Chapter 3

MELISSA

If I counted for sure she would make me return to Brazil, but I got here and do not intend to give up so easily.

I close the site and look for my mother’s contact on my mobile, here it is late, but by the time zone, I know that in Brazil it is still early, I make a video call and soon the smiling face of my mother appears on the screen.

“Hi Mom, how are you?”

“What a surprise, Mel, we’re all fine, and you, dear?” A hard smile is stamped on my face while I try not to report my situation.

“I’m fine, but I miss Mom...”

“We also felt daughter, Eduarda, come here, come talk to Melissa!” I hear her call my older sister, who soon also appears in the video call.

“What about a sister? How is life living as an American?” she asks, smiling, but I want to tell her how I feel.

“It’s great Edu, but nothing compares to our Brazil!”

“That's nothing Mel, I’m sure that there is much better than our sister country, you are lucky, got what you wanted.”

“Yeah, I got it...”

Eduarda is my older sister, with a difference of only 2 years, while I am 22, she is 24 years old and is already a mother of a little girl of 7 years, we were always very close, we studied together but she ended up getting pregnant with a jerk in the last year of high school leaving school to devote to early motherhood.

“How is Valentina?” I ask for my niece, but soon I hear her screams pulling me a laugh.

“It’s Aunt Mel, Mom? I want to talk to her!” Eduarda agrees and hands the cell phone to the little girl.

“Hi, my love, how are you?” I ask, using an affectionate tone that she always loved.

Pregnant and abandoned by the guy who got pregnant, Mom and I helped Eduarda with pregnancy, and since the birth of Valentina, the little girl is attached to me.

“I miss you, Auntie, when are you coming home?”

“I don’t know dear, I’m living here now, and it may take me a while to get back to Brazil, but I’m dying to miss you too.”

“Do not disturb your aunt's daughter; Mel is fulfilling her dreams, so understand this; your aunt fills us with pride!” I hear the proud tone of my Eduarda, almost making me cry for disappointing so much.

“No matter how long it takes Aunt, I’ll wait for you here with mommy and grandma!”

“Okay, I have to go, it’s late and I need to wake up early for work.”

“Alright daughter, I know your boss doesn’t take it easy on you, but keep in touch Mel, we love you...”

I want to say that I work many hours standing being a waitress at a restaurant serving demanding customers and earning little, but they think I work as a personal assistant to a wealthy businessman in a renowned company.

I lie down again in bed and without choice, pick up the cell phone and access the escort site again, it will be just a few dates and will never involve sex, it’s all for the money and living in luxury for a few days.

I register and fill out the information they are asking, and when I get to the part of the photo, I open the gallery of the phone and choose one on the beach I visited with Maggie a few months ago, it is beautiful, I’m smiling sitting on the sand, only my face and bust appear in the image, my long curly hair was loose while wearing a red bikini.

After uploading the photo, I click to finish the registration and I think if this was a good idea, before sleeping I see how the choices of the escorts work, from what I read on the site, customers choose based on the photo and information and contact them by the chat of the chat itself.

I put an alarm on the phone for the morning and try to sleep, although I want to think about it with caution, tiredness beats me...

I wake up with the squeaky touch of the phone, sit on the bed rubbing my eyes before picking up the device, and turn off the alarm, but some notifications catch my attention, I click realizing that they are messages sent from the website of escorts.

With the heartbeat accelerating I open the messages seeing that two customers chose me, I did not think this would be so fast, so I click on the first conversation reading the name "Samuel Jackson” but before I read this Samuel guy’s messages, I click on his profile picture finding a man I presume is over 70, I frown and start reading the messages.

Samuel Jackson: I like you; can we meet tonight? I pay well to have you exclusively for me if you accept to meet me at the address...

Jesus!

I’m still new in town, but I know that this address is a motel near the city center, disgusted and almost giving up on it, erase the message of the old bastard who treated me as a call girl and focuses attention on the other sender called "Jacob S." Just Jacob? And what did that S mean?

Jacob S.:

Good evening, Miss, sorry for the unusual time in which I am sending you this message, but circumstances require urgency, I was looking for someone to accompany me at a social event in which my presence is indispensable.

I have analyzed your profile and I can say that you would be the perfect woman for such a purpose, I am looking forward to your answer, if you accept call me or send a message to my number so that I can clarify and arrange everything, I am waiting for you, Miss Freire...

I reread the message twice in a row with the number of a personal cell phone and click on the profile picture, but there is only one image of a tall man with his back in a suit with his hands in his pocket watching the landscape through a glass window that stretches across the floor.

At least he treated me well and in a formal way, which made me even more confused. Miss?

Who nowadays calls a woman Miss? Rich Americans often treat women like this? Or maybe he’s being polite.