Chapter 15: Date Night

            When Miss Gaillard stepped into the tiny room, all eyes were on her.  It worried them when she checked in on them; it was never a good sign.  She had always left it up to Lexi to get them ready. 

“Is there something wrong, Miss Gaillard?” Lexi questioned.  She was afraid of the answer.

            “I need to talk to Chris for a minute.”  Jade said motioning to the door.  Chris nervously glanced around the room and then headed into the hallway.  Before the door had even closed behind them, Chris turned to her. 

“Did I do something wrong?” He asked.  Jade pinned him between her and the wall, forcing him to look her in the eye.

            “You haven’t done anything wrong, yet.  I just wanted to let you know that you have a very important date tonight.” Jade explained.

            “M…me?  Why me, I am not the best at dates.” Chris stuttered.  Jade pulled away a little and slapped him across the face; she didn’t have time for his self doubt tonight.  She needed him bring his ‘A’ Game.

            “Well tonight, you are going to have to be the best damn boyfriend in the world.  This client is very important.  It’s her birthday and she called weeks ago to insure that you would be available to her for the entire night.  She flew all the way from New York to be with you, and you are going to give her whatever she wants.  This woman has more money than she has sense.  You need to make sure that she leaves here happy but a little poorer.” Jade explained. 

            Jade forcefully grabbed Chris’s crotch, causing him to yelp and gasp for air. “And I mean everything that she wants.” Jade repeated, applying a little more pressure.  Unable to speak Chris just nodded.  The fear of what she was asking him to do was building inside of him.  It was a lot of pressure.  “Give her a happy birthday.” Jade whispered.  She released him and then patted him on the cheek.  He flinched thinking that she was going to slap him again.  “And I brought you something to insure that everything goes well tonight.” Jade she pulled out a small bag with 5 tablets in it.

            Chris wanted to ask her what it was and protest but before he could she pushed him up against the wall again and jammed one of the tablets in his mouth.  With her hand over his mouth she held him in place until he swallowed it.  When it was over she just smiled at him and walked away, instructing him to give them to the others as well.

            When she was gone Chris threw his hands over his face and slid down the wall.  It had finally happened, the thing that Justin had been afraid of all along.  There was some one that could afford sexual favors from them and she was coming for Chris tonight.  That added with the fact that his master was now forcing him to takes drugs too, this night could get any worse.

            “Is everything alright?” Lexi asked snapping Chris away from his thoughts.  The concern must have been written all over his face.  It wasn’t that he hadn’t been with women in the past, but it had always been at his choosing, for all he knew this woman could be mean or not attractive to him.  Lexi had gone near the door, in an attempt to over hear what Jade had said to him and she had been able to hear most of it.

            It upset Lexi the way that Jade treated the guys, especially Chris.  Jade knew Chris was weaker than the others because of what he had already been through.  He was easier to push around but he was also the one that was most afraid of women and the political power that they had.  What had Jade been thinking treating him like that?

            “I am fine.” Chris sighed, trying to compose himself.    He lifted himself off the floor and headed back into their room to get ready for his date.  “I am just nervous.” He added as he passed Lexi.  She patted him on the back and followed him into the room.

            “It’s okay Chris, just be you.  You are an awesome guy and look at the positive side; it’s a birthday party so there might be cake.” Lexi beamed, flashing her best fake smile.  If there was one thing that she was sure of it was that all the guys were hungry so any chance for food was a good thing.  Chris grinned a little and nodded, his stomach rumbling a little as if it was in agreement with her as well.  Chris started to hand out the tablets Jade had given him but Lexi grabbed the bag from him.

            “Chris, where did you get these?” Lexi snapped.  Chris just softly responded.  After a quick count of the contents Lexi become concerned.  “Please tell me that you didn’t take one.”

            “She made me; I didn’t think that I had a choice.” Chris stuttered. 

            “Do you know what these are?” Lexi asked.  He just nodded, he was pretty sure that he knew what it was.  It was clear to Lexi that Chris didn’t want the drugs but he had been scared.  “Chris, I wouldn’t ask you to do this if it wasn’t important but I need you to go into that bathroom and make yourself throw up.  You can’t be on ecstasy tonight, not with this important party that you have.  Sadly I know what Jade was thinking, the high would get you through the night and you would do great.  It’s the crash that I am worried about.  These things are illegal for a reason.” Lexi snapped then shoved Chris toward the bathroom. 

            Lexi brushed her hair out of her face and groaned loudly this couldn’t be happening tonight.  JC could see that she was stressed and there was a part of him that wished she would give them the drugs, if nothing else to numb the pain.

            “You know that Jade will find out that we didn’t take them.  It’s not like we can fake being carefree and having all that energy.”  Justin said, though most of them were thinking.

