Page 115 of Triggered By Love
“Sure,” the man said. “I’m Jaheem. Everyone says Jaheem give good time. I don’t cause trouble. No drugs. I’m clean.”
“Names?”
The man swung his long, lanky legs off the bunk bed and bent over, digging underneath. He opened a spiral bound notebook and tore off a sheet. On it, he scribbled several phone numbers.
“Don’t call the agency,” Jaheem says. “They take twenty percent both ways. That’s forty percent plus tax. I still owe them for the plane ticket and the clothes. They deduct everything, and I get nothing. I borrow for food.”
“Who are these guys?” Jason pointed to the numbers.
“Off book. Not through the agents.”
“They got names?”
“No names.” The man wouldn’t meet Jason’s gaze. “The party bookers might not pick up. You have to leave a message. Ask them if Jaheem cause any trouble. It’s the Americans who are bad, not me.”
“What kind of trouble do they cause?” Jason asked.
“Saying no. I never say no. Even dried up old ladies. No problem. Sandwich or oreo cookie. I do all.” The man wrote his own name and number. “You call me anytime.”
“Good to know, Jaheem. I’ll give you a call.” Jason pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and handed it to him.
“You want blow job now?”
“No, no, you keep that. Advance.”
The man put his hands together in a prayerful position and bowed, thanking him.
* * *
“Girlfriend, I’m onto it.”Kerry squealed as she flipped through the Manhattan Fashion Week program and the lookbook of the models. “Such good-looking people.”
“We have the world to choose from,” Avery said, taking printouts from her printer. “Here are the outfits they’re supposed to wear. Let’s match their pictures and then we can go to the warehouse and pick out the accessories. We’ll need to recreate all of these animal effects, especially the porcupine Mohawk I’m putting on Jason.”
“Hee, hee, hee.” Kerry giggled. “I can’t wait to meet this Jason. Sounds like he’s poked his barb under your skin all right.”
Avery giggled right back at her girlfriend. It was easier to pretend everything was hunky-dory than to admit how worried she was bringing Jason to the professor’s house. What was she thinking? He was looking forward to it because he thought of it as part of his investigation.
For his sake, she hoped the professor would back off once he found out Jason was a cop. Maybe he’d stop at stripping down to his boxers, a dance or two, and let it go.
Avery twirled a hawk feather. “I love going through all the bling and surprising myself.”
“I love shopping, even if it’s not for myself.” Kerry swept her long blond hair into a bun and rolled up her sleeves. She arranged the printout of the model photos with the printout of their outfits, taping them side by side and putting them into a scrapbook in the correct order.
“We can go to the warehouse after meeting the models at The Garden,” Avery said, checking each model off as they returned her text message. “First thing is to take attendance when we arrive and call any stragglers. We don’t have much time to walk them through the venue.”
The Garden was an expensive location, and booking even the one hour it took to set up, do the fashion show, and clean up was exorbitant, if it weren’t for Matt Swanson covering part of the cost.
She saw the call come in from Jason, but she was busy texting the models and setting up the walkthrough. She’d call him back later.
“You really got the football player to model for you?” Kerry stared at Matt’s glossy photo. “He’s a real looker. If I didn’t have Finn, I’d…”
“He’s definitely not as nice as Finn.”
“I saw how he dipped you on the sidewalk. Was that part of the act?” Kerry asked.
Avery didn’t want to admit she’d been surprised. “Yeah, we’re supposed to be dating, but I haven’t returned any of his calls.”
“Will he be at The Garden? What about the president’s daughter?” Kerry picked up the glamour shot of Diamante Steele.
