that way, and we ended up hanging out together for the week she stayed in Florence. We promised to write, then didn’t.
A year later, just when I’d moved back to New York and was planning to start Desire, Inc., Leila e-mailed me, saying she was in New York taking a few courses at FIT in retail business management. I hired her to be my assistant, my business manager, my support, my friend. She never let me down. I really lucked out with Leila.
Now she was moving the flower vases around.
‘Stop being obsessive-compulsive and come over here. You’re making me anxious.’
‘Like you don’t do that to me every day.’ Leila grabbed two glasses and a lone standing bottle of vodka from the bar table and walked over. She poured the glasses half full and handed
one to me.
Vodka was Leila’s cure for all ills.
I looked up at her. Good news we always celebrated with champagne.
‘That bad?’
Leila said nothing, clinked glasses with me and, still standing, downed her drink in one gulp.
‘The applause, the compliments, all lies?’
‘Come on, Nicole, drink. You’ll survive.’
Vodka gave me heartburn, but so did bad news. I drank.
Leila laughed at the face I was making, then sat down next to me and gave me a hug. ‘We ran out of champagne.’
I pulled back and looked at her grinning face. ‘You bitch.’
‘You said it. Hey, I just wanted to shake you up a little, get you to stop dreaming about that god Olivia Farrington brought over.’
‘Me dreaming about that man?’ Was it so obvious? ‘If anything he’s a nightmare.’
‘You always turn a hot red when your nightmares can’t take their eyes off you?’
‘All right, I’ll admit he’s hot. Very hot. I wouldn’t mind taking him to bed. If no one else was available. Archer Thorne is an arrogant know-it-all. And who ever heard of a name like that? I bet he made it up to sound like a master of the universe. Go on, tell me.’
‘Well, right after you two got introduced, your eyes got a five-carat shine I haven’t seen since I’ve known you.’
I shot her a warning look.
‘Yes, boss, I’m well aware that for you men are, like handbags, just an accessory, but maybe it’s time to come out from behind that steel wall of yours.’
‘If I were hiding behind a wall, which I’m not, it would be made of glass, and don’t call me boss. Now tell me everyone’s reaction to the bags.’
‘Then I’ll have to buy a hammer tomorrow. As to the comments. “Decidedly odd.” That’s from Emilia Howell, who has to be ninety if she’s a day. She did say she might bring in her great-granddaughter. That was the low point. Best one, “I’ll take all of them”, from the buyer for Ramona, that new store in the meatpacking district, who I wooed for three months.’
‘Wooed how?’ I took another sip of vodka. Now that Leila was giving me good news, I didn’t mind the burn so much.
‘With persistence and my irresistible charm.’
‘Ah ha!’
She slapped my thigh. ‘Nooo. She’s not a lesbian. And I don’t go to bed with people to get you more business.’
‘You did for Close Encounters.’ When I started the male escort business, Desire, Inc. was on its first legs, and I didn’t stop to think that I had to be careful to keep Close Encounters secret. I scouted for candidates among waiters, bartenders, most of them actors waiting for the next part. I advertised on Craig’s List. I tested every candidate first for his social skills, then if he was good in bed. I wanted to offer clients a real escort, someone they could take to a restaurant or to a party if that’s what they wanted. The follow-up in bed was up to them.
A meal, a drink in a bar then a romp in a hotel room with no commitment on my part, no chance of getting my heart strings pulled, was fun. Until Leila convinced me it was far too dangerous for me to expose myself. She took over for a while, claiming it made having sex with a woman so much more exciting. I no longer felt that taking the would-be escort to bed was necessary. A drink with him, with me playing client of the website, was enough.
‘I’ll go to bed with you,’ Leila said. She skated her hand over my breast. ‘Best boobs in New York City.’ She was teasing me. I scooted away from her touch. With Thorne still buzzing inside me and my feeling flush with success, I might do something stupid. I’d been tempted a few times, curious to know what a woman’s mouth on my body would feel like, but I knew it would change our relationship, maybe even ruin it.
‘What other comments?’
Leila poured herself more vodka, downed it. She wasn’t into sipping. ‘Janice Sterne, who I just read on Page Six got a forty-million-dollar divorce settlement, piped up with “None of the bags at Barneys are this appealing.”’
‘Forty million dollars? That’s a lot of handbags.’
‘A hell of a lot more than twelve so start thinking of enlarging your stock.’
‘No, twelve it is and always will be. And you know why.’
‘I do and I respect that, but if we want to grow –’
‘– No buts.’
Leila got her what-I-have to-put-up-with look, but only for a moment. ‘The comments were great. It got boring. The crazy bags got the best votes.’
I reached over and gave her a sisterly hug. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you. You know that, don’t you?’
Leila lifted my long hair off my chest, twirled a curl around her finger. ‘I do and I also know I deserve a raise, which you can’t afford. I like the barter system.’
I laughed. ‘What’s gotten into you tonight?’
‘Archer Thorne. You should have seen your body when he was looking at you. You were almost writhing. It got me wanting you.’
‘I did not writhe!’
‘I bet you wanted to. Right under him.’
I said, ‘You are full of it, Leila Charoum,’ just as the downstairs buzzer rang. ‘Who the hell is that?’
Leila uncurled herself from the couch and went to let whoever it was in. The building had no intercom. I got up and with great effort slowly zipped up my dress, while Leila was saying, ‘I bet someone forgot her glasses, or left her ring in the bathroom. Happens every time.’
‘It does?’ I winced as I slipped into my heels. ‘I don’t remember that.’
‘You’re getting old.’ She opened the door. I saw a dark shoulder, heard a low murmur. ‘Thanks,’