            “It will be fine, I can take the blame.  I can’t keep pretending that I am okay with this.  If she tries to fire me I will just threaten to tell the police that she has illegal drugs.  Your’ not taking drugs and that is that.” Lexi snapped and then left the room, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do with the pills but she couldn’t leave them with the guys, it wasn’t that she didn’t trust them but they would do anything to keep Jade happy and keep her employed.  At least now if they got in trouble they could say that Lexi took them.

            The others were able to piece the conversation together and figure out what Jade had wanted with Chris.  They couldn’t be sure why Chris had been chosen and they didn’t know exactly what Chris had been asked to do, but this date was important to their master for some reason.

            They left Chris alone in the room while he waited for his date to show up.  The other guys all had early events to cover.  He sat on his cot chewing at his fingers; it had always been a nervous habit of his.  When he looked up and saw Jade in the door way, his breathing stopped, the fear he felt toward her retuned.  There was no telling what she would do to him.  Jade just motioned to him to follow her, his date was here.  He hoped that he didn’t smell like vomit and tried to prepare himself in case he hadn’t gotten all of the drugs out in time.

            The fact that Jade was taking him to the table herself didn’t sit well with Chris, she had never done that before.  It was always Lexi who escorted them to the places that they needed to be.  They were headed straight toward the VIP section, where else would a rich girl be?  As they stepped inside Chris remained behind his master as she made her own introductions to the group of girls.  Finally Chris felt her hand on his shoulder propelling him forward.  He stood there like a deer in headlights for a minute waiting for his date to identify herself.  If it hadn’t been for Jade, he might have never been able to pick her out of the crowd. 

            Chris smiled at her, trying to appear as calm as he could.  A few girls crawled out of the booth so that he could slide in next to the birthday girl.  He took a minute to look her over; she looked younger than he thought she would, perhaps an heiress of some sort.  Her bright blue eyes stood out well against her dark curls.

            He extended his hand to her.  Chris was never really sure how you were supposed to start these things off.  “Hi, I’m Chris Kirkpatrick.” He said, realizing that she had to already know that since she had requested him personally.  She just giggled and took his hand, shaking it firmly.

            “I am Isadora Sebastian.  It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” She said, before turning back to Jade who hadn’t left yet. 

            “Chris will take good care of you tonight.  Anything you want just ask him and if there is anything else that I can do to make your evening here more enjoyable, just let me know.  There will be a girl by a few times to collect Chris for his performances but other than that he is all yours tonight.” Jade explained.  She shook Isadora’s hand and then left.  Chris cringed inward as Jade offered up his services so willingly. 

            After she left Chris turned back to his date and just smiled at her, not sure what else to do or say.  He watched as she brought a strawberry to her mouth and bit into it.  Chris wasn’t sure what interested him more, the way she was eating it or the fruit it’s self.  He propped his chin up with his hand and unknowingly licked his lips. 

            Isadora was watching him out of the corner of her eye, god he was sexy.  He seemed thinner than she remembered but not much else had changed about him.  He was still the same guy from the posters that had once adorned her walls.  She turned to him and held up another strawberry. 

“Do you want one?” She asked sweetly.

            Chris just nodded and opened his mouth, letting the girl feed him the fruit.  She watched in awe as his lips closed around it and he slowly bit down, allowing her to remove the top and toss it back down on her plate.  His eyes slid shut and he moaned softly as the sweet taste hit his tongue.  It had been so long since he had something besides club food or frozen dinners.  This was heavenly.  He hadn’t meant it to seem so seductive but right now he craved food more than he did sex, so of course he was in to it.

            When he opened his eyes several women, including Isadora where staring at him.  He just smiled and chewed the fruit a little more before swallowing it.  Isadora finally snapped out of the trace he had put her in and got an empty plate from the center of the table.  She held it out and motioned to her friend to fill it with more fruit from the platter on the table.  Once loaded up she set it down in front of Chris, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to feed the singer herself any more, but rather she couldn’t handle the suggestive nature of his actions.   She was trying to be a good girl tonight.

            “Hey, thanks.” Chris beamed.  He sorted through the various pieces of fruit, not that he was as picky as he used to be, but he was just trying to decide what to eat first.  Then he carefully brought each piece to his mouth and slowly ate them.  After all he wanted to savor each one.  He fought back the urge to devour the whole plate in seconds and appear to be the starving man that he actually was. 

            Had he not been so interested in the plate in front of him he might have actually realized that Lexi had come by to check on him.  Lexi glanced at Isadora for a moment; the two exchanged a friendly smile as Lexi explained the 15 minutes in heaven raffle.  Of course Isadora had been the one to rent Chris for the evening, what better way to fault her money and her desire for him.

