Chapter 4

　　Theo’s pov

　　We went to the club later that night. Turns out Henry is a cool guy and he has not changed that much since high school, we still argued over the littlest things like we used to do, it was fun.

　　I haven’t talked about losing my job since we got here and I wasn’t sure I wanted to because I didn’t want to bum everyone out, I was having the time of my life. I drank one shot after the other, enjoying the way it kept me buzzing.

　　Gage has tried so many times to get me to talk but I wasn’t having it tonight, I was having fun and I didn’t want it to stop now.

　　“Hey man, you wanted to tell me something. What is it?” gage asked

　　It was at the tip of my tongue to tell him that I lost my job but I didn’t want his pity. He was the type of friend that jumped to action immediately when given a problem to tackle and I knew he would do that when I told him.

　　“Later” I told him. He nodded at me, turning to talk to Henry, both of them shaking their heads and laughing at something Henry said.

　　I couldn’t pay attention to them if I wanted to because my head was spinning from all the alcohol I have been taking.

　　“Theo! What have you been up to?” Henry hollered. I almost laughed at how drunk he was, he was slurring his words.

　　“Just there, man. Nothing much has been happening to me.” I told him.

　　“That’s not true, Gage told me that you worked for some big company,” he continued.

　　I wanted to tell them now but I couldn’t because I didn’t want them to view me differently. I had money saved up from years of working for the company and it was enough if I decided not to walk for a year. But I just couldn’t sit down for a year and do nothing with my life, I was not the type to sit down and do nothing. I had to look for a job to keep me occupied

　　Wait, that's it? He couldn’t even persuade me. I said no and he gave up fast. I couldn’t help but feel hurt. I was being crazy but that’s just it.

　　They were busy reminiscing over their time together while I reflected on what I was going to do with myself now that I am unemployed. I can't believe that I am jobless right now. A few months ago I was closer to my dream job and now I had nothing.

　　It was tough being in the party mood, I was beginning to dull my companions and I wasn't sure they liked that and judging by their faces, they wanted a more fun Theo to hang around them.

　　"Hey, can we go outside? I need to speak to you for a second?" Gage asked me, gesturing towards the door.

　　I followed him as he left towards the door. I knew he wanted to talk to me about tonight and he knew that I had been avoiding the topic, it was obvious to everyone.

　　We got to the front and motioned for the bouncer to let us through so we could talk without the noise. Gage turned on me immediately and we were far from the noise.

　　"What's going on with you?" He asked

　　I wanted to lie but there was no point to it. Gage has been my best friend for so long now and if I was going to talk to anyone then it would be him.

　　"I...I got laid off today" I told him finally, with my head hanging low and my hands lodged deep in my pockets SK he wouldn't see me clenching them.

　　"What?!" He asked, shocked.

　　"Apparently we went bankrupt," I confirmed.

　　"That’s not possible, you made more profits this year than the company had" he told me. He was clearly confused and it was understandable because it was the same question that I had asked me when he gave me the letter.

　　"Well, it is and I am officially unemployed now" I said to him, stretching my arms out as if to say come and get me.

　　He shook his head, he looked deep in thoughts and I would know because he had his brows furrowed like he normally does when he is thinking. I bet my life savings that he is trying to figure out how to help me. I don't Need his help, I was going to be alright by myself.

　　"I may have a solution," he said suddenly.

　　"What?!" I asked him.

　　Did he come up with a job opportunity of some sort all of a sudden?

　　"I never did tell you what Henry did for a living, did I?" He asked me.

　　I racked my brain trying to remember but I couldn't, I would have recalled it if he said it at all.

　　"No, I don’t think you did" I told him

　　"He runs an escort service," he said bluntly.

　　I waited so long for Gage to laugh and tell me that it was a joke but he just kept staring at me like he was waiting for me to say something to him.

　　"That's nice?" I said unsure. I didn't really know what he expected me to say and I was clearly missing something here.

　　"Yes it is, he makes 30million in a week from his agents" he kept going.

　　I didn't need a rundown of Henry's affairs in his line of work. It wasn't that he had anything against escorts but he just didn't see himself working as one. He can't go from a good paying job to one that is so degrading.

　　"That’s great but I don’t see why all this is my problem” I told him sincerely.

　　He keeps mentioning Henry's work like he was familiar with them, he may be a customer and I wasn't going to judge but I don’t see myself doing that at all.

