The Sound Of Love

“Well, they don’t disrespect me,” said Chantal. “I mean, they just call and get what they want and cut the call. It’s what I do. I mean, I rather liked it when you asked if you could have a conversation with me. It made me feel important, you know? It made me feel like I was more than just an object to you, more than just a person that you could get off to. It made me feel like an actual person.”

“So the people that call you make you feel like you’re just an object,” said Michael. “I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s over the phone, after all. It makes it a lot easier for them to be able to disconnect and not see you as an actual person. Something tells me that that is what attracts them to this as well. It’s a lot less complex, a lot less messy. All they really have to do is dial a number and talk to a woman that knows that her job is to get them off. It’s a lot simpler than getting an actual prostitute. I am not at all surprised that so many rich men would go for this. I mean, I didn’t really think about it before now but now that you have told me this I find that I am actually not surprised. I spend quite a lot of time with these rich men and calling a phone s*x service to get off without having to deal with an actual person seems like something they would do.”

“You sound different, though,” said Chantal. “Why did you call our service? You’re clearly not in the mood to get off otherwise that would’ve been the only thing that you would talk about. You wanted to talk and that makes me realize that you actually want to have a conversation maybe. But then again, you seemed rather hesitant when I answered the phone. I’m just curious. Why did you call the phone s*x service if you didn’t want to get off?”

Michael was quiet for a moment. He sighed and then said, “I’d rather not have to explain that. I mean, I don’t really mind explaining it, it’s just that… it’s a very long story with a lot of complicated twists and turns and I’d rather utilize this phone call to distract myself from it because it has been all I’ve been thinking about for quite a while now.”

“Alright,” said Chantal. “That’s perfectly fine. Like I said, you don’t have to talk about anything that you don’t want to talk about. You don’t have to explain anything that you might be uncomfortable explaining. Let’s talk about something else. Anything at all. What would you like to talk about?”

“Can you tell me about yourself?” asked Michael. “I mean, I told you what I do. How about you tell me about what you do? Do you do anything apart from this job or is this your sole profession?”

“No,” said Chantal, “it’s not my sole profession. I work part time as a waitress as well. I mean, this job is great, it allows me to earn a great deal of money. I am able to support myself completely. The only problem is that I am sometimes left without any extra cash. Sometimes I want to just go out and splurge, I want to enjoy myself and not have to worry about how much money I have in my pocket. In order to do that I just go out and do a shift at this diner. The pay is not bad, actually, and I get tips as well. The combined income of my two jobs allows me to live quite a good life.”

“That’s quite inspiring,” said Michael. “You’re a hard worker. I really like that about you. I mean, I don’t think that lazy people are in any way lesser than I am it’s just that I worked really hard for all that I have, you know? I’m a black man so I had to face quite a bit of hardship in my attempts to get where I am right now, all because of the color of my skin.

“You sound black from your voice, and since you’re a black woman you probably face a lot more prejudice than even I have in my life. After all, you belong to two separate disenfranchised communities. You belong to the black community, who have always been persecuted, and you are also a woman, and I am well aware of the struggles that women face on a day to day basis. I really respect you because you work so hard and you don’t seem like the kind of person that complains a lot.”

Chantal laughed and said, “How would you know? You only just started talking to me.”

“I know because I’m a very good judge of character,” said Michael. “I can always tell how a person really is. I can always tell what they are really like. It is a very important skill to have if you want to succeed in the world of business, because a lot of people will come along and try to trick you and scam you in some way. They will all try to make you see a personality that is not truly their own. They will all try to make it seem like they are a certain way when they are actually not. Hence, I learned how to separate fact from fiction. I learned how to figure out if the person that they are pretending to be is the person that they really are. Hence, I can say fairly safely that I know what kind of person you are to some extent. I know that you are not the kind of person who would whine or complain a lot.”

“Well you’re right,” said Chantal. “I am not the kind of person that complains a lot. I’ve learned that it doesn’t really make a difference at the end of the day. I just figured that the time I would waste complaining would be better spent trying to figure out a solution to the problem that I happen to be facing in that moment, you know? I just don’t think that complaining does any good.”

“I respect that,” said Michael. “So apart from your work as a phone s*x provider and waitressing what else do you do? What do you enjoy doing?”

“I really like music,” said Chantal. “I could just lie in my bed and listen to music all day, in fact. Listening to music is by far one of my favorite things to do. It’s so comforting, so calming. It makes me feel like everything is going to be okay, you know?”

“I feel the same way,” said Michael. “Music is my escape. It is a very healthy escape and I tend to favor it over alcohol or cigarettes, both of which I am trying to cut down on a lot. What kind of music do you like?”

“Well one of my favorite musicians is someone you have probably never heard of,” said Chantal. “He’s a blues musician from the thirties named Robert Johnson.”

“Robert Johnson!” said Michael. “I have definitely heard of him, in fact he is one of my favorite musicians as well!”