“Yeah, I can be your friend. That works for me,” she said. “As long as it doesn’t affect either of my jobs.”
“Absolutely not. Friendship stuff needs to take place outside of work hours.” I handed her my business card. “That’s my cell number. Can you send me yours and then we can meet for coffee or do whatever friends do. You’ll have to advise me on that as well.”
“I can honestly say I have never had a boss like you before, Mr. Hall.” She smiled.
“And no one calls me that because I’m a great boss. Everyone calls me Aidan.” I informed her.
“Aidan. Hmmm, suits you.” She looked me over and if she hadn’t had told me she was gay, I’d have sworn she was checking me out.
She opened her blouse a little and put the business card down her bra. I caught a glimpse of those luscious breasts. Hey, I could still fantasize about her, even if she was off limits.
But damn, what a fucking shame. She had a business mind and a body that would make a supermodel jealous.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
Chapter 4
Lori
The words had blurted out in a rush. “I’m a lesbian.” I wasn’t gay at all. My first movie for GoDown had been an F/F, but like I said to him that was just acting. I hadn’t minded it though. I wouldn’t class myself as bi or anything but for my movies I didn’t care who made me come or who I faked it with if necessary as long as I made a great movie and got paid.
Working in the adult entertainment industry didn’t bother me in the slightest but I’d prefer not to have to. I’d have preferred to be on the other side working the camera. I loved photography and cinematography and it had been my dream to go to college and study. Until I met my jerk, ex, a verbally and physically abusive man who’d belittled me and ignored me until I didn’t believe I had any self worth. It had taken me to the point where I’d tried to commit suicide by swallowing a ton of pills, until they’d sent psych to the hospital and I’d received help.
The boyfriend had gone. I’d decided I would get to college. I just needed to work hard to get there. There would be no boyfriends, no distractions. Not until I’d done what I’d set out to do. I was not a victim. I would use what happened to me to make myself a better person, to really live the life I was lucky to have, as my attempt had failed. Found by my roommate at the time who’d forgotten her wallet and returned to our apartment early, I fully intended to give back and help the people in my previous shoes once I got on my feet.
The adult movie job served two purposes. For one, it paid well, and I was going to be able to save up relatively quickly, and also I got to quiz those behind the camera. GoDown was like a family and everyone was part of that family. No one complained about the actress staying behind after to watch the editing and ask a million questions.
I hadn’t known that the man who’d come in to watch the secretary movie being filmed was the owner. I was too busy doing my job to wonder who an extra person on set was, and Aidan didn’t dress like a boss. Stereotypical maybe, but I would have expected a businessman in a suit, not a guy in jeans and a tee. Or maybe some kind of perverted looking guy, or a mobster. Not someone like Aidan.
I guess we’d both misjudged the other.
When he’d called me Lorenza in the club, I’d hated him. I’d thought he was going to try to blackmail me. It was very hard for me to trust a guy and I’d immediately thought that here I was again. Feeling threatened by a member of the male species. I’d not slept well that night. So for him to apologize and for me to discover that actually he seemed a decent kind of guy was completely unexpected and a huge relief.
The truth was I did find him attractive, with his dark hair and molten chocolate colored brown eyes, but my no relationship rule was firmly fixed in place and so I’d told him I was gay. I’d seen the disappointment in his eyes and I had felt a tinge of regret. But only a sliver because I was my own priority. Getting myself to college my complete focus. When he asked me to be his female friend, I accepted immediately because he didn’t know this, couldn’t possibly know this, but he was doing me a huge favor. Because by being his friend maybe I could learn to trust a man again. It was the perfect solution for now.
When I’d seen the movie theater I had panicked. I wasn’t embarrassed about being in adult movies but that didn’t mean I wanted them showing at my other place of work. Staff at Abandon were completely off-limits, unlike some other clubs where you could pay for extra services. If people had recognized me in the movies, it would have blurred the boundaries and I could have received harassment. Just because I was off limits at Abandon, didn’t mean that members couldn’t have sought me out through Lorenza LaBelle and harassed me that way.
All in all I felt fortunate. Two jobs in two good businesses and what appeared to be great staff and a great boss. That night I slept like a baby for the first time in years.
I lived on my own in a small apartment in Brooklyn. I preferred it that way. No one to please but myself. My home was my safe haven. I’d made a small amount of girlfriends over the last couple of years and was still in touch with Chrissy, the roommate who’d saved my life, but mainly I kept to myself.
I was enjoying a rare morning reading while relaxing on the couch when my cell buzzed.
Aidan: GBBF (Girl best friend forever as you will now be named). You free for coffee at eleven-ish? I checked the schedules and you aren’t working at my businesses today.
I smiled and answered:
GBBF: Hey BBBF. (Boy best friend forever). Can coffee be this afternoon, about one? I’m having a rare lazy morning. Checking my schedules? Rule one in impressing a woman. Keep your stalker tendencies to yourself. Meet you at Kave, Knickerbocker Ave?
BBBF: Are you really having a lazy morning or is this a lesson on females as my mom always said ‘treat em mean to keep em keen’. Kave at one it is.
Aidan was amusing, I’d give him that. Now the question was did I really want to help him find a nice woman? What if I did that and then decided I wanted him for myself? And then it was too late. Stop it Lori, I told myself. It’s not your time right now. As one of my own mom’s platitudes had been ‘if it’s meant to be, it’ll find a way’, I returned to the book I was enjoying reading and forget about Aidan Hall for now.
Kave had an industrial look to it and had the most fabulous coffee. It also wasn’t far from my apartment, which was a bonus, especially when I realized I’d been so lost in the plot of my current book, a series about some cowboy brothers I was working my way through, that I’d left myself only five minutes to get ready and get there. I quickly swept my hair up into a ponytail, put on my sneakers, and forgetting the rest of my appearance—the jeans and casual slouchy tee would have to do—I ran around to the coffee shop.
I walked through the green hallway but couldn’t see him in the main restaurant so I went through to the courtyard and there he was. Looking hot and sexy in a white tee that clung to his every muscle. Careful not to salivate, I thought, you’re supposed to be gay. I took a seat at the table.
“Hey, boyfriend.”