It is day 8 of A March of Marys. This is another “long” chapter (meaning it’s more than a thousand words lol) so I’m splitting it into two. You’ll be able to read the second part tomorrow!
So I just realized I’ve been working with an older version of the manuscript which means at least one of the chapters I’ve shared is missing several passages, and a few chapters have been skipped entirely. Ooops. I’m going to fix that next week. In the meantime, please enjoy this chapter with some X-rated elements. If that’s not your thing, or if you’re a member of my immediate family, please feel free to skip this one. Please skip this one, dad.
I hope you’re enjoying these daily inbox gifts. Check out the previous posts in this serialization here.
Thank you again for checking out talk about it. If you enjoy my work, the best way to support me is to share my posts on your socials or directly with a friend. And if you aren’t already subscribed, you can start now by entering your email below. My posts are always free and public because I appreciate you for being here!
▲
I’m smoking the cheapest cigarettes wawa has like USA 100s after switching from reds to winstons because I need to pay rent. I decide to audition to be a telephone actress.
I got fired from my cashier job because I was more than five minutes late for the third time in the span of six months. I hate looking for jobs but I need money and there are always ads for this job in the back of the city paper and I know I can do this. The audition process is kooky like we’re all lined up sitting in folding chairs and performing on the spot but it is kind of fun and I get the job after reading two scripts in the voice of different characters. It was super easy for me to pretend to be a valley girl. Doing the dominatrix bit was more difficult but I liked the part about calmly sternly giving commands and surprised myself.
*
Chit chat– ego strokes, input, questioning and responding accordingly, don’t ask permission, sincere compliment to the caller to make them feel good about themselves.
Your voice is really sexy, deep and smooth.
That’s my favorite name for a man, and you sound really handsome.
So you work on cars. That’s good because I want you to give me a tune-up.
You’re lonely and I’m so glad you called because I was feeling pretty lonely too.
<<I had a lot of fun this weekend. I went out with my girlfriends to this barbeque that our friend Christina was having. We all had a few drinks and watched the fireworks. And then I got a little crazy and started a pillow fight. It was really fun and my friend Rachel and I started kissing. Have you ever watched two hot girls kiss before. What did you do this weekend.>>
<<When was the last time a pretty girl told you that you are so charming.>>
<<Did you meet anyone interesting.>>
*
I think people have a lot of misconceptions when it comes to phone sex and phone sex workers. Like they have no idea who they’re talking to when they pay for a phone sex call. We are not all hot college girls or horny housewives who need to get off as many times a day as possible with random strangers over the phone. Like I’m sure there are people out there like that, like they would do phone sex as an occupation even if they weren’t getting paid to do it, but I don’t know anyone like that.
We are working in a call center. We treat it like any other job, like being a cashier at a grocery store. The hours are somewhat flexible and the pay is pretty good, with bonus cash if you get repeat callers.
After the two hour orientation in a classroom in the call center with a chalk board and group desks like they have in college we gather and joke about all the characters we have to learn, smoking and standing outside by the front doors of the building, security cameras over our heads watching us.
*
Ways to make money
request call$
[hot movies & flat rate calls 5 - 7 minutes]
bonus dollars points above average
120 hrs/month 3 pt = $150
120 hrs/month 2 pt = $100
60 hrs/month 3 pt = $75
60 hrs/month 2 pt = $50
performance rate increase (PRI)
If you maintain shift average for the month, you get 40 cents for each hour of work.
*
'They really want us to pretend to be Asian.' a girl with a pink bow in her says.
I light another cigarette.
'I know,' I say, looking up at her. 'I’m not sure how to deal with that if that request comes up.'
'I don’t want to do a fake accent.' She is six foot plus and quietly smiling at me. 'I’m not trying to sound like Jackie Chan, and like, that’s what it would sound like.'
'Some people might find that sexy,' I say, laughing.
'I guess we’ll find out.'
Rebekah has that type of personality I am always attracted to, shy like she has a secret and I know we will become fast friends. I had noticed her in the back of the room when I first walked into orientation and felt her looking at me and I looked up and she smiled at me.
We assign ourselves to the same shift and after work she offers me a ride home. We’re in her car talking about the job nervously and asking each other questions to practice how we will answer and I take out my pack of backwoods. I ask Rebekah if she smokes. She nods, smiling slightly, so when we get back to my house on 12th street we go upstairs to roll a blunt in my room.
Neither of us are sure about the job but we both need the money.
Rebekah tells me that she works as a nutritionist and child care assistant at a drug rehab center and mentions that most of the people who work there are also on drugs. She has a little yellow bag.
She looks at me, offering.
'Thanks, sure,' I say. I take a little and add it to the blunt.
We sit on my bed and watch a Brian de Palma movie on my laptop. I think it was Scarface but it could have been Body Double although I’m thinking about it now and it was definitely Scarface because before the second half of the film Rebekah gets up and says she should go home, something about picking up her brother from work.
*
A few weeks later we’re getting coffee and sharing a cigarette before clocking in and I say I want to start selling.
Rebekah raises her eyebrows.
'We can do it together,' she says.
‘That’s even better.’
‘I’ll call Bernard on my break,’ she says. ‘He can hook it up.’
I picture us cruising down Roosevelt Boulevard, Rebekah driving of course, and me in the passenger seat on the phone taking orders. Reliable shotgun, I think. Independent business women, I think. No more pretending over the phone. Just business.
*
Have you ever had a sexual encounter in a car. <<Yes, in the front seat and the back. Road head is great, whether I’m giving or receiving.>>
Cut/Uncut. <<I love all cocks.>>
Tattoos. <<I have a lot of tattoos, but mostly in places where you have to get me naked to see them.>>
Thongs or panties. <<Little panties, or I go without underwear altogether.>>
What’s the kinkiest thing you’ve ever done. <<I didn’t have enough money to pay rent one month, so I sucked my landlord’s cock while his wife licked my asshole.>>
*
‘I made extra money today,’ I say in Rebekah’s car, driving over to Bernard’s house. ‘This guy called and just wanted to recite poetry to me. And then at the end of the time limit he got my call code and called right back.’
‘What kind of poems.’
‘I dunno, just stuff he was making up on the spot. Something about a horse with red hair. He told me he was giving himself a vodka enema.’
Rebekah makes a face. ‘That is nasty. But guess what. I had to be Asian today.’
‘Aw fuck. How did it go.’
Rebekah speaks quietly and slowly in monosyllables with a slight accent, ‘Well, I was mostly quiet and just tried to be cute.’
‘Did it work.’
‘He asked me if I was Black.’
‘I think that is seriously the worst call. I can’t believe it’s an option.’
‘I know, right. But then right after, I got an ‘African-American request’ call.’
‘Was it a white guy,’ I say.
‘Yeah, and he asked me if I smoked weed, and I said no, and then he said I was lying.’
‘What a piece of shit.’
‘But I calmed him down and told him about my bouncing double Ds and he switched up real quick.’
*
Do not ask permission questions.
Don’t ask — do you want to know how I look. Instead say, <<Let me describe myself…>>
Let me tell you what I look like:
<<Well I have chin length strawberry blonde hair. I used to wear it longer but it kept getting in my eyes. I’m 5 feet 4 inches tall and I weigh 105 pounds. I’m a size 34 B, but it’s okay because I’m only 18. I have long legs and I’m on the track team so I can run really fast.>>
The art of controlling a conversation. The art of assessing. Assertion.
No personal questions (are you married, work, home life, calling from, what they look like, age, big penis) unless they prompt you, use the lingo they use. Hot girls are never bored.
…
To be continued.
Missed yesterday’s post? You can read it here.