　　"Because you dummy!!! I want you to consider going for it" he said

　　I gaped at him for a while because I wasn't sure that was coming out from his mouth and I couldn't believe he was talking to me about becoming a male prostitute.

　　“You want me to be a male prostitute!!” I asked him, appalled.

　　A couple of onlookers looked at me after my outburst which made me realize that I raised my voice and I needed to keep it down.

　　"You want me to be a prostitute?" I asked quietly this time.

　　He chuckled a bit. "No, escorts are not prostitutes" he told me.

　　Sure, that made me feel better. I would just go ahead and become one right now.

　　"That is not right, you know I can't be any of those" I told him sincerely.

　　"Alright, why don’t we go inside then?" He suggested.

　　I shrugged before making my way inside the club, we entered inside and I went straight to the bar to order for drinks while Gage headed straight to our table.

　　While the bartender made my drinks, I turned around to look round the club and I liked what I saw. The bodies on the dancefloor grinding up on each other and it was so sexy that I found myself wanting to be one of them. Gage and henry were over there in a heated discussion, I wondered what that was all about and when gage glanced at me, I definitely wondered what was up. It was obvious that they were talking about me, probably about my unemployed state,

　　I rolled my eyes at them, taking my drink from the bartender. I headed to our table to talk to them.

　　“What’s up? You two are whispering like you are planning a heist” I told them as soon as I set my drink down on the table.

　　“Nothing, gage here was just telling me that you got laid off from work” henry stated.

　　I gave Gage a glare which he avoided by averting his eyes to the ceiling. I hope he finds something interesting up there.

　　“Yeah, it’s nothing I can’t handle,” I told him.

　　“Sure, why don’t you come work for me?” henry asked me

　　I couldn’t lash out at him like I did to gage, suddenly the ceiling looked interesting to me too.

　　“I don’t know about that, man.” I answered.

　　I didn’t want him to think that I had anything against his line of work but I just didn’t want to be in it any more than I wanted to be unemployed. It was a tough call but I just didn’t want to consider the chance that I might ever become an escort.

　　“It’s not that bad. Look, we have men and women who don’t want to be attached to their dates so they hire us instead when they want to go for a high class society occasion or anything related to that. We go by the rules and we make good money from it.” He explained.

　　I didn’t need all these explanations but I most certainly didn’t need the lecture for his agency or whatever their name is.

　　“I don’t need the rundown, henry. I don’t think I could ever work as an escort.” I told him.

　　“Well, okay then” he told me right before handing me his business card.

　　“Think about it very well before you say np” he suggested.

　　I wanted to decline but on a second thought, I took the card. I knew I wasn’t going to call him but it wouldn’t hurt to take his card, will it?

　　Gage gave me a look I didn’t understand quite well, I ignored it because I had more important things to think of than to start playing detective to my best friend’s looks.

　　“Okay, I will think about it but can we stop talking about my job status for the rest of the night? It’s kind of bumming me out right now.” I urged them.

　　“Sure, we can do that.” Gage agreed.

　　“We came here to have fun” bellowed henry.

　　He was still loud and we were in a club with loud music blaring from the speakers, we all agreed to let go of the serious discussion and have fun for tonight.

　　“Hey, remember our wild nights back in college?” Gage asked me.

　　Oh I remember alright, we were on an endless streak of fun and girls. We partied every night and still made it to class in the morning, thanks to gage’s hangover cure.

　　I don’t know what he adds inside but it sure doesn’t taste good but what the hell, if you want to pass your class then you are going to have to sacrifice your taste buds.

　　I laughed a little before we got down to talking about the past.

　　“Remember that time we almost banged the same chick on the same night?” Gage asked again.

　　And this time, I burst out laughing because the memory was still fresh in my head.

　　We went to a party thrown by one of our frat boys back then in college. I didn’t want to go at first because I just broke up with my girlfriend. Gage thought it would be a good idea for me to go out and have fun.

　　I made the mistake of listening to him and going to the said party, it was my first time having to attend one of those. Since I came to college, I had been reserved and happy with my girlfriend so I saw no need to attend parties.

　　I went with Gage, as naïve as I was then. He introduced me to a bunch of people and we got talking. It was fun and great at the beginning but then I forgot the number one rule at a party.

