Sixty-nine.
That's the first time Henry called me. He was, and still is, referred to in the Simulated Pleasures databases as Client 5, but to me he's King Henry. This job was never supposed to be a permanent operation. It was supposed to be like stripping. Something I do to tide me over for money until I start putting my Art History degree from Yale to use. Lately, I've come up with a newer plan that you may not like. That plan is to have as much phone sex with Henry and as much real sex with Arsen as possible, because I won't be able to hang on to both forever. That much is clear. I have to come clean to one of them.
Sixty-two thousand three hundred and ninety one.
Otherwise known as $62,391. That's how many dollars Client 5 has been billed in the last month. Charges start at $9.99 a minute and out of that $62,391, I'm getting big bonuses, that's for sure. Just from Client 5. Who I'm starting to fall in love with. When I'm not feeling guilty because I'm also falling in love with Arsen. The only positive about all of this is that I'm making more money for less effort now than what I was doing at the strip club. It gives me more time to go to the gym, start paying off student loans, and start laying the foundation for my future. But every time I get a call that shows Client 5, my future comes crashing down. Every time I see Arsen, along with the excitement comes the crushing guilt at how this is all going to end.
One hundred.
That's how many times I've cum in the last seventy-five times Arsen and I have had sex. And it keeps getting crazier and crazier. It's like a drug. I can't get enough. Every time I have him, I cum. And every time I start to normalize, the first thing I want is more. I would be fine if you took away food, water, and sleep from me, as long as you left Arsen and his cock. We've done it in every room and surface of his apartment and mine. He's taken me in public-not just near Southwest New York, but other areas as well. One afternoon we went for a walk in Central Park. I was teasing him about his shirt. He ended up slapping my ass playfully. I was wearing yoga pants and I could feel the slap of his hand on my ass cheek. It reminded me of when Henry had me slap my own ass. Arsen saw the look on my face and I brought my hand to his crotch and felt his cock thicken in my hand. We ended up having sex on a bench, hoping that no one would discover us. A week later, I gave Arsen a blowjob in a taxicab coming back from dinner. The next morning he returned the favor and used his fingers to hit my G-spot enough times in a come hither motion that he brought me to a giant orgasm underneath the table of Le Cirque. I'm not lying when I say I'm addicted to sex with Arsen. I would shuck myself on his cock all day if I could. The only thing that would draw me away would be having to take a phone call from King Henry.
Forty-two.
That's how many times Henry's made me cum. If I have to be honest, I never thought that working as a phone sex operator would mean I would be having regular orgasms. In fact, I think most people would agree with me when I say that I was pretty convinced I would have to up my faking game. I mean, it was already pretty good-remember, my last job was at a strip club, but still, over the phone people can tell when you're not into something based on your voice. But every time he calls, my heart starts to beat faster. I pick up and hear his confident, commanding voice asking me what I'm wearing. Then he tells me what he wants me to do to that will please him. In that moment, I exist for his pleasure. To service him. He owns me. After he's done with me, my mind stays in a fog of lust and confusion for several hours afterward. I can still go about my day, but it's as if I'm sleepwalking. Because the day feels empty without the large presence of Henry in my heart.
Five.
That's how many times I've tried to tell Arsen that I love another person in addition to him. But I can't do it. I mean, don't get me wrong. I haven't even told Arsen that I love him, so we're a long ways away from me telling him I love two people. And I can't honestly say I love him when my soul aches for someone else as well. I know I'm going to have to choose one day. Never mind how crazy it sounds that I'm giving myself to someone I haven't ever seen. Whose only interaction with me has been through his voice over a phone sex line. I can tell that King Henry-Client 5, feels the same way about me, from the snippets that he tells me of his family or of him growing up. The sighs I hear when we talk. Even the silences are things that I pay attention to. With Arsen, his very presence is stimulation enough. And I have so much more with him. I can see him. I can touch him. Taste him. The impact he has on me is spread out over so many senses. Henry's impact is just based on what I can hear.
One.
That's how many other people know about my dilemma. Remember Yasmine? From Scorcher's? Figures that she should be the one I go to with all my troubles. But believe it or not, ever since I left, she and I have been getting close. We meet up for coffee or go to yoga together now on a regular basis. I'm happy to spend time with her because she understands the problems I'm facing.
"I think you need to tell Arsen what's going on," Yasmine advises me one afternoon after yoga. I had come to yoga after an appointment with Client 5 where I literally shook and convulsed as my fingers on my clit brought me to a mind-numbing orgasm. "You can't keep going on like this. You're going to drive yourself crazy."
"I know," I agree with her. "But it's already been so long I don't know how I get out of the hole I'm already in."
"The longer you stay silent, the deeper that hole gets to climb out from though, babe," Yasmine says and I know she's right.
The only problem isn't sitting with Arsen or Henry. It's sitting with me.
Twelve.
That's how many hours ago I texted Arsen, telling him that I needed to see him. He seemed okay and we made plans to meet at the Central Park Boathouse.
I got there before him and ordered a dirty martini from the bar in the Main Lounge, looking at the Lake in Central Park as it surrounded the veranda of the Boathouse outside.
I'm sitting here now, as I see Arsen approach. He must have entered the park from the 81st Street entrance to the Park. I can hear a piano from the far corner of the Lounge and I wonder if this will be the last time that we have together at the Boathouse.
Arsen comes up to me and comes over to kiss me but I shy away. He takes a step back and looks at me with concern.
"What's going on?" Arsen asks, and I wonder if he can imagine what I'm about to tell him.
My Dad always says to rip a band-aid off as quickly as you can instead of prolonging the misery. And if I'm going to do this, I might as well get it over with. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Then I look at Arsen.
"I love you," I say to him, and look at his eyes.
To say that there is surprise going through them is an understatement. What he doesn't understand is why I look so sick.
"Well, Ash, I lo … " I don't let Arsen finish because I don't want him to say something that he's going to have to take away so I interrupt him.
"But I also think I'm falling in love with someone else," I say. I pause to give him a moment.
"Oh," Arsen says after a moment. "Well, fuck."
Despite myself I allow a brief smile. It wouldn't be Arsen without an F-bomb.
"Who is it?" Arsen asks. "Anyone I know?"
I close my eyes and sigh to myself. This is the hard part.
"I don't think so," I say to him. "It's going to sound silly Arsen, but it's someone I work with."
"But you work as a phone-" Arsen starts but then lowers his voice. "As a phone sex operator. You don't work with anyone except for the people that call you."
I look at him, hoping he understands. After a moment of matching my gaze, it dawns on him. "Oh," he says. "You're falling for a person that's calling you?"
I nod. A single tear starts to form in my right eye.
"I've been talking to him for some time now and he's single too," I say, rushing the words out. "He lives in New York City also and he's in real estate."
Arsen looks at me like I just slapped him with a glove. His eyes are stricken. I can't imagine what he must be going through right now. How betrayed he must be feeling. I take a sip of my drink.
"Does he go by the name of King Henry?" Arsen asks.
What the fuck?
I don't think neither of us notice as my martini glass drops to the floor.
54
Arsen
"Does he go by the name King Henry?" I ask with a smirk and Ashley freezes in time. It's like her muscles seize up, and not the good kind of seizing like when I make her cum. This is the bad kind, as if she's having a fucking stroke.
The martini glass falls to the ground, the olives from her drink rolling toward my shoe. I'm vaguely aware of the elderly couple next to us at the bar turning to look at us.