to arrive. It was a spacious suite with couches, a bar, a small outdoor private pool high up on a terrace overlooking the sea. The western horizon was growing dark. Inside, there was every amenity you could imagine. In a few minutes, he let himself into the room.

"I really don't normally stay in rooms like this," he said, smiling sheepishly, "But I didn't want you to think I spared any expense with you."

"You don't have to worry about that, Sato-san."

"Just call me Sato, please," he said. "In case you forgot, you're more to me than just a pretty face. Also, a lady like you deserves to be showered with gifts, let this be the first one I give you." He handed me a small rectangular box. "This is for you," he said. "Go ahead and open it."

It was a beautiful diamond necklace with matching earrings in a Cartier box. I couldn't guess at the value, but it had to be a lot. Men like him cannot trifle with cheap baubles.

"Don't say anything, just put it on," he said. He got behind me and helped me remove my gold chain, which I slipped into my purse. Then he put the diamond necklace on me. It felt incredibly luxurious, and I looked at myself in the mirror with it on.

"So, you like it?"

I turned to him, looked at him once over, then threw myself into his arms.

"Sato-san, I need you to hold me." He was holding me, and he was strong. I felt like I was being held by a tree. His chest felt good against mine. "Hold me tighter," I whimpered.

He squeezed me a little tighter, and I felt my breasts crushing against his iron chest. The sweet vibes from his embrace went straight to my core. I could almost feel my pussy get soaking wet. I tilted my head up slightly. He kept looking straight ahead.

Normally at this point in an embrace, clients' hands began to roam, and if I lifted my head to his, they would lean in to kiss me. I had only performed the time-honored act of throwing myself at a man. Even fat girls could score with this technique.

"Hanako, I- it's um," he stammered, but I could feel it coming. Not that it affected my pay if he turned me down, but I had become so wrapped up in the make-believe that I believed it well enough myself. I had admired him from afar, this handsome baseball star. Had he not tried to contact me as well? I didn't care if he was married, I was wet for him, I wanted our bodies to be joined. I would not be satisfied until he was panting and spent in my loving arms.

"I think it's better if we didn't go any further."

"Wh-what? Why?" I plunged my real self right into the emotion of the moment. I had no role to play, I was there on my own, and I just wanted to know why. That way, I could talk him out of it.

"Now hey, don't cry. You're okay."

Not that I was a blubbering mess, but I shed a few tears. I had wanted things to go differently. Still, it was genuine emotion, the pain of not comprehending that which I thought was mine. I was moved by his sense of noble righteousness, and it made me feel unworthy of him.

For the time being, he seemed willing to keep holding me, and I rested my head on his shoulder and waited for the right words to come. I did not sob, but hot tears ran down my face in rivulets.

"You are right, of course," I said, lifting my head. He relaxed his embrace and I leaned back to meet his gaze. "Still, I can't accept this gift." I took a moment to assert myself, only to fumble with the clasp. "You should know that I have feelings for you, and you've played a cruel game with my emotions."

"It's yours, it was freely given and I ask you to please keep it, because I want you to think of me now, and in the coming months." he said, his arms still around me. "I do want to see you again."

"You do?"

"Yes, and I'm sorry about this now. I didn't expect this, I didn't mean to make you feel this way. I thought you would be glad. You can't stay here long, so take the night off. Go get a spa treatment, or room service. Whatever you like, and I'll pay for it too."

"I don't need your pity, Sato-san. Nor do I know why I would want to see you again. Before I do, I would need to know why you decided to spend the night not with your wife, or alone, but instead you took the trouble to be with me."

He took a deep breath. I didn't know quite what he would say, so I had to wait and let him say it, but I worried. I had never said anything like that to a client.

"I saw you, and I recognized you, I thought it was like fate. I had to find a way to reach you, but without running out there in public. I thought I did the right thing contacting Paizuri, but it looks like it was I who made the mistake."

I was afraid he was thinking about his legal battle related to divorce. Nothing could more quickly ruin the mood, and I swung into action trying to reassure him so that I could close the topic.

