A Christmas to Remember

4: Jack

The skyscraper in front of us was like any other in the heart of New York. Big windows adorned the side, probably to remind its workers that there was in fact a world outside those four walls. That they could at some point in the near future escape out here and use all the money they had just earned on an expensive shitty apartment, on cab fare, and on cheap Indian food that would most definitely give you diarrhea for the next foreseeable future.

“Last chance,” Fiona teased next to me, as we stood and admired the building. “When we go in, the whole process will begin.”

“What are we waiting for then?” I asked her, offering her my arm before we went inside.

She laughed as we walked towards the elevators. Confidently, as if she had done it a million times before, Fiona pressed the button for the twenty-first floor. The other people in this elevator looked just like regular people, none of them screamed: I sell myself to rich people.

Fiona gave my arm a small squeeze as the elevator doors opened onto our floor, and immediately we were faced with a completely normal and tedious environment. Cubicle upon cubicle was placed. Phones were ringing in the background. Some were walking around with papers, and some were gathered around the water cooler talking to each other. The only thing that made me think this was the right place, was the same intricate letters that were on the back of Fiona’s card. Disclosure was spelled across the front desk where a woman was sitting behind taking phone calls and redirecting them to the right place.

We made our way to the front desk, and the woman behind looked up and gave us a smile that revealed the wrinkles she had gathered around her eyes. It made her look sweet, like she would offer me a piece of candy and tell me to be a good boy because Santa would soon come and bring me presents.

“Good afternoon, Claire,” Fiona smiled at the receptionist. “We have a meeting with Mrs. Smith.”

“Just a second, dear,” she smiled, before she pressed another button on the phone. “Yes, they are here now,” she said to the other person on the other side of the phone, before she looked right back up at us and gave another smile. “Mrs. Smith will be right with you.”

“Thank you, Claire,” Fiona smiled right back at her.

“Mrs. Smith?” I asked her with a c****d brow.

“I told you, very secretive,” she laughed right back at me.

Before we even had time to sit down, a commanding presence came straight towards us. Her brown hair was tucked into a powerful bun, almost tight looking on her. A powerful gray pantsuit adorned her figure, and the way her coat was buttoned gave off her hourglass figure.

“You must be Mr. Hudson,” she smiled, offering her hand to shake.

“I am, and you’re Mrs. Smith?” I asked back, still the humorous tone tickling in my voice.

“That is correct,” she grinned right back at me, before she turned to Fiona. “Miss Stevens, you look positively radiant today,” she smiled, shaking Fiona’s hand too.

“Thank you, Mrs. Smith, I feel good too.” Fiona was definitely radiant. She was an incredibly stunning woman, who could possibly stop traffic just with a bat of her lashes.

“Come with me,” she guided and turned back around the way she had come from. She guided us further onto the floor, and somehow all other kinds of life disappeared from the office, making it almost eerily quiet. She opened the door into a big corner office, and let us in. “Can I get you something to drink? Coffee, tea, or water?”

“I would like a coffee, thank you, with sugar and no cream,” Fiona smiled at Mrs. Smith.

“A plain coffee for me, thanks,” I answered, while Fiona guided us to the chairs that were in front of a big glass table.

“So, Mr. Hudson,” she started as she poured our drinks, “I hear that you are on the lookout for a companion?”

I crossed my ankle onto my knee, leaning back on the chair and trying my best to seem calm and collected, for this transaction. “Yes, I am. Fiona told me about what you do, and I must say, it seems too good to be true.”

She sat down the drinks in front of us, before going behind her desk and sitting down in her chair opposite us. “Of course, it is too good to be true,” she grinned at me. “Who knew women and men out there want to come to our boring parties and let us show them off for just a mere penny in our perspective.”

“As I told you on the phone, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Hudson is a high-profile man, just like Bradley is. He needs a woman at his side, so that he can focus on what he truly wants to focus on,” Fiona explained.

“Let me guess,” Mrs. Smith smiled at me, “your mother wants grandchildren?”

“She has become rather pushy,” I answered, leaning forward to grab my cup of coffee. “But as Fiona said, I need someone who can just step in and make it possible for me to do my actual job and not just be pushed onto different women every time I leave the privacy of my condo.”

