it's quiet company //OPEN

Jessica was sure that everyone had begun to move past her without caring that she had fallen. That was Ministry workers for you. They were so caught up in their own little important worlds that a fallen woman was not a priority for them. Let her figure it out for herself, they probably thought. She went to whisper profanities but instead she found herself just thinking them instead. As she was about to pull herself back up, she noticed a hand there. She followed the line from the hand to the face and relaxed a bit. Well of course Maxim would stop. Although she didn't know him that well, she knew that she was sort of quiet, but yet to her he seemed like the polite sort. She could have been way off, she didn't know. She tended to just make assumptions about people. Usually she was right, sometimes she was wrong. 

Jessica liked the sound of his voice. It just sounded so ... manly. She almost laughed at her own girlish thought. She thought it somewhat funny that he told her she fell. She was very aware of that fact. Jess accepted his hand gratefully and pulled herself up. She worried that maybe one of her heels had broken, but when she bent down to put her shoes back on properly they were both intact. It was the benefit of buying more expensive - the quality of the product was usually much better. She felt a twinge of pain in her ankle, but it wasn't something that she couldn't deal with.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you. Just a bit of a twisted ankle, but I guess that's the hazards of wearing ridiculous shoes,"  she said to him with a warm smile. She instinctively met his eyes - it was something she had taught herself to do. When you met with a client and looked down, you tended to seem like you were self-conscious or didn't want to be there, or worse yet, found the client unattractive. They were all things she had learned with her nearly-decade of work, and sometimes it slipped into her overall personality. "I guess the biggest hazard is being within the Ministry itself. Everyone just runs off and - "  she stopped herself from beginning to rant and shook her head lightly. "I suppose they're all just busy. Can't blame them, I suppose." 

She hadn't always been so good at stopping herself from ranting. When she was younger she tended to rant a little too much. It wasn't that Jess was an angry teenager (even though she had every right to be), it was just that she thought venting was a good way of getting things off your chest. Some people disagreed and thought she was miserable even though she tended to not use a miserable voice when she spoke. Not that she could communicate well with her peers when she was younger at Beauxbatons, or even earlier, Durmstrang. Foreign languages hadn't been her strong suit and so she tended to not do so well with school work or communicating with others. Unless she found the few students who spoke English, she was usually just with her foster family and sister. If she ever got together with a girl friend for drinks, she would vent, but that's what women tended to do when they drank anyways. 

"Oh, I work here,"  she said without missing a beat. "Administration stuff, you know,"  she waved her hand dismissively. It wasn't like she had to try to pick him up as a client - escort services didn't work that way. Clients came to them, to the service, and then distributed to the proper escort. Max didn't seem the type to use the service, so the lie that she told her sister would do for him as well. "I don't see you around here very often!"  she returned. "I think I'd remember if I saw you regularly here. Maybe I'd know you a little better than seeing you the few times when I head out to Hogsmeade,"  surprisingly, she actually had a couple clients in Hogsmeade which she never would have expected before. She tended to have to be careful as she never wanted to run into her sister. Otherwise, she feigned going there to meet with Zoe, and then seeing her client afterwards. Jess looked around vaguely. "What floor are we even on?"  she looked at Max curiously. She wasn't sure if he was the type who liked company or not. "I'm not working today, I had just stopped in to grab a few things from my desk. Sometimes I bring work home that I find interesting." 

Jessica literally referred to all of her shoes as ridiculous. Her closet, however, was divided into two sides: her Jessica side and her Serena side. She never wore clothes that were meant for her career in her everyday living. Something about that was just strange. She had these 'ridiculous' shoes on both sides though. She just loved high heels, and she rarely bought any shoes with heels that weren't very high. She did have some more conservative shoes, but they weren't as fun for her. Besides, Jessica wasn't very tall so it helped her in that aspect. Jessica noticed that he looked at her ankle, but she wasn't weirded out by it. It seemed caring. It wasn't like he tried to look down her top while she was distracted... not that she'd be bothered by that either. In fact, she was just used to all types of behaviours. Not much seemed to get to her anymore. You learned a lot about people in this type of business. Besides, escorting was not just about sleeping with the client. Many of them wanted the girlfriend experience, or to take her on a date, and the vast majority of them confided in her. Dealing with that made dealing with normal people a hell of a lot easier. 

