Now that this moment was here, however, he was anything but confident.
He heard her knock. His heart beat increased.
“Come in,” he said from the bathroom, grabbing a paper towel to wipe the sweat from his head one last time.
The door slowly opened and Tony took a look in the mirror over the sink one last time. He took a deep breath, gave himself a mini pep talk and prepared to walk out. Then he heard her first words. She was here. For real.
“Hello?,” Cassie said to an empty room. “It’s Alyssa. I’m looking for Roger?”
Tony walked toward the bathroom door and headed to the voice that called out his made-up name. The moment he saw her for the first time, he couldn’t help himself. Without thinking and before he could even process what he was witnessing, the words fell out of his mouth.
“Oh fuck.”
=====
Five minutes earlier, Cassie had arrived to the hotel.
As she entered the parking lot, she went through her usual checklist in her head. It was a simple ritual but one that ensured her protection and allowed her to get into what she called her “hooker mentality.”
It’s an important mindset, especially for someone like Cassie who likes to keep her personal and professional lives separate. By only getting in “hooker mentality” when she was getting ready to meet a client, Cassie was able to treat that part of her life like a character she was playing. It made it much easier to distinguish between the person who went to work every day and seemed to be your average American business woman as opposed to the person who sucked dick and fucked for cash.
Cassie drove past the room Roger said he was in twice, scanned around for anything that seemed suspicious and circled back to the front of the hotel to park. No cameras. No suspicious vehicles. So far so good.
Cassie chose the closest spot next to the exit when she parked her car. The good news was, a spot like this made her feel much safer in case she had to make a run for it and return for the car later. The bad news was it made the walk to her clients’ room longer and left her more time to think and get nervous. Even in her third year doing this, butterflies were inevitable.
A few minutes before she arrived to the hotel, Cassie sent a text to her friend Jenny to let her know exactly where she would be if something happened, roughly how long they’d be and when to expect an “all safe” text later that night with a codeword only the two of them knew. That last part might have been a bit much but, hey, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Cassie had only ever been late with that “all safe” text once and that was because she lost track of time after a particularly great session with a client who paid her $3,000 just to eat her pussy. Too bad every client couldn’t be like that.
Still, it’s not the kind of mistake to make often. Not when you’re meeting strangers in private hotel rooms and doing your best to keep it under the radar from the people in your day-to-day life.
Cassie was meticulous in her planning of these sessions and that’s why she only had a handful that weren’t great.