The Loverboy (15 page)

time had passed she had found out that the better dressed the
Johns had been and the more expensive their car had been the
more perverted they were, and worse they had always made the
creepiest demand and were the most likely to get agitated if
they didn‟t get their way.
But that was all in the past now. She was home all day
again and where before it had driven her nuts, now it was heaven
or at least it seemed to be compared to the alternative. She
kept busy with getting ready for the trip and chatting with
Anisha who was still counting down and doing well. She was
starting to save up quite a bit of money after she too had given
up drugs. Ok, once a week on Saturdays Kim and Anisha would
smoke a little bit of pot together. Barely enough for a buzz but
it made them feel good.
One Saturday Anisha had been sick and they hadn‟t smoked
any. It had become a social thing between the both of them and
both felt it was part of their profession and the area they
lived in. At least that had been the excuse they had used but
really it put them in a silly mood and in their line of work you
needed to be in a silly mood at least once a week. Now that she
was done she didn‟t want to take that away from Anisha Kim had
convinced herself. Things were going well now and the future
looked bright with a vacation coming up, a new house in a sweet
little village when they came back and Jake returning to his old
self.
There were only two things to stress about right now. First
was how to fix things with her mom and Ally. She didn‟t want to
do that until she was all setup. Getting things rolling before
that would kill her mom she thought. She would be horrified and
afraid that it won‟t all turn out ok. Once she got all setup her
mom would see that she turned out ok and she could just leave
out some of the parts of the past year. No need to upset her mom
with that, it wasn‟t anything to write home about anyway.
The second thing to stress about was a lot more on the
lighter side but also much more imminent, her passport. They
would be leaving in five days and the passport hadn‟t gotten
there yet. When they had applied for the passport the clerk at
the post office had told them it would take three to four weeks
and it should be there in plenty of time but he had added as
with any self respecting bureaucratic process that they would
give no guarantees; even on the expedited process. She had
checked the mail with passion every day but nothing. With only
five more days to go she was getting very anxious.
She met the mailman outside and again nothing. Then she sat
down and waited for Anisha as usual. Anisha came out not much
later and sat with her. They talked about everything and
anything. Now that Kim wasn‟t working anymore they talked about
all the stuff they used to talk about except for the job. Kim
had been fascinated and horrified when she had met Anisha before
she had started working herself. Then after she had started
working they had talked about it like two colleagues at a
factory or an office would talk about work outside of it, it had
seemed that the more casual it was treated the more bearable it
had been. Now that she was done she just wanted to forget about
it. She knew she never could but would settle for thinking about
it a little as possible. She couldn‟t talk about it anymore in
the casual way they had before. It would go back to being
horrifying but not like in the beginning. It the beginning it
had just been shock, like watching a bad crash, horrible but it
doesn‟t affect your life and there had been a weird interest.
Interest in how someone could do it. Now she knew and that
interest was not there anymore. Just the horror was left and it
had been a horror that had affected her. It was no longer the
horror of thinking “How can someone do that?” but more the
horror of “How could I have done that?” She felt bad about it
because Anisha was still working and she might need to talk
about it, to make it seem normal but Anisha hadn‟t brought it up
as she probably sensed Kim wanted to forget.
Kim had told Anisha about the trip many times and almost
daily they looked over the folders Jake had brought with him.
The resort was the Las Gaviotas Resort in La Pazon on the
peninsula on the ocean and it looked beautiful. The trip was all
expenses paid. They would just fly in and take a shuttle to the
resort. Then everything at the resort had been included in the
trip, drinks, meals and even the spa. The only thing they needed
money for would be tips and if they bought anything in town.
Anisha was jealous but happy for her. If anything Kim had shown
her the way to her own future, she would get out too and they
would stay in touch.
Two days before the trip Kim got two pleasant surprises the
first was the passport finally arriving, one less thing to
stress about. The second thing was Jake showing up unannounced
and telling her he was there to stay now. Everything had been
taken care of and he had officially closed the door on his old
life. No more hustling. He was there and there to stay. He would
stay until they left for their trip and when they got back they
would move into the new house and he would start his new job two
blocks down the road. They would finally start their new life
together.
This sounded great to Kim and she could not remember ever
having been happier….except for a year ago, when she had lived
with Ally and her mom. She remembered how awful she had thought
her life had been. Now she knew it had perfect. Sure she hadn‟t
been rich or popular but she had had people around her that
loved her and that had stuck out their necks for her or would
have done anything for her. She had blamed her mom for a lot of
her misery but now she knew why her mom had worked so much. It
had been to keep her and Ally safe. She shook her head hard to
get the thoughts out of her head. That time was past just like
her life on the streets and she would see Ally and her mom soon
but first some well deserved R & R and then some hard work on
the new place. First everything had to be perfect before she
could face them. At least than she could show them what it all
had been for.
Kim and Jake spend the next two days getting ready for the
trip. It was cold out so when they weren‟t packing they were in
bed. He was with her again. This was the guy she had wanted to
be with. Not the Jake that always had something better to do,
another hustle or deal. The Jake that had been totally into her
and her needs like he had been in the beginning. On the morning
of the trip they loaded up the car. Anisha had gotten up early
to say goodbye. They left and traffic was heavy. It took them
about an hour to get to the airport and they parked in the long
term economy parking.
It was Friday and the airport was littered with people
ready to escape the cold weather. She had felt silly driving
through Chicago wearing clothes that she would normally only
wear in the summer. She couldn‟t wait to be there and thus she
had embraced the idea and put on a spaghetti strap top, shorts
and sandals. Jake had laughed at her for it but she was not
going to be deterred. Leaving the car and the shuttle ride from
the parking to the terminal had been really cold but after they
got to the terminal she was happy to see she hadn‟t been the
only idiot out there. The lines at ticketing and security
weren‟t very long. It was too early for the business crowd. They
usually flooded the airport on Fridays after three pm. They sat
at the gate and had a snack waiting to be allowed on the plane.