She nodded. “I understand that. And I understand, you’re quite a busy man, both running your father’s company and making a name for yourself in politics.”

“Exactly,” I agreed. “Which is also why I need to be sure of your discretion on this. It would ruin me if it came out that I had paid for an escort.”

I noticed Fiona looking down into her cup of coffee. I noticed how her mouth turned into a small line. I noticed how her shoulders went up.

“There’s something you need to understand, Mr. Hudson,” Mrs. Smith leaned in on her table, her eyes tearing through me. “I protect my employees, and I make sure none of them are treated unkindly. That means you need to choose your next words very carefully. My employees are not escorts, they are companions. None of them are just selling their bodies for s*x. No, then they could just be standing down on the street or in the red-light district. They offer their mind, their intellect, their manners, and their undying loyalty to this firm and what we do.”

My jaw tensed. I suddenly saw my mistake. I had never meant to call them that, because Fiona had described that to me, and I believed her. I believed that if Mrs. Smith could find a companion for me that didn’t necessarily mean that I got a s****l relationship with her.

“I’m sorry, I meant no offense at all, that was a bad choice of word,” I surrendered. “I am aware of that, and Fiona has already explained that to me. I didn’t mean to insinuate that you-”

“That’s alright, Mr. Hudson,” Mrs. Smith interrupted. “Just know that I protect my employees just as much as I protect my clients. Our security procedures are up to speed, and my employees know the complications if they start talking. The only way someone would know you have used Disclosure would be if you decided to tell them. However, I must tell you, that it is confidential, you can never mention who you have met through Disclosure or how you found out it exists. It can damage both my employees, but also my firm and the other clients I have.”

“I understand,” I said. Never would I endanger a young woman or try to tarnish my own reputation by ever speaking of this.

“Good,” she smiled. “Now, if you’re still up for trying this, we have some contractual agreements I need you to sign along with a NDA. Beyond that, I have some personal questions I would need to ask you, so that we can ensure the best possible match for you.”

“I’m not looking for love, just companionship,” I answered. Not wanting to let anyone believe that I would ever start a relationship like this, or give Mrs. Smith some type of hope for what I would do in the future.

“That is completely fine, Mr. Hudson, we will put that on your profile.”

“You also had a question about the length of the contract,” Fiona reminded me with a soft smile.

“Yes, that’s right,” I gave her back a smile, hoping I had righted the wrong I had done earlier. “Does the contract have to be for an entire year? Or could it just run through this holiday season?”

Mrs. Smith c****d her head, looking at me with narrowed eyes. “I must be honest with you, we haven’t done that before, Mr. Hudson. But for the fairness of my employees, who are becoming a public figure with you, I can’t say whether or not she would want that. I’ll have to ask her about that.” She started tapping on her computer. “But I must say that it’ll be difficult for me to make an agreement with someone for less than six months.”

“Would it be so awful?” Fiona asked me, making me look towards her. “A year goes fast, especially with how busy you are. Nobody says you have to make it more than it has to be. You neither have to propose nor move in together, but for a year you’ll be clear of all the responsibilities of a single man in your status.”

My gaze fell down on the dark liquid in my coffee cup. Fiona made sense. If we didn’t get along that much, I could always just call upon her for public events, it’s not like I needed to spend my days off with her unless I wanted to. It made it possible for me to completely relax, for me to just be me, and perhaps it would even further my business just like it had done for Bradley.

“I guess, with the right woman it wouldn’t be awful,” I shrugged, looking back up at Mrs. Smith, who had a devious curl to her lips.

“Perfect, Mr. Hudson, we’ll proceed like I always do.”

That procedure demanded that Fiona leave us alone, mostly because we had to talk about my personal wants and needs. Mrs. Smith asked me a lot of questions I had never given much thought before. She asked me how I would want a woman to act in public. How was she to act when we were alone? What kind of attributes did I want her to possess? Should she be an academic? Did I prefer her from a similar kind of background? Did I want her to look a certain way? Was there an accent I liked or one I detested? Did I want her to cook? Would I like her to be artistic?

And it kept going on and on like that for hours, before she finally dismissed me with the answer that I would be contacted as soon as she had found my match.