Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Episode 1-05

"Ashok? Every-second-Wednesday-since-I-started-Ashok?" --Belle/Hannah to her agent Stephanie

Belle had to share her first and most loyal client, Ashok, with another woman this week. While she was a bit surprised that her luscious self wasn't enough to satisfy her favorite regular, she ended up having fun during with the ménage à trois. Can this call girl truly learn to share?

My review of Secret Diary of a Call Girl is after the jump.

"I'm hardly a girls girl. But I will go gay for pay," Belle tells us after she agrees to the threesome with Ashok. She gets Naomi, a sultry blonde who intrigues our call girl and makes her laugh right from the start. When Naomi asks what Ashok is like, Belle answers like a girlfriend (not surprising because she "plays" his lover every other week). He's athletic and smart and sweet and he smells nice. Naomi jests, "I was actually wondering whether he prefers anal or vanilla."

Belle ends up having a great time during the session. The London call girl realizes she may have found a kindred spirit in Naomi; and maybe, despite herself, Belle will actually forge a friendship with a woman. This would be a great friendship indeed. Naomi is someone Belle can go shopping with (although these two would go shopping for sex toys and panties). Naomi is someone to whom Belle can relate work stories.

However, it doesn't work. Belle gets a call that Ashok will be seeing only Naomi for his next appointment. A rejected Belle erases Naomi's name from her cell phone. This didn't quite work for me. I was wishing that the Naomi / Belle relationship could have marinated for another week or so. I didn't feel the sense of betrayal the Belle/Hannah felt. Plus, the first time we met Ashok, Belle moonlighted with the quirky marathoner runner on her all-nighter with him. I didn't feel bad for her. It's not like Naomi stole her boyfriend. However, that's what Lucy Prebble and company wanted us to believe -- especially since the two women joked about how they don't have girlfriends because women are always threatened by them, scared that girls like Naomi and Hannah will take their boyfriends. Naomi snickered that it's probably true and the two call girls shared a good laugh.

I did, however, feel bad for Belle in the beginning of the episode. I almost hated Ben for treating her like that at the restaurant. But, then again, if I was a call girl, I wouldn't exactly carry my money around in a roll tied with a rubberband. She does get paid a lot. She could buy a wallet. Money roll screams any of the following: mafia lord, loan shark, drug dealer, or prostitute.

A few more things...

• Just a note on what the real Belle does and doesn't do during a session--it's not as innocent as the TV Belle. She definitely does "water sports." Sorry if that grosses you out.
  
• "Sometimes two heads are better than one," Stephanie quipped to Belle about why Ashok wanted a threesome. I love Stephanie. I wish she was on the show more.
• A commenter said last week that he/she wished that the show was one hour. I have to agree there. For a half-hour show (actually more like twenty three minutes) punctuated by either a longer sex scene or a few shorter ones, it feels shallow.
• Is it that much easier to be friends with guys than it is with girls? Even in the book, Belle doesn't have any girlfriends. She talks about "Ben" a lot (a character who she calls N). And her other friends are all ex-boyfriends too: A1, A2, A3, and A4. Her real boyfriend who she dates for the first portion of the memoirs is called The Boy. See. All men.
• Do you want Belle and Ben to get together? (Cause I secretly do.)