Posted on 2019.08.19
I had to get extra pages added to my passport when I renewed it last week. My latest Client likes to take me with him when he travels for work, since having a Companion with him for the social aspect of his business reduces the amount of questions asked, for both of us. I’m not asked much about myself, but when I am, I simply explain that I’m a “consultant”.
When I first met this client, he took me to dinner and explained his “ground rules”. He would book me five months in advance (if I agreed to it), and always with the destination planned.
We would fly separately and meet at our hotel. A few weeks before the trip, I would get a one-pager that would outline how many social activities I would need to be present for; anything outside of that was my time for myself. This little dossier lets me plan my outfits and my personal schedule. My commitments each trip usually work out to be four dinners, a few lunches, and at least one brunch, but I always make sure that he and I have an evening to ourselves on these trips. You can’t be all work and no play when you’re in some of the most beautiful places in the world.
I knew that first dinner was more of an “interview” based on the questions he asked. He knew that he could pay for my Companionship, but he wasn’t sure if that also guaranteed my discretion. He said to me he had business dealings that needed to remain private and when I replied “so do I”, he realized that our arrangement would work out well. This is why he and I both chose Cupid’s.
Being a travel Companion dates back to the days of the earliest Courtesans. Wives would need to stay home to tend to family and home, and anyone who travels extensively knows it’s not as glamorous as it seems to the people who only manage to get away for ten days a year. It can be lonely and filled with hours of aimless downtime. When I travel with a Client, I’m there to improve their travel experience. Not only do I try to plan a night of fun with my Client, but I will do my best to make sure they enjoy what their destination has to offer during the day. On those days, it’s a holiday for the both of us. When you’re focused on the big meetings that build up the accounts, you lose sight of the beautiful palm trees right outside your window. Of course people can always just hire a local tour guide, but that’s all they are; they won’t help to create a memory or have a moment.
My travels have taken me to Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Asia. I’m curious and I love to explore, which is another benefit of travelling with the right Companion. For a Client like this one, who only brings Companions along on his business trips, a Companion must be able to entertain themselves when the Client is busy and be available at a moment’s notice. Someone with their own agenda and their own expectations can complicate a trip unnecessarily and with everything that is already going on, you don’t need or want complications. A Companion is more than just eye candy. You’re going away on a trip – usually overseas – and spending a large amount of time with someone. You need to have more on both sides to make the trip worthwhile. Have you ever been witness to two people on an awkward first date? The kind of date where you can tell they met on an app, and now that they’re face to face, they don’t know what to say or do? Now imagine that kind of awkwardness, but only thousands of miles away.
I review the itinerary for my next trip. Doing so always gives me a little thrill – like I’m in a spy movie.I commit the details to memory so that they roll off the tongue in casual conversations – I know the names of wives and girlfriends, key details about his associates’ businesses, but not enough to make anyone feel uncomfortable. I start to pack outfits that will be appropriate for each event – including a gala, and plan a separate bag of outfits for my “holiday time”. It looks like this trip will allow me a few full days to myself before meeting my Client in the evening. I write out the travel tags for my luggage to be a hotel back home – another layer of discretion and privacy that makes a trip less complicated. This trip is actually the second time I’ll be meeting some of these associates and I’m looking forward to the visit. My Client’s hosts are very gracious and welcoming and are not judgemental; I think I met another Companion on my last trip, but…
It’s not like she’d ever tell.
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