The Professional Lover III (18+)

04 : Placing Them

It took me until halfway through the drive to stop crying. Only when Jamie started blasting Doja Cat and singing along with every word did I finally start smiling. The guilt hasn't eased its grip on my throat, but I'll get there. Eventually.

Finally in the city, Jamie keeps looking over at me while we inch through traffic, a cheeky grin on his lips.

"Is there something on my face?" I ask him.

His grin spreads into a smile. "No, I'm just really excited you're here."

I grip his hand in mine. "I owe you. Seriously. More than I'll ever be able to repay."

"You don't owe me shit."

But I do. "I don't expect you to take care of me or Lily. I'll get a job right away, I swear. After I get Lily's medication sorted out, I'll take care of half the bills and—"

"Hey," he interrupts with a smile. "Shut the fuck up."

"I mean it."

"Yeah, me too," he warns. "I want you here. This isn't a favor, this isn't a debt. So shut it or I'll take your ass back to the trailer park."

I purse my lips to hide my smile. "Yessir."

We pull off the highway onto a street lined with tall palm trees. It looks like a set of a movie; a perfectly blue sky, clean cars parked along the newly paved streets. I didn't think places like this were real.

He pulls up to a tall gate and taps a card against a panel. The gates creep open slowly revealing a small cluster of modern-looking buildings shrouded in lush greenery.

We drive inside and I get a better look. Each building is a different stack of light and dark blocks of different materials, three stories tall with garages tucked underneath. "This is where you live?" I ask him.

"Yeah," he answers. "It's nice, right?"

"Yeah." I lean forward to see more of it. It's fucking huge. New. I feel as if I traveled two decades into the future rather than two hours from home.

He pulls up to one and parks in the driveway and kills the engine. Familiar nerves hit me in my chest. Arriving at a home I don't know with only a backpack ... I didn't realize I'd find this so triggering.

He walks around the car, but when I don't get out, he opens the door for me. "You okay?" he asks.

I try to smile but feel misplaced fear. I hug myself while my knee bounces nervously. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just ..."

He leans down to look at me. "It's just what?"

I smile at him, trying to hide my anxiety, but I become choked up with tears. "This kind of feels like a placement."

"Babe," he crouches down and pulls me toward him. He stares into my eyes and laces his fingers through mine to ground me. "There's nothing to be afraid of here. No strangers, no fake parents, no social workers showing up to make us leave in the middle of the night. It's just you and me, doing anything we want to do." He grips my hand tighter, his other squeezing my thigh. "So ... what do you want to do first?"

I wipe away the tear that trickles down my cheek. "Eat."

He laughs.