- Chapter 22
THEO
The agonizing feeling over making a mistake that you can’t fix has got to be as close to torture as a man can get. I felt the vile, disgusting feeling building up in my stomach when I couldn’t reach Abby.
Why had I thought that having her go out with Aldo was going to be a good thing? It baffled me that my mind hadn’t run through the idea that Aldo was going to totally destroy Abby. Not literally, of course, but he had the ability to make me lose her, and I didn’t like that at all. If Aldo wanted her, he would make it happen. He could manipulate and play with her emotions until he got exactly what he wanted.
Of course, I could hope that all he wanted was to play with her a little and tease himself before he sent her back to me. But I knew Abby and found it extremely hard to believe that Aldo would ever be willing to give her up.
The thing that bothered me most was that Abby was going to tease him and play with him all while thinking that she was doing it for me. She wanted to protect me from Aldo’s wrath, and I put that thought into her head. It was disgusting how I had manipulated the situation. I should have left her out of it! I should have told her to refuse him if he called, and I would deal with the consequences on my own.
But I had spent the last ten years, at least, avoiding dealing with the reality of my partnership with Aldo. Instead, I relished the extravagant life that I had built and pretended that I had done it on my own hard work; when the truth was I had done it on the hard work of myself but also many others.
My life had all been set up by Aldo, and I did owe him a lot for getting me to where I was. But ten years of my life had to be enough of a payment to him. At what point was I going to be able to move on, and at what point could I sever ties with Aldo without the threat of harm?
It wasn’t going to work for me any longer. The mental switch had already happened, I wanted a real life. I wanted a life I could brag about without lying to people. I wanted to pick my parents up in a private jet and not have to pretend like it was a friend’s jet. I wanted my parents to be proud of what I did for a living instead of me trying to explain that it was from investments and having my father look at me quizzically.
Something inside me was gone. That no holds barred ability to earn money and not give a fuck how I got it. It had just disappeared. Like an ugly guest that was with me for years and suddenly I woke up and they were gone.
When I was young, I remembered thinking that I wanted to be rich so badly. I never had a plan for how I would gain these riches, I just always wanted to have tons of money. Throughout the years of living in New York, I certainly had grown rich, but what had it gotten me? I was still alone and had nothing to really show for my last ten years except for some property and things. I needed to make a change and finally felt like I was ready for something new and different. I was ready to be real with myself and my life.
As I made my way back to my apartment, I shook my head in dismay at the new sobering life I was about to embark on. Certainly, I couldn’t keep my apartment if I was getting out of the escort business. I couldn’t keep my jet membership or my cars either. But I didn’t really care. I wanted the white picket fence life, and I wanted it with Abby.
“Wow, you look terrible. That’s how I feel when I go to the gym too,” Kimberly joked as I walked in the door.
She was sitting on the couch with two of her friends, who also worked with VIP Escorts. Megan and Allison had worked with me for several years. They were good girls who treated their men respectfully and almost always got booked a second and even third time. In fact, all three of the women were really good with the men they dated.
“I told Abby she should go out with Aldo again,” I said, trying to hide the disgust at my own actions. “Because Aldo threatened me.”
I wasn’t normally as honest with the women who worked for me. But I didn’t have anything to lose anymore.
“Is Abby the girl you like?” Megan asked.
“He loves her; I saw it in his eyes,” Kimberly said as she teased me.
It was funny to watch the girls talk about me like I was their best friend, and they had secretly figured out everything about me. I liked feeling that they were concerned about me, at least, and that they actually wanted me to be happy with someone.
“You know what, I might just love her. I haven’t actually had love in a long time though, it’s hard for me to recognize it.”
“Does she make you want to vomit when she is close to you?” Allison asked.
“Eww Allison, that’s not love,” Kimberly chimed in.
“Seriously ladies, I think I messed this one up. I need some female advice on how I can salvage this.”
I didn’t actually have many friends. My line of work made it difficult to make guy friends because if they weren’t in the business, they wanted to be dating the women I was around. It was impossible to make female friends, they never liked what I did for a living. So pretty much I was relegated to having a slew of beautiful escorts as my friends. I understood that it wasn’t the same thing as real friends. But they were going to have to do for the time being.
“So give us a rundown on what is going on.” Megan asked as she seriously looked at me and appeared ready to help me with whatever it was I needed.
Megan was a smart girl. She had an MBA from New York University. She wanted to start her own business but had decided to work as an escort to gain the capital she needed. The problem she ran into was the more she worked, the more she wanted to work. The lifestyle and the money were difficult for people to give up. I don’t think she had ever really considered giving it up recently, but in the beginning, that was all she talked about. Every time I saw her, she was talking about how much more money she needed to start her business. But a year ago, instead of starting her business, Megan invested all of her money into a lavish new condo. She was back at square one with her business plans but didn’t seem to mind it at all.
