He chose Xi even though he had to wait a while because she was popular.From then on he’d get there early a couple times a week to get her more fresh... Unlike the cheaper, lower-class whore houses where the girls were expected to have 30-40 clients a day, these were limited to ten or so, depending on the time spent with each. Since he could speak the language he learned about her contract. Her family was very poor and would send their daughters out to earn money. She had only been there a couple. As I reached the counter, “Hi, we would like to book a room for 2 please,” I requested the receptionist.“For how many nights?” he asked.“Just for tonight. We will checkout in the morning. My friend is so tired that he can’t drive through the night.” I lied.“Please fill your details in the register,” he said.As I was filling in all the details in the register, Kabir walked from behind me, lifted my dress and slapped hard on my butt.“So? How much is he asking for?” Kabir asked me.I looked at him. It wasn’t all that different from my home dojo, except that I didn’t know the students’ strengths and weaknesses. That meant I had to pay extra close attention to things I normally didn’t have to worry about. I also had to be very careful of the three twelve-year-old girls who spent the entire class batting their eyelashes, ‘accidentally’ touching my arm, and flipping their hair. I’d seen the warning signs before, so I made sure I kept everything businesslike, even with the older students who. It was quiet except for the gentle lap of the surf. The stars hung like brilliant diamonds in the sky. It was summer and so I looked for Venus following my line of sight to the moon. Matthew had taught me a lot about the stars. He was an avid amateur astronomer. Many nights in previous years he would call me from the lake and would describe in detail constellations and what they meant. I would listen to him for hours fascinated more by his knowledge than in what he was telling me. Some of it.