Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 176002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
“What floor?” he asks me, before pressing the button to ascend. “Are you going to see Josh or Tiffany, by any chance?”
I cringe, because there is no doubt now that he knows. Josh wasn’t lying about their reputation around here – and I know what the association means.
Richard Jacobs, my lettings agent, knows I’ve just been out fucking someone for money, dressed up in a schoolgirl outfit. I’m not exactly the PR professional I presented myself as for my viewing.
“Josh’s or Tiffany’s?” he repeats, and I clear my throat.
“Josh’s.”
“Right,” he says, and presses the button for floor eight, before clicking on floor ten to follow.
I’m ready to race the hell out of there when the elevator reaches floor eight, but Richard reaches out to keep the doors open before they close behind me.
“Hold on one second please, Ella,” he says.
Ella. I’m sure not Miss Edwards now. Not from the tone he’s using.
He turns to the client he’s got the viewing with, and she’s still scoping out the apartment brochure.
“Miss Yardley,” he says, and she looks up as he pulls some keys from his pocket. “Would you be so kind as to give me a minute? Please, head up to apartment forty-six and make yourself at home. I’ll be right on up to join you.”
“Of course.” She smiles and takes the keys, completely oblivious.
He steps out to join me and waits until the elevator is on its way up before he speaks.
“Well, well. What a surprise to see you under these circumstances,” he says, and there is such a sneery edge to his voice that I cringe. My backpack feels so heavy and ridiculous on my shoulder that I shunt it up, as though I’ve been caught being a naughty schoolgirl for real. “I didn’t realise you had friends over here, in the east.” He steps closer, towering over me, and the respect I saw before from him at my viewings has all gone away. He’s not out to impress me today, with handshakes and courtesy. “I didn’t realise you were a hooker, like them. What an oversight on my part. Extraordinary. I’ve normally got very good intuition.”
“I do work in PR…” I attempt. “I’m an entertainer.”
“Cut the crap,” he says. “We both know what you really do for a living.” He looks me up and down. “You make a convincing schoolgirl. Very good. The pigtails suit you.”
My cheeks must be blushing beetroot. What am I supposed to say to that? What can I say?
I don’t say a thing, just look at the goddamn floor like a criminal.
He paces around me in the corridor, with his hands clasped behind his back like a predator circling his prey – and I’m back to the old Ella. Being judged, being scared, feeling like I shouldn’t be in a place like this.
I figure he’s going to call me out in disgust and say dirty hookers shouldn’t be in this place, but he steps up close again, with a different kind of smile on his face.
A dirty smile.
It clicks with me. I remember what Ebony said when he showed us around prospective apartments. She said about the bulge in his pants, and I look there now. Sure enough, there it is. His pants are bulging for me in my schoolgirl outfit. He’s hard at the sight of me.
“So, now I know you’re a hooker, let’s put it on the table,” he says. “How much do you charge and when can I book you?”
I meet his eyes again, and he’s so confident, it’s almost smug.
“It doesn’t work like that,” I say. “Sorry, but I’m not open to bookings.”
He raises his eyebrows like I’m an idiot. “Really? I think you may want to reconsider that stance. If anything, being your lettings agent, you should be offering me a discount, not a refusal.”
“It’s not personal.” I try to make the rebuttal sound nice. I even smile. “I’m not on the public market, that’s all. It’s nothing against you.”
“You have a pimp, is that what you’re saying?” he asks.
“No.” I get a skin crawl. “I work for a professional company. And there are rules. Exclusivity is one of them.”
“Oh, yes. I’ve heard this story before. Exclusivity. I would think this idea of exclusivity through very carefully before you turn me down, Ella,” he says, and twirls one of my pigtails in his fingers. “I know your friends offer quite a lot of services by all accounts. Are you filthy like they are? Give me a price, and a list of options, fuck exclusivity, I’m sure you can cut me a deal.”
“I can’t…” I hate how my voice sounds so weak.
Richard would have to join the agency, and the referral process doesn’t work like that. I can’t introduce clients, and I can’t take them on outside my entertainer appointments. I wouldn’t dare risk it. I wouldn’t want to anyway, not with him.