The Client

chapter 6

"Hey, relax."

"I can't do this. I need to get out of this place. Why did you even book me?" Without waiting for him to answer, I called Reena another time before I could take myself off from this place. He waited for me until I hung up after a call that went in vain. I sighed in defeat, "after whatever happened today, why did you bother? You have the money; you have women who fall at your feet. You could have made any woman your escort. Why me?"

"That's the whole point. After today, I wanted you."

My mind was a surging perplexity, "care to enlighten me?"

He took both my hands and enclosed it between his, "I wanted to apologise."

It was like I was in a parallel universe, when did clients start apologizing for what they did? They always felt like they can treat me however they wanted to because they paid me for it. But all they paid was for the sex, not to treat me like a piece of shit. This was the first time all through my life I heard someone apologize to me for their behaviour.

I knew I wore a puzzled expression.

"What?" He spotted the confusion on my face.

"No nothing, you were apologizing, go on." I would kill to hear that apology though.

"You're such a tease." His eyes sparkled with a smile one minute and grew earnest the next, as though he was sincere about this, "like I was saying, whatever I said this morning, I didn't mean it. I don't get turned down that often. You're the first woman to have turned me down. I didn't like how you were making me feel. When you left I realised it had nothing to do with you, but it had to do with how I was feeling. I was frustrated and I said whatever I said. I shouldn't have really hit that low," he paused.

"I'm still waiting."

The corners of his lips puckered up to a sweet smile, "I'm sorry I said all those hurtful things. I wanted to make you feel like how you made me feel. I shouldn't have done that. It wasn't your mistake, or even if it was, I shouldn't have told things I didn't even mean. I really respect you and whatever you do. You have your reason. I don't judge you. You're an amazing woman and you didn't deserve my words from today morning. I'm really sorry."

It took me a second or two for his words to sink in even though it was right before my eyes. No one respected the life I had just because of the job I did. I sell my body for sex. That doesn't make me a bad person. Just like he said, I have my reasons. Most of the times, I am ushered silently to the client because he doesn't want anyone around judging him for banging a prostitute. What about the dignity I have as a woman? We are always seen as those people who wreck homes and families. We are not the ones who lure clients into sleeping with us. They come to us. It always takes two hands.

It felt different, like some happy kind of paralysis, that someone understood my life, respected it. The expression I wore on my face doesn't adequately measure up to how I felt within.

"It's okay," I said.

"Thank you," he said, still holding my hands between his.

"So if you're done, can I leave?" I asked.

"I still need an escort." This grip on my hands grew tighter.

"I really can't do this." I withdrew my hands from his. I was scared about how I was starting to feel.

"We are not breaking any of your rules. You're just going to be my escort tonight unless you want more." A small teasing smile crept upon his face.

"You really like yourself, don't you?" I folded my hands across my chest.

"Oh well, you do too."