I just did as they asked, I’d get their money and pursue my dream. Then I wouldn’t be at their mercy like this. I could finally do what I wanted.
“Fine,” I said. “We have a deal.”
Dad visibly relaxed now that the fight was over.
“And it better be a nice girl,” Mom said. “No one with ink and that crap.”
God, my parents were judgmental. “Fine. Whatever. But you need to give me your word that you’ll return my money.” I leaned forward and looked her in the eye. “I’m not agreeing to this unless you do.”
She nodded. “I promise, Ash.”
I turned to my dad and waited for his pledge.
“Yes, Son. We’ll keep our word.”
***
“How’d it go?” Sawyer asked when I walked into his apartment.
“I’ll give you the short version of the long version,” I said as I grabbed a beer from the fridge. “If I get a serious girlfriend, they’ll give me the money.”
He was sitting on the couch watching TV. The game faded to the background as he turned to me. “Wait…what? What does that have to do with anything?”
“They know they can’t get me to change so they think a serious girlfriend might have some magic up her sleeve.”
“Dude, your parents are lame.” He took a drink of his beer.
“My parents are shitheads. They already disliked me when I started inking, but they really started hating me after I was in jail for three days. In their eyes, I can’t do anything right. Honestly, I wouldn’t give a damn if they didn’t have my money.”
“Well, getting a girlfriend should be easy enough for you.”
My eyebrows furrowed as I sat on the couch. “How do you figure? I’ve never had a girlfriend before.”
“But it won’t be hard to get one.” He eyed his watch. “You could get one before midnight if you really wanted to.”
“Well, I know that,” I said before I took a drink. “But I don’t want one. What do you do with them anyway?”
He shrugged. “Talk to them?”
“See, I don’t like to talk.”
“Take them out to dinner?”
“But then I’d have to talk to them for an entire meal. Shit, I don’t have that much to talk about.”
“Have sex with them?”
“Well, I’m down with that. But I can’t have sex with the same person more than a few times. It grows stale like bread that’s been left out too long.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
I shrugged. “I’m not going to waste some girl’s time by pretending to actually like her. That would be fucked up. And how could I get a girl to go along with it unless there was something in it for her?” I searched my brain for an answer but was drawing a blank.
Sawyer did the same. He sipped his beer and watched the game. Then he snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. “Hire someone.”
I shot him a glare. “I’m not paying a prostitute.” I’m not a judgmental person. People could do whatever they wanted. But I wasn’t resorting to that.
“No, hire an escort.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No. A buddy of mine did it because his ex went to the same wedding as he did. He just paid some chick to be his date and she played the part. Apparently, his ex was super jealous…something like that.”
That was an interesting idea. “So, you just pay them to be there?”
“Yep.”
“And that’s it?” It sounded too good to be true.
“Well, they have rules and stuff…I don’t know the specifics.”
“How do I find this place? Do you have the number?”
“I’ll ask him for it.” He pulled out his phone and sent a text. “Oh, and the chick was really hot. At least that’s what he said.”
“Like, how hot?”
“Like, he beat off to her in the shower hot.”
I nodded with an awed look on my face. “Damn, that is hot.”
“I know. I kinda want to rent one just for fun.”
“Do they…do other things?” Not that I would ever pay for sex.
“I’m not sure but I think they don’t. But they’re expensive, a lot more expensive than a whore.”
“Interesting…”
His phone lit up with a response. “It’s called Beautiful Entourage.” He handed me the phone. “There’s the number.”
“Thanks.” I typed it in my phone.
“Are you really going to do it?” he asked. “It’s pretty lame if you have to pay for a date.”
“But it would be worse if I used a girl like that. Women can get so clingy sometimes. It’s fucking annoying. If this is a business transaction, there shouldn’t be any issues.”