“Okay, so here’s the deal. Jack and I went out to the club to pick up a couple new girls. We thought it was time we got a few more in rotation,” I started my story slowly. “This girl Abby that I met, she was sweet and confident, and almost instantly, I knew there was something special between us.”
“Your hard on,” Allison blurted out.
“Well, she did give me that; of course. But it was different than with other women. I wanted her to like me. Do you know how lame that feels when you’re my age and you actually want a woman to like you?”
“Um, that’s every day of my life with guys,” Kimberly added.
“So I kept thinking that I was going to get over it. The feelings I had toward her were the same other guys would have, and she was going to make a great escort. I took her to Vegas …”
“Oh, the famous Vegas trip, you girls still remember when he took you?” Megan asked as the three women started to talk about their trips.
“Oh, fuck yeah. It was the first truly expensive pair of shoes I’ve ever gotten,” Allison said. “I still have those shoes, they are my lucky fucking shoes.”
“Lucky shoes you wanted to fuck or shoes that are just fucking lucky?” Kimberly teased Allison.
“Both.”
“Okay, okay, ladies …I know the whole Vegas thing is cliché, I get it. But I really didn’t know that I liked her yet. I thought I could still bring her into the business. But actually let me go back a bit. On the way to the airport, I stopped by to talk with Aldo about what happened with Kimberly and Rocco. He had seen her at a restaurant she worked at, and he liked her. Instantly, I could tell that he wanted to take her out.”
“Man, Aldo is one handsome son of a gun,” Allison said.
“I know. He’s all mysterious and sexy. And damn does he have style. I’d tap that dude all day every day,” Megan said in an uncharacteristically enthusiastic manner.
“You go girl,” Kimberly added.
“Seriously, what is it about that guy that drives women so bonkers? He’s old, he’s like fifty something.”
“He’s still hot as hell. You can’t even deny it,” Megan said.
It was obvious that Megan had a thing for Aldo even long after she had gone on a date with him. I knew he had the ability to charm the ladies, but I thought I was pretty damn good at charming women too, and I never had that kind of reaction from them years down the road. Somehow, Aldo could totally tease a woman, even take her to bed and let his wife watch the whole thing, and everyone was perfectly fine with it. He certainly had some sort of skills that I couldn’t even imagine.
“Okay, so anyways. He wanted to take her out, and I said she wasn’t going to work for me. It was before I even really knew what I was saying, but I just knew I didn’t want him taking her out. Then bam, he offered her ten grand to go to some film industry thing with him, and she took it.”
“Well, how long had you two known each other at that point?” Megan asked.
“One night.”
“Damn right she took his offer. At least you’re not in love with a stupid girl!” Kimberly joked.
“Come on ladies, I need real help. Let’s fast forward. Yesterday, Aldo is all upset that he thinks I told Abby she was his escort. Of course, I didn’t. But it turns out while they were out she kissed him.”
“Oh, yeah he hates that,” Megan added as she had become our resident expert on all things that pertained to Aldo.
“I know, well he thought she was trying to perform or make him happy, etc. He got pissed off at me and pretty much threatened to kill me. It wasn’t the first time he had threatened me, but I thought it would be best to talk to Abby about it. We made up, and I asked her if she would go out with him again and pretend like she didn’t know about the escort thing. I asked her to just pretend.”
“Wait a minute. Abby knows about the escort business?” Kimberly asked. “She didn’t know at all the last time she was here.”
“Yeah, Jack told her friend Isabella who then told her.”
“And she wasn’t pissed off? See, I told you that you had to tell her!”
Kimberly was pretty proud of herself since her advice had been for me to tell Abby all along. So it didn’t feel all that great when I had to tell her that Abby really had been pretty pissed off at me when she found out.
“Oh, yeah, she was pissed off, but we made up,” I said with a wink.
“She fucked you even after she found out you had lied to her?” Kimberly said with a shocked expression.
“Yep. I know. We didn’t even really fight about it. It was like the fasted argument I’ve ever had with a woman.”
“She likes you,” Kimberly added. “The only reason a woman would give up a dream fight like that was if she liked you.”
“And he told her to go out with Aldo,” Allison said as she started to laugh uncontrollably.
“Yeah, what was up with that decision? It doesn’t seem very useful at all,” Megan added.
“Aldo said he was going to kill me!” I exclaimed in a desperate attempt to get the women to come over to my side.
“Well, he says that to people when he’s angry. He loves you like a son; I seriously doubt he would kill you. Did you tell him you liked Abby?”
“Yep, he said I was being childish and living in a fantasy land.”
“Yikes,” Megan added as she appeared to be thinking through all the scenarios. “Well, the good news is that Aldo doesn’t like to sleep with many of his women. He likes to seduce them and get them to fall in love with him. But he only sleeps with a few of them.”
