With a certain degree of discomfort, Jada Penner slipped the red dress on and shimmied so that it fell down to her thighs. Or more accurately as it strained to reach her thighs. The material was so taunt against her bottom that it refused to slip any further.

“Chelsea!” Jada threw the bathroom door open and tottered out in the six-inch heels that her cousin had given her.

“What?” Chelsea stomped into view and stopped short when she saw Jada. Her eyes bugged and the lollipop in her mouth tumbled from her lips. “Girl, you are fire!”

“I look like a hooker. Could you find me another dress? I can’t breathe in this one.”

“No, no, no. That’s perfect!”

Jada glanced down, appraising the way the gown hugged her curves. She considered herself a secure woman, someone confident in her own skin, but this outfit gave a little too much skin away.

“I thought you said this was a non-escort service? This dress screams ‘escort’.”

“I thought you said Papi’s medical bills were piling? This dress screams ‘pay up’.”

Jada snorted. “Yeah… pay for a one night stand and a host of potential STD’s.”

Chelsea squinted. “Do you have an STD?”

“What? No!”

“I was just checking.”

“You know I haven’t…” Jada sighed and held out her arms as she wobbled back to the bathroom. “Just find me another outfit or I’m wearing my jeans.”

She heard Chelsea’s muffled voice through the door. “If you wear jeans, you might as well not bother showing up tonight. Your face is gorgeous, but it isn’t going to get you by this time.”

At her cousin’s words, Jada stepped out of the dress and neared the mirror hanging on the bathroom wall. Her sharp, almond shaped eyes were fringed by a thick layer of dark lashes, fanning the span of her brown cheeks and sloping nose.

Her lips were plump and dark, the color of a muted rose and her chin was soft and curved gently to her neck. She had never understood what others found so beautiful about her face. It was just that. A mass of skin with eyes, lips, and nostrils.

 “Here you go!” Chelsea knocked on the door and Jada widened it just enough to accept a more modest white dress. “So stuffy. Take my advice. Wear the red.”

“This suits me just fine, thank you very much,” she said as she pulled up the thick straps and admired the material covering her chest. “And I hope you know… if anyone touches me tonight, I’m out of there and I’m taking you with me.”

“No one’s going to do any touching,” Chelsea said. “For the hundredth time, it’s an innocent gig. We just show up on a guy’s arm. Stay quiet. Look pretty. And keep the money-hungry older women at bay. At the end of the night, we collect our cheque and go home. Done.”

“It still feels weird…”

“Oh, stop complaining. If you didn’t want to do this, you should have said that last week when you were crying about paying medical bills.”

“I said I wanted a few extra hours at the bookstore. Not… this.”

“It’ll take you weeks working there to make what we can score in one night.”

Jada opened the door and spoke to her cousin face-to-face. “It sounds a little too good to be true.”

“It’s all above board.”

“And we’re not escorts?”

“No sex,” Chelsea grins. “Not unless you want to. Promise. If the guy suits you, he might even hire you again. I’ve done it twice now. It’s perfectly safe.”

“Right.”

Jada wondered if she was being foolish going out with an older man for a few hundred dollars cash. The arrangement stank of something morally grey and despite the pressure to keep Papi safely in the hospital, she wasn’t sure it was worth taking such a risk.

How trustworthy could a man be? Not to mention one that was paying for someone’s time and appearance? Would the expectations really stop at companionship or would the guy want more than she was willing to give?

Chelsea approached her cousin and poked her cheek. “Smile. That worried expression doesn’t look good on you.”

Jada bared her teeth and shook her arms out. She would keep her word to Chelsea and run right out of there the minute she smelled any hanky-panky business, but until the gig proved to be unsound, she could at least give it a shot.

“There,” Chelsea said as a genuine smile bloomed on Jada’s face. “Much better. Now, me? How do I look?”

Jada eyed her cousin’s off-the-shoulder yellow gown that bound her body like plastic wrap. Long, black hair cascaded past her ebony shoulders and Chelsea stroked the length with her manicured fingers.

“You look fantastic,” she said. “Where’d you get the hair?”

“That new mega store that opened down on Albert Street. It has everything, girl. I think the man you’re meeting tonight owns there.”

“How… nice.”

Chelsea threw her arms over Jada’s shoulders. “You’ll get used to it pretty soon. Society’s conditioned us a certain way, but things aren’t always so black and white.”

“I know the speech.”

Chelsea had gone off on a tangent the night before, and Jada wasn’t in the mood for it. To her dismay, her cousin started up again, brown eyes flashing and dark cheeks growing red with passion.

“It’s not a sin for someone with resources to support someone without them. All the powerful rulers did it back in the day!”

“Chels—”

“And it’s a part of our evolutionary make-up to exchange attention for gifts. Birds give each other twigs. Apes scratch each other’s backs! It’s totally fine!”

“Chelsea! You’re trying too hard to defend it and it’s making me nervous.”

Chelsea batted a lock of hair away from her face. “I’m sorry.”

“Should we leave now? They said to meet them there at seven, right?”

“Yeah,” Chelsea adjusted her bracelet and grumbled. “It would have been so much easier if we let them pick us up.”

“I’m not getting into a car with anyone that I don’t know.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have recommended you for this.”

“I’ll behave. I promise.”

