Nope. He knew Cassie was on the other side of that door and, if he opened it, things were about to get weird. She knocked again.
“Come on, open up,” she said.
Tony opened the door a crack, looked outside and saw his cousin standing on the other side of it. Just as he feared. She looked flustered but that didn’t change the fact that she was quite literally the last person in the world he wanted to talk to right now.
“Can I come in?” she asked.
“I guess,” he replied.
“Look,” she said. “I don’t want to have this talk any more than you do. Trust me.”
Tony let her in against his better judgement and hoped whatever she had to say would be quick and to the point so he could get out of here and forget this whole thing had ever happened.
He walked over the fridge and grabbed a bottle of the Gatorade he had bought earlier that afternoon, back when he was looking forward to being in a hotel room with the knockout he saw in the ad. Before he knew who that body belonged to.
“Okay,” she said. “I know this is weird. I know. I’m sorry for leaving like that but, I … I really don’t know what to say.”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Me either.”
“So we’ve got to talk to about this. Obviously.”
“Yep,” he said, dejected.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” she said. “And I know you didn’t expect me.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“But here we are,” Cassie said, thinking hard about what she was going to say next. “We’re adults. And we’re family. And I don’t think this needs to be a big deal. You found out what I do to make money. I found out you cheat on your wife with escorts.”
“Hey, fuck you,” Tony responded, pissed off for the first time. “Don’t try to blame me for this shit and act like I did something wrong here.”
“And I did?” Cassie said.
“Well, you’re the one selling pussy.”
“You know what, fuck you too asshole,” Cassie said, fuming. She considered leaving yet again.
The two of them let the silence hang in the air. They’d both crossed a line and this conversation wasn’t going where either of them wanted it to.
Cassie and Tony both needed to leave this room without making the other person an enemy. If word of this got out, it would be bad for both of them, especially if it got around to other family members. Cassie had no desire to explain her career choices to her mother or sisters and Tony had even less desire to try to talk to anyone about his sex life with his wife.
Yet there’s exactly where he took the conversation next.
“I’m not cheating on anyone.” he said.
“Oh bullshit,” Cassie said. “You think I don’t remember our emails? Is this the point where you convince me you were hiring me to tell me how wrong being an escort is?”
“I never said that,” he replied. “All I’m saying is I’m not cheating on anyone. Kayla knows I’m here.”
“She WHAT?!?!?!” Cassie said, shocked.
“She knows I’m here,” Tony said.
“I don’t buy it,”
“No, seriously. She does,” Tony said. “We have an arrangement. It’s not like a, I mean I guess it kind of is but it’s not … anyway, I’ve never done this before but I’m not cheating. I’ve always wanted to hire an escort and she … well, she kind of said I could.”