Page 12 of Used By the Unicorn

You have an appointment at 2:15pm on Saturday the 5th April. To confirm, please reply YES. To cancel, please reply NO. We will try to reschedule you at the next available time

Typing the two letters doesn’t make me feel any better.

I don’t really feel better when I hit send, either, but at least it’s done. Well, successfully put off, anyway.

I guess I’ll have to do something about this eventually. Not like I can stop the baby from coming by ignoring it. Or him. Or her.

I just need a little longer to get my shit together before I go look at their little face for the first time. Enough time to try to forget my complete disgust toward their father and the fucked up situation he left us in. Because I will never, never be contacting him again except through a lawyer. Not for anything. He doesn’t have anything to give us except more debt and a fucking migraine.

Dick.

I’m rolling over to try to get back to sleep when my phone buzzes again. I curse, thinking I must have somehow hit snooze on my alarm, but when I pick it up, it’s a call.

Monstrous Deals.

Oh, the escort agency. Must be looking for my bank details to pay me for last night or something. Funny. I thought I gave it to Sofia the other day, but I need the money, so I answer.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Jade. It’s Sofia, here at Monstrous Deals. I hope you had a good night last night.”

“Sure. It was fine.” Nice of her to check up on me.

“So, I’m going to go ahead and deposit the money in the account you gave me, and I was hoping you had a minute to talk.”

I’m wondering if it’s safe to tell her no, since it sounds like she’s depositing the money already. She continues anyway, which is annoying. “I’ve had another request for you and I was wondering if you’d given any thought to something more regular with us? I know you said you weren’t interested in anything long term, but we can keep your bookings casual and avoid long term contracts, if you like. I’d be very happy to work with you to find whatever arrangements will suit. I think it’s very promising that you’re in such high demand so quickly.”

“Oh.” I’m not sure what to say. I didn’t want to commit to having a profile up on their app or anything before I’d done the job. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it, but in all honesty, I liked it.

I mean what I did last night wasn’t full-on sex work. I guess, maybe, that would feel different. I doubt it, though. I’ve always liked sex and recently, I stopped trying to deny it.

I’m in my ho era, OK? Don’t judge me. It’s going to have to be short and sweet, since I’m pretty sure nine months from now I’m going to be in the biggest dry spell of my life.

“Well, what’s the new booking?”

Sofia doesn’t immediately answer.

Why am I suspicious of this pause?

“The clients you worked for last night—one in particular was very taken with you.”

“Imma stop you there,” I say quickly. “That’s a no from me. I won’t see the same client more than once.”

“Mmm.” She makes a sympathetic noise. “I completely understand, and that’s your choice to make. However, I should let you know that repeat clients are much more likely to pay ahigher price, and those sorts of arrangements often come with perks.”

“No. Uh-uh. No thanks.” I remember Stirling and his soulful blue eyes and too-knowing touch. That guy is dangerous to my self-control.

Perks, though. Perks sound good.

“What sort of perks?” I ask before I can stop myself. God damn it. But I need cash. I need to save as much as I can before I’m forced to take however much unpaid leave it takes to heal from pushing out a kid through my vajayjay and keep it alive long enough to enroll in some kind of childcare.

I should know more about how these things work.

“Well, clients who are pleased with their escort often give gifts or leave tips or generous allowances, and let’s just say that more than one of our escorts have found that their arrangements have led to something a lot more... permanent.”

Does she mean...?

“Oh, hell no. No one is playing happy families with the girl they used to pay for sex.”

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