　　“Never to take drinks you are not sure of the source”

　　I swiped a drink from the kitchen counter and gulped it down without checking the contents, I saw another cup lying on the ground and I still drank that.

　　It was a whole ten minutes before I began to see woozy, I was disoriented. I walked around the party smiling at a bunch of people I didn't know. I was sure they thought me to be a weird fellow.

　　Thirty minutes later, I was talking to a plant who I thought was SpongeBob when gage found me. He took one look at me and burst out laughing, he laughed so hard that I think he farted a little. That triggered my laughter and we both were standing there laughing like fools.

　　“W…what are you doing talking to that plant?” Gage asked me.

　　“Why are you talking like that?” I asked him back.

　　“Like what?” he asked, confused.

　　“You are talking funny,” I told him.

　　“No, you are talking funny” he countered back.

　　We stared at each other for a long time and burst out laughing, pointing at each other we both said at the same time.

　　“You are drunk”

　　“You are high”

　　And just like that, the laughter came bubbling up again.

　　We were still laughing when a pretty girl passed us and I think she smiled at me but gage thought she smiled at him. We launched into a silly argument over who the girl smiled at.

　　Looking back at the both of us arguing then, we both looked like fools then, we were fighting over a girl in our incoherent state.

　　We argued for a very long time when a great idea entered my head,

　　“Hey, why don’t we both get her?” I asked gage.

　　He turned to me confused and for a second I became confused.

　　“How?” he asked me.

　　“She might be interested in the both of us right now. What if she was smiling at the both of us?” I asked him.

　　“Sure, why not?” he agreed.

　　And that was how we accosted the poor girl as she was having a drink.

　　“Hey” I said to her.

　　“Hey” she smiled at me twisting a lock of her hair.

　　“You smiled at the both of us, so I know you are interested in us both and we are ready if you are” I told her confidently or what I assumed was confidence I was displaying.

　　She looked shocked, her jaw dropped and she looked disgusted at the both of us. I looked over at Gage and he was making googly eyes at her. She scoffed at us and turned to leave.

　　I held her hand to stop her from leaving,

　　“Well, if you are not interested then why did you smile at us?” I asked her.

　　“I wasn’t smiling at you idiots” she spat angrily before yanking her hand from mine and storming off to the other direction.

　　I looked at gauge shocked, his expression mirrored mine and all of a sudden we were laughing again like fools.

　　The next morning, the whole thing was being taped by one of our guys, he showed us the whole thing and we laughed at how silly we were. Well, they laughed at us while we groaned from the headache caused by the hangover.

　　We vowed not to take drinks except the ones we ordered and we were sure of where they came from. Gage and I never spoke about the night we almost had a threesome, we agreed to never speak about it.

　　Henry laughed so hard, his drink came pouring out his nose.

　　“I can’t believe you two almost banged the same chick” he laughed pointing at us.

　　“It happened a long time ago and we are not proud of ourselves” I told him.

　　“Yeah, it was messed up but in our defense, we were young and wanted to have fun” Gage pointed out.

　　“Yeah, cut us some slack” I told Henry, sending him a glare.

　　It didn’t help out at all, it only fueled his laughter and he kept laughing at us.

　　I wanted to chuck the drink on his head but knowing him would make him laugh the more knowing he succeeded in ruling us up the more.

　　I looked at Gage who sighed and shook his head at henry. I didn’t have anything to say to Henry at all that wouldn’t make him laugh more.

　　I sipped my drink looking out on the dancefloor and my eyes got stuck.

　　Right in the middle of the dancefloor is a woman I would describe as the lady that haunts my dreams, she wore the opposite of a club wear, it was clear that she didn’t belong here but she was making the most of it. Her moves were both sensual and enticing at the same time, she moved like she has been doing this all her life.

　　Her hands ran up and down her body, like she only knew every inch and curve of her body. Watching her like a creep from the corner of the booth I was in, my fingers twitched to follow the path her hands took. I wanted to run my hands all over her body and trace the path with my tongue too.

　　I would give anything to watch her squirm under me and see her from here. I doubt she is the type to squirm unless it’s necessary but I wouldn’t mind trying and getting her to writhe under me.

　　I simply watched her from the dark as she danced like she didn’t give any care in the world, I couldn’t approach her. It was obvious to me that she was way out of my league but she was the sexiest woman I have ever seen.

　　I stared at her till she left. My only regret is that I didn’t get her number.