I’ve been in the office for only three hours and already I feel like the day has gotten away from me. I didn’t mind taking this job—it’s a great building, with everything onsite and a nice fancy office.

It’s got a nice Italian edge to it, but it’s also very modern and comfortable now that I’ve made a few adjustments. In my father’s heyday, it was packed with heavy furniture. Maybe it was a side business. Fuck, if I know.

This pile of paper isn’t getting any smaller. It’s the worst part of our promise to Papa—turning the business legitimate takes an incredible amount of paperwork. I knew handling the hookers couldn’t be a full-time bag of fun, but I had hoped.

Turns out, even prostitution gets boring when it’s in black and white. I’d been working on paperwork so long I feel like I’m at an actual job. If I don’t get to kick off soon, I’ll completely lose my motivation.

I’m not one of those guys who can handle repetition.

We had to renovate half the rooms in here to turn it into a proper training center. We have a gym and a cafeteria onsite now. Some of the offices are set up as classrooms where the girls get schooled in etiquette.

The highest ranks of our escorts must be utterly flawless. The building is now a super center of activity for our business. I’m pretty sure in Dad’s day it was just a gentleman’s club, and I use the term ‘club’ loosely—more like a cluster of fetish rooms.

I reach for my coffee and curse softly. It was empty again. I should have been through this paperwork at the start of the workday and ready to get on with today’s calendar.

I better have a look now in case something urgent is scheduled for me.

There are interviews for new girls today. I get a real grin on my face at that—meeting pretty girls always makes for a good day, even more so when it’s my job.

Times have changed of course, and that was Dad’s plan all along. No more terrified immigrants being carted around in vans.

No more messing about at the docks with bribes. Positions for today have been advertised, and the girls will get paid very well. It’s not all sex, either–—some will end up as secretaries or cocktail waitresses.

We run these interviews not just to hire the girls but to place them in the business.

I buzz Carlos at his desk and tell him to get all the girls in, in a couple of hours. I don’t want to do individual interviews. It will take too long, and I don’t need to know that much about the candidates.

Carlos grunts his affirmative and hangs up, getting straight on the job. This is why I have him as my second. No chit-chat and no bullshit.

He knows how to support me and get me prepared for every task. None of the others I had hired could keep up, let alone get ahead.

I check the time and realize that if I’m going to workout, I need to go now.

I’ve been sitting at this desk for too long, and the tension is starting to ring through my neck and shoulders.

I really wanted this paperwork done by now.

I buzz Carlos again and let him know I’m headed down to the gym and that he should follow after making the calls.

We had met at a local gym some years ago, and it was his ability to handle my crazy schedule that made me offer him the job.

The guy was wasted as a personal trainer.

I jog down to the gym and change quickly.

There are a few staff members on. Braver ones acknowledge me; most pretend I’m not there.

I’m not a bad guy, not all the time, anyway, but few employees will look me in the eye.

I lift weights for a few minutes until Carlos comes in to spot for me. He notches up the weight, recording everything in an app on his tablet.

“You trying to kill me or what?”

Carlos laughs at me. “It’s not much weight, I only want you to do a few. You need it after all that shredding last month.”

“Alright, man, set it up.” I lie down on the bench press as Carlos comes around to spot.

“So, why are you doing all this hard work anyway, boss? Got a lady friend or what?”

I laugh mid-lift, almost throwing myself out.

“No. You know better than that.” I squeeze the words out as I press slowly.

Lift, and press.

“But you must find someone sooner or later, boss. A man needs to tend to his heart.”

“Not. Me.” Breathing hard now, I push two more, then nod to Carlos as he jacks the bar back in.

I sit up and take a sip of water.

“I worry about you, Franco. You seem to do okay with the girls, but you never have a special lady.”

“Carlos, can we just drop the subject? What do I have to offer a woman but money, huh?”

I was raised by amazing, strong, beautiful women. My Mama and Grandmother. Aunties. All gorgeous, striking, passionate women.

I was always the good boy, getting extra sweets and things like that. They all said I was destined to make a great husband, and I pictured myself like Gram Papa, sitting in his vineyard, just crawling with cousins and grand kids.

Once I started the business with Papa though, they all changed the way they looked at me. I wasn’t the nice boy anymore.

I was one of Papa’s dogs.

Maybe one day, we’ll clean this place up. Maybe then I can say to some woman—should I find a smart, gorgeous, sensual creature with passion to match Dante’s inferno—I’m a good man, and I can offer you honor and a good life. Not just cash.

Maybe then...

Deep down, I really believe that day will never come. Now I’ve become a wild dog; how can I learn to be a gentleman? The sweet kid I used to be is gone forever.

“Let’s hit another set, Carlos. I feel some more tension creeping in.”