Packing for a booking had become second nature to me. I liked to travel light in case something went wrong. There was always a possibility that something could very well go wrong, I could find myself any situation from abuse through to troubles with the police, every time I agreed to attend a booking I knew the risks but somehow the thrill of being a character other than myself was something that outweighed any consequences. There were so many things that I was running from in my past that being able to slip on an evening gown and a mask to escape the pain made it so much easier when I had to return to reality. What always astounded me the most about each booking wasn’t the fact that the men always expected sex; rather it was the fact that the kinds of men that booked me were always powerful, rich and had some level of notoriety, but it hadn’t always been that way. Every single one of them could have easily have found a date to an event, a business dinner or a party but they always ended up searching for someone who was in my line of work. I could never understand why when the world was literally in the palm of their hands, but I knew better than to ask questions. I was always discreet, professional and knew when to keep my mouth shut. I think thats why I was always being requested. Despite my public profile there were less than a handful of people who weren’t clients that knew what my real job title was and that was definitely the way I liked to keep it. Those that knew what I did always asked the same questions, What was it like and why did I get into this line of work?
I never really knew what to say to the first question and the second was one that I would take to my grave.
* * * *
Growing up my family didn’t have much in the way of possessions or money. My father drank every night and my mother worked so hard to pay for his drinking habit that we barely saw her. One night when my father came home from a bar he was clearly drunk, my older sister Holly and I shared a bedroom. It was always the same routine, he would come home, begin ranting and raving at my mother, smashing anything in his path before bursting into our room and screaming at us to get up and be useful at 1am. I was only three years old and my sister was six, we were both so young and yet she was always so protective of me. When my father would get violent and come towards me she would always distract him by breaking something or doing something that she knew would make him come after her. Holly never was fast enough to get away from him safely and every morning she would wake up with a fresh set of bruises that she would cover with long sleeves and jeans, even at three years old it broke my heart. I could never understand why my mother would allow someone to hurt her children. It wasn’t until I was seventeenth that I realized why.
Just before my eighteenth birthday my father came into our room with the same drunken attitude but this time Holly wasn’t there. I woke startled by my father shaking me awake before he grew tired of my ignoring him and slapped me fair across the face. I sat bolt upright in shock as I realized that Holly’s bed was empty. I prayed that I was just dreaming but the searing pain in my right cheek and the pounding headache that had formed instantly told me that I wasn’t. When my father finally left me alone, after hurling abuse at me for twenty minutes straight I tried to fall asleep but his words kept echoing in my head “When that bitch gets home, I will kill her” he kept screaming, but Holly never returned. I was so hurt by the fact that my big sister had left me and I promised myself that night that I would never let anyone into my heart again.
The next morning I woke early in hopes of getting out of the house early and trying to find Holly. When I walked into the kitchen with my backpack on I almost jumped out of my skin as I bumped into my mother and an ear piercing scream left her mouth as she collapsed to the ground, tears instantly streaming down her face. I was petrified, I had barely even touched her and yet she was in so much pain. I lean’t down towards her and screamed as I saw blood trickling out of her open mouth. Without any warning I felt myself hit the wall behind me as my father knocked me out of the way and began attending to my mother. It was the first time I had ever seen him care about anything. He screamed at me to call an ambulance but the scene playing out in front of me paralyzed me to the spot. The last time I saw my mother was when she being taken away in an ambulance and my father went with her.
My father didn’t return for a week and when he did...I wasn’t there.
* * * *
Just as I finished packing I made my way down to the reception desk to check-out. As I handed my keys back to the concierge I found myself looking around the foyer and the memories of my past came flooding back, I shook them off as quickly as I could and reminded myself how far I had come. I wasn’t the vulnerable and scared little seventeen year old anymore. I was Antonia Reid a celebrity by day and High Class call girl by night. With that thought in my head I walked past the waiting paparazzi with my sunglasses on and Nick by my side before sliding into the back seat of the waiting town car. As we sped off away from the hotel towards the airport I sighed heavily at the thought of another long flight towards a new but very well vetted client. I thought about the words that Lou had spoken to me only hours before and decided that it was time for a change. If I ever wanted to feel like I had truly made something of myself and leave no room for doubt, I needed to change my lifestyle and my career was at the top of my list. It was at that very moment that my iPhone buzzed in my hand. I opened the text message from a number that wasn’t saved in my contact list and inhaled sharply when I saw the contents of the message and who it was from.
“Antonia,
I’m not telling the press anything of the sort, I don't speak to them ever. Next time you have something to say tell me yourself. Now that you have my number you have no excuse for not contacting me directly. Last night was something I want to repeat, you’re intriguing and I plan on finding out more about you. Even if I have to fly half way across the world just to spend five minutes with you. - C.W.”
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