June 1 – 11:23 pm

"Hi, my name is Cali, what's yours?"

"It's G-man."

G-man? You sound a little drunk. I'm glad you called back. Once again, I have to inform you that this phone call is being recorded until we get the terms out of the way. It will cost you – "

"Yeah, yeah -- $3.95 a minute. I'm hitting the star button."

She heard the button. Normally, she loved drunks, even though they were harder to get off. They stayed on the phone for a long time and ran up a bill. But, she wasn't sure about G. "G are you sure you want to talk tonight? Maybe you should think about going to bed."

"Why, I'll just be alone…me and my hand. "

"G, what happened?"

"I was doggin this coed tonight and she was sending out all the signals when I realized she was probably a virgin."

"Oh and you had sex?"

"No, that's just it. I didn't."

Maia started to giggle. "You had a flash of consciousness?"

"Do you have to hurt my feelings? Ugh, I guess I did, but I could have tapped that."

"Ewww, aren't you the man? Yeah you could have, but you did the right thing. Sex for you is just sex. For her, the first time is going to be a memory she has all her life. It should be with someone she knows and trusts, not a one night stand."

"Oh God, you're so pathetically romantic. She's going to get her cherry popped, bleed a little, hurt a little, hardly something she'll want to remember."

"We all remember our first one…even you. Who was she?"

There was a snort and a pause. He finally laughed, "Cheryl Gideon. Not the hottest in school, but definitely the fastest, unless you count me when I was on top of her." He lay back against the wood headboard and chuckled, "She had these itsby-bitsy titties. I don't know how I managed to get my mouth over her nipples, because I'm pretty sure they were inverted. Didn't matter. I was seventeen and would have jumped Rosie O'Donnell just to pop my cherry. I was tired of lying about it to my friends."

Maia tried hard not to laugh, but it finally leaked out like toothpaste under pressure and she couldn't stop.

"Hey, I'm paying for you to talk, not laugh at me."

"Speaking of paying, are you ready for a little one on one?"

"I tell you what, you tell me about your first time. Maybe that will suffice."

She stopped laughing and took a deep breath, "Oh, it's boring. You don't want to hear that."

"Come on, I'm a paying customer."

She shook her head to herself, "I was sixteen and a prude. I went to a party with my girlfriends and was suppose to be the designated driver. It was at a frat party off of Nassau in Princeton. My friends teased me constantly and, after a fight with one of them, I had my first Long Island Ice Tea and my second and my third. I woke up with a guy in one of the bedrooms the next day. I was sore between my legs and there was a little blood on my thigh. He was watching me wake up. I started crying. He apologized to me profusely, saying that I seemed to be very willing the night before. His name was Richard Byrd. He was so gentle with me that morning, taking care of me, bringing me breakfast in bed, that I'll be forever grateful. So, although I don't remember the first time, I remember the first guy. He and I dated for two years after that."

"Getting a girl drunk gets you laid eight out of ten times. He was just being smart."

"I don't think so. It was his first time too.'

"Yeah, that's what he told you, because you wanted to hear it."

"No, his previous girlfriend told me she had been willing, but he thought they were too young." Maia propped up some pillows on the couch behind her, "I have a feeling that you were either a God in High School or the Stoner Loner."

House poured a whiskey. "Stoner Loner in high school. Most of my friends were in college. I was in a rock band with four guys who were in college. I didn't spend much time with people my own age. They bored me. I bet you were a cheerleader."

Maia started laughing, "You must be joking. With my mouth? I was just the opposite, the girl everyone made fun of." Maia realized that she had been talking tonight about herself again and not sticking to the usual biography she had made up for Cali. Cali had been a cheerleader and very popular in high school.

House was suspicious, "I have a hard time believing that the woman in the picture wasn't a popular cheerleader in high school." He paused, sitting back in his chair with his legs up, "What do you really look like?"

Maia felt strange. Her heart raced and her palms went clammy. "I'm brunette, twenty-three years old, 5'7" with brown eyes. You've seen the pictures."

"Yeah, now I'm asking what you look like."

"I look like the photo in the magazine except that I'm a year older."

House realized that she wasn't going to come out of character for him so he switched gears, "Cali, what are you wearing?"