“Come on, sister,” Chelsea said, pushing Jada towards the door. “Let’s go make some money!”

“Please don’t say it like that…”

“What?”

“Like we’re going on a wild bachelorette party.”

“Have mercy, you’re wound up too tight.” Chelsea swiped the car keys from a stand next to the door and nudged Jada down the stairs.

***

 

Adam Lockwood adjusted his glasses as he typed in one last key. The cursor blinked and he cracked his knuckles, waiting for the code to do as instructed. Instead, the screen went berserk and ‘error’ messages popped up like a game of ‘whack-a-mole’ gone wild.

His fist pounded the desk. In one smooth motion, he pushed away from the computer, slid his glasses to the top of his head and rubbed his eyes. He’d been working on that code all evening. Now he’d have to go through the sequence with a fine-tooth comb to see where he’d gone wrong.

“Mr. Lockwood!” He heard a voice and swung to find his secretary standing breathlessly in the doorway. Brenda was his fifty-four year old right hand. He would be an unorganized mess without her.

Puffy white hair, striking against her mahogany face, stuck up all around her head in the latest ‘natural hair’ trend. Brenda had droned on and on about it when he’d made the mistake of asking her once.

“What is it?”

“Your father… is on the line.”

Adam stiffened. Dad only called him when he wanted something and right now, Adam had nothing to give.

“Tell him I’m busy.” He scooted the chair back in place and faced the computer.

“He said if you didn’t pick up, he’d pull his support for the launching.”

“That’s fine,” Adam said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I didn’t even want his input anyway. We’ve still got our Ainstain deal.”

“A-alright.” She disappeared.

Adam inhaled a deep breath and tried to make sense out of the nonsense process he’d been working on.

“Uh, Mr. Lockwood, sir?”

“Yes, Brenda?”

“He said to tell you he plays golf with the AINSTAIN C.E.O.”

His hands stilled over the keyboard and his green eyes flicked to the landline sitting on his mess of a desk. Adam chuckled darkly. Dad always knew how to push the right buttons to get what he wanted. It was why the company had risen to such heights under his leadership.

“I’ll take it, Brenda. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome sir.”

As Brenda shuffled out, Adam picked up the phone. “Hello, Dad.”

“Just because you up and ran away to Belize doesn’t mean I ceased to exist.”

“Is this your way of saying you miss me?”

“Gah, that mouth of yours. It’s been such a long time since we’ve spoke, I forgot it was so sharp. You get that from your mother.”

“Which one of them?”

Eldon Lockwood laughed. “I should call more often, but I didn’t interrupt whatever hole you’re stuffed in to joke around. I need you to head to Maruba in the next twenty minutes as my representative.”

“Dad,” Adam groaned, “I’m not a part of your company.”

“You’re my son, aren’t you?” His father thundered. “As the eldest, it’s your responsibility to pick up the slack when I can’t. After all, it’s all for you and your brothers anyway.”

“Then let them represent you. I’m busy.”

His father continued as if Adam hadn’t spoken. “I’ll need you to dress nice and sharp. The Prime Minister of Belize should be there. Make a good impression.”

“I hate those useless parties,” Adam grumbled, backing away from the computer.

“We all do, son, but my investments in Belize need a little pick-me-up and you’re a convenient stand in.”

Adam nodded, submitting to the inevitability of his attendance. Though it pained him to give in to his father, it was the right thing to do. Both for his business and for his relationship with the man who’d paid others to raise him.

 “I’ll be there.”

“Of course you will!” His father laughed and the booming sound caused Adam to pull the phone away from his ear. “By the way, I’d arranged a date to accompany me.”

“A date?”

“Yes,” his father said. “It’s an unofficial contract. I heard about her through a friend of a friend.”

The more his father spoke, the more uncomfortable Adam felt. Since his mother’s death ten years ago, Dad had been engaged in quite liberal interactions with younger, beautiful women, but he’d never paraded such tendencies before Adam.

“It’s okay,” Adam said quickly. “I’ll go solo.”

“Nonsense! There’s nothing like a gorgeous woman on your arm to gain some traction in a conversation. I did a background check on her. She’s suitable.”

“Maybe for you. I’d prefer not to mess with the women you favor.”

He’d prefer not to interact with his father’s kind of women at all, but that part went unsaid.

“I’ve never met her, so she hasn’t yet had the opportunity to earn my favor. Consider her my gift to you.”

“Dad—”

“Aish! Her time has already been paid for. I don’t want to hear another complaint. Call Gustin Grant for further details. He’s the one who recommended her.”

“But—”

“Now’s not the time to act shy, Adam. This woman is disposable and I’ve been promised the highest discretion.  Do with her what you wish.”

“I’d prefer not—”

“If she does well, send her right along to me.”

“Dad, I’m not going to do that.”

Chuckling loudly, his father ended the call. Adam returned the phone to the cradle and stared into the distance. Heading to such an upscale function was already something he found disarming. Attending said function with a woman of ill repute, now that… that set him on edge.

“Brenda?”

“Yes, Mr. Lockwood!”

Adam swung the chair to face his secretary and pushed the words past his lips. “Do you think it’s possible to rent a tuxedo this late in the day?”

Her eyes bugged. “W-what for, sir?”

Adam sighed. “I’m going to a party.”