"You called me. We went on a date, and here we are. This right here is already an affair." My verbal torpedoes were aimed at the very idea that spending a romantic evening with a woman could fall short of cheating. It didn't matter whether he fucked me or not. I was way off script, but I was desperate. I smoldered for him.

"I meant to say, I run the risk of further upsetting you with what I have to say, what I need to tell you now. This has nothing to do with my soon-to-be ex-wife."

"Oh." I wondered where my golden tongue had gone. My foot was in my mouth.

"I just believe in taking it slow, for one thing. I can afford to fly you out to New York from time to time. Hopefully the next time, I will be divorced."

"Okay, but can we just, you know," I squeezed his torso against mine. It was like hugging a horse.

"As a matter of principle, no." I felt the tightness of his embrace lessen.

"Wait! Hold me, and tell me that you mean yes. We can keep it a secret, no one will know. Don't you trust your chauffeur?"

"Of course. He and I go way back."

"No one else knows, right?"

"Paizuri, and-"

"Confidentiality is one of her iron-clad rules, she never breaks rules."

"What about that blonde you were with at the pool, your photographer?"

"Oh, her? I just hired her uh-" I was in the middle of a casual lie, and realized I needed to walk it back. "She's actually a close friend of mine, my manager, my photographer. Where I go, she goes."

"Oh? Wow, that's cool," he said, and I felt so dumb trying to lie to this man.

"She's just a very good friend. Trust me, she is invested in keeping this liaison a secret. Do you trust me?"

"I do, it's just that-" I could feel his arms slowly coming down.

"Right." I stopped him short. "You do trust me. You should, you have nothing to worry about!" Outwardly, I smiled almost to the point of laughing, partly because I knew I had spun a very threadbare web of reassurances, and I wanted him to ease into that cradle. On the other hand, his embrace was fading, and without his enclosing arms I felt exposed, over-extended. There was something he wanted to say, but was holding back. I was afraid of what it might be.

Sometimes clients want to feel the thrill of conquest, even after having paid top price. It's still possible to give them that experience, it's just a matter of letting them know when the chase is done. Even though I felt terribly over-extended, I leaned in and kissed him on his lips. Then I withdrew and gazed into his regretful eyes.

"Thank you, Hana-chan," he said. "I had a wonderful evening, and look forward to meeting again."

"Sato-san," I said, stepping back. "You would turn me away, on the principle of honor?"

"I must."

"No one else will know!"

"You will know." I momentarily lost my patience with him at that moment. I had enough and I stopped arguing. Later, it was those three words that made me understand what he was about.

"You, and I," He had something to say, but he was struggling.

"Tell me, tell me what you want to say." I saw him, thoughts flashing in his sad brown eyes. No words came out.

"Is honor going to cause you to say nothing?" I finally said. At those words, his eyes locked with mine.

"Ask me why my honor would do that? What do you suspect?"

"Um, because of your honor, you wouldn't say something to a woman that a married man should never say."

"I would try to keep to that, yes." He smiled, and it seemed to me he had gotten his message across.

"I see." I had nothing left. I looked into his eyes, and tears rolled down my cheeks. I was grateful that I used waterproof mascara, or my face by now would have been a mess.

"Then, until the next time we meet," I finally said.

"Yes! Hanako-san, I am so glad you took the time to come see me. We will meet again, I promise. Watch me on TV. When I am at bat - when I hit a home run, I will think of you and of the future."

"Don't make me wait, Sato-san! I can't believe you are doing this."

"I hope I have helped you to understand, Hanako. Please have patience."

He walked me to the door, looked outside to make sure the coast was clear, and then I was alone in the hallway. Patience, I thought as I stumbled along, crying. After I made it to the elevator lobby, I simply looked out of the window and waited for my emotions to level out. I didn't need him, Akiko's loving arms waited for me, and she was a great lover. So why did I feel like I had just been dumped? How did this man make me feel this way, and how had my charms utterly failed?