Once Lexi was done with explaining the raffle, she took a few drink orders before it became Isadora’s turn to place her order.  Isadora asked her, which of the guys she liked the most, Lexi said that she liked all the guys, but JC was really sweet.  She knew how much JC hated the raffle and she knew that if one of them won hopefully Isadora would instruct them to be nice.  The girls bought their tickets as Lexi tried to play up Chris, anything to make him sound great since she still needed Isadora to want him beyond tonight.

Isadora smiled and looked Lexi over, scanning her for recognition; after all they hadn’t seen each other in awhile.  “So I heard that the ‘N Sync performances here were really something to see.” Isadora said to confirm to Lexi that she was ready to play her part into tonight little performance. 

“Absolutely.  So what do you want to drink” Lexi asked, trying to keep it professional.  Isadora just laughed and ordered a cocktail.  She was trying to recall why the two of them had stopped talking to each other, what had their last big fight been about?

            “And whatever he wants.” Isadora added pointing at Chris, who was still oblivious to both of them. 

“Chris what do you want?” Lexi repeated a little louder.  Chris looked up at her and stared at her blankly, wanting for her to give him some indication of what the question might have been.  Lexi just lifted the tray to signal him, they had gotten pretty good at this silent communication system of theirs. 

            “Oh, just my usual.” Chris answered, which for him meant a virgin screw driver.  He needed the vitamins from the orange juice but not the booze.  Lexi had started switching a lot of the guys’ drinks for virgin ones when no one was looking, it was better for them and it was a victimless crime.  Jade would get her money and the guys wouldn’t pass out or throw up. 

            “You got it sweetie, and see I told you there would be food.” Lexi teased.  As Lexi left Chris realized right away the angry glare of his master, even from a distance she looked scary.  He knew that he was neglecting his date in his quest for food.  He jammed another piece in his mouth before putting his arm along the back of the bench and sliding closer to his date, all the while keeping his eyes fixed on Jade.  He hoped her expression would soften when he was doing better.

            Isadora and some of the other girls were busy filling out their raffle tickets.   Chris was close enough now to noticed that Isadora was putting ‘Lexi Ackart’ on her tickets, and he was pretty sure that was Lexi’s last name.  He didn’t say anything but he knew there had to be a connection between the two of them.  Something was going on and Chris wasn’t sure if he liked it.  He fought back the panicky feeling that was bubbling up inside of him.  There just wasn’t time to worry about that when there was so much on the line; if he messed up tonight Jade would kill him.

            He turned to her and smiled again, still chewing his food but trying to be cute about it.  “So…” Chris started to say but then stopped to swallow his food. “Tell me about yourself?”  Isadora smiled, she knew that he really didn’t care to know about her but she humored him any way. 

            “Well my name is Isadora.  I am 26; I’ll be 27 in a few days.  I own my own company.  I have a restaurant chain and a clothing line.” She explained, giving him the basics on her fabulous life.  Chris was impressed for someone so young she seemed very well off. 

            “I had a clothing line once, it didn’t go so well.” Chris stated, slipping another piece into his mouth.  His eyes were fixed on her, trying to give her his full attention. 

            “Yeah, I know you did.  I actually liked your stuff.  Hey, I brought you something.  You don’t think your boss would mind if I gave you a present, do you?” Isadora asked.  Chris raised an eye brow at her; he certainly didn’t think of Jade as his boss, slave driver was more like it.

            “No are you kidding, Miss Gaillard loves free stuff.” Chris said, glancing around to see if Jade was nearby.  He watched Isadora fish something out of her massive purse.  She handed him a bag and turned to face him.  There was a twinkle in her eye as he started to open it.  He wasn’t sure the policy on getting gifts but he didn’t have the heart to tell her no.  And Jade did say to do whatever Isadora wanted him to do and right now she really wanted him to open this gift.

            Chris pulled the t-shirt out and held it up to get a better look at it.  It looked like something he would have picked out for himself and it appeared to be the right size for him.  She must have had a good eye to have gotten it all right.  He set it down in his lap and ran his hand over the soft fabric.  It was a nice shirt and he wondered if Jade would let him keep it.  He wouldn’t put it past her to take it away from him and replace it with something cheap.

            “This is great, I love it.  But it’s your birthday party and I didn’t get you anything.” Chris said folding the shirt up and placing it back into its bag. 

            “I am glad you like it, it’s part of our new men’s line that we are launching after the 1st of the year.  I am really excited about it.  Right now we just do women’s clothing.” She explained, though she was sure Chris didn’t care.  “And if you want do something great for me for my birthday, when the cake gets here, you can sing to me.”

            “I wouldn’t want your friends to feel left out.” Chris joked.

            “Please, have you heard them sing?  Trust me you would be doing us all a favor, if you just did a solo.” Isadora joked.  A few of the girls around the table laughed and agreed with her.  Out of all the things Chris thought he was going to have to do tonight singing scared him the least, singing was something he knew he was good at.  But Jade’s warning was still in the back of his mind, what if she wanted something else from him as well tonight?