Oh God.
She’s a hooker.
She’s a fucking hooker.
Tony tried to wrap his head around the decisions that had led to this moment but it was Cassie’s that concerned him the most. How long had she been doing this? Did she really sleep with strangers for cash? How could she do that to herself? That’s so disgusting and shameful.
The irony that Tony hired her for the very thing he wanted to mentally shame her for wasn’t lost on him.
“You know what?” he thought. “Who the hell am I to judge?’
Cassie might have a million reasons she does what she does but exactly zero of them were Tony’s business.
After all, if she really cared what he thought of her chosen field, she would have told him about it long before she walked into his hotel room. And judging by the quick way she stormed off, it was clear she wasn’t interested in having that discussion now.
Would they ever talk about? It’s hard to tell. That’s just not something easy to bring up in conversation. Maybe in a few years they’ll be able to laugh and joke about it but, even then, that sounded delusional.
What was more likely, he thought, was that this would make every family gathering they were both at incredibly awkward for the rest of their lives. No way would she want to bring it up, he thought. And it’s not like he’d be eager to do so either.
It took a little while but the fear Tony felt in the immediate moments of walking in on Cassie eventually faded. In its place came a rush of embarrassment and he felt like an idiot.
“Only a dumbass would try to hire his cousin to be his escort.” he thought, cupping his forehead in his hands and rubbing his temple.
And he’d already paid her. In advance. Say goodbye to that money.
What a stupid decision. What a dumb night. Fuck this.
It took a few minutes for Tony to get over his stupidity but when he finally accepted he’d have to cut his losses, he felt ready to get off the couch and pack his stuff for an unexpected early checkout.
The moment he got up, though, he heard the one sound in the world he really wasn’t prepared for.
It was a knock at his door.
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“What the fuck am I doing? What the fuck am I doing?”
Cassie must have asked herself that question ten times as she walked back to her cousin’s hotel room. She didn’t have her luggage this time and any and all of the confidence she walked in with the first time was long gone.
She really should have left. She can feel the weight of that decision now more clearly than ever before. But something kept stopping her. She had to fix this. It was too risky not to.
She didn’t know exactly what to expect but she had hoped her cousin would answer and they could talk about this like adults. Yes, it was going to be awkward but she had spent too long building this life to let it be ruined by a 20-second misunderstanding.
She knocked again.
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Tony froze the moment he heard the sound at the door. In the back of his mind, he knew who it was but he held out hope that maybe it was housekeeping coming to clean the room.
“At eight o’clock at night?” he asked himself silently. “Are you stupid?”