...AND SHE FELL IN LOVE WITH A HOOKER

CHAPTER 7

"Rose, there you are! Glad you could make it!’’

Rose would recognize that voice anywhere, so she wasn’t surprised to see Jenny beaming at her when she finally turned to look at the woman standing in front of them, a blonde dressed in a slick vanilla number on her arm.

Rose wasn’t smiling back, however, but more glaring at her ‘’friend.’’ She’d decided to use the term very loosely from this day forward.

‘’And I see you’ve brought a date!’’ Jenny continued as she turned to smile at Adrian, feigning innocence. ‘’Hi, you must be Adrian. I’ve heards a lot about you!’’

‘’Well, you would’ve…. ‘’Rose muttered under her breath as Jenny extended her hand for Adrian to shake.

Adrian shifted his glass to hold it with his left hand as he took hold of Jenny’s with his right. ‘’That’s right! And you must be Jenny,’’ he smiled back. ‘’It’s nice to finally meet you.’’

Rose shifted on her feet, not sure if she liked the way their exchange made it sound as if Adrian and she had known each other for longer than an hour. Even if they were supposed to make this agreement look like a real date, there was no need to keep up appearances in front of Jenny.

‘’To be honest, I’m happy to see Rose decided to come out of hiding and start seeing people again. Lord knows she needs it!’’ Jenny sniggered while winking at Adrian.

Rose rolled her eyes. ‘’Oh, you just stop it, would you?’’

Adrian chuckled and turned to look at Rose, ignoring her protest. ‘’Well, then I’m honored she deemed me worthy of being the one she gets to take her out.’’

Starting to get fed up with being talked about as if she wasn’t there, Rose readied herself to say as much, only to freeze when Adrian reached up to cup the side of her face. He was leaning in, and before Rose could protest, Adrian had closed her eyes and pecked the corner of her mouth gently.

The hand holding her in place kept Rose from jerking away from the touch, but that didn’t mean she didn’t try.

She wasn’t ready for kissing. She’d never agreed on there being any kissing.

Rose felt her face flush with anger this time - anger at Adrian for taking that sort of liberty. When Adrian leaned back to smile at her with those twinkling blue eyes, Rose shook her head and fixed him with an astern look.

‘’Don’t ever try to kiss me again,’’ she said slowly.

The smile died on Adrian’s lips as his eyes flickered over Rose’s face, frowning as he took in her dark expression. After seeming to realize Rose meant business, Adrian nodded while he let his hand drop back to hang by his side.

‘’Okay. No kissing. Got it,’’ Adrian replied, his flirty persona vanishing along with his clipped words. He turned back to Jenny, whose eyes shifted curiosity between them, having caught the exchange.

‘’So, you’re not from around here, are you?’’ Adrian asked with a polite smile on his lips, addressing the Brit.

Jenny laughed, ‘’What gave it away? Surely not the way I speak?’’

And with that, Adrian and Jenny fell into an easy conversation, exchanging questions and stories revolving around how Jenny had found her way to L.A. The blond girl excused herself to the ladies' room, which left Rose to stand idly by as her friend and her….. Escort bonded.

She was quickly lost in thought, though, turning down their voices as she sipped her drink and absentmindedly scanned the crowds once more. Rose wasn’t feeling guilty in the least about telling Adrian off like she had. While he could live with the outrageous flirting to a certain degree, she had to draw the line somewhere. Kissing seemed too personal of a thing to be doing with someone whose profession was to have s*x with anyone who paid well enough.

Rose had concluded that she would rather save that sort of intimacy for when it meant something. And it would - could - never mean anything to someone like Adrian. He quite literally sold his body for a living, and as a consequence, intimacy was out of the picture before it could even be in it.

Couldn’t it?

‘’As a matter of fact, Rose here is UK-born herself!’’

Rose was jolted out of her thoughts at the moment of her name, and she looked back at Jenny, a bit confused as to what they’d been talking about since she hadn’t been listening. Blondie had managed to find her way back to them without her noticing too, not that she’d said a word so far anyway, seeming more interested in looking good than actually speaking.

‘’What?’’ she asked dumbly.

‘’I was telling Adrian that you’re British too,’’ Jenny replied, and Rose saw out of the corner of her eyes how Adrian turned to look at her in surprise.

‘’Really?’’ Adrian asked. ‘’ But you don’t speak like Jenny?’’

Rose glanced at Adrian, glad to see his relaxed, open expression back in place.

‘’That’s because she grew up in Australia,’’ Jenny explained.

‘’Oh,’’ Adrian smirked, ‘’so that’s where the hot accent comes from.’’ Adrian wiggled his eyebrows.

Relieved as he was that Adrian seemed to be back to his normal self, Rose couldn’t stop the shy smile she felt tugging at her lips.

‘’Come on, we better go find our seats,’’ she said, aiming to hide her face as she began walking towards the grand ballroom on their right.

Jenny and Adrian chuckled as they followed her, but just as they reached the archway, Rose stopped suddenly and turned to Jenny, something dawning on him.

‘’Wait. There is a seat for Adrian, right?’’

Looking earnestly to Jenny for a response.