Chapter 95. Christmas Eve, Operation: To Kill A Mockingbird’s Love (7/8)

When she heard such an unexpected response, a playful smile formed on her lips as she asked, “Oh? Are you sure about that? Aren’t we all just a bunch of prostitutes selling our bodies for a specified amount of time to our employers in our everyday lives for some money?”

“Do you need me to read you the definition of a prostitute? There is no exchange of sexual activity required for our jobs. Hence, we are not prostitutes.”

“Did you already forget the lesson I just taught you? The woman is always right.” She said in a matter-of-fact manner.

“Haaaah. What an inconvenient and unreasonable rule to abide by.”

“Can you really say I’m not a prostitute though?”

“You’re not going to tell me your third job is being a prostitute, are you?”

“I’m not.”

“What is your last job then?”

“Hmmmmm… that’s a secret~ if you can figure it out on your own in the future, maybe I’ll give you a reward.”

“It’s nothing sexual though?”

“No, it isn’t. It’s a completely normal job.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief then said, “That’s a relief to hear.”

“Oh, would you be concerned if I was selling my body to random men?” She didn’t add in ‘I don’t know’ at the end. Likely aware of how mindful I was of the way sentences were worded, she’d been especially sure to not give me any sort of misunderstandings such as leaving the possibility open to her selling her body to men she did know. She was the type of woman who even paid close attention to such minor little nuances.

“Your daughter would be sad. I can’t see you doing anything your daughter would be sad about, so the thought of you working as a prostitute was never even something I considered.”

“That’s not an answer. Aren’t you just trying to skillfully dodge the question? Would you be concerned or not?” As usual, she was sharp. There was no escape in front of her.

As such, I conceded and gave her the answer she wanted, “Haaaah. Yes, I’d be concerned about you. Your safety. I wouldn’t want to see anything bad happen to you.”

“Hmmm. Not a bad answer, I suppose. I’ll only give you 5/10 because you didn’t give that answer first though.”

“What a harsh rating system.”

“It would have been 10/10 if you’d said it first~” She poked the side of my waist.

“Truly, a shame.”

“But… don’t you think my work as a hostess is basically the same as prostitution? I’m selling my time to men and many of them ogle my body. Those that do so are constantly looking at me as an object to fulfill their own sexual desires. There are many who I can only imagine go home and use that as material.”

“What does that have to do with you? So what if they look at you that way? Men do that for any sort of profession an attractive woman works in, not just yours. If it was as you say, every attractive woman who worked hard would be no more than a prostitute.”

“I… see. I suppose.”

“...” we sunk into silence for a while as she drove.

I looked over to the driver’s seat while she had her eyes on the road. It was faint, but I could notice a very faint blush on her right cheek. She’d done well to control her emotions, but there was just a small crack. It was tiny, but I could see it. I’d made just a little bit of progress on Rosa’s request.

“It seems like this round is my win, huh?”

“It… seems so.” She peeked at me from the corner of her eye.

“Please keep your eyes on the road, I’d be troubled if you were to get hurt in a car accident.”

“Be more concerned about yourself if we get in a car accident.”

“There would be no way I could think of my own safety first when a loving mother with two children is the one beside me in the driver seat.”

“Save your lines for your girlfriend. You’re going to run out at this rate.”

“I’m the type who quite enjoys reading. Such lines are a dime a dozen for someone like me. I have so many that I don’t even know what to do with them all.”

“At least act like they’re worth something, jerk. Is it fun playing with a woman’s heart like this?”

“Why do I keep getting asked this question? I’m also getting such false accusations planted on me more and more frequently lately.”

“Hmph! Women don’t like men who play dumb.”

“Coming from a woman who likes such a person, it’s not very convincing.”

“Don’t get cocky and make such a baseless assumption.”

“Would you kiss or have sex with a guy you didn’t like at all?” 

Checkmate.

“You… just had to go there. Not even willing to show a bit of mercy after ruthlessly pushing someone into a corner.”

