“Uhh,” I heard from my back. “Do you need help?”
I turned over my shoulder to see a hesitant teenage girl staring at me with sympathy all over her face.
My eyes went over her shoulder to see that I had the attention of every single occupant of The Donut Place.
My face flamed, and I shook my head. “Um, nope. Sorry for the mess.”
She shrugged. “It happens more than you’d think.”
I just bet it did.
Taking one last look over the girl’s shoulder at one occupant, in particular, I saw that he was grinning.
Which only served to piss me off even more.
He could just kiss my ass!
Shit!
“Have a good one,” I muttered as I walked out the door, this time paying attention to the sign and pulling instead of pushing.
By the time Jubilee joined me at my car, she was staring at me warily.
“I have a pair of sweats in my car I can get for you,” she offered.
I scoffed. “I’d be able to fit an arm into your sweatpants. My legs ain’t happenin’.”
She rolled her eyes.
“So you’re just going to stay wet?” she asked.
I shrugged. “It’ll be okay.”
It wasn’t okay.
A few hours later, I was frozen solid from being in the cooler room with the dead bodies. I was also sticky, pissed off, and not wanting to deal with my agent who I knew was going to call me at any moment.
Yet, I did it anyway because that was what happened when you were an adult. You did things you didn’t want to do.
However, I did have time after arriving home to change out of my still wet clothes and into a pair of sweatpants before he called.
And by the time that he finally got around to getting ahold of me, twenty minutes late, I was kicked back in my living room chair, computer in hand, and waiting not-so-patiently.
My phone finally rang, and I picked it up on the first ring.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Turner, baby. How are you?” Jeb drawled.
I gritted my teeth. “I’m well, how about you, Jeb?”
“Good, good,” he said. “How are you doing on the most recent movie? Anything you need from me? Suggestions?”
He started to laugh at his inappropriate joke, and I rolled my eyes.
“No, thank you,” I told him honestly. “I’m doing just fine. But thank you for thinking of me.”
Lies.
I wasn’t thankful for him at all.
Unfortunately, he’d come with my job.
I was a porn caption writer for BrazenTube, the number one porn site in the world.
I wasn’t really sure how I ended up with the job, but I loved it.
It paid well, let me work my own hours, and let me pick up what work that I wanted.
“Oh, darlin’,” Jeb said teasingly. “Thinking of you is never a problem on my end.”
I made a gagging sound that I quickly covered up disguised as a cough.
“You sound sick,” he said.
I wrinkled my nose.
“Just a little tickle in my throat,” I lied. “Was there anything else that you wanted to talk about today?”
“Yes. There was a new series that asked for you on their job specifically,” he said without preamble. “I’m forwarding over the details to you directly. Though I have no doubt that you’ll take the job.”
I didn’t know about that.
I was quite particular about what jobs I did and didn’t take.
Such as the animal porn ones. Those I didn’t do, even if the man was dressed up like a horse, and not an actual horse.
There was only so much that I could do and stomach.
I waited on pins and needles as the email arrived, and when I saw that it was just a normal porn with a man and a woman—and no, they weren’t brother and sister or anything, because I fucking checked—I agreed to do it.
“Why did they specifically request me?” I questioned, confused as to why anyone would request me over any of the other subtitle writers in the business.
“No idea,” he said. “I asked that, too. He said that you made an impression on the last video that you did for him.”
I shrugged. “Okay. When does this one need to be done by? I have about four ahead of him.”
“He has a two-week timetable before he’d like it to go live,” he answered. “He also offered a bonus if you’d record yourself live while writing the subtitles. I told him you wouldn’t do it, but he wanted me to offer you the opportunity just in case you decided to say yes.”
I immediately shook my head.
The reason that I was okay with doing this job was because it paid well, and I could maintain my anonymity.
But, I was a curious person by nature.
“How much is the bonus?” I questioned.
“Five grand,” he answered.
I nearly choked.
“The entire movie will be a grand. Why would he offer me five grand, five times the original payment, to get me to record myself while I did the subtitles? I don’t even talk when I do the subtitles!” I cried out.