Chapter 54 Crystal
Crystal
“I won’t be in today,” I told my secretary.
“Under the weather?”
“Something like that,” I said listlessly.
“Oh, okay. Tomorrow then?”
“Maybe,” I said, and hung the phone up.
I’d ordered Neville out of my house, and I could hear him in the next room, gathering up his stuff. I was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling cheap and used.
We’d had a long conversation about the whole situation. I’d ranted and raved about how dishonest he and my mother had been. Neville didn’t say much; he just nodded his head in the appropriate places and stared down at his hands.
“I can’t believe you make a living being a whore,” I’d said to him as I paced the floor.
“It’s the oldest profession in the world, Crystal,” he’d responded quietly. “And really, if anything, I’d rather you use the term gigolo . Because as you now know from your own personal experience, I didn’t just fuck you, now did I?”
“Wh-what?”
“I romanced you, Crystal. Made you feel like a woman is supposed to feel. Special, honored, respected.”
He wasn’t lying.
“That’s not the point!”
“Then what is?”
“I was deceived!”
“Yes, yes, your mother and I did deceive you, but for your own benefit. Not like it was with your experiences in the past.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Men deceive women for their own gain all of the time, and I know you’ve experienced that yourself. Your mother tells me there was a man that you were in love with, but he was an addict and—”
“My mother talks too damn much!” I screamed.
Neville raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, I won’t even go there, but the point is, what did you get out of that experience? Nothing, right?”
I didn’t respond.
“Okay, fine. But this—this was all for you. All for your enjoyment and benefit,” he said in a voice that was begging me to see things his way. But I was too angry.
“It’s not like you didn’t bust a nut, you know!”
“Of course I did.” He grinned. “I enjoy my work.”
That was it. My anger boiled over, and I walked over and slapped him dead across his face. His head jerked left, and when I raised my hand to do it again, he caught my wrist and said, “You get only one of those.”
I snatched my arm from his grasp and backed away from him.
“How much? How much did my mother pay you to fuck me?” I said, my eyes filling with tears. “How much, you filthy bastard? How much?”