HOME – 2:31 p.m.
We’d sacrificed a larger TV and a king for two queens. There was no kitchenette. I’d be missing Sway’s cooking for now.
We were on the top floor. I went to the window, drawing open the curtains to check the view. Sway and Cami were setting up, placing clothes in the drawers and filling the bathroom cabinets.
I found the remote and took a seat at the desk. I looked to Cami. “What do you think? Is this okay?”
“I’ve never lived this well in my entire life.”
Sway cut in. “Really? Not even coming up?”
“Girl…” Cami paused. “You don’t know my story, do you?”
“You never told me.”
“As much as we used to talk?”
\Sway took a seat on the bed nearest the entrance. “I guess we never got around to it. Tell me.”
Cami sat opposite. “Where do I start?”
“Wherever… Where are you from?”
“Lufkin. I grew up in Hudson Place MHP. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? It’s a shitty trailer park where I lived with my mom and her boyfriend.
“He was a meth dealer. She was a meth head…”
“Oh, Cami. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“It gets better. I lost my virginity at twelve. Guess to who?”
“Please no…”
As her voice weakened, I lowered my head. I turned away. Cami continued. “That motherfucker started coming into my bedroom… I used to fight him… I know my mother heard what was going on.”
“She didn’t do anything?”
“As long as she could get high, she didn’t give a fuck. I was so ashamed, I stopped going to school… I never even finished seventh grade, Sway.”
“I’m so sorry, baby.”
“I started dreaming every night about running away to Dallas… That would be my escape, you know? Get a fresh start. Put the past behind me. I would get a job; any job. Not stripping or whoring… I could have worked as a server in a restaurant or something, and I would have been happy.
“As long as I was able to take care of myself and have my own place. That’s all I ever wanted.”
“So you decided to make that move?”
“Yeah. I was coming home from the store when I saw police cars driving towards the park. I slowed down because I just had this feeling they were going to my house.
“My mom got charged with first-degree felony manufacture and or delivery of a controlled substance. Her man was charged with the same, plus a Class C misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.
“They had over ten thousand dollar bonds each. I was always told that if they got arrested that I was to call the attorney and to get the cash buried in the back yard and to give it to him.”
“You took the money?”
“Yup. I got a Greyhound and came here to Dallas that night.”
“That was smart.”
“It was until I met my pimp, who I thought was my boyfriend.”
“Where’d you meet him?”
“At the Greyhound station.”
Sway giggled. “Naw, huh? I’m sorry. I don’t mean to laugh.”
“I know.” Cami smiled. “It’s fucked up, right? This motherfucker must have seen me coming. He pulled up in his car with those big wheels. He was cute. He offered me a ride, and instead of sticking to my plan, like a dumb ass, I got in.”
“Where did you two go?”
“To get my room. He brought me, treated me like a princess. No matter what I wanted or needed, he was there for me.
“He made love to me, Sway. I didn’t even know what that felt like. I didn’t even know I could feel that way.
“A few days later, he said that he’d told his mother all about me and how happy she was to finally see him with a good girl. I was so excited to one day meet her.
“He was so fucking sweet. He kept telling me how beautiful and pretty I was. After my mom’s boyfriend… After all that, I never even used to look at myself in the mirror anymore.”
“You are beautiful, Cami.”
“Thank you.”
“So what happened? When did shit change?”
“I was going to pay my rent for the next week, and I went to my suitcase and all my money was gone. Even my wallet with my ID and my cell phone. Everything.”
“Shit!”
“He swore that he didn’t take it and that he never even knew that I had that kind of money. He said that it must have been one of the ladies from housekeeping.
“He then started a big argument with the hotel manager, threatening him, and they kicked me out.
“And that’s when shit changed. He brought me to The Anchor and got me a room. As soon as the sun went down, Sway, he beat my ass and put me on the stroll.
“Every night if I didn’t make at least fifteen hundred, I got my ass beat. I didn’t even know what I was doing. Every night, fifteen hundred. You know the competition out there on Harry Hines. Whores all over the fucking place.”
I softly interrupted, “Well, Cami… That’s all over now… I know there’s nothing I or Sway can say that will ever take any of that away. But I hope that it’s… You can maybe look at it as a setback…where you were… I’m trying to say it the best way I can…”
“I understand. But, I’m a ho and I know it.” She laughed along with Sway.
“But you can always do something else, though. You don’t have to be.”
Cami leaned toward me, filled with mischief. “Nah, I want to ho…for a good daddy that’s going to treat me like a good ho should be treated.”
Sway tossed up a high-five. “Right?!”
“I got some good pussy that can make some good money, and I want to put it to use to get that Bentley.”
I shook my head. “Okay, I’m done. Both of you are fucking crazy.” They roared with laughter.
I stood. “Sway, call us a Lyft. Let’s go to the Galleria and get this girl together.”
Creole Gaudet
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