“No, no,” Sasha clarified. “It was all consensual. Perhaps a little too consensual,” she added under her breath.
Kelly sucked air between her teeth and shook her head. “I bet.” She picked her cigarette back up and re-lit it. She took a couple of puffs, her eyes fixed on Sasha, then spoke through her exhalation. “Having sex with the guy doesn’t make him a sex addict. You know that right?”
Sasha took a deep breath. “Having sex with him doesn’t. But having a prostitute turn up sort of implies it…”
“No!” Kelly cried. Her ruby red lips formed a perfect ‘O’ of surprise. It was a gratuitous sort of surprise though.
Kelly flashed Sasha her tell-me-more expression.
Sasha felt incredibly uncomfortable, but she needed to get it off her chest, and there wasn’t exactly anyone else she could talk to. None of her friends back home would understand. If they couldn’t come to terms with why she broke up with gentle, charming Chris for a career of all things, they’d certainly never understand how she’d ended up face down in the Honeymoon suit of the Hilton whilst a man she’d met barely ten minutes earlier was thrusting inside of her.
Sasha’s pelvic floor clenched at the memory. It really had been fantastic sex. The highest high she’d ever experienced. Followed so quickly with the lowest low.
She gulped. “He had four interviews booked that day. If he was expecting Alicia, then that was at least one shag he was certain to get. Yet, he still booked a fuck with his escort. It was as though he couldn’t go even ten minutes between slots without…”
“Sticking it in a slot,” Kelly replied, crudely, a little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Sorry,” she added. “I couldn’t resist.”
Sasha sighed and shrugged. “Don’t apologize, you’re right.”
Kelly implored her to go on with raised eyebrows and a nod.
Sasha took another deep breath, feeling weirdly like she was in some kind of therapy session. “Okay, so this woman turned up while we were…you know…right in the middle of it. And he practically shoved me out the door.”
“My God.”
Kelly shook her perfectly coiffed hair. Although she was saying the right things, her expression was telling a completely different story. She was reveling in it, in the scandal, in the drama. In some ways, Sasha wasn’t sure why she’d expected anything different from the editor of a magazine like Atomic.
“She was so cheap looking,” Sasha added. “Hair peroxided to within an inch of its life. Breasts out here.” She cupped her arms in front of her chest to iterate the point.
“Let’s not bitch about the hooker,” Kelly said, coolly, while raising an eyebrow. “Your issue is with Thomas, not the woman he has to pay to fuck him.”
“You’re right,” Sasha said. “I’m just lashing out.” She began twiddling her thumbs. “The thing is, Kelly, I’ve only ever slept with one other man.”
Kelly laughed hard. “Are you joking? Oh, Sasha, this would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic.”
“I’m glad my pain entertains you.”
Kelly pointed to the printout of the article that sat between them on the table. “Look, you really need to think about this before it goes to print. The press will look into it. They’ll probably interview this other woman. You’re putting yourself at risk with this piece.” She paused, and a wry smile spread across her face. “That said, you’ve written a kick ass bit of journalism here.”
Despite the day she’d had, Sasha felt a little surge of relief. A fragment of the confidence she’d felt before Thomas had crushed her spirit seemed to return.
Kelly consulted her watch. “It’s late. We should go.” She stood, pushing back the cream-colored leather chair. “Sleep on it and let me know in the morning.” She pulled on her jacket. Fur, of course. “Any plans for the evening?”
Sasha thought about her empty flat. She’d been so focused on her studies during college that she’d never really made any great friends. Then she’d headed off for Chicago alone. It hadn’t bothered her before, but now something had changed. Her liaison with Thomas had shown her a whole world she’d been missing out on—one of companionship and intimacy. For the first time in a long time she felt incredibly lonely.
Well, she could do something about that, couldn’t she? Because if there was any positive to be taken from the whole sordid affair, being with Thomas had taught her something important about herself—she could have casual sexual encounters, she could have one-night stands, and she could get what she wanted. And right now, she wanted to fill the void that Thomas’s betrayal had opened inside of her.