Jessica nodded at his reply. "Most of them don't really have anywhere in particular to be. I would know, I'm here all the time. Besides, helping other people in the office could be noticed and seen as a good thing. Might get them a raise. Hell, I don't know, I just didn't know it was that hard to be a good person and not trample to me to death. Definitely not the way I want to go out."  She could only imagine the newspaper heading about the hooker who was trampled to death in the Ministry where she pretended to work. She imagined the look of embarrassment on her sister's face and the shame Zoe would have to deal with. She also couldn't imagine the shock of all of the friends she had that weren't aware that she was an escort, and secondly didn't actually work at the Ministry. 

"Yeah this place definitely wasn't my first choice,"  she told him. "If only I did better in school I might have done something with myself, although I suppose being here pays alright enough. Could be worse, I guess."  she shrugged her shoulders. She loved her job and it was difficult just not to tell everyone she met. Even though she had confidentiality to maintain, she could always tell stories with fake names. She had so many stories about work that she could share and knew people would laugh about. Instead she had to make off like her day consisted of moving papers. Jess didn't know if Max believed her but she wasn't concerned. 

"You look the type to like it better in Hogsmeade,"  she noticed. "Not in a bad way, you just seem quieter. Quiet is always good, especially compared to the bustle around here. It must get busy when the students come into town, though, no?"  Even though she recognized him, she appreciated the gesture of a formal introduction. "Well, it's lovely to properly meet you Max. I'm Jessica Lachance."  She had the horrible desire to continue with, 'and you can call me whatever you'd like' but managed to resist. She had almost said it on impulse. Her flirty other half sometimes tried to make an appearance even when she didn't want it to. 

Max moved her out of the way, and she liked that in him. There was no prancy runabout of properly asking if it was alright just to lightly touch her arm. Some people were too much of prudes, but Jessica tried not to judge. His question made her bite her lip as she thought about it. If she truly worked there she should have been able to tell him right off the bat. She looked around for a clue - most cubicles contained some sort of indicator. Instead of something in someone's cubicle, she suddenly recognized a client in the far side of the office. Jessica smiled to herself. "Department of International Magical Cooperation,"  it wasn't the smoothest response, but she knew she was right. That particular client never stopped talking about work - he was obsessed with trying to get promoted even though being unqualified. She thought about Max's Russian accent and tried to put together whether this was the floor he truly needed to be on. 

Jessica rolled her eyes in an understanding manner. "Yes, Ministry life... trust me, you do not want to be a part of it,"  she told him knowingly. "I think going out that way would be up there with dying from being too drunk on Butterbeer and by heart attack from being too surprised when arriving at your own surprise birthday party."  Unfortunately for Jess, she had been a part of a rather similar situation when she was supposed to be in a cake for some lucky twenty-something year old, and when he entered and she popped out he got so excited that he fainted. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was pretty close. She negotiated with his friends and still managed to get half her wage as she wasn't about to sleep with some bloke who had fainted only hours previously. 

"I-" for some reason, she was caught off-guard by what he had said. No one had ever suggested that she could try again. She knew there were options, but she always felt as if the cards fell where they did for a reason. She worked a job that many saw as unsavourable, but it meant that her sister could live a life of luxury that Jess had never been able to experience herself. "My school experience wasn't so good," she told him in  a softer voice than she previously carried. She tried not to think about it too often. Her inability to communicate caused for much bullying and isolation, not to mention hours upon hours of crying due to not being able to figure anything for school work out whether in Russian or French. Just the thought of trying, even if it was something like a home school method sort of deal made her stomach turn. She just couldn't help but associate school with all of those terrible memories. She smiled slightly. "I actually sort of like where I turned out, in a weird way," she told him honestly. Although he didn't know she was an escort, Jess didn't know why there was such a stigma towards sex workers. Anyone could go to the bar, get drunk, and hook up with someone and it was fine, but the moment money changed hands it was seen as dirty. Or what about dating? The man pays for the dates and buys her nice jewellery and she sleeps with him. In a way, isn't the exchange of dates - no matter which gender pays - a similar transaction? What she did was simply more expensive, but yet a fast tracked experience. 

