Why He Calls

Chapter 2

We go back to her room and she has me drive instead of using her driver. It makes her feel like being taken home after the date. I kiss her goodbye at her door and leave. My clothes from last night were sent to the hotel’s dry cleaner to be cleaned and put in a small tote bag along with my heels and purse. I call my ride from the service and only wait about ten minutes before being picked up.

Back at the agency, I head for Annalise to return the clothes and then down to Odette’s office. Annalise is one of the secretaries but her main job is the clothing stylist for the girls. Odette Rivers is our Madam. She legally changed her first name as soon as she turned eighteen because she said it used to be ugly. She picked Odette because it means ‘wealthy’. You know what I said earlier about most women not getting into the business for greed? Key word, most. Odette is the complete opposite. She’s all for the money but she still cares about her girls. Most of the caring is about having the best of the best for the clients but it’s still there.

She runs most of the business operations completely above board. Pays taxes, has an accountant, and even an HR person. Odette is like a fine wine. She must have been gorgeous in her youth. Now she’s more akin to Miranda Priestly, still attractive (for her age), always dressed refined but behind the appealing appearance she’s a calculating, unfeeling, self centered bully. Today she wears a silver business dress, not quite short sleeves but almost, with a v cut, not full neckline, black waist belt and black heels. Her hair is styled perfectly in place in a pomped braid.

She greets me and immediately I can tell she isn’t happy. She gestures for me to sit and I take a seat on the grey padded seat across from her. She turns an eyebrow up at my attire and I remember I still have the blue dress on. I never changed back into my ‘street clothes’ before I came in.

She starts off with telling me Cara already called in to schedule her next date with me. She also gives me my next few assignments. I have to decline three of them due to my schedule and the fact she knows I don’t take on this many clients at one time. My contracts says I can decline before signing anyone I’ve never been out with as long as there’s a substitute available. Blonde’s are always in supply so no worries there. I only take on those who want a regular girl and have been fully vetted by the service including the complimentary workup. And I keep my cycle count low, not taking on too many dates a week.

Odette once again, isn’t happy with my pickiness or how very few clients I have under my belt. But I’m still one of the most highly rated. She’s never penalized me or decreased my premium.

Before we move on to my payout from my last several dates, I ask why she looked mad. “Has something upset you Madam?”

“Yes. You have. It has been brought to my attention that you convinced a client, one that specifically choose you, to stop using the service. What the hell were you thinking?”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t convince anyone.” I defend. I know she means Mike. And I guess I kind of did persuade him but I’m definitely not provoking the Queen Bee with that bit of information.

“He called in to be removed from our system. Annalise, as always, makes sure there wasn’t any satisfaction issues, if the client would be better suited with a different girl. Offers them a discounted night to give us another try even. All to no end. You lost us a very important client.” She emphasizes the word very and important like it’s a much deal.

“This isn’t the first time a client has left for personal reasons and you weren’t mad at any of the other girls.” I defend.

“The other girls didn’t convince them to stop. And Michael Mathers knows a lot of other very wealthy businessmen. A few of whom use our services. If he goes on bad mouthing us, we could continue to lose out. Or just miss our positive word of mouth.” She disputes.

I guess we do get some other clients from men drunkenly mentioning their expats to their buddies. But it’s not like Mike’s ever going to tell anyone about paying for a date. Odette is just being ridiculous.

“Look, you’re misunderstanding what happened. Mike decided to go back to his wife and part of her taking him back is fidelity. He’s fixing things for the sake of his kids.” I know way more than that but bringing up people’s personal lives to justify things, especially kids, is a good way to move on.

“Fine. Close the curtains and make sure the door is shut all the way.” She says snapping her fingers like I’m a lowly disrespected waitress. I ignore her behavior but still oblige quickly, sitting back down after.

“So we need to talk about a special request. It’s a client that you specifically cannot deny.” She says, and holds her hand up before I can object and point out my contract, or the fact that I already picked my next few assignments.

“Listen, girl. One of the reasons I hired you at such a high rate, aside from your looks, desperation, and naiveté is because of what you are.” She emphatically points out.

My eyes grow wide in understanding. She means because I’m a werewolf. Whoever this next client is, they’re of the supernatural world. I know Odette has a few, special clients who only request non humans. There’s only three werewolf girls who work for the service currently.

Kalinda who has black hair and dark eyes. She’s very entitled and full of herself. She has much lower rates than most of the other girls. But she’s a top performer, especially because she has no limits and can do no wrong in the eyes of Odette. She signs a lot of clients, isn’t picky whatsoever and brags about her “satisfaction guaranteed” stamp. However, Kalinda absolutely hates me because my rates are drastically higher than hers and I have made more than her several months running while signing a fraction as many clients as she does.

And then there’s Electra. She’s fiery just like her name with red hair, blue eyes, and perfect blemish free fair skin. She’s gorgeous, model tall with a figure to kill for. She signs less clients than I do, is one of the newest girls to the agency, but has one of the highest premiums in the whole service due to her look. One of the biggest things I respect about Electra is the point she made when I meet her. “Just because a girl is a force, in charge of her own sexuality, never call her a slut. Men with body counts exponentially higher than us, aren’t called whores.” She went on to add about always being safe and taking care of yourself things we also both agree with. But it really made me feel differently about the profession.

