Until I Met You

At work (32) Grace

"Yesterday never happened. Enjoy your meal." Jake's note read. I shook my head at his weirdness. People say women are moody, I beg to differ. We're all the same.

I picked my cereal that Jake made for me and started eating it. My phone buzzed with a call.

"Hello." I said into the phone. Chewing down the spoonful of my cereal, I've just eaten.

"Hello. Am I talking to Sally, right now?" A male voice said from the other side. I put my fork down. Then cleared my throat.

"Yes. Who am I speaking with?" I asked. Purposely making my voice sweet as I usually did for my customers.

"This is Xander. I would like to set a session with you. If you are free." He said. His voice was soft indicating he was nervous. Except that, there was no clue that he was nervous. He had a firm grip on the words coming out of his mouth. Till now, he seemed nice enough.

"Sure. Is it for you or someone else? I don't do threesome, just to be sure." I told him. I would never put myself in a position where someone could overpower me. It was too risky.

"No. It's just me. How much do you charge for an hour?" He asked.

"Usually, it's one-hundred dollars. And it's non-negotiable." I explained to him. He seems to pause for a second. But he continued.

"Alright. Can you text me the time and place? Or should I choose them for us?" He asked.

"I will send you the details. Everything would be settled by me. You won't face any problem." I told him cheerily.

"Oh. Good. Thank you. I'm — I'm looking forward to seeing you." He said. His last words were whispered. Definitely, he wasn't sure if he should say what he just said and that made me smile. "I'm looking forward to seeing you too." I replied.

"Oh. Okay, bye." This time he seemed at ease. My saying the last line did relieve him.

"Bye." I said and hung up. He seemed nice. And I needed to make money. I've been lacking in it for a while. I'll definitely meet him.

Later when I entered my designated room to meet him, I was stunned for a moment. His face was distorted. His right eye was shut halfway and his side face had stitches. Which made his jaw look weird. However, I was able to mask my expressions in time. I walked to him with a smile on my face.

Right as I entered, he became stiff and when I walked to him with a smile, instead of easing down, he looked even more uncomfortable. He raised his hand and touched his stitches. It was clearly unintentional. He was conscious about his face and I knew why.

"I-I didn't mention my face before. If you don't want to attend me knowing this then you don't have to. But II..." he stumbled in his words but I stopped him.

"Why wouldn't I want to attend you as my client? You seem so nice." I told him. He stared me for a second.

"You are lying. You're not repulsed by my face? Last three women I paid before, quit right after seeing my face." He told me. He choked on his words. He bowed his head and I saw a few tears escape his eyes and fell on his cheek.

I did the only thing that I knew that person needed, right now. I sat down beside him and hugged him. At first, he didn't respond to me and sobbed without hugging me back but when he did hug me back, he crushed me in his grip. His hands circled around my waist and formed an iron tad grip on me.

A flash of Jake's face flashed in my eyes and I felt uncomfortable, all of a sudden. Yet I didn't pull back and forced myself to relax in his grip. I stroked his back slowly, in a comforting manner but it didn't erase the guilt that I was feeling. Like I was cheating.

It didn't make sense because I don't even love Jake. My heart was telling me to pull back but I reminded myself that the person in my arms was just a customer. A person in need.

All the while when I was thinking about this, the person in my arms continued crying and sobbing. He spoke in between his sobs sometimes. "No-nobody wants me."

"Why am I like this?"

"Why doesn't any girl love me?"

"It's not my fault that my face is like this."

He was like a five-year-old boy crying to me and complaining about the things that he can't control. I felt like a déjà vu hit me. I've been in his position. Trying to control something that I can't and crying afterwards when I failed miserably. "We're on the same boat buddy. Trying to control things we can't control. Unable to understand, why are we treated this way when it's not our fault?" I whispered softly to him. I didn't realize that thinking about the past had brought tears to my own eyes. I pulled back and stared in his eyes.

"I play this game as well, Xander but understand this, we can't control everything people do to us. The only thing we can control is, our reaction to them. Don't let it become your weakness. Make it into your strength. Your weakness will be their strength. Don't give them a chance to manipulate your weakness." I told him. However, my mind was somewhere else. I felt like I was giving those instructions to me more than to him. I was brought out of my haze when he stood up. "I have to go." He said and took out his wallet. He took out a two hundred dollar bill and set it on my side table. I looked at it with a blurry vision. I cleared my wet cheeks and looked at him.

"But we did not have our session." I told him. I grabbed his money and extended my hand to give it back to him.

He looked at the money in my hand and shook his head.

"We did have our session. Just not the one we planned." He said and smiled at me. His smile brightened his face. He should smile more. I wanted to tell him but I didn't.

"Keep the money." He said.

He started to walk to the door. I wanted to say something but I did not know what I should say to him. So I didn't say anything. He stopped, right at the door. He turned and looked at me. He took out a card from his pocket and gave it to me. "If you need help anytime then contact me. I'll help you." He said. I took his card but hesitated.

"You don't have to -" I said, but he stopped me by saying, "I know."

Abruptly, I heard a commotion outside. I opened the door and saw a guy was having some sort of argument with one of the bodyguards. A small crowd had formed around them. I walked towards it, with Xander right behind my back. As I navigated through the crowd, I saw his face.

"Mason?"