CHAPTER ONE
Do I really want to do this? I ask myself for the hundredth time.
The taxi driver honks, and I take a deep breath.
It’s now or never.
My mind flashes through a rapid series of images.
My deteriorating marriage, divorce, slew of awful dates.
Then stumbling across a pseudo matchmaking site by chance one evening.
Reading the cryptic words while hunched over on my laptop, trying to decode them like a detective.
I still remember certain phrases jumping out at me.
Arrangements for high status men
Discreet
Unconventional
Seeking open minded women
I’ve been called many things throughout my life, but close-minded isn’t one of them. I couldn’t resist, I had to apply. I probably got distracted by something else midway through, because I had forgotten all about it until I received an email from one of the recruiters about a week later.
She sent me a picture of a man I’d never seen.
Said he was from a rural area and was interested in meeting me.
She said she couldn’t disclose his name for privacy reasons, but referred to him as Mr. X.
I glanced through it quickly. He was handsome.
Successful. Apparently had a ‘forceful personality’, whatever the hell that means.
It looked exciting though, and I’d get paid. So I said yes.
I skimmed the contract, which I found a bit odd, but then again, I guess whenever money is exchanged, there’s a contract, right? I didn’t think anything else of it.
Honestly, this was exactly what I needed.
Among the many reasons my five-year marriage broke up, my ex-husband’s lack of adventurousness was near the top of the list. I was excited about getting back into the dating world until I actually got out there and then I found out just how abysmal it was.
After the last horrible date, I’d largely resolved to give up on men.
But the second I saw Mr. X’s picture, all that evaporated.
I felt a fire ignite in me that I hadn’t felt in a long time. I felt butterflies, even.
I can always change my mind, I tell myself as I pick up my bags and move towards the taxi.
The taxi driver picks up my bags and transfers them into the trunk. I slide into the back seat and close the car door.
I feel the car rumble as we accelerate. I close my eyes and sink further into my seat.
This isn’t a big deal, I tell myself. Just another experience.
But something deep in my gut tells me it’s more than that.
I shake off the feelings and slide in my wireless earbuds.
I press play and “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers comes on.
I smile and let my mind float away, letting the music wash away my worries.