Raw Desire

Make yourself comfortable

 "Hey Addo, Something wrong?"

"Uh Mira, do you remember Ruben? The guy we met a few weeks back at the dinner party?"

"Yeah I’ve been meaning to ask you about him, but it just slips my mind every time. What’s up with the guy? He looked devastated to say the least when we met him."

Addo’s eyebrows creased,"Honey I have no idea; and as far as I know, even Shawn doesn’t know. But you can ask it to him yourself."

Amairah frowned,"Huh?"

"He has taken up an appointment with you. I have narrated to him all out rules and he has agreed to them. He will be here by 6 pm."

"But why do you look so worried, it’s alright. It’s not the first time that someone we already know has taken up an appointment with me."

"I know Mira. The only thing I am worried about is that when I told him the rules, he said, 'they wouldn’t be needed’. I don’t know what to make out of it. But if he does anything against the rules, I will not take even a moment to turn him into cream and throw him out."

Amairah smiled "Don't underestimate me Addo. You know I am capable of doing it myself."

She talked a little more and then left. He was not her first customer who was coming to sleep his troubles off with her. So that part wasn't unusual for her. What troubled her was the part where he said that the rules wouldn’t be needed. She didn't want to get Addo worried so she said she could take care of it but this wasn’t a matter that she could take lightly.

~~~

She soon came to know that he had taken up 2 slots of her day. One of them was at 6 pm and the second being at 9 pm. He could come any moment now, and she had no clue on what to expect. It wasn't the fact that he looked like the Greek God Adonis that she had thought of when she thought of him, like the other prostitutes at the brothel would have thought. She wasn't a slut like them.

She was here because she did not have the pieces of the puzzle that she had to put together in order to get out of this profession. Maybe Addo did, but for a reason that Amairah did not understand, he did not agree to give them to her.

She trusted Addo to always think only that which is best for her.But she was determined to find those pieces and put them together, and she would jump to any chance she got for that.

"May I come in?" An unfamiliar voice called out. Again, the edge of sorrow was there. What was it about this man that screamed sorrow?

"Yeah sure." She replied, without turning around.

"Hello, I am Ruben and I know you are Amairah. I am not here because I want to sleep with you. I have seen a lot in my life, and have had no one to share it with. My doctor says if I do not see a therapist soon, I will be suffering from depression."

This surprised her. Not the fact that he did not even give her a chance to speak. But that he was so straight forward regarding what he wanted from her. No beating anout the bush, no excuses and no sugar quoted compliments like she was used to. She sighed.

"Ruben, I am not a therapist. I am a prostitute. I cannot cure you of your illness."

"I know you are not a therapist, that is why I gave my reasons of coming here before you could make any assumptions. The rules of your brothel say that as long as I follow the rules, I can get you to do anything for me. I only want you to lend me an ear. This too was suggested by Shawn. That is why I agreed to come to that dinner."

"So you are saying that Shawn brought you to the dinner party so you could see if I was capable of healing you? You were wrong buddy, I cannot heal. I have been trained to please." Amairah laughed at her own sentence, without any humor.

Ruben mimicked her, chuckling with no trace of humor. But a slight hint of hope filled him. She hadn’t refused completely. "You see Amairah; you laugh with so much sorrow. I noticed it the moment I looked at you at the dinner table at Addo’s place that you have had to suffer too, just like me."

"But I can only hear you out, while a therapist can actually heal you." Amairah argued, knowing that he will now probably shut her up, saying that the time she is wasting arguing with him, is the time he bought. If he wanted to sleep with her, he has every right to, and if he wants her to hear him out, he has every right to force her into it.

"Are you aware that most therapists themselves hire therapists? And why wouldn’t they, anyone would go into depression after hearing so many people speak of their depressing tales. You are a strong woman, because you try to stay happy, despite the fact that your eyes hold unshed, invisible tears in them."

Amairah had once read somewhere that a person in grief can recognize grief easily, because he himself goes through it, and he knows how a person looks at things when he suffers.

"I saw how you kept glancing at Addo and his wife longingly, like you wanted something that they had, but knew you could never have it. I know that glance very well, so I can recognize it anywhere."

It so appears that what she had read was true. Maybe that is why what he felt was so clear to her that it moved her from the inside, while it appeared like the others could barely see it and he too, immediately saw through her.

"It will be a give and take between us. You hear me and keep it to yourself, and I will hear you if you want. The deal is simple; we keep what happens in this room between us a secret. Let the others think whatever they want. You will not be forced into anything. If you do not want to share your story, you can choose not to."

The entire time Ruben was saying all of this, only one thing was rotating in her head; There was no need for him convince her, he could have forced her into it. This was the closest to respect that she had ever seen a customer show to her, if he could even be called a customer.

She was still sitting in the same position, at the chair of her dressing table, her face towards the mirror and her back still facing him. She turned towards him for the first time that he had entered the room, smiled,gestured towards the bed and said,

"Why don’t you make yourself comfortable?"

****

The next chapter will reveal more of Ruben and his life.