My Escort

37 - Mark

Song: Ariana Grande - 7 Rings
~you like.. my hair? Gee thanks.~

***

Seated in the living room a week later, looking at Gina's interview for the magazine and the photos from the photo shoot before they release. They're perfect. She looks beautiful and confident. I can't wait for the release of this January issue.

"Hey Yas, can you take me to a house party tonight?" Chloe comes sitting beside me.

I put aside my iPad, "what party?"

"Leah's having a party at her house and she wants me to come?"

"Well, sure!" I'm happy that Chloe is meeting friends and building healthy friendships.

"Miss Chloe Maverick? I think this is for you." Cassie hands Chloe an envelope. Chloe looks at me confused.

"Open it!" I gesture my hands in hasty manner.

She rips it open, revealing a cheque. "$1,000?! Oh my God!" She exclaims, scanning the item to see if it's fake.

"Who sent that?"

"I think your friend, Gina did. I get $1,000 just for taking pictures?"

"Oh! Congratulations. Lets take a photo of it and get that framed. So further along, you'll always remember your first pay cheque."

"Okay."

"Well, I guess now is the right time to start teaching you about handling money. I know you're young and we all like to have fun but you are your first priority. The first lesson is discipline. You have to know how to balance your money properly. So now, I'm going to take you to my bank and have you create an account of your own. You deposit half of that money and the other half, you decide what to do with it." I explain.

"Alright, that sounds reasonable." She nods.

"So what's the first thing you wanna spend money on?"

"I want to color my hair."

"Okay, so I'll take you to the salon after we leave the bank. What color though?"

"Red." she smiles, creasing her brows in thinking.

"Ohhh, red huh." I bob my head.

"I mean, you said it. I'm young." She shrugs, wearing a playful smirk.

"Of course. Live a little!" I elicit giggles from both of us.

She runs upstairs to put on some shoes and comes back down. I'm already in a Fashion Nova midi dress and I now put on simple glass slipper heels.

Why am I so fly just sitting at home on an iPad?

My hair in a ponytail and no makeup, only lipgloss. Chloe is in a Fashion Nova jeans with Gucci belt, a simple cute top and Adidas sneakers. Her hair is down.

As I drive us to the bank, an unexpected question leaves her lips. "How do you know when you've met the right person? I mean, Austin is the love of your life. What was it like at first?" Chloe asks and I cough.

I smile taking a deep breath, there's no words really for this one but I'll try. "People make it seems more complicated every day, but to me it's simple." I say.

"What do you mean?"

"Chloe baby, only when it happens to you, then you'll really know because we're all different and handle emotions differently.. but I know it will be like a natural spark. Nothing about the situation will feel forced, it'll be happiness that's effortless. You'll get nervous, anxious, but that's only because of the chemistry. You'll find that you can be yourself around them, you feel comfortable with them, you'll smile without even knowing, you always want to talk to them. They're the first person you want to hear from in the morning and the last person person you wanna talk to before bed. You'll talk about everything for hours without getting tired, even if the topic doesn't make a lick of sense. You want them in your space, you wanna see their face."