This is story doesn't start like the rest of them.

There isn't a 'once upon a time', nor a princess to be saved. True, is not a horror story nor is a sad one, but don't you hate when your stories are slightly cliche?-

"Ugh, I don't like this beginning..." The man groaned, stopping his fingers on the keyboard. A pair of slim arms wrapped around his shoulders and a soft kiss was placed on his cheek.

"Don't embellish it, darling... Tell it how it is..." She said. She liked simplicity and honesty, but he wasn't sure his publisher would like it. However, what could I lose?

"OK, but I'll add drama over the small drama..." He finally agreed with her and she simply chuckled, kissing his cheek again, before leaving me to his work.

It all started with an invitation...

"Oh, Julius! Look, our boy has been invited to the most prestigious party of the year!" A woman in her late forties was waving an invitation that just had arrived on the mail. It didn't matter that it was directed to her only son, she claimed that as his mother, she had the right to check his things without permission. Which meant 'no privacy'. His father didn't agree nor disagree, which was annoying itself, or so he thought.

"Great, that means money we don't have on clothes he won't need..."

"Oh, Julius, don't be so negative! Our boy will make it, unlike us!" The woman was positive that her son would do greater than they did. "Besides, our son's sponsor will pay for the expenses for this party!" That perked Julius up, who was already wrecking his brain how he would pay for something that could not be possible in the end. "Oh, Octavian! Son, we have wonderful news!"

Said boy had just walked into his childhood home from a hard day of work. He knew he would be destined into working in the same hard, boring and non aspirational job unless he was chosen. Yes, he hated his job, his blue eyes were dull and lifeless, but he would rather complain about the current job and not being chosen. Being chosen was only a tragedy that he didn't understand why people would accept it as reality.

"Really, mother? Then, share them..." A bit of good news could be what I need to avoid the funk...

"You have been chosen to be Ms. Tanaka's-"

"No"

"No?"

"No, mother. I refuse to attend to whatever pathetic excuse of party with an embellished way to call me slave." Yep, that was what the son thought about it. However, no one in the house will tolerate that answer. And they let him know it.

"Listen, young man. You will go to the party and have the chance your father and I didn't have-"

"You won't live your life through mine, mother. No will still me my final answer."

No amount of begging or threatening would convince the young man to change his mind. That was until he met the father and the woman he was escorting to this party.

That ended in an absolute 'no'.

However, and badly for him, the girl was a spoiled brat that either she gets what she wants or gets what she wants. She ruled her parents with no remorse and iron fist and Octavian realized he was going to be ruled the same way, but he gave a crap about her, to say it gently.

Escorting, sponsors, those were all pretty names to hide the reality that everyone accepted as truth. A reality that Octavian despised very much. His date's father, also known as his sponsor, was very clear that if something was out of line, it would be his fault and would never be chosen again. Then, he went on about how all the dates he had chosen for his daughter weren't good enough for her and that he better behaved.

Something told Octavian the dates weren't the problem.

He was dressed into the finest and most lavishing clothes he could never own. Afterwards, he was ordered to escort his date everywhere, not leaving it alone and not to talk unless someone asked him a direct question to him. Fine by me, he thought. But that was completely forgotten until he saw one of the young women of the party.

He noticed that most of the escorts were dressed in lavishing and revealing- for the women -clothes. They were mostly treated as an accessory, a statue. No one but the date was allowed to touch them, but it didn't stop men undressing women with their eyes. Unlike all the rich girls that were escorted, this one was engaged in an animated conversation with her date.

She was chuckling at something her date had said and, for a brief moment, Octavian wished it was him the one making her laugh like that, covering her thin lips with her delicate hand. Her date didn't look as tense or uncomfortable as the rest, and he wished he could be walking around with her, showing her off instead of being showed off.

"Hey! Boy!" A couple of manicure fingers snapped in front of his nose and it took all his effort not to snap at the girl. "Eyes on me, not that hussy!" He kept quiet and said nothing. He couldn't. "Oh, Rachel! How lovely to see you, darling! You look, er... fantastic!" Oh, the ironies of life! He couldn't talk and here was the woman that he wanted to speak the night away.

The girl named Rachel smiled in appreciation and Octavian took the moment to see her well. She had green eyes that matched his modest dress. Her red hair was all over her face and she had to push it away every once in a while. Her skin looked like porcelain and she was smiling at them, friendly, though it was somehow restrain. Octavian knew those smiles pretty well.

"Thanks, Drew... You look lovely tonight too..." Oh, and a great liar too! "I would like to introduce my date, Pollux..." She even introduced her date... where did this girl came from?!

"It's a pleasure to meet you, miss, mister." Wow, he even bowed a little to us... Rachel smiled and turned to see Octavian, who was still shocked.

"So, Drew? Who is your date tonight?" The emphasis made on 'tonight' was a full display this girl knew his date more than he knew her. And, given the fact she hadn't spoken a word to him, it said lots.

"Him? Oh, um... His name is, um..."

"Octavian." Octavian forced himself to interfere, bowing his head slightly to the newcomer couple. "Pleasure to meet you both, miss, mister..."

"The pleasure is ours, mister Octavian." She chuckled. Octavian noticed how tense was his date and, to be honest, he couldn't give a damn about it. "So, Octavian, Pollux here told me worked in the winery on the other side the city, where do you work?" There was no sarcasm, no hidden intentions on her voice, just simple curiosity. And, since according to the rules he was doing nothing wrong, he pleased her.

"Well, I work in the pharmaceutical near the winery, honestly..."

"You must be the guy my brother Dakota is always talking about..." The name sparked some kind of recognition and Octavian saw a way to embarrass and get away from his date, in some way.