I began to wonder if I had said the wrong things. Indeed I had, I had gone off scriptand lied to him for no reason. Even after he talked about how inspired he was to be honorable and truthful. Of course, he was great. No wonder I wanted him, the question was whether I was even worthy. By now, I was filled with doubt. Perhaps as he thought about how I had tried to lie to him, that he need not bother with a woman like me. Perhaps it was already over, my opportunity lost.

By now the reader must ask, why was I upset when I had Akiko? Weighing heavily on my thoughts was the way that Sato beckoned me into a life in which love was a real thing. I longed for the stability of mutual commitment the moment I tasted it, and that told me that it had to be a real need. How could Akiko not sense the same? Why was she still fantasizing about cabana boys, even right to my face? She was like Michiko, she wanted someone else. That was why coming back to Akiko was a consolation.

My feet led me to the door to our room. I almost dreaded going in. Would she want to know how it went? I didn't know what to say. I stood outside for a few moments, but then I saw some people coming down the hall. I swiped my access card and entered the room.

The lights were off, and I had to slide my card into the slot. Looking around, I realized that Akiko was not there. I breathed a sigh of relief and flopped down on the bed, evening gown and all.

After a few minutes, I looked at the time. It was just past eight. Akiko could be out having a good time, I thought. Maybe she had found her cabana boys. No, I thought, she was not worried about me with Sato, just like she never cared about me being with another man. She was busy sorting out her own future. I couldn't hold that against her, she never promised me anything she had not already delivered.

I reached for my laptop and remembered Akiko had been using it. Looking around, I found it on the love seat. It was common for us to share laptops. We knew each others passwords and trusted each other with everything.

She keeps all of her schedules and contacts on her laptop. I wondered what might have made her need to use mine. I decided to see what she had been doing on my computer. Looking at my browser's history was easy enough. I saw a lot of links to YouTube, and the headers told the tale. She had been investigating old Japanese music, the tunes I may have grown up with as a kid, while she was in California growing up to Janet Jackson and Heart.

I clicked on one of the links, and a song loaded that I knew immediately. It was a live performance of "One Last Saturday" by Shogo Hamada, an old ballad I knew well. My whole mood changed as the swelling melody played by timeless violins joined the dated keyboard. Just the opening of the song had moved me to near tears a dozen times before. Now, as Hamada lifted his voice to sing the sad song, I thought of Akiko enjoying this tune while I was off with a man. There was no holding back. I sobbed like a child.

I already knew the whole song by heart. The singer appeals to a woman he loves. She has been seeing another man, but finding no joy.

"Forget all about him

There are tears on your youthful cheeks

A person who can dry your eyes

Is somewhere in this town

And he's waiting for you"

I let the whole song play out, imagining myself as the woman he was singing to. I realized Akiko had been using my laptop because she wanted to go through my iTunes library and find out what other songs I liked. This is one song I never mentioned to her. I had given the song a five star rating. "Love on a Hilltop" was another song on that album that I had given five stars. It had to do with a girl who went to a wealthy man's house but could not find happiness.

"Is she jealous?" I murmured, as I saw that this song was also in my browser's most recent history. "She is jealous!" I sat up in bed, my legs feeling hot under my dress. I kicked them over the side of the bed and stood up. Then I spotted the note. I hurried over to see what it said.

"Went to the Karaoke bar, 2F" she had scribbled. She probably expected to be back before I returned. Karaoke seemed like a perfectly nice way to blow off steam, but Akiko rarely - no, never just bounced like that. She was always working or sleeping or just chilling. I had my theory as to what had set her off, but I had to know, I had to get to her quickly.

I quickly changed out of my dress and grabbed some inconspicuous clothes, and fished my big round shades from out of my purse. The massive diamond chain got tangled in them, and I shook it off impatiently. I needed my shades. If I was going to linger among a crowd of my countrymen, I had best stay as inconspicuous as my tall frame would allow. I snapped on a bra, a shirt and a cardigan, and some skinny jeans, and I hurried to the elevator.

