7|Tempted

Plagued by worry for her brother and tempted by Emily's offer, sleep didn't come easy for Natalie that night.

She wriggled about in her bed for a while, trying to get into a comfortable position before giving up any illusions she had about getting a peaceful night's rest.

She sat up, turned on the light on her nightstand, and reached for her phone, her heart bleeding a little at the massive crack on the screen. She still had eighteen months of payments left on the contract, and now with Jamie's medical expenses, it would be a while before she could get it fixed.

The group chat with all her friends back home was dead. Nothing new in Sparrow Beach. No salacious gossip or groundbreaking scandals.

Disappointed, Natalie scrolled through the Hot Connexions App.

Only one of the eight 'connexion' suggestions was her type. Swiping left on her screen, she turned down the seven and focused all her attention on Lucas Southey.

Not his real name, of course.

They never used their real names.

But he ticked all her boxes. Blue eyes, black hair and muscles in all the right places, judging from the guns threatening to rip through his white t-shirt.

Lucas' only flaw was his location—a small fishing village with a name she couldn't pronounce—eight hundred kilometres away.

Natalie swiped left again, disappointed at the idea of giving up on him.

He could be her Mr Right. But she wasn't about to start breaking her own rules. Long-distance relationships were a huge no for her and her only reason for breaking off her four-month relationship with Casey Landon.

They'd dated on and off throughout high school and college, but it wasn't until six months ago that they decided to give their relationship a fair go. Then Jamie's health deteriorated, and she was forced to take the job at Chassis Studios just so she and her siblings could stay afloat.

In another life, and if they didn't have such shitty timing, she could see herself marrying Casey and living out their quiet, boring lives in Sparrow Beach with their 2.5 children and maybe three dogs because dogs were everything. It was a shame she wasn't allowed to keep one in her flat.

Gunshots popped off at the party in the building across, and terrified screams pierced the still night air. But Natalie wasn't fazed by any of it, and she continued swiping and tapping on her phone. It was the usual Tuesday morning drama. She got used to the chaos early on.

Beacon Hill was a horrible place to live, especially for a woman. Drugs, prostitution, gang shootouts—everything her sister had warned her about before she moved to the big bad city was right here, on one stop.

Rent was cheap, though; sometimes, when counting pennies, safety wasn't a priority.

Natalie found one of Emily's emails hidden among all the spam as she cleaned out all the Viagra and penis enlargement offers in her mailbox. She couldn't understand why it was there until she saw the link and remembered her friend mentioning something about a referral.

Heart thumping, palms sweaty, Natalie clicked the link, hating herself for being so weak and easily tempted. And all it took was the vague tagline—Dreams, the only place where everything is possible—to shake her principles and crumble her resolve.

The site's ambiguous-looking logo didn't give much away, and if Emily hadn't taken her on a post-login tour, Natalie wouldn't have known what business Dreams was in.

Promising herself she was only browsing and wouldn't actually do anything ridiculous like apply, she clicked the 'Contact Us' button.

Not even a minute later, though, she had already dived right in and done the one ridiculous thing she had just promised herself she wouldn't do and accessed the companion application form.

"Nothing wrong with testing the waters; it's not like they'll contact me, right?" she reasoned as she scanned their confidentiality disclaimer, assuring her they would treat her information with the utmost care and keep her sexy photos away from the internet.

She didn't know much about computers and all the cybersecurity stuff. But having her information stored on a secure server at an undisclosed location somewhere overseas sounded like a solid plan.

Natalie was almost sold on the whole thing, so she pushed her bedcover aside and padded to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee.

Since she couldn't sleep, she may as well get high on caffeine.

Her instant coffee warmed her up nice and good, and within minutes she was buzzing with excitement at the prospect of making bucketloads of money as she moved her mission from her phone to her laptop and pondered the series of questions Dreams urged her to answer truthfully.

Natalie didn't understand why and how the truth had anything to do with escorting. But she planned to comply, just in case the powers-that-be somehow figured out she was dishonest and declined her application.

The first question was simple enough.

Was she bored with her 9-to-5 life?

Honestly, she had nothing against a steady job. It paid her bills, and until yesterday had done a decent job of taking care of her siblings.

Did she crave adventure?

She didn't have a single adventurous bone in her body. But she'd be a fool to turn down luxurious dinner dates, overnight stays at the best hotels, weekend getaways at some of the fanciest resorts and all-expenses-paid overseas trips.

Did she want to maintain her affluent lifestyle?

What affluent lifestyle? Her lifestyle was way on the wrong end of the affluence scale, but she still couldn't maintain it.

The final question was the most pertinent and should have been the first, in Natalie's opinion. It addressed her only reason for visiting Dreams and entertaining the idea of becoming a companion.

Was she struggling financially and desperate for a supplementary income?

Yes. A thousand times, yes. Her Chassis salary was by far the highest she had ever earned. But after Amber's call and their little dilemma, it wasn't going to cut it anymore. It didn't help that she was still on probation and didn't qualify for company benefits like Medical Aid.

After completing the questionnaire and submitting all her answers as truthfully as possible, a second screen popped up, prompting her to complete her personal information. It was the usual standard stuff with a few intimate details, and Natalie reluctantly shared her measurements and uploaded her headshot.

The last part of her application was the hardest. She had to sell herself and tell Dreams why she deserved to be a companion of their world-class establishment.

"Ugh, I hate this!" Natalie grumbled as she played with the empty mug in her hands. This was the reason she hated job interviews. She could never come up with a single point to sell herself.

She left the application incomplete and went to her living room window, gazing at the dark sky and hoping for inspiration. But it didn't strike until a few hours later when she sat down for another cup of coffee before dashing off to catch the 6:00 AM bus to work. She always worked well under pressure.

Not stopping to think or second-guess herself, Natalie typed a lengthy motivation, highlighting all her dazzling qualities.

She didn't know how long ten seconds was until she hit 'submit' and waited for some response from Dreams.

She smiled and allowed herself to finally breathe when a 'Thank You' notification popped up on her screen from the recruitment department, promising to get back to her within 72 hours.