“How is that good news?” Allison asked.
“I mean, she might be in love with him when everything is done, but maybe she wouldn’t have slept with him.”
“Fuck, I need a better plan.”
“Well, you’re shit out of luck until she reappears from this date she’s on with him tonight,” Kimberly said, looking to have lost interest in our conversation.
“I’m just supposed to leave it all up in the air and let him have her?”
“What other options do you really have? She’s already out with him, right?”
“Yes, but I was hoping you three could come up with some sort of super romantic gesture that would have me stealing her away from him. And not getting murdered,” I joked.
“I think you’re thinking of Charlie’s Angels, that’s not us,” Allison teased.
“Seriously Theo, you’re going to have to wait this one out. If she cares about you, one night with Aldo isn’t going to change that. But when you see her next, you need to right these wrongs. You can’t let her think you are alright with her going out with Aldo anymore. No more dates with him. Talk to him, it will be fine. I think he’s a romantic at heart,” Megan said.
I had left out the whole part about me giving up the industry. I didn’t want to worry the ladies about their jobs until I had a better idea of what I was going to do with the business. Certainly, I could find someone else to run it. Or like Kimberly said, the women could just do their own thing. But it was harder than they thought to research the guys and make sure they were legitimate. Plenty of men got in contact with me looking for escorts, but I only allowed about half of them to actually take women on dates.
Sometimes the guys just didn’t know the real expense that went into an escort. Other times, they were clearly looking for a prostitute and not an escort at all. It was my job to deal with all the losers so I could find decent guys for the women to date. I wasn’t sure any of them really understood how much work went into finding decent guys.
“Thanks for your help ladies; I appreciate your point of view. I’ll let you know what happens.”
The truth was that I really did appreciate their point of view. I didn’t have very many true friends, and it was comforting to know that the women who worked for me thought enough of me that they were interested in helping me out. For a brief moment, I felt like I had done right by them throughout the years that they had worked for me.
“We get an invite to the wedding!” Allison said.
“Ha, if Abby and I ever get married, I’ll make sure and invite you all.”
The women knew me well and didn’t seem all that surprised that I had fallen for Abby. I wondered what it was about the way I talked about her that made it seem so realistic for me to want to be with her.
As Kimberly said her goodbyes to Megan and Allison, I made my way into the kitchen to see if I could scrounge something to eat. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had eaten; I was so wrapped up in everything that was going on in my life. Plus, I was just plain sick to my stomach with what a jerk I had been over the past few days. If this was what it was like to be love sick; then I could see why people lost so much weight when they fell in love.
“Seriously Theo,” Kimberly said as she came into the kitchen after saying goodbye to her friends. “What were you thinking? Why would you let her go out with him?”
The anger in her voice caught me off guard.
“This is bad. You are never going to get out of the business if he gets a hold of her. I didn’t want to say this in front of Megan because she’s in love with Aldo. But he’s a scary mother fucker. My experience with him wasn’t good at all.”
“What do you mean? You never mentioned this before.”
“He was your friend. I couldn’t say anything bad about him.”
“Fuck, what happened?”
“He’s kinky as hell. He wanted me to fuck one of his friends while he watched. Of course, I wanted to make him happy. He was my first real client, and I just wanted to do whatever I was supposed to do. But then he got pissed off when I actually fucked the guy. It was like I couldn’t win with him at all.”
I was silent because I couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. She was right, Aldo never could make up his mind, and certainly the advice I gave Abby might have been the wrong advice for what would work with Aldo. I could only hope that she would continue to deny his requests and not fall into his traps.
“Abby is a smart girl, and whatever happens with Aldo, I’m going to forgive. It is my fault she is in that situation anyways.”
“Man, you really don’t understand what kind of trouble a girl with Daddy issues can get into with Aldo, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Abby’s got to be lusting after the guy, and when he starts twisting things around and proposing things to her, she’s not going to be able to say no. If he suggests something crazy like turning you into the police, Abby just might do it.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I said as the conversation went to a place I hadn’t even imagined.
“Aldo has a way of getting back at his enemies. If something in your conversation made him believe you are now his enemy, then he is going to use Abby to get back at you. He might do it sexually. He might do it mentally. Or he might set you up with the police. But I wouldn’t trust him at all and would be really damn careful of trusting Abby when you’re around her. He has a way of getting into a woman’s head.”
Kimberly appeared to be speaking from experience, but I just couldn’t bring myself to talk about it another second longer. There was no way Abby could be turned against me. No way Aldo would do that to me or Abby or that she would be so susceptible to his deceitful ways.
The problem I was having was that I really didn’t feel all that confident in anything anymore. Being with Abby and dealing with this whole Aldo situation had really sent me for a loop. I didn’t even trust myself or my thoughts any longer.