Page 60 of Dad Next Door
“How are you feeling about everything?”
“It’s kind of surreal. I mean, I’ve been setting this up for months, but it’s like everything came together overnight, and now it’s really happening.”
He took a pull from his beer and stretched his legs out. “What’s freaking you out?”
“Just how much responsibility is on me. Before, when I was only doing the online stuff, it didn’t really matter if I messed up or whatever because the only one who’d suffer was me. Now I have my crew to worry about, who are also my friends, so that adds a ton of pressure. I told you what happened to the guys at their old job, right? How their boss fucked them over?”
He nodded.
“I just don’t want to be that guy. The one who’s like, ‘Hey, come work for me and put all your faith in my ability to not run my new business into the ground,’ then proceeds to run said new business into the ground and leave everyone high and dry.”
“Something tells me you’re the only one worried about that.” He shot back more of his beer.
“Maybe, but it’s hard not to worry when so many people are depending on me for their livelihood.” I sighed and sipped my drink. “You had a booking nearby?”
He nodded and finished swallowing. “A regular.”
“Oh yeah?”
Jesse and I had a bond most people didn’t understand. Part of it was the stepbrother thing. I’d met him and his younger brother when I was twelve, and they were eight and five, and we’d officially become a family when our dads got married three years later. They were my little brothers, even if we had no blood relation.
We also had the unique connection that came with being full-service sex workers. My friends at the club understood more about my life than almost everyone, but Jesse was the only one who truly understood the ripple effects our jobs had on our lives and the unique issues we had to navigate.
Something was bothering him. He didn’t tell me personal information about his clients to protect their privacy, but he wasn’t shy about sharing details of his bookings or his observations of his clients and people in general.
“Yeah.” He picked at the label on his beer. “Today was our last meeting.”
“It was?”
He nodded, his eyes on the label. “I’ve been thinking of quitting.”
I kept quiet and let him talk.
“I know I’ve said this before, but I only have a few regulars I see, and I haven’t taken a new booking in months. It feels like the right time to step back.”
“You said you’d do this for as long as you enjoyed it and it was worth the risk. Has that changed?”
He nodded, his eyes still on his bottle.
“Jess.”
He looked up, and the mess of emotions in his eyes was staggering.
“Did something happen?”
He cleared his throat and looked back down at his bottle. “It’s nothing.”
“Obviously it isn’t.”
“I just… The last booking I had went sideways. Nothing horrible happened, but I got a bad vibe from him and refused when he wanted to book me again. He figured out who I am and showed up at the garage a few weeks ago.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah.” He chugged a few mouthfuls of beer. “Thank fuck it was dead and I convinced him to leave before he outed me to everyone, but it was a close call. The guys at work are chill, but I have no idea how they’d react if they found out. I can’t risk my career like that. Not now that I’m finally at a place I like and with people who treat me like family.”
“The fact that he figured out who you are is a huge safety risk.” He already knew this, but Jesse needed validation that his fears were legitimate, otherwise he questioned himself and sometimes made decisions he regretted because he went against his instincts.
“That too.” He sighed. “A part of me is still waiting for him to show up at my place or at work again. I’m not worried about him trying to hurt me or anything like that, but he knows enough to destroy everything I’ve worked for. And it’s like you said, if he figured it out, it’s only a matter of time before someone else does. And they might not be as harmless.”