Jarvis was a distinguished looking older gentleman. Annie found him to have a calm, trustworthy demeanor. He appeared like a professional and his grey hair made her feel comfortable in his presence.
“Are you dining alone?” Jarvis asked in an elegant tone.
“Oh,” she yelped surprised that someone like him would talk to her. “Yes, I’m alone today,” she said with a blush expecting him to join her as if it was a bar instead of an upscale restaurant.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but are you a model?”
“A model? God no,” Annie replied flattered that he would even pretend it was possible.
Jarvis looked at her surprised at her response. “Certainly you have been asked that before?”
“Thank you, but no. I’m afraid that’s a first.”
Jarvis continued to look at her curiously. “May I sit down?”
Annie, considering this night one of the greatest adventures of her life, decided his presence would make her evening even more exciting. “Sure,” she said with a blush.
“You seem like a very charming young lady.”
“You too,” she offered opening her mind to dating an older man.
“That’s very kind. I represent a very wealthy man.”
“Yes,” she acknowledged, confused as to where the conversation was leading.
“He often travels and, as busy as he is, he enjoys the company of lovely young women like you. Before you think otherwise, I would like to point out that I am not referring to s*x. My employer is simply a generous man that doesn’t want to eat dinner alone when he’s in town.”
Annie looked at Jarvis with trepidation. “I’m sorry, I don’t know who you think I am but I’m not that type of girl.”
“Please, don’t be offended. What I think you are is a woman who in spite of your beauty, chooses to eat dinner alone. My employer is an interesting, successful gentleman that chooses not to eat dinner alone. It would seem that you two might have something in common.
Please, don’t be mistaken. You wouldn’t be the only charming young lady that he has such an arrangement with.”
“What do you mean?”
“My employer has three other young women in town under his employ. If you would like, I can give you their numbers and you can talk to them to see what their experiences have been. And of course, you would be well compensated for your time.”
Annie wasn’t easily persuaded by money, but the idea that someone would pay her to have dinner with them after she struggled for so long just to survive, intrigued her. It made her feel special, like Jacqueline Kennedy or Princess Diana.
“How would I be compensated?”
“You would receive a penthouse apartment to live in, a generous monthly salary, and a more than adequate weekly stipend where you would be expected to expand your wardrobe for dinners with your employer.”
“And all of this is without having s*x with him? My mother said that when something is too good to be true, it usually is.”
“And those are wise words, so if you don’t mind, I will give you my card and the numbers of the three other young ladies. I encourage you to call them and consider the offer. You seem like a level-headed young lady. I’m sure that you will come up with a decision that is right for you. I personally hope, for your own sake, that you accept this. What my employer is offering you is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I think that my employer would really like you. I hope that you will consider the position.”
Jarvis took a card out of his pocket and handed it to Annie. Annie looked at it as he got up.
“And, as a thank you for giving me your time, I will, of course, pay for your dinner.”
Annie blushed. “No, you really don’t have to.”
“Please, I insist. Have a good night.”
And with that Jarvis was gone.
Annie sat staring at the card. She didn’t know what to think of what had just happened. When her waiter informed her that not only was her meal paid for, but a driver had been provided to her for a ride home, she giggled at what other possibilities could follow.
Not owning a car, Annie accepted the limousine ride back home. The next morning she called each of the numbers on the back of Jarvis’ card. All of the girls sounded blond and pretty; in other words, they didn’t sound very smart. In spite of all of her hours of work, Annie had managed to graduate from business school at the top of her class. It was only because she needed to find a job quickly to pay for her brother’s tuition that she ended up as a clerk in a pet shop.
“Would this rich man still want me to be his paid dinner date if he knew that I wasn’t a pretty airhead?” She asked herself. ‘Probably not,’ she decided.
One thing that Annie did find unusual after she questioned all of the girls, was that none of the girls had ever met him. One had been under his employ for six months collecting a paycheck and stipend, living in a penthouse and never once going out with him. If she did work for this eccentric man, Annie thought, how long could she collect a check before he discovered that she was intelligent? How much of a nest egg would she be able to put away in order to allow her time to find a real job once the job that Jarvis offered her ended?
“I have to take this,” she finally realized. “I can’t pass this up.”
Annie found Jarvis to be both surprised and excited when she called him. She couldn’t be sure why. When she was given the key to her penthouse apartment and shown around, she couldn’t believe what she saw. It was like nowhere she had ever been. She wasn’t even aware that such luxury existed in real life. She felt like an imposter walking around the expensive furnishings on the first night. After three months of prepared meals and time to unwind, Annie simply felt like the luckiest princess in the world.
