Luca

It was a Saturday, but instead of going out to have some fun, I was locked in my room. All my roommates were out doing one thing or another. There were Saturday classes, but I was free for today.

I was in the middle of editing a paper when my phone vibrated on the table. I narrowed my eyes at it.

Natalia?

The one person that I couldn’t seem to forget the whole day. I picked the phone up, and I was surprised to find a tweet from her.

“Would you like to meet up again?”

I set the phone down, braced my elbow on the desk and leaned my head on my palm, then tapped the fingers of my free hand on the desk. I stared at that message until my screen went dark a few seconds later.

I shouldn’t, I knew that, but it didn’t change that I wanted to.

“You’re not a virgin. It doesn’t count.”

In truth, she didn’t have to be a virgin for this to count. After all, I wasn’t in this to deflower virgins for fun. I was in it for the money. But I didn’t think a second date was a good idea, especially since I hadn’t been able to get her off of my mind all day when I was supposed to be doing assignments.

Last night was a huge mistake.

The fee was so high, I didn’t expect to have anyone call me more than once. It’s just sex. If someone wanted to have sex with someone else in university, then it wasn’t that hard. Parties were going on all the time where people hooked up; I’d done it as a freshman. The virgins were either one’s that hated coming to university and hated the idea of still being a virgin; or others who wanted to be active sexually and knew that the first time would be awkward, they wanted some experience, before going out or hooking up with someone.

I decided that Natalia could have fallen under the second category, but if she did then why did she want to hook up again?

Which made me nervous about seeing her again, she fell under neither of the categories. A virgin who wanted more than just to loose her virginity, she wanted me; because I was the one that took away her v-card.

“Ugh,” I groaned, and leaned back in my chair as I closed my eyes.

In my mind, I could picture last night. After she’d fallen asleep in my arms, I was tempted to stay. I’d almost fallen asleep with her. Reluctantly, I pulled myself from her warm bed and got dressed. I left her room and made sure the door was properly locked, before I went back to my place.

Natalia paid me for sex, for an hour nothing more, and certainly nothing less. I needed to see her to let her know that sex wasn’t the best way to start a relationship. I needed to stop this thing, before it got out of hand.

I wrote back:

I can’t meet you. Don’t book again. L

It was cold, but this was the best thing to do. I couldn’t have her getting attached, but then the way that I’d been thinking about her, I didn’t know if I was worried about her or me?

Why? I need to see you.

I didn’t hesitate as I wrote back:

No.

Can’t you make an exception?

She wasn’t going to give up easily. I had to put her straight.

No.

I put the phone down, but after a pause, I picked it up again.

Look I’m retiring. I don’t want to do this thing anymore.

So soon?

I glanced back to my desk, where I had my laptop, and a bunch of books open so I could work, then back to my phone. I didn’t debate for long before I wrote out another message. She kept messaging back, and before I knew it, we’d started up a real conversation.

I stared at her last message for the longest time. She wanted to know what was going on with me. I was debating whether or not to tell her. After last night, I wasn’t even sure that I could be calm and cool around her, so the idea I had in my mind was ridiculous. I had to tell Natalia the truth, the fact that we couldn’t see or even speak to each other like this. She paid me for sex, and that was it. Any fantasy that she had of us being together had to be thrown out of the window. This was my senior year, I had to graduate and get out of here. There was nothing else on my agenda, apart from passing and I wasn’t doing a good job of that. I wasn’t even studying when I should have been.

Let’s meet up for a drink :)

Natalia agreed.

I set my phone down and jumped up, only to remember to text her where we should meet. After I got that sorted out, I got up and went to have a shower and get changed. Twenty minutes later, I was getting dressed, then rushing out of my room.

Natalia was already waiting for me when I arrived at the agreed spot. I’d been rushing, but I slowed down when I saw her. She was in another dress, knee length with long sleeves and flats, her hair falling around her shoulders. She had a purse thrown over her shoulder, her head down as she played with her fingers. She would occasionally look up and glance around, and once I got close enough, she noticed me. Her body straightened out, and she sent an awkward smile my way.

“Hey,” she murmured.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said, acting calm even though at that moment, I was anything but calm.

