Saturday I went out to Andre’s shop, it had been about a month since I’d been there. In truth, for several months our relationship has been faltering. We’ve seen less of each other and looked for excuses not to see the other. Christmas was the worst I can remember, we argued on the way to Dad’s Christmas eve and on the way to his parents’ home on Christmas day. The week of 9, January, I needed to be in the US and our plans were to go early and borrow Rachel and Amy’s condo in Miami for a few days. He begged of saying he had too much to do.

As I looked around his shop I noticed the Moto Guzzi was missing and I asked him about it. “I sold it,” he replied. “When,” I asked, “before Christmas,” was his reply. This was fine, he acquired it for me, but our understanding that he could sell it, as I wasn’t interested in owning it. It was odd and telling, that he never mentioned putting it up for sale or selling it.

“Our relationship is over, isn’t it,” I asked. It was a subject that needed to be broached and one I had chosen to avoid. “Yes,” was his reply. Discussion was unnecessary, this was something we both wanted. I considered whether any of my belongings were at the shop, there weren’t and I told him that I’d send his things that were at my apartment. On the way back to the city I arranged for the locks to be changed.

This week I’ve been mourning the loss of the relationship and the what might have been, rather than Andre. He’s a nice guy and that makes it hard, he’s the kind of person that one could plan a life with. But we couldn’t.

Kim

Now and then I’ve been asked to describe typical day or week. The snippy reply is that there are no typical days, but in truth there are activities that regularly repeat. One thing that causes variability in my schedule is that I travel, a lot, just over a hundred nights last year. Most of my travel is within the EU, but I travel to the US every four to six weeks, mostly NY but also Atlanta and points beyond.

Typically I’m up between 5:30 and 6:00, after taking care of my immediate needs; I throw on my running gear and take Wags out to meet his. While he’s sniffing around for a spot to relieve himself, I stretch for my run. Since I was a little girl, I’ve started my day by doing ballet exercises, now using a railing as a barre, to these I’ve added some common runner’s stretching. When both Wags and I are ready, we begin our run, a loop of about 3-5K. By seven I’m back in my apartment for breakfast, which is usually coffee, fruit juice, toast, yogurt and fresh fruit. While eating, I check and reply to email, both personal and company. I can drive my employees crazy with the things I forward along and the questions that I inevitably ask.

By quarter to nine I’m out with Wags and heading for a neighborhood cafe for a cappuccino and to catch up on the neighborhood gossip. Most days I’m biking to the office which takes about fifteen minutes, Wags still rides in the basket as he did as a pup and still howls at the cars and pedestrians.

I arrive at the office about 9:30 and start the day with a quick meeting with Mimi, so that we’re in sync. After that I shut the door and get on the phone, chat, twitter, webex, email or whatever method I need to reach clients and importantly prospective clients. Around two, I go for lunch. Thursday lunches, I save to have with one or more of my employees. This is their time and the conversation varies, sometimes business and clients, other times, their professional goals or simply current events. Friday’s lunch kicks off my weekly planning meeting Mimi, where we focus on mid and longer range goals and objectives.

Lunches earlier in the week are with business contacts or possible contacts who are sometimes clients, vendors, periodically business allies and the occasional competitor. One lunch a week I try to reserve for meetings with job applicants. We receive many resumes and portfolios from individuals looking for either contract work or employment and each week I bring in one or two of the most interesting to talk, if they are potential contractors I’ll refer them to Mimi and if she agrees we’ll add them to the mix. Those who are looking for jobs, I’ll refer to companies where I believe that they would be a fit. I’ve collected a few chits that way.

Then it is back to the office for more meetings, around five I’ll slip out for happy hour noshing and then back to the office for conference calls with clients in the US or to pick up Wags and head home. Each week there are late night conference calls that I conduct at the office or from home. Thankfully, technology allows my office to be wherever I am with a computer. Then of course there is the bottomless inbox...

Kim

Around the holidays, I make an effort to call friends who I normally would keep track of via email and social networks. Its nice to hear their voices and to hear directly from them what is happening in their lives.

Today I called Irena and she was excited about the protests against Putin and the government of Russia. Most would consider her a Russian ex-pat living in Berlin, but she sees herself as more of an exile. It is not that she is afraid of traveling to Russia and she does from time to time. It is because of her business, pornography, she would be easy picking for the mafia and cleptocrats. Not that she is untouchable in Berlin, but she is too small for the mob to be bothered and the small time Russian hoodlums that would prey on her in Moscow, don’t operate freely in Germany.

“You want a country that is built on and respects the rule of law?” I asked her and after I explained what I meant, she enthusiastically said yes. For her getting rid of Putin is the place to start.

