Chapter 11 #3
Sade went home a few moments later, leaving me to deal with the situation in my OuiMeet app.
I’d purposely refrained from opening Theo’s message there and then as I wanted a little treat for myself to open before going to bed.
I entered my bedroom, seeing Toby soundly snoozing on my side of the bed.
I hunched up beside him on the opposite side, donned my bonnet and opened the app. There were two messages waiting for me:
Cassandra, I hope you had a wonderful time the other night. I sure did. I’d be lying if I said you didn’t make an impression on me, especially in the car. You’re an amazing kisser, by the way. Speaking of cars, I was able to pick up my car eventually. I hope you’re having a wonderful evening. T x
The next message seemed to have come through a couple of minutes after the first one:
I haven’t had someone make me feel like that for a while, actually. You’re a cold piece of work, Miss Cassie. :)
The fact that he felt the need to send a follow-up message was important here.
It meant that I’d left something of an impression on him.
I smiled to myself as I read the messages back.
What was my next move? In my head, the natural progression would be for us to sleep together at some point, right?
As someone in the sex worker business, surely he wouldn’t be surprised if I were to book that in?
My quest to continue seeing him, but to not pay for it, was under way, but I didn’t want to press that issue on him again.
When he’d mentioned that other clients had tried to do the same thing to him, it did make me feel a little bad.
After all, I’ve always been keen to support independent Black businesses; it wouldn’t feel fair if I cheated him out of his wages by seeing him outside of the OuiMeet app.
But on the other hand, if he started developing feelings for me, who was I to say no?
I typed back:
Evening, Theo. :) I’m glad you were able to get your car back in one piece! Praytell, how exactly did I make you feel?
It felt like a game of cat and mouse, and at the moment I wasn’t sure if I was the cat or the mouse. I spent the next twenty-five minutes reading and scrolling through TikTok, laughing at memes before I got another notification from OuiMeet – Theo had responded:
Evening, Cassandra. :) If you’d like to know how you made me feel, you know what you need to do. :) My menu is on my profile. Sleep well. :) x
Shit.
And to think I assumed that I was slowly reeling him in.
I went onto his profile to remind myself of his ‘menu’.
I knew I absolutely wanted to see him again, but for what?
What could I possibly do to get him to forgo the app so we could see each other more regularly?
I knew that he was into me; I knew that much.
But I just needed something to tip me over the edge, and my personality could only get me so far. What if I—?
I scrolled back onto his menu to check out my options again.
Overnight stay – ￡600.
Six hundred pounds. I needed to find a way to justify the cost to myself.
On one hand, I could see it as an investment.
Like Sade had said earlier (I could really use her right about now), we only had one life to live, and if there was any time to live a bit spontaneously, it would be now.
I could make the money back eventually, after all.
My heart raced as my finger paused over the ‘book’ button.
I’d need to root through my drawers to find the cutest lingerie at my disposal.
I knew that if I chose that option, I’d have to put it on him, hard; really unleash my inner sexual prowess and utilise all the skills at my disposal to make him become enamoured with me.
I quickly scrolled from the OuiMeet app to my banking app, transferred ￡600 from my savings account to my current account and hopped back into OuiMeet again, hovering over the ‘book’ button.
I was making the right decision; I was sure of it.
It was an investment in my happiness after all.
I was in charge. I was taking control of my joy, and what was that, if not empowering.
I clicked the ‘book’ button, which took me to his calendar and a list of times.
The only availability he had for the next few weeks were on Fridays and over the weekend, no doubt due to his day job taking up time, I assumed.
He had availability this upcoming Friday and weekend as it stood.
Was it too soon? I thought back to our encounter in the car and how the passion and heat exchanged between us was undeniable.
I needed more of that. I deserved it, and if this is what it took, then so be it.
I made the appointment for Friday night, put in my bank details, and made the booking.
After getting the confirmation email, I lay back in bed, nervous, but ultimately content and satisfied in my decision.
As long as I kept telling myself that what I was doing was empowering, I had no reason to feel shame.
Damn. Maybe I was the mouse after all.