I wondered if she had rehearsed this song for karaoke. It seemed ridiculous, as it was very much a man's song. My questions were soon answered.

The Karaoke bar had opened a stage and it was apparently her turn to perform. She was just singing "Fever." The crowd was just eating up the way those English words rolled off her tongue with perfection. They may not have understood all the words, but the youths in the crowd, including a few drunk girls, cheered as she struck a final pose at the end of the song. She was wearing a dark blue evening gown and a crimson feather boa. I had no idea where she had gotten the latter, but she looked fabulous.

There was generous applause. She saw me and winked, and turned toward the little set of stairs at the end of the stage.

"More! One more!" I heard someone say. A few men started chanting for more. I looked and blinked. Bless me, the chanting men were a gaggle of young, cute cabana boys. I started grinning and shook my head in disbelief. Akiko was such a badass, how could anyone replace her? She had done these numbers back in the day when she sang at a drag club, songs she had practiced along with some very flirty dance moves. Years later, she had not lost her touch.

"Okay, okay," she boomed into the microphone. "See if they have this last one. My last song for the night, everyone. This is one of my favorites." She looked out over the crowd, some of whom took their seats. Some called out the names of songs.

"It's called Crazy Little Thing Called Love, by Queen," she said, ignoring the other suggestions. It was a short ditty, but that was for the best. A few of the dance moves weren't particularly feminine, but she executed them with great timing. Seeing her girly figure dancing like a man while she sang had the cabana boys howling with approval.

When she tried to exit the stage, the crowd went nuts demanding just one more encore. I folded my arms across my chest and waited. There was no slipping away after a number like that. She managed to catch sight of me over the crowd and I gestured for her to get back up on stage. Then I had an idea.

As she sang the next song, I tapped a search term into my phone, and made my way over to the cabana boys.

"Hey guys, is she great or what?" They all agreed. "Hey, hey listen you guys. You gotta get her attention, and I have an idea. When she gets off stage, you sing this song. I bet you she will love it."

They looked at me a couple of times, and I had wrested their attention from Akiko. For once, I was glad to be a girl with presence. I held up the phone and played the song with a video, to show them what I meant. One of them headed over to the karaoke machine to book the next song. I watched him argue with the bartender, but he was desperately insistent, and the bartender seemed to agree to it.

Akiko's song ended. As she left the stage, grateful admirers whistled and clapped.

Akiko barely left the stage when she found herself all but surrounded by busboys, all of them locking arms in a semicircle. On stage, three cabana boys prepared to sing.

"Yu nebwa kroaz yoa aizu enny mo wan ai kees yoa rips," they sang, relying solely on the Japanese pronunciation on the screen. They could not hold the tune for anything and their words were impossible to understand, and there was no accompaniment. In short, it was perfect.

Even Akiko did not know what they were doing, but she looked at me, and looked around, and could not stop smiling at the ridiculousness of the cabana boys.

"Yoo torai en hadu na too sho et baby," and on the word baby, all the bus boys joined in, "But baby, baby ai no et." The expression on Akiko's face was priceless when she found herself in the Japanese version of that scene from Top Gun in the officer club.

"Are you fucking serious?" she asked, but the men drowned her out with the chorus. Most of the crowd began to join in. A middle-aged westerner made his way to the stage and grabbed the microphone.

"Baby baby, I get down on my knees for you," he sang, with the crowd singing accompaniment. They didn't know the lyrics, but they sure knew the song. "If you would only love me like you used to do." The gentleman was pouring his heart out, and there was no shame in doing justice to a classic when the crowd is in the mood. Akiko had inspired them, all of them.

She just stood there smiling at everyone and wrapped that feather boa tight around her shoulders. She locked onto my gaze and gave me an even wider half grin, but I stayed in the background, and she looked away to avoid drawing attention to me.

When next she looked to me, I signaled to her that I would wait for her at our room, and she caught up to me while I waited at the elevator. We kissed passionately once the doors closed, we could hardly wait. She tasted like amaretto and cherry lip gloss. All too soon, the doors were about to open.