Annie’s first meeting with her benefactor hadn’t quite gone as expected. He looked like a handsome prince, but there was more to him than that. He was assertive and demanding. Annie didn’t think that he was dangerous, but he was more unabashedly masculine than she could have imagined. He had a strength to him that made her want to follow him. Even in their brief meeting, she could feel herself succumbing to him.
Annie could barely sleep the night after she met her prince. She thought continuously about how he had touched her and made her feel more like a woman than she ever had before. She wondered if he really would come back and how he knew that she never went out onto the balcony.
‘Did Jarvis tell him?’ She wondered. ‘If so, how did he know? Am I being watched?’
Although she hadn’t contacted them since that first call, Annie thought about her fellow companions. ‘Has he visited them as well?’ She wondered. ‘Would they tell her if he had? Had they experienced the same thing she shared with him. Would they share with her if he did the same to them?’
As soon as the sun came up, Annie decided that she had to find out. Sluggish from a sleepless night, Annie waited until 9am to make the first call. From her own lifestyle Annie knew that 9am would be early for them. Justifying it by considering it a warning call, in case she was the first one that their benefactor had visited, she grabbed the card and dialed.
Annie’s first call was to Candy, the de-facto leader of the group. Candy was employed the longest and, from her previous calls, Annie knew that all of the other girls seemed to defer to her experience.
“Did he visit you too?” Candy responded before Annie could say a word.
“He did,” Annie offered hesitantly.
“I’m so sorry,” Candy offered.
Annie was confused. Was his s****l touch a bad thing? Had he done worse things to the other girls? Was what Annie experienced the first of many awful things to come? “Why, what did he do to the other girls?” Annie asked.
“He fired them. Isn’t that what he did to you?”
“No.”
“What did he do?”
“He touched me.”
“How so?”
“You know, between my legs?”
“Did you have s*x with him?”
“No!” Annie protested.
“Huh. Well it looks like all of the girls are being fired. But he hasn’t fingered any of the others. Maybe he’s not gonna fire you.”
Annie didn’t know what to think. Was her job at stake? Had he promised to return so he could fire her too? Did she even want this job anymore? ‘Yes,’ she decided. She did.
“What do I have to do to keep my job?” Annie asked Candy searching for a way back into her benefactor’s good graces.
“Well, give him whatever he wants.”
‘Give him whatever he wants?’ Annie thought. ‘I can’t do that. No money is worth that. I’ve lived without his money before I met him and this job was never supposed to be forever. Besides, I was promised that s*x wasn’t required. I’m not that type of girl.’
Annie concluded the conversation quickly. Candy was a nice girl, Annie thought. ‘She has a good heart, but she clearly has a lot fewer options than I do. That is why I sacrificed so much for my degree, so I wouldn’t have to do a job like this. I don’t need him if that’s what it takes. Maybe if s*x wasn’t required, but not otherwise.’
Wandering around the penthouse, Annie was slow to get dressed for the day. She wasn’t sure what she should wear. From what Candy had said, Annie was expecting her employer to return. She couldn’t decide if she should dress like a woman who would be fired or like a woman who was fighting for her job. She knew that fighting for it meant she would need to wear something sexy.
‘Why am I even considering this?’ she asked herself. ‘Maybe if I wore something sexy, I wouldn’t be doing it for him. Maybe I would be doing it for me. Maybe I want to show him what he would be missing. Besides, I bought a lot of clothes in the last 3 months, and I bought them to wear for him. When will I ever get the chance to wear them again?’
Annie was convinced. She would wear her sexiest outfit. It would be the red silk one that draped over her revealing every curve. Thinking ahead, Annie decided that as soon as she sensed that she was about to be fired, she would quit. Then, like a movie star, she would simply glide out of the room. That would be the way to make an exit.
Annie packed up all of her belongings in anticipation of whatever would happen tonight, even though everything she needed from this experience was already in her bank account. If, by some small chance, he didn’t fire her, she might then show her appreciation. How she would, she wasn’t sure.
Annie sat anxiously awaiting her employer’s return. She found it hard to remain indignant the entire time. For the first few hours she sat like a queen awaiting her execution. The next hours after that she waited like a politician about to address her constituency. In the end she found herself waiting like a girl who waited for a guy whom she feared might dump her. Indignation just wasn’t in her repertoire. She was a girl at heart, and like every girl, she just wanted to be loved.
Finally, when Annie heard a knock on the door, she knew it wasn’t her benefactor. In the time it took for her to get to the door, Annie was sure that her visitor could only be one person, Jarvis. Was her former prince going to deny her even this, his final presence? She wondered.