The boarding had started and she thought about how in the
past she would have been annoyed at the people in first class
who got to board first. Now she didn‟t care. She had learned not
to look at what someone else has but how to appreciate what you
have yourself. If only she would have learned that a year
earlier. The announcement came that they were ready to board the
economy class passengers and she snapped out of her thoughts and
got up. They boarded and he offered her the window seat. She had
never been on a plane and was a little nervous. She took the
magazines and flight safety information chart out of the seat
pocket and studied them intently almost as if she expected to
get a pop quiz and if you failed you had to leave the plane.
Jake snickered at her for it and annoyed she shot him a look.
Then she looked around and noticed that everybody was just
sitting reading books or magazines. Nobody looked at the flight
safety information. She looked back at Jake and snickered to.
Then she shrugged and continued to study it. She noticed she
really didn‟t care that she was the only one studying it.
When the plane finally took off she sat straight in her
seat gripping both armrests tightly while looking out the
window. The plane accelerated and she got more nervous. There
was a lot of vibration and she was wondering if that was normal.
Then she felt a lifting feeling and the plane stopped vibrating
and they were in the air. She looked at the landscape where the
clouds allowed and marveled at the semi trucks looking like ants
on the surface below. Jake just sat reading a book but wasn‟t
getting anywhere as Kim kept interrupting him to point something
out below on the surface.
The plane landed in Mexico City and after a layover of a
little more than two hours they boarded the plane to La Paz.
This one was much smaller and she felt as if in an old school
bus that someone has slapped some wings on. It wasn‟t very
comfortable either as the small plane vibrated a lot more than
the previous one. After take-off it was a little better but
still worse than the first flight. Two and a half hours later
they landed in La Paz. It had been about nine hours since the
first plane had taken-off from Chicago O‟Hare. La Paz airport
was a small airport. Much smaller than O‟Hare or Mexico City had
been and there was no sign of bustling crowds of people trying
to make their next flight. Everybody seemed much more relaxed
and nobody seemed to be in a hurry.
Everywhere around her she heard people speaking Spanish and
she couldn‟t understand a word of it. Jake seemed a lot more
comfortable and grabbed her by the hand and led her to baggage
claim. They found their suitcases and went outside. At the curb
were many taxis and a line of shuttle stops each listing a
number of hotels and resorts. They found the one for the Las
Gaviotas Resort and waited. Night was already setting in but at
temperatures of around eighty it felt really nice. Even at a
commercial place like an airport she felt the relaxation of the
vacation wash over them.
Ten minutes later a shuttle stopped at their stop and the
driver inquired about where they were staying. Luckily he had
spoken English, broken as it was, she had been able to
understand. Jake responded in fluent Spanish and she shot him a
look of surprise.
“I lived in Spain for a while when I grew up” he explained.
He had never spoken much about growing up. She had asked at
times but always got limited answers.
“When?” she asked as they boarded the shuttle.
“Until I was about seven, then I moved to the Netherlands”
he continued, “and I stayed there until about three years ago.”
Now she knew what the accent was from. It wasn‟t heavy but
it was there. She was a little shocked that he had never spoken
about this before but figured he just didn‟t like to talk about
his past and she took it that he was opening up to her and that
was a good sign.
Chapter 17:
The shuttle arrived at the resort just as the sun was
setting over the horizon. On the other side was the bay. It was
part of the ocean and in folders she had read that because the
peninsula protected the bay, snorkeling would be great. The
resort was beautiful. It had a very elegant look to it and it
was just across the road from the beach.
The shuttle had contained more people for the resort and
there was a line at the registration. Jake got in line and she
just wandered around the foyer. After about ten minutes she
wandered outside and arrived at the azure blue pool. It was
deserted, which puzzled her because who would not want to be at
the pool here. She took her sandals off and sat down at the edge
of the pool. Then she slid her poor sore feet into the
refreshing water and kicked them around to have the water
massage her feet after a long day of travel. This felt like
heaven. Then she felt a pair of hands massaging her shoulders.
It was Jake. He had just finished checking in and the porter had
taken their bags up to the room. She looked around at him and
smiled but didn‟t speak. Then she looked ahead again and took it
all in, the nice weather, the water feeling cool and refreshing
on her feet and Jake giving her a soothing shoulder massage.
Things kept getting better and she started to feel her body and
mind recharge and she soaked it all up.
“Let‟s go check out the room” he said, “I‟ll give you a
good backrub there.”
She looked at him and smiled and got up. Hand in hand they
went to check out the room. The room was spacious with a large
king size bed and a view of the ocean with a small table and two
chairs on the balcony. They were on the fourth floor and the
view was great. The room was luxurious and clean, something she
could have only dreamed of after having been in that dump in
Chicago for so long.
The next five days were wonderful. They enjoyed the nice
weather and had gone snorkeling, deep sea fishing and on a glass
bottom boat. The reefs were beautiful and during the glass boat
tour a pair of dolphins had passed underneath the boat. At night
they would go have dinner at the resort and then find a place
with some live music where they could sit and have a few drinks
or dance. Then before heading back to the room they would take a
walk on the beach every night. Jake had been great. He had
reverted to the guy she had fallen in love with, the only weird
thing was that he seemed to be a bit preoccupied with his phone.
He checked it a lot and it almost seemed that he was expecting a
call, but from whom? They had no obligations here and didn‟t