“Haha. Mercy? Would you show me mercy?”

“What ever happened to going easy on women?”

“Aren’t you the very same person who said not to underestimate women?”

“Let me win one~ this isn’t fair~ I want to win too~ but I’m being bullied by a kid who’s using my own words against me~”

“Hahahaha. I’m quite petty, you know.”

“I know~ I know~ trust me, I definitely know~”

“Be honest, would you show me mercy?”

“Definitely not, I’d push you so far into a corner you’d be crying and begging me to stop teasing you if I was given such an opening.”

“Wow. How scary. I really need to be careful. A woman’s revenge is quite the scary thing.”

“Don’t blame me when you’re under me begging me to stop.” She mumbled that to herself quietly.

The way she worded that really did scare me.

“Hey, by the way, what are you planning to give your girlfriend for Christmas tomorrow?” Out of nowhere, I was suddenly asked that.

My jaw slackened and my eyes opened up a bit more than usual.

“It slipped my mind. I completely forgot that was a thing. Christmas has just been another day for me for quite some time. As someone without friends or family, I haven’t even had to think about such matters for quite some time now.” If I included my previous lifetime, that amounted to decades’ worth of Christmases.

“Aren’t you actually just the worst type of guy to forget about something like that~ Why does your girlfriend even like you?” She sounded strangely happy to take pleasure in my misfortune.

“I can’t even make an argument to counter.”

“Haaaah. Really now. Seeing the state of your place, I can only imagine. How about you just move in with my family like Rosa? Rather than giving the room you’re currently in to Rosa, it appears Rosa and Alicia are close enough to be sisters by this point and could even share a room. You can just stay in the room you’re currently using.”

“Should you really be making such an offer? What would you do if I actually accepted it?”

“If you accepted it, I’d be happy, but I can’t see you just obediently nodding your head and saying yes like a good boy.”

Honestly, if it wasn’t for Rosa’s request, I wouldn’t have even considered her offer.

“Out of your three jobs, which one do you earn the least from on a monthly basis?”

“Why are you asking me that all of a sudden?”

“Just answer the question, think of it as mere curiosity.”

“Hmm… for my third job, I work the least hours of the three and it also pays the least. Were you trying to claim the reward I promised you if you figured it out by narrowing down your options using how much I made from it monthly? Aren’t you sneaky?”

“How would I know that your third job paid the least? It’s just a coincidence that it turned out that way. But thank you for volunteering such information to me. It will be useful when I try to solve the mystery of your third job.”

“No fair~ stop getting lucky~ first you get in my pants and now this~”

I choked on my saliva and started coughing when I heard her say that.

“Can you please not make that type of joke? I’ll be troubled if someone were to hear that.”

“We’re inside my car, all alone, just the two of us. Who’s going to hear?”

“How would I know? Maybe your car is bugged or something. Your children could spy on you in secret without you ever knowing it.”

“Haha, that would be quite a bomb to go off if that ever happened.”

“Anyway, answer the question. How much?”

“Hmmm… well, after taxes, deductions, and whatnot, it’d be about $450 a month from that one. It’s really not that much compared to my other jobs. I only get about ten hours a week out of it. Two days of work. My other two are both full-time, forty hours a week.

Ninety hours a week! Kill me. Please just kill me now! Just imagining that sort of hell I thought death was a much better option. That was on average thirteen hours of work a day between each job for seven days a week and no days off. She didn’t always get home at 9:00 PM every day meaning her work schedule was quite tight. Start times and end times definitely varied from week to week or even day to day. She had to constantly be on top of her schedule.

I had anxiety just thinking about it. It was bad enough when I did 60 hour work weeks in my last life with my writing on the side.

This mother would kill herself working for her children at this rate.

“’ll accept just to be petty so what your expectations were of me will be wrong. Besides, seeing you happy might not be such a bad exchange. But… I’ll only accept willingly under one condition.”

“Oh! You’d actually accept?” She sounded genuinely surprised.

“You must quit your third job. That is my only condition.”