“What’s the assignment?” I ask.

“A hierarchy wolf wants two girls to take as dates to the Obsidian Ocean Pack’s ball. It’s celebrating the newly appointed Alpha. He obviously has to bring werewolves due to the secrecy doctrine. You’ll have to sign an NDA waiver as well as a document promising you either haven’t found your mate or no longer have one. Hierarchy wolves take the mate bond very seriously.”

Obviously not serious enough to not care about hooking up before they found their own mates of course but once someone has found their mate they wouldn’t dare pursue someone mated. Even if the mate agrees to it.

There was a disastrous case of that with another werewolf girl, who worked here before me and Electra joined. Her name was Lacey, and her mate let her work here so he didn’t have to get a job. She ended up in trouble when Odette sent her on a date with a hierarchy wolf, who was cheating on his mate. After that, she was punished so badly she had to quit working here and then Lacey’s deadbeat mate left her.

I never found my mate, and because of my choice of profession, if I ever do, they’ll most likely reject me as soon as they find out. I have no clue about Electra.

I know Kalinda’s mate rejected her, very publicly on her eighteenth birthday. He called her a w***e as well as all kinds of other bad names. Even insinuated she was Muslim with a cruel slur (she’s not just has a similar complexion). So she rejected the rejection as revenge. He’s bonded to her until she rejects him or he tries rejecting her and she actually accepts it. Now he gets to feel the pain of every single ‘date’ she goes on. He’s sent threatening letters to her, even come here before and was escorted out by security. It was quite the spectacle.

“When is the date?” I ask next, internally dreading this. I’ve only been on one other threesome date before and I hated it. The other girl, was way more experienced then me and decided rather than talk things out with me before hand or have some kind of plan going into the night, she would just try outdoing me. She pitted us against each other both begging for the guy’s attention. It was disgusting and degrading and I gave up and thought I was going to lose my job.

“Two weeks from now.” I pull up my calendar on my phone, enter the next few assignments I just took. Then I bring up the night in question. Thankfully, it’s conflict free.

“Okay, I’m not taking this new client.” I hand her back one of the navy blue files with a new assignment. That just leaves me my regulars. Just three dates with Cara and two of my once a weeks.

“Who’s going on assignment with me?” I ask next.

“Electra.” Odette says. “This guy only wanted blonde or red haired beautiful, sweet looking girls.”

“Any upfront details to emphasize or just read the file?” I ask to cover my basis.

“Yes, he wants the ‘Disney girlfriend experience’ for the ball. Not much to go on for the ‘after’ part.” Odette explains. There’s regular girlfriend experience, which if they’re a repeat client requesting this, you get a vibe for what they like in a girl. Or you just be the perfect date. The right level of flirting, PDA, and manners for whatever event they need a plus one.

Then there’s as Odette calls it the ‘Disney girlfriend experience’. Usually really dressed up. The main difference is a very sweet and happy demeanor, with a “love at first site” performance.

“Is this guy playing out some kind of Elsa & Anna fantasy or something?” I ask jokingly and laugh at my own joke. I catch Odette smile at that before frowning and narrowing her eyes.

“Do not make that joke on your date.” She says very seriously and then turns to her computer punching things in. “And don’t worry, you will absolutely not be wearing blue or purple.” And this time she really does smile at me. I’m glad she has some sense of humor.

I decide to take this opportunity to talk about my latest pay and leave.

“So my date with Cara, I got there early about 11 last night, left just after 2pm today. And can I get my paystub and breakdown from Mike, Jayden, and Victor?”

Odette turns around to her filing cabinet, rifles through and then pulls out a few papers. One is a half page. The other is two sheets stapled together.

“Annalise already input the rate difference for Cara when she confirmed the next date. If you check your bank account, the last three were paid out as a lump sum. Your payment for Cara won’t be processed until after 5. So check back later or in the morning for that deposit as it sometimes takes up to 24 hours.”

I look at the amount on the paystub and then read through the breakdown. There’s a penalty deduction from my premium under my third client. I look up at Odette and almost object but keep my mouth shut. The other per client deductions listed include the 20% house fee, clothes fee and driving fare. Under the pay breakdown is taxes, social security etc and then family health insurance deduction.

I can’t risk losing my job or giving Odette a reason to lower my rate or continue penalizing me for any small infraction she may look for. So I don’t say anything, I make sure my face softens, and shows no hard feelings before looking up and saying. “Thank you, Madam. Am I free to go?”

“Yes of course sweetheart.” She says in a voice like a mother talking to their teen daughter. She smiles again but this one doesn’t reach her eyes. It’s an ‘I won’ smile because she thinks she put me in my place.

Stupid Odette. The clients might just be dollar signs to her, but they’re also human, well most of them.

I still don’t bother changing. I just put my white jacket on over the dress and have my favorite driver take me home. His name is Gabe and he’s the only one I trust with my actual address. Otherwise, I drive and leave my car at the service. Annalise always validates my parking, even if I leave it overnight.