"You're Dakota's brother?"

Even the night ending with screams and shouts didn't bother Octavian.

The father of his date had publicly and shamelessly embarrassed him, in front of the rest of the guests. It looked it was a common practice, because most of the dates were treated like that, men or women. Octavian felt free and even accompanied a few younger ones to their homes, not wanting something to happen to them.

However, he felt it was all worthy to talk to the red-headed-and-green-eyed girl.

The biggest surprise was when a few weeks later, he got another party invitation. It didn't have the name of the date and Octavian feared it was someone just like the first one. His parents were excited, thinking their son had behaved, as Octavian had omitted the part where he was almost kicked to the street.

He had been picked up and dressed up in a similar room like the last one. Surprisingly, he wasn't alone in the room, as there was another boy getting dress too. He didn't look nervous and even glanced at him a few times. It took a while to recognize but Octavian identified him as Pollux. He asked him what was he doing here and Pollux laughed, saying they both had the same date tonight.

But Octavian wasn't for sharing.

When their date arrived, she was as gorgeous as the first time he saw her, leaving him speechless. This time, however, he had chosen a purple loose dress, with almost invisible stripes of a lighter tone. Her hair was braided to the side.

"Hello, boys..." She greeted them, with a smile. "I imagine you have some questions, Octavian, so I will explain..." He kept his mouth shout, seeing where this was going to. "As Pollux knows, I hate the escort game. However, I have to play it in order to help people. How do I do it? I make my dates more interesting so other women can see the potential and 'snatch' them off me. What they don't know is that me and my escort had planned the whole thing before handed and it's actually the 'poor' who chooses..." The devilish smile on her lips made him think she was a little devil under the angel look.

And suited her perfectly.

To Octavian's utter surprise, Pollux had chosen his previous date, Drew, as the woman he wanted to know. The entire conversation was to show Drew how proper was Pollux and catch her eye. It worked, as Drew's father asked Rachel permission to allow Pollux to escort his daughter from now on, permanently. Octavian was outraged when Mr. Tanaka offered to give Rachel money for Pollux, but Rachel waved it off and said he owed her a small favor. When he asked what it was, Rachel replied that she wanted Pollux to be able to study what he wanted and that he, as the sponsor father, give him the money for his first business, if that's what Pollux wanted.

Octavian never saw a deal closed that quickly.

"Buying off escorts is one of the most expensive things in the world..." Rachel explained to him, when Mr. Tanaka left to deliver good news. "It's more cheap for them to send them to college and invest in a business than actually buy them... I know it sounds like they're buying animals, which is why I like to remind them they're human beings..."

"What are you, the 'Godmother' of male escorts?" Octavian asked, looking at her with a new light. Rachel laughed and nodded.

"Well, I have a male counterpart, so you could say that..." She smiled, guiding him to the dance floor. Octavian complied, sliding her across the room. "So, now let's talk about which kind of girl you like..."

"I hate this escort stuff... I feel a slave or worst-"

"A 'Candyman'?" She teased him, playfully.

"You don't know if I'm sweet enough!" He argued back, smirking at her. She smirked back and shook a finger in front of his lips.

"If I kiss you, I have to keep you, and I can't help anyone else..." She told him. Screw the rest, he wanted to say, but he recognized that what she was doing was important, so he'd rather wait.

During their three-year escorting, Octavian saw many guys getting matched by Rachel.

He wasn't jealous, not when he knew that she wouldn't keep them around like she did with him. Sure, once or twice it was more hard to convince the girls about the escorts, but in the last year the high-society girls were the ones asking Rachel for perfect escorts. As this had become an almost daily event, Rachel managed that Octavian left his work at the pharmaceutical and started to work with her part time, teaching the young escorts how to behave.

When Rachel was about to turn nineteen, she was already had a successful business in matchmaking both futures and escorts and it was at will, as she handled the male part of the business. Her male partner, a childhood friend called Percy Jackson, ran the female part of the business and both were highly required at events.

But Rachel had to make a decision.

"Octavian." She called him one afternoon, as he had finished to teach boys how to complement women. He walked to her, seriously confused by her call. "Do you remember what I told you on our first date?" She asked him once the door was closed. Octavian was baffled at such a question.

"You told me many things, Rachel..." He acknowledged to her. She had walked closer and sat next to him. He wasn't uncomfortable of that anymore.

"When we were dancing..."

"I called you the 'godmother' of escorts..." He recalled, gently. She nodded and invited him to keep talking. He reached a hand to her cheek and cupped it. "Then, you stopped me from kissing you..." She bit her lip and he smirked. "You said 'If I kiss you, I have to keep you...' Why are you asking?"

"Because I found a way to help and also keep you, my candyman..." She replied, leaning for a kiss that he didn't deny her.

-as you can see, our leading couple didn't have a nice start nor a drama-filled road ahead of them. Which is why I hate cliches-

"Why are you forcing the cliches part, darling?" The woman asked her husband of twenty years, frowning slightly while reading what his husband had typewrote.

"Isn't what people love? A big fat cliche?"

"I don't like big fat cliches..." She admitted, sitting next to him with a cup of tea in her hands. "We didn't have to look for too long, we always knew we'd end up together..."

"This story will never sell, honey..."

"Oh, I don't know..." She replied, smiling softly. "I'd buy all the copies if that makes my candyman happy..."

"As long as you let me use it as the title, or I won't be able to explain why..."

"Sure. And don't you forget it, you're my candyman, Octavian." She smiled and kissed his cheek, earning a smile back.

"Forever your candyman, Rachel..."