Breaking Into the Business by Hadley Knox

is all that gets me through the sex.”
    “Well,
that’s nice,” I said, but I lied. It didn’t really make me feel better at all,
and I still wasn’t sure when he was being sincere.
    “Would
you go on a date with me?” he asked.
    “So
are you willing to give up your work to date me?” I asked.
    “That’s
asking a lot,” Greg said. “I wish that I could, but honestly, this has proven
to be the only thing that I’m good at. The money is very nice and I don’t have
any other work experience. I’ve been doing this since I was a senior in
college.”
    “So
you have a degree to fall back on?”
    “No,”
he said. “I quit before finals that year, so I never finished.”
    “Why
not?” I asked.
    “I
started escorting. The money was too nice to pass up, and as I got further and
further into the business, it took more and more of my time. I was soon making
more than most people make right out of college, and I just didn’t see a reason
to finish. Clients don’t really ask about degrees.”
    “What
about when you’re older?”
    “I’ve
learned that clients are into all sorts of different men,” he said. “When I was
twenty-one, there were women who liked me, and now that I’m thirty-two, I have
a whole new client base. Realistically I can stay in this business into my
fifties.”
    “Really?”
    “Probably,”
he said. “It just depends on how well I take care of myself and my general
health.”
    “So
how much do you make?” I asked.
    “That’s
a little personal.”
    I
blushed. “You don’t have to answer. I asked more out of morbid curiosity.”
    “Honestly,
I don’t mind answering that,” he said. “For a while, I made a lot of money
because I also worked as a dancer at the Steel Hammer.”
    “How
was that job?” I asked. Every woman in the city had been to the Steel Hammer at
one point in her life. It was a popular hangout for bridal parties. It was
exactly like a regular bar with one key exception. Nearly naked men danced on
stages and boxes everywhere. I had gone with the girls years ago for Betsy’s
first bridal shower, and I remember the place as very seedy.
    “It
was amazing,” he said. “There were nights that it was miserable if we were
really crowded. Women grabbed at me for hours, and sometimes I’d end up with
bruises from all the pinching. But I made more money doing that in one night
than I would make in a week on my own.”
    “How
do you make so much working there?”
    “Well,
the tips were great, but at the end of the night, the women were practically
bidding on taking us home. I’d always end up with at least one client, most of
the time more. They would pay a lot more money for my company.”
    “So
I take it you no longer work there,” I surmised.
    “Not
anymore,” he said. “I decided to go my own way. Now I make about a hundred and
fifty thousand a year if I can average two hours a night at work.”
    “Wow,”
I gasped. “That’s a lot of money for so few hours working.”
    “It
is,” he agreed. “I’ll have one night that I spend six hours, and then I might take
a few nights off. Occasionally I have clients during the day. You know, the
bored housewives and such.”
    “I
never realized there was so much money in escorting,” I said.
    “There
can be a lot of money,” he said. “If I were better at my organization and
scheduling, I could clean up.”
    “Sounds
like you need a pimp,” I laughed.
    “Actually,
I would love to have a pimp,” he said.
    I
kept laughing, holding my hand over my mouth, so that I didn’t lose any of the
bite that I had just taken. “Maybe I should just take the job,” I said after I
chewed my food.
    “Really?”
    It
was then that I realized he wasn’t joking. From all appearances, he appeared to
be sincere in his request.
    “I
think you’d make a great pimp,” he said. “I mean, it’s basically just
scheduling.”
    “Wait
a minute,” I said, holding up a hand. “You were being serious?”
    “Oh
no,” he