The Escort

Chapter Eight

“OH MY GOD, I was so worried last night,” Janet says as her way of greeting. “Where were you the entire night?” She puts her hands on her hips, looking like a doting mother chastising her rebellious daughter.

            “John took me to a barbecue place,” I answer. “We also went sightseeing at the city lights after.”

            Janet shoots me a knowing smile. “Look at him, the perfect gentleman to the coldest sister I ever have.”

            I battle the smile fighting its way on my lips. “I’m not cold! I’m literally the sweetest sister you have.” Janet laughs genuinely to the point she doubles over on her stomach. “What?” I raise a brow at her.

            “It’s hilarious when you say that,” she answers. When I don’t say anything, she asks, “So did you stay at his place?”

            That question sends my cheeks on fire. “No!” I say strongly. She raises a brow. “No, I mean I just checked in a nearby hotel and I let my driver rest at the other room.”

            “Did you at least sleep with John?”

            I almost choke at the water I drink. “I don’t sleep with my employees…”

            “It’s normal to have pre-marital sex.” She shrugs her shoulders. “And John is not your employee. He’s your boyfriend.”

            “My fake boyfriend,” I correct, enunciating the words properly. “Besides, I don’t think there’s something pleasurable with sex.”

            Janet laughs again. “Oh god. You’re literally a virgin…” She sips on her coffee. “Tell me, have you never tried touching yourself down there?”

            “Huh?” I feel lost at what she means. Why would I even touch myself? Isn’t it disgusting to touch them in the first place? Janet sounds so weird and ridiculous right now. “That’s disgusting!”

            She rolls her eyes. “Jesus, don’t be such a prude. You know what I mean.”

            “I literally have no idea what you mean…”

            “m**********g?”

            I definitely choke on the water I’m drinking. “Don’t guys only do that?”

            “Oh my god, you really do need some proper s*x education Tilda. I feel like you’re missing out on the finer things in life. Maybe I’ll buy you some toys so that you can acquaint yourself and your vajayjay.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Oh, you’ll see… Maybe I’ll take you out on a girl’s night out next time with some of my friends. I feel like you need to experience a lot of things young people do.”

            “Oh I know those Jan, like clubbing, getting wasted. I’ve watched enough shows to know those will never be fun.”

            “And they don’t show half of the fun. It’s better to experience them firsthand.”

            “I’m going to take a break from this. I feel so exhausted from yesterday.” The mood in the atmosphere shifts. Janet looks concerned.

            “What happened yesterday?” she asks softly, taking my hand in hers. I feel grateful she’s here right now. However, exhaustion takes over and a look of understanding flashes in her eyes. “Okay, you should probably take a bath.” Relief floods me. She asks for the house maid to prepare the bath which lulls me into a peaceful sleep.

A WEEK HAS passed since my disastrous twenty-ninth birthday. Ma and pa haven’t called which is a huge relief. Neither has Robert Go. I wonder if he even is interested in me. Or is he giving me some space? Regardless of his intentions, I’m still relieved that he hasn’t visited me to take me out to lunch perhaps.

            I haven’t texted John, too. It has been a busy week with my meetings with the board, and so far we are deciding if we want to push our company to become international or not. Our foreign investors are quite interested with our products, and they think we can become a global hit if we take it out of the country. Ever since John took me to the barbecue place, I can’t stop thinking about him. Maybe because the place and the experience are so new to me, like this is what the other side of the world feels like. My finger sometimes contemplates to shoot him a text so that we can maybe hang out, and get to know him better, but my heart says I should be careful, and that I’m just paying him.

            The day goes uneventful and before I know it, my day ends with Robert waiting at the lobby for me. My heart sinks at the sight of him. I wish it isn’t him who is standing at the lobby. His eyes light up when he sees me heading towards the exit. I stop in front of him and he gives me a kind smile. He smells good and he looks clean-shaven. He is wearing a simple T-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans.

