THE USUAL 🔞

My name is Māia.

I am an escort.

That is the sophisticated word for prostitute. It looks better on invoices.

I sell sex and time to hungry men who pretend normal is enough, then pay ridiculous amounts for whatever they secretly desire.

A supposed modelling agency brought me here. My family believed I was working overseas. In truth, I had been examined, priced and auctioned like stock.

Then Luciano bought me.

He owned a brothel, but sex wasn't the first thing he wanted from me. I was observant and quick to learn. He sent me to school, taught me languages and placed me in rooms where powerful people spoke freely around a girl they assumed couldn't understand.

I listened.

Luciano profited.

For years, I was safe enough to mistake ownership for protection.

Then I turned eighteen.

I graduated.

That was Luciano's word for it.

When a call came, I learned what the client had purchased and performed with impeccable etiquette. Luciano controlled the money, gave me an allowance, sent money home and let me keep my tips.

By twenty-three, I was one of his best.

Clients had favourites.

The first time, you were a selection.

The second, they requested the same girl.

By the third, your name stopped mattering.

You became the usual.

Tonight is my first booking with Kais Al-Nasser.

He is beautiful until his mouth opens.

Then come the lectures-women who talk too much, women who think they are clever, women who should be grateful when powerful men desire them.

He doesn't flirt.

He inventories.

My skin. My accent. My height. My obedience.

He likes that I speak several languages and still have to swallow his.

I can tolerate rough.

Rough is a body.

Kais Al-Nasser is a mouth that hates women and wants one anyway.

So I will be etiquette. I will provide the service he paid for. Then I will tell Luciano I refuse to see him again.

It should be simple.

Unfortunately, Kais doesn't seem like a man who accepts that his first can also be his last.