“Mercedes,” he said. I got up to greet him. “It’s so nice to see you here. How have you been?” All of the color drained out of my face. I had to run now. Jake didn’t know my real name.
“I’m doing well, thank you.”
“You look fantastic. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make your graduation. They had us in a meeting that whole day, but no matter. Things are clearly looking up for you.”
“Yeah.” I laughed awkwardly, doing my best to avoid looking at Jake. “Things are going pretty good.”
“I’m just glad that you found somebody willing to take a stand for a good cause.”
“I’m blessed to have her here,” Jake said, with a second’s hesitation.
“I’m glad to be here,” I said.
Jake and my professor went to talk while I slumped into my chair. Of course, he wouldn’t let it show, but he must’ve felt betrayed. I met his family, for fuck’s sake, and he didn’t even know my real name.
Chapter 21
Jake
I slipped through the crowd towards the bar and kept my eyes straight. If I looked around, I knew that somebody would catch my eye and pull me into a pointless conversation about how nice I was for giving the donation. I had three times that sitting on the silent auction table.
Samantha was sitting on a bar stool sipping a Bloody Mary when I walked up. “You’d better not take that out of a company account.”
“I gave 45.” I waved down the bartender, ignoring her look of shock.
“What’ll it be?”
“A shot of brandy and two champagnes,” I said.
“Coming right up.” He left me alone with Samantha.
“You gave $45,000 away? What is wrong with you?”
“Listen, you old hag, you’ve got more money than you could spend in 10 lifetimes. I don’t know why you care what I do with a few thousand dollars. Aren’t you rich enough?”
“You don’t have any right to talk to me like that,” she said.
“You have the lowest stake on the board, and everyone hates you.” The bartender handed me our drinks, and I walked back to the table.
Mercedes was mortified. It was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen. No escort used her real name. I’d screwed more Portias and Violets than I could remember. It was good business practice, but the more time I spent with her, the more I was reminded of the fact that she wasn’t a whore.
I knew she had her reasons for doing what she was doing. No woman with as much pride as she had would ever lower herself to prostitution, or anything close to it, without a good reason. I decided that it was my job to give her the dignity and appreciation she deserved.
She was sitting at the table, her head down, staring at her phone when I walked up behind her and rested my hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Jake. I know I should’ve told you.”
I sat down next to her. “Tony is always sending me girls with ridiculous names. I’ve had every color and flower there is. I was relieved when you told me your name was Maria. You must’ve picked it out yourself.”
“You don’t care?”
“God, no. Don’t give your name out.”
She laughed. “Tony wanted
me to go by Cinnamon.”
“That’s not even the worst one. The first girl I ordered was named Fuchsia.”
“No.”