Play to Pay: Chapter 4

When Jezebel walked into the poorly lit coffee house she felt all eyes on her. She was used to a certain amount of attention, but with her line of work, when the night was over she just wanted to blend in. But Jezie never seemed to get what she wanted. Just then an older man walked over to her. He wasn’t unattractive although he was far from perfect.

“I’ve seen you before. You dance for Tony, right?”

“On some nights,” Sara replied, feeling a bit uneasy about running into a customer in public. She eyed the exits, hoping to make a clean break if he decided to make a scene.

“I tell ya what, we’ll go ‘round to my place and I’ll pay Tony next time I’m in. You are one of his ‘special’ ones right?”

Jez was horrified. Tony would be pissed if she turned down a job, but she had never been forced to do something like this. He didn’t have a background check run and for all she knew, he lived a hundred miles away. She opened her mouth to speak but the voice she heard wasn’t hers.

“Sorry ‘ole chap. I’m afraid I’ve got this one for the night. Better luck next round.”

With that Olaf wrapped an arm around her slender waist and led her swiftly to a table in the corner.

“Thank you.” Everything in Jezie’s face radiated gratitude, “I had no idea what to do. Tony would have been so upset if I turned down a potential client, but God only knows what might have happen to me!

Olaf chuckled, “Don’t mention it. If you had accepted his offer I wouldn’t have been able to have the discussion I’ve been waiting for all night.”

Jez gave him a curious look and sipped on the mocha latte Olaf set in front of her.

“What I want to know is why a beautiful young woman such as yourself would get involved in the life you lead.”

She smiled. No one had ever called her beautiful before. Hot, sexy, fuck-a-ble, but never beautiful. It was hard to tell if he was being sincere or just trying to get in her pants in a place where the contract didn’t apply. He seemed to be waiting, so she spoke up.

“Well its not really out of choice. When I was little, my dad left and my Mom couldn’t handle it. She quit work and brought home a different guy every night. We had no way to pay rent so our landlord, Tony would come up with things I could do in exchange for a place to live and some food. It started off small, letting him look at me and touch me. Progressively I had to do things for him, to him, with him. Somehow I ended up dancing for him, keeping the tips and splitting my salary with him. Gradually though he turned me into a regular whore, only having me dance on the rare occasion.”

Olaf stared into his chai latte. She had spoken so bluntly. How could she be so open about it? More importantly, what had that man done to her to make her so she felt this was normal, that it was ok? He could kill him. She reminded him of his sister. Anaya had been so special to him and that bastard had done this to her as well.

“I’d like to see you again, Jezie.”

Smiling she replied, “Ok. When?”

He scribbled something on a piece of paper, “Meet me here, dress nicely, and then we’ll grab some dinner. Oh, but don’t look at that until Sunday night at 7 when you leave your house to meet me.”

Jezebel was confused but nodded her head and watched as Olaf pulled on his coat and walked out the door.