"I don't suppose you'd remember if you ever met my sister,"  she replied. "She, um, doesn't really look anything like me, so that's not useful. Brown hair, brown eyes, short... although I think I've just described half the population of Hogwarts... never mind. Having a sister in Hogwarts always frightens me. She seems to be happy - she's been there for six years and has never complained but..."  yet again she almost brought up her past with school. She assumed Zoe did better there as they spoke their first language, but a part of her worried that she struggled and just never said anything. It was a fear from anyone who had experienced something terrible in school and then had to watch a loved one potentially go through the same thing. "I never went to Hogwarts, so I can't say first hand how great of a school it is or anything. She's in Ravenclaw, which she says is the smarty-pants House. I've looked through Zoe's books - my sister's - and it all seems good and great. She gets good grades too, and is even on the Quidditch team. Look at me, I sound like a mother." 

Jess waved her hand dismissively. She knew she could talk about her sister all day. Her sister was the reason why she continued to try so hard in life, even if others saw her as a failure. She was willing to work this double life and grew to love it all in the name of helping her sister do better. She looked at Max carefully - he seemed younger than her, so she worded her next question carefully. "Do you have siblings there?"  she wondered. She doubted he was old enough to have children, and especially children in Hogwarts. She knew he had a Russian accent, but that didn't mean he had to be any different than her - going to a foreign school and siblings going to this one. She was sure it happened all the time. 

She liked how he cared that she was okay. She had already forgotten about her injury. Now that he mentioned it, her ankle twinged a bit, but it wasn't so painful that she couldn't walk on it. She didn't, however, like the idea of trying to show him around. "No, no, I'm fine. I swear. I'm not really sure how to find that particular person. I'm just a lowly person around here, I'm not too good at finding my way around. I can try to keep you company if you'd like? Maybe we can get lost together." she laughed at how suggestive that sounded but moved on quickly. "But hopefully find him. That would be better."

Jessica liked the sound of Max's laugh, and even more so because she caused it. Sure, she caused people's orgasms all the time, but causing them to laugh was a different sort of pleasure. Max had a musky sort of laugh - a man's laugh, even though he looked quite young. She couldn't help but wonder how much younger than her he was, as she could tell he was younger in the very least. At least she knew he was an adult - people who weren't of age were hardly allowed to own businesses. There was a sort of ... depth to him that she didn't usually find in young men but she couldn't figure out what made her feel that way. 

Jess shrugged her shoulders. "Well, let me tell you... I'm sure it's happened. Somewhere. Some place. At some point in time. Probably to loads of people, actually. Fingers crossed it won't happen to me!" 

She could vaguely think of other ways that she could go out that would embarrass her as well, but that was more work-related and had more to do with her sister finding out that way. It wasn't really a joke that she was going to share with someone who didn't know what she truly did for a living. Sometimes she wished she had more friends in the profession, but she knew how immature some of them could be. Some of them she didn't know how they ever got into the 'high class' aspect of the business. They were low brow city girls who would be better off working the corner - but that was just Jessica's cynical side coming out. 

"Yes and Zoe is part of the particularly happy variety, especially lately. All of her owls seem so ... uplifting. She's probably most likely to be with this blonde girl or this tall, lanky boy. How I wish I had friends like that growing up,"  Jessica said with a small shake of her head. Even now, though, she had lots of friends but none of them were particularly close. Her sister was the opposite: she had few friends, but they were very, very close. She doubted Max would actually look out for her sister, it was just one of those polite things people said while making conversation. She looked at him a bit warily as if she didn't know if she wanted to tell him which schools she was from. He seemed alright, though, and it wasn't like it was a deep rooted secret, it just tended to be difficult for her to talk about. "Well, when I first started school I started at Durmstrang. Where you attended, I suppose?"  she said with her best Russian accent. It was a little rusty after all these years, but she was surprised about how well it actually came out. "And my older years I was in Beauxbatons,"  she finished, her French accent a lot better. French was just an easier accent to get out naturally, she found, than harsh Russian. Maybe if she had stayed there longer she would have picked it up more. 

