Page 2 of Rival for Rent
She wrinkled her nose. “Are you sure you won’t let me pay you for all this yard work?”
“You’re letting me stay here rent-free. That’s payment enough.”
“But if you weren’t here, I’d be paying someone else to tackle the yard.”
“I feel weird taking your money.” I scuffed the bottom step with my boot. “Anyway, it keeps me busy.”
Only a month had passed since I’d moved in, but I could already tell I needed something to fill my time. Dana and I got along, but when she told me she worked from home, she’d meant it. Sheworkedworked. I couldn’t interrupt her in the middle of the day because I was bored.
Besides which, those interruptions always led to her trying to fix my life for the millionth time, which left both of us annoyed. She tossed me a few jobs here and there, but I still, I needed to find something to do with myself.
“Speaking of keeping busy,” she said, her tone a little too innocent, “are you going to be out here much longer?”
“I was about to tackle the poison ivy. Why?”
She grinned. “I might have a job for you. Tonight.”
“Tonight?” I blinked. “That’s short notice.”
Usually, she gave me a heads-up.
“Do you have plans?”
“No, I just…”
I trailed off. I didn’t want to sound ungrateful. And Iwashappy for the work. The jobs she threw me weren’t hard. I had nothing to complain about.
Dana was a freelance computer programmer, and picky about her clients. But she also ran a ‘side hustle’ that was taking up more and more of her time.
Dana’s college roommate, a stunning, brunette bombshell named Fatima who I had never seen look anything less than gorgeous and perfectly made-up, even at seven a.m., got into high-end escorting after college, to pay off her student loans before going to med school. She wanted a way to vet her clients and to process payments that wouldn’t open her up to legal trouble.
Enter Dana, who was able to run background checks on all the guys Fatima met, and secure their transactions too. Then Fatima mentioned Dana’s services to her friend Akiko, who mentioned them to Phoebe, and suddenly, Dana was managing a pricey escort company that prided itself on quality, discretion, and safety.
Over time, she began working with male escorts too, and discovered that half the time, the people who wanted her friends’ services weren’t even interested in sex—they just wanted companionship, or someone to pinch hit as a plus one at a company dinner. And thus, Heartbreakers Anonymous was born.
Dana’s brainchild now took up a solid fifty percent of her time, keeping everyone’s files secure, ensuring their tax records were clean, and doing due diligence on any new clients. Sometimes, when she couldn’t find enough information on the internet, she sent me out to watch over a first meeting in the background.
I was never an overt presence. I just hung out in the back of the coffee shop or bar and made sure I got a good look at the guy who was meeting up with one of the escorts—or ‘relationship consultants,’ now that Heartbreakers had rebranded.
I’d never once been called upon to step in and show a guy to the door, but everyone knew I was there if they needed backup, and in the meantime, I got to feed my growing caffeine addiction and take mental notes on who made the bestpain au chocolatin the city.
I didn’t have a good excuse for turning the job down. But I hadn’t been planning on leaving the house tonight, and I’d been looking forward to really making progress with the yard. Now I’d have to take a shower, and…
“I’d ask Amir to do it,” Dana said, “but he’s already got a date tonight.”
Amir was one of Heartbreakers’ male consultants. He worked with men and women. I’d met him a few times and liked him—once I realized his relentless flirting was a hobby, not a come-on.
Amir took delight in taking people who were too uptight down a peg, and he flirted with every man he met to see how they’d react. He was more than willing to throw a punch if the reaction was homophobic. But I’d been in the military for too long to be weirded out by same sex activities. Now, Amir and I mostly traded workout tips.
“Actually,” Dana added, “he’s the one who put Oscar in touch with me. Said he’s a good guy. Swears he won’t try anything weird.”
“Who’s Oscar? The client?”
Dana nodded.
“Why would he be trying anything weird with me? Which consultant is meeting him?”
“Oh! Didn’t I say? No one. It’s just you.”
