My First Client Pt. 3 - Ben's fame for his talented hands starts to grow (Patreon)

And so the list began.

Just like that, my first client. Miss Christina Gomez. 

But funnily enough she never called. She never texted. Not one message from her. 

I lost my first client but I shouldn’t have been concerned, there were many more ready to take her place. Business was booming. 

I’m unsure how but news spread fast in less than a fortnight. By the end of a month I had 40 regular clients on the secret list. Women from all walks of life, mostly younger, mostly beaten down by New York City and sexual frustration. I was the ‘go-to’ man. The talk of the town apparently. A whisper here, a stray comment there. ‘The best hands in the big apple.’ 

I knew I could never hide what was going on from Sarah so I brought her in the loop. She found the whole idea entirely amusing but swore not to tell anyone. It was making the firm richer, it was making her richer, nearly three times richer in fact. It was more self-interest for her than defending what was happening.

We knew when the massage board were due to inspect the facilities. We knew everything to keep ourselves covered, to keep everything a secret for as long as possible. And that was the way I intended it to stay. 

As much as I began enjoying my very profitable and entertaining job, there was a problem.

There was something constantly on my mind. Her. I couldn’t shake her from my thoughts no matter how hard I tried.

I had a whole collection of beautiful women under my hands almost every day but nothing quite matched what I had felt with Christina. The intensity in the air that evening had been unforgettable, I hadn’t fully got her out of my head as much as I wanted to maintain the ruse of professionalism with the new service. 

Three months passed and business was booming. Plus, I had apparently earned a name in some celebrity circles. We received our first home visit request in Malibu, California, from a well-known Hollywood actress. Sarah booked it in and I was all ready to fly out for the weekend. 

7.30pm. I caught a bite to eat after work the day before the flight. Local Japanese place not far from the business. A text from an unknown number comes flying through to my phone as it buzzes away on the top. 

I settle into the ramen and put the phone down but the next message pings through almost instantaneously as I try to eat. 

I put the phone down and try to focus on the rest of the meal. Excruciatingly, part of me didn’t want to go to LA, something deep within me wanted to see Christina as soon as possible. But as ever, I was resisting it, there was always something pulling me away from relationships. Business, family, just pleasure, I was a walking excuse manual at times. Remnants of my past where relationships had been so much harder and rockier. 

Clouds of steam come billowing from the kitchen as more orders are whipped through the system. I slurp up the last of the ramen bowl and let the ladle fall to the side of the bowl. Time to get a good night’s sleep, it was an early one tomorrow.

“Thanks Rika, great as always, you never disappoint. See you next week.”

“It’s okay Ben, anytime.” She winks at me, flicking her hair to the side and giving a slight bow. Rika was impossibly cute, quite petite and far curvier than her dress would appear to show. She was a little storm of sexiness wrapped up in a sunny disposition. But we were never much closer than the odd flirtatious comment here and there. I liked it like that.  

A smile creeps across my own face as the door swings to and fro. Some innocuous flirting was doing me a world of good right now, distracting me from the client who was proving more than a little difficult to get out of my head. 

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The flight arrived back into JFK late on the Monday, as I almost fell asleep in the taxi back to the apartment. It is 3am and notifications are flying into my phone. Five new clients, Sarah had processed them late. Business was at the point where it was getting out of control, almost too much for me to handle on my own and spilling over into missed bookings. I was going to need to hire more people. Which guys could I trust to never spill the true nature of the business? How on earth was I going to do the interview process and testing?

Christina’s appointment is tomorrow. 

Shirtless, I switch the kettle on and stride to the windows taking in the beauty of the skyline. No matter what chaos existed on the streets below, there was something to New York that I couldn’t shake, a buzz and excitement that always kept me on my toes and looking forward to every day.

I’m excited to see her again, the ball of fervent energy that she was, she’d been the one to awaken the primal man inside me, the one to unlock a piece of me I didn’t know I had the key to.