She nodded, and we made our way off campus. There were more people around than usual since it was a Saturday, but I didn’t see anyone I knew on our way out, which was good. My roommates didn’t know about the whole Sext line thing. I had gone to great pains to make sure it wouldn’t become gossip and was ready to abandon it if things became crazy. That was the beauty of the business, the girls that did call didn’t want anyone to know that they had sex with me, and the feeling was mutual. Their reputation would sink like the titanic if word got out that they had to pay for sex. That was the crazy world we lived in, when men did it; they were considered gods, when women did it; they were called whores.

It was the middle of the day, and Natalia wasn’t twenty-one, so we didn’t go to a bar. Instead, I led us to a café not too far from the school. We stood in line to give our orders, then I paid, and we found a table to sit where we wouldn’t be around too many people. The place wasn’t too crowded, thankfully.

After a moment of nothing but awkward silence, while we sipped our coffees and nibbled on the pastries, Natalia cleared her throat and spoke.

“So, you wanted to explain to me about… why you’re quitting?”

Her cheeks were a little pink, and she didn’t look right at me.

“Yeah,” I murmured. “I mostly just did it because I needed money. I’m working to pay my tuition, it’s my last year, and I found myself with zero funds. I found a part-time job, but the pay wasn’t good enough, so it seemed like the best thing to do to get the money I needed, so now I can concentrate on graduating and nothing else.”

She didn’t say a word, so I went on to explain, about how I came up with the whole thing.

“There were some guys were part of some stripping group, like Magic Mike; but then there were things that went on and the guys had too many arguments and fell apart. I did think about joining them, but before I could even join the whole thing fell apart.

Then, I remembered watching a movie with some girl called The Perfect Date. I recalled the name of the movie, but not the name of the girl. That gave me the idea, with the Magic Mike and before you know it, it felt like a great way to make money. The amount of money that I needed without everyone knowing my business.”

She smiled, “Tell me more. I want to know more about it. More about you.”

“The Sext Me line was okay, I could handle it. I just started it up one day, didn’t even think someone would find it when I got my first message, and then got paid. The rest is history, so they say.”

She asked with a frown. “Couldn’t you have found other ways to get the funds? I don’t know, like borrowing loans or something?”

I sighed and took a sip of my drink. “It’s not that easy. The problems wasn’t that I didn’t have money before for my tuition. Of course, no one starts university and then worries about how to finish it, because they’re short of cash. I lent it to my dad, and I thought he would pay it back. Only he’s always getting into trouble, and he dragged me into it this time. He gambled the money I lent him and lost everything. Getting the kind of loan, I needed wasn’t an option?”

“So, thanks to me. That’s it. You don’t need the money anymore?” Natalia asked.

“We’ll see, you see he said that he has the rest of my money, and I don’t need to do this anymore,” I said with a shake of my head, answering her question.

“Wow!” She said, I didn’t know if she was disappointed about me not needing the money or about my dad taking it in the first place.

“Yeah, he’s marrying some rich woman, so he siad he can pay me back no problem.”

We sat in silence for a while, drinking and eating. I kept glancing at Natalia, but she didn’t raise her head for the longest time. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, and I slowly started growing anxious. Then, after she’d finished her coffee and pastry, she looked at me with her face still flushed, but her expression had changed. It made me stiffen, and my attention perked up, in more than one way. Her lips glistened from where she’d licked them, and her eyes almost seemed to burn.

“And I was going to pay double what I paid last time. That’s a real shame.”

I let out a quiet groan, and shifted in my seat, a little surprised at myself. Either Natalia wasn’t as innocent as I’d thought she was yesterday, or

not only did she want more, but I did too. Either way, I ahd to put a stop to it. I did it for the money for tuition, nothing else. That would be sorted soon, so it was time to move on.

“I had a good time with you, Natalia,” I confessed wondering if she’d heard all that I said. I hesitated, for about a second, before I gave her a slow smile. “You know what? I’ve closed the shop already, but if you want, I’ll do it for free.”

That was when it dawned on me, she didn’t care. She wanted me just as much as I wanted her. This thing was about to turn south and the worst part was, that I didn’t give a fuck.

What was wrong with me?