Open All Hours

For a man in his mid-30’s, Randall wasn’t particularly unfit, nor was he an elite athlete, he considered himself to be in relatively good shape — after all, round is a shape.

His job in finance took up the majority of his time, leaving little left for the pleasures of life; food, conversation, relationships.

As a temporary way to bridge this gap, Randall used an escort service, named Open All Hours — everybody needs to feel love, even it’s just acting. He didn’t use the services for sex, just a few hours of a pretty young woman, pretending to find him attractive and hang off his every word.

This particular evening he pulled a card from his wallet, the card of the agency with the name and number, "Natasha" a new girl. A change is as good as a holiday, and he wouldn’t have time to take an actual holiday any time soon, so this would have to suffice.

Randall called the number as per usual, arranged a time and restaurant to meet, showered and got dressed. He wouldn’t describe himself as a "snappy" dresser, but he could scrub up decently when the occasion called.

He arrived at the restaurant early and had a glass of wine, while he waited for Natasha to arrive. She entered the restaurant and quickly found him, said “it’s lovely to meet you”, kissed him on the cheek, the usual niceties.

"So what business are you in?", asked Natasha - "Finance? what a coincidence, in fact I think I met you at a conference last year". Randall knew this was all part of the act and service he was paying for, and he had no complaints about that.

They continued to make idle chit-chat over dinner, until Natasha exclaimed, "oh my, look at the time, I’m sorry I should really get going, thank you for the company and lovely dinner" (code for “the hours you’ve paid for have expired”). She kissed him on the cheek and said “we should do this again sometime”, the standard client retention method.

Randall sat at the table for a while longer with his glass of wine, thinking about the day. He asked for the cheque, grabbed his wallet and motioned to leave. He took the Open All Hours card out of his pocket to put back in his wallet and noticed another card in the wallet sleeve.

He compared the two cards:
"Natasha
Open All Hours - Escort Services
041 678 9550"

"Natasha Lyons
Consultant
Tower Financial Services
041 678 9551"