Lustly(35)

By the time he climbed in the vehicle he’d already hung up the phone and given me his attention. “Good morning.”

Our eyes met and that spark was there again. Before I could protest he kissed me. It felt so nice being with him, so natural, which I didn’t think I’d ever find again. Charlie and I had been together for so long that I just assumed a relationship like that wouldn’t happen for me. Yet, I knew so much about Eli that being around him was comfortable. “I need to tell you something.”

“Is it what you couldn’t tell me yesterday?”

I was going to regret this, but if I wanted to be his real friend, he needed to know the truth about me. “Yes.”

I tried to find the right words to explain it without making myself look bad, but I couldn’t. No matter how I spun my story he wasn’t going to understand. “I found a way to make a lot of money without having to work every day.”

“Let me guess. Are you a stripper?” He was joking around, and I knew he wasn’t going to be joking when he heard the truth.

“No.”

“Are you selling your eggs to a bank?”

“No.”

“I know, you’re a hooker,” he said and started laughing.

“We’re called escorts, not hookers.”

Eli stopped laughing. His face was something that I’d never seen before. I watched as he fought with his own emotions as how to answer me. “Is this some kind of joke?”

I shook my head and began to tear up. “I know you can’t understand. You have to know that if there was some other way I’d take it. It’s not what you think. I don’t have to sleep with my client, well not all of the time. It’s hard to explain.”

“You’re pulling my leg, right?”

I shook my head again, this time unable to respond verbally.

“Lily, you can’t do this.”

“It’s already done. It was my decision to make.”

Eli turned and looked out the window. He refused to look my way and it hurt me. I felt like me telling him had ruined even the friendship between us. I’d been right to assume that he’d want nothing to do with me. I could tell from the look on his face that he was utterly disgusted. “We better get going if you want to see multiple listings.”

I started driving, waiting for him to talk to me, but he wouldn’t. After driving to the next community, I pulled over and looked at my phone. I’d already seen a couple places for rent a week before after searching on the internet to get an idea of how much money I’d need a month. The first house I came to was a two-story. It had a one car garage and a nice size back yard that was fenced in. After calling the number on the listing, the landlord told me the combination to enter the house. Eli followed behind, still not talking to me.

I walked inside and headed upstairs first, noting that it had three decent sized bedrooms that shared one common bathroom.

The first floor had one bedroom that was small, but would work fine for me. The kitchen and living room were all together. They too weren’t very large, but it was cute. There was a dining room, but I’d most likely use it as a second television room for the kids. Eli followed me out back, and as I looked around he finally spoke. “This is a nice place.”

“It has plenty of room for the four of us. I think the kids could get used to living here. We’d be in the same school district, and their father could come get them whenever he wanted.”

“You’d be closer to my house,” he added.

“You still want to be friends?” I was kind of shocked.

“Do you judge me for being a lawyer? Do you look at me and see an * that takes people’s life savings and gives it to greedy spouses?”

“Of course not.”

“I hate what you’re doing, Lily. I’m not going to lie, but I know it’s not you. It’s a job, and if you’re okay with it, I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“I’m not a whore, Eli. It’s one client.”

Eli pulled me into his arms. He didn’t try to kiss me, or touch me the way he had before. This hug was a friend hug. A part of me hated it, because I could feel him withdrawing himself from me. “I’m not taking that money, Lily.”

“I understand.”

“And I can’t talk you out of it?”

“Probably not.”

He got quiet again as we walked out of the house, and traveled to the next property. The second house was a little bit bigger, but also a hundred extra dollars a month. Eli checked everything out on the exterior of the house while I walked around inside doing the same. I watched him through the window, and hated myself for being honest with him. He’d never look at me the same way again.

On the way back to the office he reached over and put his hand on my leg. “I’m not going to lie. It hurts me that some stranger gets to f*ck you, but I can’t make love with you.”

“It hurts me too, Eli. I’m not doing this to hurt you. I’m doing it for my kids.”

I arrived at the office and parked next to Eli’s car. For the next half hour we argued about my choices, and how I was making a huge mistake that I’d regret forever. Eli offered to give me ten grand to get me into a place of my own, and start over without having to sell my body. When I declined he got out of the van and walked inside of his office, without even saying goodbye.