Bridget's Calling

Bridget's Calling is the second book in the Free Spirits series. The title character, Bridget Torjesen, was introduced in the previous book, Peri's Bliss, and this book follows some of her adventures as a high-end escort.
== Plot Synopsis ==
Bridget Torjesen, who uses the last name "Stanton" when working as an escort, arrives at LaGuardia, and is met by Paul, who has been retained as a driver and personal assistant by one of her regular clients, the Italian businessman Leonardo Baldasarre. They chat as he drives her to the hotel, and she goes into the room reserved for her to rest and prepare to meet Leo. When she enters Leo's suite, he is taking a shower; she strips and greets him nude, helping him dry off and chatting with him in his native language, before their first lovemaking session. They later have dinner in the room, discuss their plans for the weekend, then make love again and fall asleep. After breakfast, she returns to her room and dresses to accompany Leo to the Met for a performance of Carmen.
At the Met, Leo and Bridget meet Tom and Ruth Bannon, a couple with whom they are acquainted; the four are later cornered by a man posing as a snooty Frenchman, but Bridget (who has traveled to France and speaks the language fluently) embarrasses him and he leaves. After the opera, Leo and Bridget go to a high-end Italian restaurant for dinner and conversation, then back to his suite for more lovemaking. They have breakfast in his suite before she returns to her room, bidding him a safe trip home.
After changing and packing, Bridget meets Paul in the lobby, whom Leo has arranged to drive her to the Free Spirit meetinghouse in Manhattan. There she will give a talk after the Sunday Celebration about how she became an escort, and the case for decriminalizing sex work. The response from the audience is largely positive, even though some radical feminists in attendance criticize her and express support for abolishing prostitution by adopting Sweden's model of criminalizing the clients of sex workers. Bridget then takes a taxi back to LaGuardia, and flies back to her home city.
The next day, Bridget runs a number of errands. Her first stop is to the bank, where the manager Allan Nash - a former client of hers - assists with a number of transactions. She has lunch with Charlie, the hacker who assists her with screening and booking clients through her website; they are contacted at that time by the manager of an escort service in Washington DC about a request from a Marine Colonel to accompany one of his men for a special occasion. She completes the last of her errands, then touches base with some friends before retiring for the evening.
Tuesday evening, Bridget goes to the Oak Lounge bar at the city's Regency Hotel, where she meets Clara Thomas; it is Clara's birthday, and her husband J.T. has arranged for Bridget to fulfill Clara's fantasy of being seduced by a woman. Clara thoroughly enjoys making love with Bridget, and when she muses aloud about inviting J.T. to join them, Bridget encourages her. J.T. joins them for a threesome, and before Bridget leaves at the end of the session, Clara expresses interest in booking her again. Bridget goes back to the Oak Lounge for a ginger ale, and is solicited by a man who will not leave her alone even when she refuses him; she slaps the man hard, and tells the bartender to call for security - and the bartender discloses that the man is the hotel's head of security. The manager and concierge arrive on the scene, the manager berating the security chief and apologizing to Bridget, even providing her a gift certificate and arranging for the concierge to drive her home. As Bridget accompanies the concierge to his car, their conversation reveals that he is well aware of her profession, and had even warned her about the security chief beforehand.
After jujitsu class on Wednesday, she runs into her friend from the Free Spirits, Tracey Bilodeau, at a coffee shop. Bridget then visits the Ramseys - Jack, Carolyn, and daughter Effy - in her capacity as an independent interior design consultant. They are all impressed with her, and she begins plans to help them refurbish their house. Thursday, Bridget meets a nervous "geeky" client referred by Charlie, even providing some guidance in how to interact with women, and referring him to another escort in his area for future sessions. She then spends the weekend relaxing at the house of Peri Winger and her open triad partners; they are joined for dinner by some other friends from the Free Spirits, and Bridget discusses some of the issues she and other sex workers face with criminalization and stigma.
Bridget meets another regular client, Will Gentile, in a conference room at his office building; Will retains her services twice a month for light massage and conversation, but no sex. She notices that he is frequently injured, and asks Charlie to look into records about Will and his family situation. She later has dinner with Courtney, a younger escort contacted to join her and a regular client arriving later for a fantasy session. They quietly discuss preparations for the session, as well as Courtney's graduate studies, and share stories and observations related to their profession.
Flying to Philadelphia, Bridget meets Colonel Halsey Watkins, who is looking for an elegant woman to accompany Lieutenant Daniel Costas, who had served under him in Afghanistan. Costas was scheduled to receive the Medal of Honor for his actions under fire, for which he was badly injured and disfigured; the Colonel also discloses that the Lieutenant's fiancée had left him, and he had gone into deep despair. She agrees to accompany Costas during the events around the ceremony, and the Colonel agrees to make the necessary arrangements.
Sarah and Eric Chesterfield then host Bridget for a session, talking with her over tea, then going to their bedroom where Eric has sex with Bridget while Sarah watches. Sarah is seriously ill with liver cancer, and her rare blood type makes transplant surgery almost impossible. Bridget later learns that Eric arranged for an Indian medical student and his family - all of whom have the same blood type - to come to the United States, where the student and his wife work in their house as butler and cook, and the children attend school.
When Bridget visits the Ramseys about the design project, Jack tells her that Carolyn has abruptly suspended it, citing their "financial situation"; Bridget then finds out from a mutual friend where she and Carolyn go for drinks, and she finds her there distraught. Carolyn discloses that, when their family was burdened with high medical bills, she worked for a few months at an escort agency, and now one of their clients is blackmailing her. Bridget assures Carolyn that she will try to help her, and gathers information about her time at the agency and the client in question. She passes this to Charlie, and he contacts another hacker named CeeCee who worked at the Blue Moon agency and still has their records on a hard drive. They find the client in question and devise a plan for dealing with him.