Maia smiled to herself, looking down at her bunny shaped slippers and her pink dotted flannel pajamas, "I have on a red satin teddy with black Spanish lace on the edge and around my breasts. It has thin black straps, but they're hidden under my matching robe. I have on little black slippers to keep my feet warm. My breasts are barely covered by the teddy and the bottom is a French cut, showing off my nice firm thighs. What do you have on?"

House looked down at his t-shirt and jeans, "Just my boxers with the little piggies on them."

"What if I stick my warm hand inside the little flap and take your temperature?"

"Why don't you come over and do that? I'd pay you what I pay the other escorts."

Maia had no intention of going over, but she was curious, "What do you pay them?"

"$300 if they talk, $400 if they shut up."

Maia started giggling. "So you'd give me $400 to shut up and screw you?"

House sat up quickly, the alcohol going straight to his brain. His voice was slurred, "No, no…I'd pay you to just come over. If you wanted to put your hands in my boxers, I'd pay you the extra hundred. "

Maia was confused, "You mean you'll pay me $300 to just come over and talk to you?"

"Yeah, hell why not? It'd be nice to look at something pretty."

She quickly realized that he was inviting Cali (Jennifer in real life), the beautiful young woman over, not her. "You know G, I can't do that. You sound nice, but I don't really know you, do I?"

"Cali, you can't get to know me unless you meet me?"

"You know G., I hate it when people are drunk and still logical. When I get drunk, my brain cells take a vacation. Still, I can't come over.Are you married?"

"Would I be asking you over if I was married?"

"Yes, if your wife was away.'

There was a pause, "Okay, touché. No, I'm not married and have no girlfriend."

"Why not? You're obviously straight."

"I've had a crappy few years. My last girlfriend crippled me, literally."

Maia's stomach tightened. She frequently had customers who were paralyzed call her. They seemed to enjoy phone sex. "G, I didn't know you were paralyzed, I would have given you a fantasy tailored to your needs."

He started laughing, "Tailored to my needs? I just need to get my rocks off. Besides, I've got a bum leg, I walk with a cane, not cruise in a wheelchair."

"Oh, I see. What did she do to you?"

"Oh, God. You know, this is an old story. I'm kind of bored with it. It doesn't have a happy ending."

"Not yet. You still have a little life left in you."

"How would you know?"

"I have a feeling you're the kind that doesn't go down without a fight. Now, do you want a fantasy?"

"Wait a minute. First tell me why you do this?"

She laughed, "So I can meet a lot of nice guys." She giggled again, "I do it for the money. I need to make a living."

"Does this pay your tuition and your living expenses?"

Once again Maia had to remind herself that she was Cali. Why do I keep slipping into my own life with this guy…I've got to stick to the script. "Yes, it does."

"Cali, do you enjoy doing this?"

It depends on the man. "What would you have me say?"

"I would have you say that you despise doing it, except when I call."

She smiled to herself, "Oh G. I hate this life of shame, except of course when it's you shaming me."

He smiled to himself, "That's more like it. Now why don't you get your long brown legs over here."

Maia scratched her head and looked down at her white, Irish feet. "These long, brown legs have to stay here in case other needy cripples call. Wouldn't want them to think I was playing favorites."

"Well, I think I've drunk myself into a deep stupor, so I better get going."

"Okay G, it really was nice talking to you."

His voice softened, "You too."

"Goodnight."

House sat up straight, "Hey, by the way…"

"Yes?"

"You owe me two fantasies next time."

"Deal. Good night sweet prince." Why did I say that?

"My heart is ever at your service."

Maia swallowed hard. I know he's replying to Shakespeare with Shakespeare, but what a strange verse to quote? "Goodnight G."

"Goodnight Cali."

End June 2 – 12:58 am. 1 hour 35 minutes.

Maia looked out the window and wondered where G-man lived. It had been raining hard; the windows were streaming with rivulets of water. It seemed odd that G-man could be her next door neighbor (hardly) or sitting in a room hundreds of miles away. He sounded so lonely, almost as lonely as she felt. Her mind tried to imagine what he looked like. She decided to go with short, roly-poly and buck teeth, just so she wouldn't be disappointed if by some strange coincidence they met. Maia heard a gunshot somewhere in the neighborhood along with several dogs barking. It brought her back to the present. She looked out, saw nothing, turned off the light and went to bed.