Beautiful white secrets hide in golden boxes, begging to be retrieved from a lovers coat pocket. Nights like this where the only thing as heavy as the cigar smoke clouds looming over the heads of patrons was Charlotte’s heart, sinking deep into the pits of her stomach, had become all too frequent. It was easy to slip into different costumes and personas depending on who she was with; with Arturo she was a dreamer, for Anthony she was a coquette, for Evangeline she was a bitch. Long after the club lights went down and the bar reached the last call was when she found herself feeling lost. As the sky began to turn from black to blue to lavender with the rising of the sun over the skyline, she desperately wondered who or what she was supposed to be when she was all alone.
Some nights were worse than others. Most of her clients were good people, just lonely or looking for something that she could provide. Hungry for an evening with a fantasy. There were some visitors, though, that shook her to her very core. Who was she supposed to run to aside from the sweetly familiar snowstorm? It was the best medicine to soothe the aching black eye and bruised chin that were left over from this evenings courting guest, the colors almost matching that of the slowly evolving sky over their heads. From Arturo’s pocket she had retrieved the box in question earlier in the night, she didn’t think he would mind. (Even if he did, she could talk herself out of it.) With it she slips into one of her favorite parts to play, one that feels more natural than most of the others and makes her way to Netty’s room. She’s certain that the younger woman would still be awake.
Dressed only in a dress shirt left over from patrons long since forgotten, her bare feet pad carefully along the floor down the hall. A couple of quick raps of her fist on the door before she turns the knob herself, poking her head inside with the tiniest hint of a smile.
“I come bearing gifts,” she enters the room and waves the box in the air, careful not to spill any. If Netty was going to get into any antics, at least it would be with Charlotte. That’s what she liked to tell herself, anyway. Her eyes were still cherry red from overflowing only hours ago.
“Care for a little pick-me-up on this beautiful morning?”
