"Princess, y'know how sometimes you act as if you think you're God's gift to men?" Sly asked. We were sitting in his apartment after a very satisfied client had left. We had divvied up the fee and were just chatting, when out of the blue he springs that one on me.
"I do NOT!" I said, indignantly, followed a few seconds later in a more subdued tone by "Do I?". I must say, it's hard to be convincingly indignant for long when you're naked except for a see-through black nylon teddy with a split crotch, dark nylons, and three-inch stiletto heels, if I'm saying anything profound.
"Yeah, Princess, I hate to break it to ya, but yeah, you do, sometimes. Look, Babe, I'm your agent; I'm supposed to be honest with ya, aint I?"
I appreciated Sly's use of the term 'agent'. It had taken me a while to get him to use that appellation rather than the more earthy one he preferred. That mollified me somewhat.
Yes, I sell sex. Sly and I have been partners for quite some time, now, after he blackmailed me into servicing some of his friends, whereafter we both discovered that I was damned good at the work in spite of my uptight background, and I found that I
liked
the work, at least part-time, anyway. So, I keep my day job, but my nights have since been lot more fun. By this time our partnership was pretty solidly based on mutual respect. He respects my ability and earning power, and I appreciate the way he protects and takes care of me and finds and pre-screens interesting clients for me.
"Okay, I suppose maybe I do, sometimes," I reluctantly admitted. "Hey, I'm damned good at my job, aren't I? I don't hear anybody complaining. Anyway, why bring that up now? You have something in mind? Let's have it."
"Okay. If you can take a step down from being
God's
gift, how about being someone else's gift?"
"What do you mean, someone else's gift? Do go on. I'm curious, now."
"I got a client that wants you not for himself, but as a gift for some other guy. I'm not sure of the reason. Could be someone he owes a favor to, or maybe he wants to get in good with the guy. He didn't say, and I didn't ask."
"Well, that's weird. I'm not sure I like being a kind of commodity, though."
"Princess, I dunno what a 'commodity' is, but look, guys pay you for your services, don't they? Why should it matter if it's not the guy you're fuckin' who's forking out, but some other guy?"
"Hmmm. When you put it that way, I guess it doesn't sound too bad. Still, it matters to me in how it makes me feel about
why
I'm doing what I'm doing."
Sly took on that look of bemused tolerance he gets when I talk about feelings. To a tough, street-bred guy like him, feelings simply don't enter into it. Sex is just a job like any other. But he's perceptive enough to know that feelings are just what makes me so good at what I do.
He waited patiently for me to come around.
"Okay," I finally said, "So, what's the deal?"
The intended recipient of this 'gift' was one Malcomb Sweet, a British businessman who was currently in town to close some kind of deal. I assumed that that pretty much explained the donor's motives until Sly told me that this Malcomb was the younger brother of the donor. Actually, I was pleased, because that lent some confusion to the motives involved, and gave me cover to feel somewhat better about the deal. I'm a professional and will do my part, but I preferred not to think of myself as a bribe.
Sly told me where to find Malcomb. He was staying at a very nice mid-town hotel, and according to his brother was somewhat of a loner and rather fixed in his ways, eating dinner at the hotel at 7:00 o'clock every evening and then tucking in for the night. Well, that didn't make him sound too interesting, but at least it would make finding him easy.
Around eight that night I called his room from the lobby.
"Yes?"
"Hello," I said in my most demure voice. "I hope I'm not bothering you, but I'm a friend of your brother, and he said that you might be able to help me."
"Really? Perhaps you might explain a bit?" I loved his British accent. His voice was pleasant, too.