On a busy Friday, Bridget and Courtney leave after their session with Bridget's regular client, then talk about their own emerging feelings for one another. Bridget then heads to her apartment to prepare to meet Edward Campbell, Carolyn's blackmailer; he arrives at the appointed time, only to find that the incriminating photos have been erased from his smartphone and computer, and a mysterious caller (Charlie, using tech to disguise his voice) warns him not to harass Carolyn further or "the consequences will be most unpleasant" for him. Bridget then goes to Carolyn's office, to assure her that Campbell will no longer cause a problem. As she leaves, Charlie notifies her that Campbell has tried to call Carolyn, but he and CeeCee deflected the call and are now arranging for payback.
Bridget later has a BDSM fantasy session with another client, a restauranteur, who discloses being the victim of a scam by a building inspector with family connections to District Attorney Nick Saroyan. She later has Charlie dig up information, which she passes onto Detective Frances "Frankie" MacMillan; it is later learned that Bridget thwarted attempts by Frankie and other detectives to gather evidence against her, and Bridget arranged with Frankie to provide confidential information of more serious crimes in exchange for being left alone. When Frankie tells her superiors about the building inspector's scam, the matter is taken to the police chief, Delbert Graham, who figures out the identity of Frankie's informant. Later at Creston Street - a tolerance zone for street prostitution instituted by Graham - the Jezebel Project arrives for their regular outreach work; Bridget is amongst them, and Graham meets with her privately.
Bridget later has a session with a disabled artist; his latest painting is inspired by her, and she is deeply flattered. Peri arrives at Bridget's apartment, and Bridget shows her the various security precautions she takes to protect information and assets; Peri is entrusted with this in the event anything happens to Bridget. Later, Bridget meets Anders Solberg, a Norwegian businessman referred to her by Leo; he is a widower who has been without companionship for about two years. Peri and Amalia, another friend from the Free Spirits, then join Bridget in a BDSM session with a female client named Harriet, the wife of a pastor. Clara Thomas then books an overnight session with Bridget while her husband is out of town. When Bridget visits Will for his regular session, she learns that his wife is abusing him emotionally and physically; Will is also afraid for his daughter, Miranda, and Bridget begins to make arrangements to help him escape the situation. At their next session, Harriet tells Bridget that her husband has been called to a congregation out of state, so this will be her last session; she then begs to stay with Bridget as her submissive, but Bridget refuses. During another visit with Eric and Sarah Chesterfield, they learn that an experimental procedure may save Sarah's life, but she must fly to Colorado immediately; Bridget wishes them well, and at Sarah's request agrees to sessions with Eric if and when he needs them while Sarah is recovering.
Bridget then flies to Washington, and is met at the airport by a Marine Gunnery Sergeant; she later learns that he was the man who saved Lieutenant Costas in Afghanistan. Colonel Watkins has made every necessary arrangement for the next three days, and she meets Daniel Costas for the first time. Costas is still emotionally wounded, but Bridget provides all the encouragement and support she can, even disclosing the risks she takes as an escort while her profession is outlawed. Over the course of his time with her Costas manages to regain his emotional strength, and when he and the Colonel see her off at the airport, he expresses his gratitude to her. The Colonel is also deeply appreciative, handing her a challenge coin and telling her to call him if there is anything he might do to help her.
Back home, Bridget spends time with Courtney in her apartment; they are developing a "friends-with-benefits" relationship. Peri arrives, and the three discuss the Free Spirit Connection with which she and Bridget are involved. Courtney thinks privately about whether to check out the Free Spirits for herself, but also considers her commitments as both a graduate student and an escort.
Will Gentile is about to get ready for the day, when his wife Marla confronts him about a number on his cell phone, as well as funds he's arranged to have taken out of his paycheck. The confrontation leads to his disclosing his sessions with Bridget, and after Marla violently attacks him, Will grabs Miranda and tells Marla he's leaving her. He drives off and calls Charlie for help, only to find that Marla is following his car in hers. Charlie works with his friends help Will and his daughter escape, while Bridget begins to make plans with Charlie and others to have them taken to a safer place. She also provides key information to Detective MacMillan, who confronts Marla and her wealthy father, leading to Marla being committed to a psychiatric institution in another state.
After seeing Will and Miranda off, Bridget accompanies two other members of the Jezebel Project to attend a debate on prostitution at a nearby university. The debate seems mostly academic in tone, and when cards are distributed for people to write comments and questions, Bridget writes a lengthy statement in support of her clients for her chosen profession. When it is read aloud, the guest speaker arguing against decriminalization snidely dismisses it, and Bridget stands in protest. She is then invited to the stage, and responds to questions from the guest speaker, who then makes an insulting comment about Bridget. The moderator, citing the university's rules for debates, calls on the guest speaker to apologize or be asked to leave the stage; two other panelists threaten to leave with her, and the debate is considered over - but the remaining panelists propose that they be allowed to engage Bridget in discussion for the remainder of the time, to which she agrees.
In the last chapter, it is learned that Bridget has arranged for Will and Miranda to be flown to Hawaii, where an old friend of hers has agreed to take them in. Will talks with his hostess about the future, then joins his daughter on the nearby beach, reflecting that "Bridget certainly knew how to make someone happy."
Category:Books in the Free Spirits series