Jess suddenly got quite uncomfortable. She could see that she had said something wrong and she immediately felt herself shrink back into herself. She didn't deal well when she said the wrong things to people. She was usually better at picking up on things, and she immediately started mentally blaming herself. "Oh,"  she said. Jess didn't want to pry - especially not now. She didn't want to say how lonely that must be or anything of the like. She suddenly felt like whatever she'd say would be inappropriate regarding his family. She knew how lonely she felt at times, and she had Zoe. She couldn't imagine how lonely she'd feel if she was alone. Then again, maybe her life would have been different. Maybe she wouldn't have cared about making so much money and would have stuck to waitressing or whatever job and found a flat with a roommate, and because she wasn't fucking others for money she might have been able to find a boyfriend and maybe get married and start her own family. She wasn't even sure if that's what she would have wanted. Even just thinking about it... she liked her life. She didn't want to imagine a different one. 

Jess smiled and immediately accepted his offered arm. It wasn't like her to not be a lady. "Well, let's go back to the lifts, shall we?"  they walked over and were lucky that they were alone this time. She stared at the buttons, suddenly completely unaware of where they were supposed to go, but she didn't want to let him down. She racked her brains quite hard. She took a guess and decided on the second floor. She knew that's where the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was - was that where the undersecretary would be? "I guess that's a good a guess as any,"  she stated out loud. 

Jessica tried not to envy her sister's relationships, or to dwell on the past, but it was something that she couldn't help doing even if she never spoke it out loud. Sometimes it made her angry that life had been so unfair to her, but then she remembered that she worked so hard so her sister could have a better life than Jess had, and any resentment was just silly as she was the reason for Zoe's good fortunes. 

"Yeah, she is. Hopefully they're the sort that will stick around and not just abandon her or something,"  she couldn't help that her fears slipped into her words. It was made easier by the fact that she felt immensely comfortable in Max's company. There was just something about him that reminded her almost of... cosiness. It was a weird word to come to mind, but that's what she thought of when she looked at him. It was almost like he was so familiar to her that he wouldn't judge her for words that came out of her mouth, even though she realistically didn't know him at all. "You know, how some do when things get hard or another better friend comes along..."  she murmured, realizing suddenly that she was coming off as some sort of catty, jealous girl. She couldn't remember the amount of boys and friends who suddenly decided to leave her because someone prettier or some better friends came along. It was like no one was willing to stick with her. Maybe it was the reason why she clung to Zoe so tight was because she couldn't bear the fact of being left by her as well. 

"Oh, well..."  she sort of paused, not exactly sure what to say to that. Before she could stop herself she added, "Then how come you can do magic with a wand, then?"  her hands went to her mouth instinctively and then she lowered them. "I'm sorry, that's not my business it just... slipped out. You don't need to answer that." 

Jess' face automatically went into a sympathetic expression. She lowered she shoulders and reached out and touched his arm. "I'm sorry to hear. That sucks,"  she laughed humourlessly. "It doesn't get much worse than that, does it? I never grew up with parents, either."  she admitted. "And honestly, I can't think of a better word than 'sucks' for it."  she admittedly wanted to say more, but couldn't bring herself to. She had grown up with the mentality of 'it's nobody's business' and therefore that stuck in her head, and she wasn't sure she quite ready to say anything about that aspect. She knew it would draw all sorts of questions. She had the implications at work already from co-workers; that the reason she went into the sex industry was because she was abused by foster parents (which as far as she remembered, wasn't true), or that she had Daddy issues, or all that sort of nonsense. 

Jessica joined him as they stepped around and looked around. She adjusted her bag on her arm. "Does this look right?"