Kim

On Wednesday I looked at the calendar and realized that Christmas is Sunday. Yikes!

Happy holidays to all and see you in the new year.

Hugs,

Kim

The life plan that was finalized in my mind as we traveled through Russia, while at the same time that I worked on the business plan that was to become Kim & Co., featured quitting the escort racket. I had enough money to get by while the business grew, but when the relationship went asunder, I reconsidered, and on my return to Paris I took the On Vacation sign off my website and began soliciting appointments.

It was a good time to be an escort, the credit bubble was forming and the players had lots of money to spend, on luxuries, on women, on women as luxury baubles. It was a time I enjoyed, the life, the money. I invested my earnings and have done well, even considering the recession. Looking back, I know I would have burned out and likely crashed, if I hadn’t known that I had an alternative and would eventually quit, even I didn’t know when.

When I went independent, I had a small coterie of gentleman who I served. I decided that a good way to keep in touch with them and hopefully keeping their interest was a newsletter. Nothing fancy, delivered via email, an article that I’d write and a bunch of links to items of interest to men, rich men.

Cars, watches, cigars, yachts, wine etc., of course a link or an article on keeping a mistress or rental girl friends. Since one of the first clients of Kim & Co., was a automotive accessories manufacturer, I was on mailing lists for many PR departments. Embargoed information, particularly pictures sometimes made it in to my newsletter. One month I updated Helen Gurley Browns’ advice to gentleman on how to treat his mistress. That received a lot of comments. Each edition had a head and shoulders shot of me in the upper left and usually a couple of more pictures, out on the town. The newsletter was forwarded around and I received requests to add readers to the distribution list. Occasionally one would ask about Kim, which was my opportunity to suggest a rendezvous, with compensation of course.

During that time I would occasionally seek out possible clients in the wild, so to speak. Where do wealthy men go? Charity events, auctions, gallery openings, any place where I could meet someone, exchange business cards. Later I’d determine if they could afford me and I’d call them and suggest lunch, when I’d give them my pitch. At first I didn’t do this often, but by the time I decided to quit, it had become my predominant method for obtaining new clients as I’d stopped advertising and had shut down the website.

When I moved to London, I (mostly) took a sabbatical from escorting. When London turned sour, I returned to Paris and took a gentleman up on his persistent entreaties that I become his mistress. The money was good, coming as a monthly deposit in my account. But his company was an early casualty of the Great Recession and I became a luxury that he could no longer afford.

In 2009 I lowered my rates some, but refused to keep lowering them in order to maintain the same level of business. Needless to say demand was reduced, showing that the internet’s ability to turn any product or service into a commodity and exert downward price pressure is relentless. It is difficult to distinguish your service when the medium delivering your message turns it to mush. Thus I stepped up my stalking of rich men. Needless to say this was draining and has pretty much ruined any chance that I would marry wealthy Parisian. Not that I ever cared about that, but I do like options.

By the time Andre entered my life, I’d decided to let the escort business peter out. If someone called I would see him, but I had stopped looking for clients. Even though Andre knows of my past and said he was fine with my continuing, I knew that it would eventually bother him that I continued to be a whore. Relationships are complicated enough, no need to make them more difficult. So I quit.

If Andre was not in the picture and a former client suggested an assignation for old time’s sake, I would probably take him up on it. Or if a long term arrangement were to be offered, I’d consider it. But to return to being a full or part time gentleman’s companion with the advertising, recruitment and screening? No.


A note in clarification: Or perhaps a timeline. The trip to Russia and eastern Europe was the summer of 2005 and the sojourn to London was during the spring and early summer of 2007. From my return from Russia to the middle of 2008, I averaged 3-4 'dates' a month and then the number began to dwindle. In 2010, there were 4 dates with three men.

Kim

Maybe I'll be insulted

When I stop laughing.

Kim

Istanbul is fascinating. Not that I had a chance to explore. We stayed at an international chain hotel near the airport and the places that we had our meetings, could have been edge cities anywhere. But the travel to and from... I can’t wait till I can go back and I want to stay for a while.

Doha was, hmmm interesting. Its odd, this modern city that is seemingly populated by expatriates. Everyone we met and virtually everyone we saw, were foreigners. I’m interested in returning to Qatar also.

The Dubai meetings didn’t happen, their schedule wouldn’t allow it so we returned Friday. Fortunately my contacts will be in London next week, so we will meet there. Early in the week I came down with a bug, too many long days and the travel caught up with me.

I do have this unfulfilled wanderlust. I dream about wandering across the globe. Stopping and staying for awhile at places that I find interesting and then moving on. In an alternate life I guess. I made choices and now I’m living with them.

Kim