            “Hey,” I say. “What are you doing here?”

            “Ma told me to come pick you up. She made a dinner reservation for us at Phat Pho.”

            I internally cringe. Both from Ma making an appointment without telling me beforehand and the fact that Robert is calling my mother Ma. I ignore that term he uses for my mother. “Oh, I haven’t dressed yet for our date,” I reply but he shrugs his shoulders.

            “It’s fine. I’m not wearing anything formal so we’re even,” he chuckles and it infectiously gives me a smile, too. “Is your boyfriend okay with this, though?” He looks concerned. Yet I almost choke at his words.

            “He seems upset but he can’t do anything about it since our arranged marriage happened way before my boyfriend and I were together.” Saying my boyfriend tastes like something exciting and I wonder if I’m actually catching feelings for John. I barely even know him.

            Robert seems convinced with my explanation so he offers his hand and asks, “May I?”

            “Sure, I guess.” He holds my hand as we exit the building. I hope that our dinner goes well, and that Robert is nice. So far, he is the gentleman a lot of ladies want, and I suppose one dinner date with him won’t hurt.

            The drive to Phat Pho is excruciatingly quiet. He doesn’t seem to mind the silence, though. He plays some jazz music which calms the nerves in my body, and it casually hangs in the atmosphere. It will take us an hour to reach the restaurant so I break the silence and ask him, “Tell me something interesting about you, Robert.”

            He chuckles again, which is surprisingly a pleasant sound from him. “I actually went to music school before I went to business school.”

            That definitely is interesting, given that he seems to be a dedicated businessman. “Were your parents furious about it? I mean, you going to music school?”

            “Actually, no. They are very supportive with my endeavours. They said they’ll wait for me to take over the company when I’m ready. At twenty-five, I did. I enjoy working a lot.”

            He sounds like a pretty laidback guy. He knows what he wants, but at the same time, his parents support him, a whole lot. Jealousy wells inside me. I wish I have parents like his. Ma and pa are always disappointed at me, especially when I was still starting to manage their company. I’ve made a lot of mistakes that cost us a lot of money.

            “What about you Matilda? Tell me something interesting.” He breaks me from my reverie. Rain unexpectedly pours, which makes the traffic heavier than it usually is. This may take us longer than it should.

            “There is nothing interesting about me, I guess. All I do is work, as I’ve always been taught for a really long time.”

            “That sounds pretty lonely and stressful, I reckon,” he empathises. He doesn’t sound obnoxious when he says it and I highly appreciate it from him. “What do you think of our arranged marriage, though? Do you like it?”

            “No,” I reply honestly. He doesn’t look hurt, and I can sense in his body language that there is some sort of relief. “Do you like it?”

            “Hell no.” A grim expression takes over his features. He quite looks handsome when he sports that brooding look. “I love my parents a whole lot but I might disagree with them on this one.”

            “I guess our feelings for each other are mutual,” I chortle, sporting a soft smile on my face.

            “I guess you can say that. Maybe we should ask our parents to give us the contract they signed so that we can read it and hopefully find some loopholes in the contract. Maybe we can convince them to break off our marriage.”

            “You know what?” A girl knocks at the car window to buy some sampaguitas from her. Robert gestures for the girl to give him some, and when he hands her a thousand peso bill and tells her to keep the change, her eyes light up. She gives all the flowers to him. “I think that’s a good idea.”

            “I hope our parents will let us. It’s the least they can do to put us in this position.”

            Traffic moves faster since the rain has subsided, though it isn’t any better. “Why did you buy all her flowers? You don’t even need them right?”

            “Yeah, but that girl definitely needs that money.”

            There’s this unknowing guilt seeping in my chest. I feel like I’m such an awful person to not think of other people than myself. “Hey, you okay? You look like you saw a ghost.”

            “I’m fine.”

            Then the silence comes back again but this time, I let the jazz music play until we arrive at the restaurant.