Twisted (23 page)

‘How’s it my fault now?’ she raises her voice. ‘You have sniffed your brains out and became a goner-junkie. Look at yourself in the mirror before you accuse anyone else! Besides …’ she returns to calm and sugary, ‘I know this client very well – he wouldn’t do anything like that. You probably agreed to it.’

‘Fuck you!’ I utter out loud.

‘Watch your language, Victoria. I am not going to tolerate you talking to me like this. Yes. I knew from day one you were “fine” to fuck without a condom. If the client requested someone with no complications, you were my first choice. No one forced you to be flexible, Victoria. You became that yourself! In fact, you should be grateful that I could give you a lot of work.’

‘Grateful?’ My throat is dry and itchy and I feel that I am losing my voice again, but I can’t stop and my yelling becomes hoarser, ‘For what, you fucking bitch, for my bleeding ass right now? Fuck you! Did you hear me? Fuck you!’ I say as my voice breaks down. I shut my cellphone and a wave of hot tears starts running down my face.

The driver pulls a bottle of water from nowhere and passes it to me, then gets a box of tissues from the glove compartment.

‘
Teşekkürler
,’ I thank him, and try to calm down.

As I walk into the apartment, angry Inna is pulling my clothes from the hangers and shelves and throwing them onto the floor, in the middle of the room.

It looks like my day is not going to get better …

‘What are you doing, Inna? Are you mad?’

She turns to me and stops for a moment. Her eyes are red with anger and I can see that she is pretty drunk.

‘You dirty slut! Aside from turning into a real junkie and bringing your shit to my place, you also sleep with me in one bed, after you fuck without condoms?’

‘What are you talking about?’ My voice sounds too weak. I have no energy to argue.

‘I spoke to Alexandra. She told me everything.’ Inna doesn’t calm down. ‘I want you out of my place! I don’t need a crack whore who will bring Aids and God knows what else to my place!’

‘No problem, girlfriend, I am out. Will fetch my stuff in a day or two. I will have to find a place to stay first … in the middle of the night.’

* * *

Hi my Poppy-seed!

How are you doing?

I have a hilarious story for you … I bet you will laugh yourself silly
!

There was a guy who Natalia trapped last night. As soon as she convinced him to spend some time with her in private, he quickly got drunk and started begging her to have sex. Natalia didn’t want to scare him away and wanted to make him buy more champagne, so she chose the storyline that she was madly attracted to him too and would have loved to fuck him right then but didn’t have any protection with her. The guy, after three hours and four bottles, got so frustrated that he asked Natalia to wait a moment and ran outside with the words, ‘I will find the condoms!’ Turned out that at the bus station across the road from the club there was a machine that sold rubbers. But then our boss arrived! He pulled into the club and headed inside as this drunken guy stormed out, bought a few condoms with shaking hands and raced back to Natalia.

She wound up facing two frustrated men and had to be very creative
. So she made the guy pay for another two bottles, because he had ‘got her in trouble’ and ‘had to make it up to her’ and then after she’d sent the drunk home, she had to listen to an hour-long lecture from the boss (of course, in French again
!) on how careful she must be, otherwise he could end up in jail on pimping charges.

We laughed half of the morning, just couldn’t stop
. I wish you were with us …

Okay
, I hope it was entertaining enough for you, my little baby. Waiting for your letters.

xxx

It’s 3 a.m. I hesitate, but dial Ali.

It takes him some time, but I hear his sleepy-surprised voice.

‘Hello?’

I start crying. The lump in my throat doesn’t let me say a word; I sob pitifully instead.

‘Julia? Is that you? What happened? Where are you?’ He sounds wide awake now, his voice becoming full of concern.

‘I had a fight with Inna.’ I can finally voice a few words. ‘She threw me out of her place in the middle of the night.’

‘Why? What happened?’

‘Nothing, actually. She is very drunk again. She was vicious for no reason. I think she already has the jimjams. She even attacked me with a knife!’

I lie. I cannot tell him the truth. And I need to make sure I come across as the good-girl victim, to gain as much sympathy as possible.

‘Allah-Allah! Is she crazy? Are you injured?’

‘No, I am fine – but I have nowhere to go …’ I fall silent and wait, listening to my heartbeat and hoping to hear the right answer.

‘Oh … sure, Jul, you can stay with me … Where are you now?’

I sigh with relief and smile into the phone.

‘I am actually downstairs… can you please call the concierge to let me in?’

‘Damn!’ Ali laughs. ‘You are quick! How did you know I would invite you?’ He sounds genuinely amused.

‘Despite your highly developed pragmatism, I always believed that you are an innate philanthropist and would never leave me on the street.’ I laugh, while still feeling the wetness on my cheeks.

‘Slow down, beautiful’, he giggles back. ‘It’s dangerous for my half-asleep brains to use those puzzling words, especially at 3 a.m.’ The sound of him delights, warms and comforts me like a down duvet on a winter’s day. ‘Come up, Jul. I will make us some coffee.’

The next few days are great. While Ali is at varsity, and I am officially fired, I spend the days killing time with some work around the apartment: cleaning, washing and cooking, watching TV, or simply browsing the web and checking my emails ...

I have no idea how long Ali will let me stay in his place or what I should do about my jobless situation, but it feels divine not to be expecting a phone call from Alexandra.

My evenings are dedicated only to one man, with whom I enjoy spending every second. We have fun no matter what we do: watching TV, eating take-aways, or mostly fucking like rabbits.

After a few days of recovery, I finally call Inna to ask when I can stop by to get my stuff. She sounds colder than Antarctica. ‘I have a client and am leaving in two hours. If you want to fetch your shit – which, by the way, I have packed already – make sure you get here before four.’ These are probably the last words we’ll ever speak to each other. An hour later, when I get to her place, she opens the door and pushes my two suitcases out without saying a word, making sure I don’t get a chance to walk in.

What a bitch!

On my way back Ali calls. ‘How is my beautiful girl doing?’

I love to hear his voice.

‘I will be home by eight. Put on something nice and sexy. We are going out for dinner.’

It’s a good thing I’ve got my dresses back. ‘Sure, baby,’ I murmur and we hang up after exchanging a few noisy kisses through the air.

The place turns out to be a super cool, trendy seafood eatery. We enjoy the meal and each other’s company to the fullest, adding to that a few sniffs in the bathroom for aperitif and dessert – which, of course, makes us feel like the world belongs to us.

When the waiter brings the cheque, Ali looks at his wallet and lifts his eyebrows.