Callie couldn't concentrate that night. It was her first night back on the streets and she was definitely disappointing her client. He was a new guy; someone she hadn't been with before and so he didn't know that this was just an off day.
"You expect me to pay you a hundred bucks for that?" The guy asked in annoyance when Callie choked and began to cough for the third time.
"I'm sorry." Callie mumbled again as she wiped her mouth clean. "I'm just having a bad day."
"Yeah well I'm not paying you for a bad day." The guy shot back. "Make this worth my while or you'll have to pay me instead." He ordered harshly as he stuck himself back into her mouth so far that she couldn't breath for a second.
Callie forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand and just barely managed to earn half her due but she knew that this guy wouldn't come looking for her again and if he ever came backwith friends then he would advise them against her as well. It was only one in the morning but Callie knew that there was no use trying again. She was just too unfocused today and she couldn't risk getting another customer mad at her.
Callie silently tiptoed back into her apartment and headed to the bathroom to wash up her face and change. The house was empty with the exception of a sleeping Jude but she still wanted the privacy and the time alone. As she soaped up her face to rid herself of the makeup her mind wandered back to the police officer. She wondered why she'd suddenly become so fixated on the woman. She'd hadn't ever really done anything for Callie but still Callie couldn't forget about her. But deep down Callie knew the answer - she reminded her of the one woman Callie had loved the most and lost far too early.
This woman was kind to her even when she was in trouble; she was gentle and sympathetic but at the same time she didn't condone unacceptable behavior. She was strong but loving and the way she interacted with her daughter made Callie more jealous than she'd ever been in her life. She wanted that so bad that she was practically stalking a stranger.
"Did you get a name?" Lena asked Stef as she pulled out some weeds from the garden.
"No." Stef answered over the sound of the hose in her hand. "I'm honestly not sure how to approach this. I don't want to scare her away."
"What do you think she wants?" Lena questioned. In the ten years that they had been together Stef had never had something like this happen at work.
"I don't know." Stef answered as she moved over to the next bed of flowers. "She obviously knows I'm a cop so maybe she needs help but she's afraid that I won't help her or that whomever she's scared of will find out. Why else would see come looking for me?"
Lena thought about the whole thing for a few moments before voicing another theory. "Do you think maybe it was just a coincidence?" She questioned, trying to make sense of the whole thing. "Maybe remembered you from the fair and then was just surprised to see you at the police station."
"I don't think so." Stef answered. "I can't really describe it but it was like she was looking for me there; like she knew I should be there."
Once again Lena tried to piece together the bits of puzzle they had even though most of the pieces seemed to be missing. "Well, you did say that you think you've seen her somewhere before; maybe she remembers you too." She suggested.
Stef turned to Lena then as they made eye-contact. That seemed to be the most logical explanation but the next question was where had Stef seen her?
The following night Callie once again found herself struggling to concentrate. She'd been struggling to do so all day actually. At breakfast she'd nearly burned Jude's omelette because she wasn't paying attention and then at work she was so busy keeping an eye out for the blond hair and blue uniform that she accidentally put someone's eggs into a bag and then a carton of milk on top of it, resulting in her having to pay for the broken eggs and clean up the mess she'd made. After school she'd barely managed to concentrate on Jude's history homework long enough to make sure that he got it done and now she was in the back seat of Mr. Daniels' car riding him cowgirl style but her anxiousness and preoccupation resulted in an unsuccessful union for both of them.
"Hey kiddo, my wife could cum faster than that and she'd almost sixty." Roger Daniels said as she slowly sat back up. "What's gotten into you today?"
"I'm sorry." Callie replied sincerely. At least Mr. Daniels was a kind old man who had been with Callie before and knew this wasn't always her. She was good and she deserved a brake on a bad day.
"That's okay love." The old man said as he dug through his wallet and handed Callie a twenty. "Another time." He said, basically dismissing Callie.
Callie climbed out of the car and watched it disappear around the corner before looking down at the twenty in her hand. She was a prostitute and sold her body for a living but this was the very first time she actually felt like a commodity. Never had anyone paid her so little for anything. It was like she wasn't a person anymore but an object; one that was broken at that.
Callie knew she had to do something soon. She couldn't afford to live on less than a hundred dollars a day. She had rent to pay and food to buy; she had to buy Jude clothes and shoes and school supplies and other home and personal essential and cheap but necessary clothes and makeup for herself. Condoms were another thing she always had to keep on hand along with a strip of the morning after pill, just to be on the safe side. All these things cost money and she desperately depended on the eight to nine hundred dollars she made each week and the two hundred and fifty bucks she made per week working at the grocery store. Eight hundred of that went into rent each month for her and Jude and another five hundred on food and other essentials like toothpaste, soap, tampons, shampoo, etc. She also religiously set aside, in a shoebox under a floorboard under her bed, a thousand dollars each month for Jude's future and another for emergencies. She never knew if and when either one of them would need medical attention or money for anything else instead and she wanted to be prepared. After all this Callie was basically left with less than a thousand dollars per month for extras like clothes, occasional gifts for Jude, trips to the fair or a rare treat.
But in the last two days Callie had only managed to earn seventy bucks and she knew she couldn't go on like this. She had to pull it together and get back on track or else she would desperately need some help. Then again, maybe the blond cop could help her.
"Was she there?" Lena asked as Stef entered the kitchen after work on Tuesday.
"I didn't go." Stef answered, referring to visiting the grocery store again. "I thought I'd give her a chance to come to me." She explained. "I don't want to push too hard and scare her away."
"What does she look like?" Lena questioned curiously. "I mean, how does she dress? Does she look clean? Fed?"
Stef thought about it for a moment before answering. These questions definitely were important for they would help them answer just what kind of life the girl was living.
"Decently dressed I guess." She answered. "The usual jean and t-shirts but they didn't look dirty or torn. She doesn't look starved; except for some love maybe. She looked more weighed down like she has some huge responsibilities or something."
"Well Hope and Kim was supposed to come over for dinner tonight but Kim's got the flu and I made pot roast and grilled vegetables so why don't you pack some and take it out to this girl tomorrow. Maybe she could do with a good, filling, home-cooked meal." Lena offered, knowing that Stef desperately wanted to help this girl.
"And how do you propose I do that?" Stef questioned. "I can't just hand her food like she's a beggar or a homeless person; that could be pretty insulting."
"Just leave it with a note." Lena suggested. "Offending her may be a small price to pay if it will truly help her." She offered kindly when Stef looked doubtful.
"Okay." Stef finally accepted and watched as Lena packed up a large portion of dinner for a girl who's name she didn't even know.