“Wow, Caro, that’s so poetic,” I said with a small laugh.
“Bitch, whatever. I’m just saying, stop asking questions,” she said, taking a long drink of her coffee.
“For such an intimidating person, you sure do drink some dainty coffee,” I said, observing her whipped cream and chocolate sprinkle filled coffee.
“It’s a mocha, and I’m mocha, so I drink it.”
“What do you mean you’re ‘mocha’?” I said with a snicker.
“Mocha means brown in Spanish, and I’m brown.”
“Mocha does not mean brown, it means mocha.”
“Dani, you don’t know,” she said, waving me off with her hand, “I don’t drink that nasty shit you drink.”
“What, black coffee?”
“Yeah, ew.”
“Gaw, you’re so racist,” I replied, making Caro laugh right into her drink, spilling droplets onto the table.
It was the most beautiful thing when Caro laughed. Her tough exterior would temporarily melt away, producing this innocent, beautiful being. She had a gorgeous smile, and adorable laugh. The moments were generally rare, but seemed to occur more and more as the time we spent together increased. Still, every time it happened, I absorbed every part of that moment. It was one of my favorite things. I tried to conceal my intrigue, as I know this would only cause discomfort for Caro.
“Anyway,” she said, regaining her composure, “We have an easy gig tonight, and it’s at my favorite place, so dress nice.”
“The club?”
“Of course.”
“What do we have to do?”
“We’re looking for a Theodore McMillian. He’s been granted VIP access tonight. Apparently Teddy has a knack for straying from his wife every chance he gets, but the asshole’s never been caught. We’re going to go collect some dirt on him, take some pics, send them to Franklin, and enjoy the rest of our night.”
“Why does Franklin care if this guy’s cheating on his wife?”
“Franklin cares what everyone is doing all the time. Like I said, the secrets give you the power. Besides, this is easy money, twenty-five-hundred each,” She said with a smile.
This immediately quelled any further questions by me.
“Sounds good to me.”
“Yeah, I thought that’d shut you up. Do me a favor, take your medicine before you come.”
“What does that mean?” I was taken aback by her comment.
“I’m just saying, Dani, we don’t need one of your freak-outs on this job. I heard about the bus incident.”
“How did you hear about that?” I asked.
“Franklin.”
“Franklin’s keeping tabs on me?”
“Honey, Franklin keeps tabs on everyone, but he must have heard something he liked to be giving you another job so shortly after that.”
“What could he like about that?”
“He knows you have power. He knows all of our flaws, he’s just waiting to see how he can use it to his advantage and how it can make him more powerful. Any display of power will intrigue Franklin. We have what he wants, but he doesn’t like to get his hands dirty, so we do his work for him.”
When I started working for Franklin, I came to realize that there were more gifted people in the world. Franklin, however, did not let us refer to them as gifts. He told us to call them our flaws. Some people had little flaws, some people had all-consuming flaws. Caro’s flaw was her ability to tell when someone was lying. The human lie detector. She referred to it as her having the spirit of discernment, that she could tell when someone was good or evil, see the authenticity of a person’s soul. She claimed to have learned that she possessed this gift the one time she attended church when she was eleven. Franklin kept Caro close when he had meetings behind closed doors. He loved toying with the people he knew were lying to him. He hadn’t quite figured out how to use me, so he gave me odd jobs with Caro. I worried what sort of jobs he might put me up to once he discovered my full potential.
“Alright, well, I gotta head out. I have a meeting with Franklin before tonight. I didn’t mean anything by what I said about your medication, you know,” she stood up from the table, leaned in, and whispered into my ear, “You know I like your dark side.”
She ran one of her nails across my jawline as she turned to leave. I glanced up at her with a grin as she walked away.
“Wear the white shirt!” she shouted back without turning around.
Chapter Three
The Gig with a Hitch
I stood at the edge of the curb, running my boot back and forth across the concrete. I listened to tiny rocks slide against the bottom, feeling them get stuck in the crevices of the sole. I leaned against the street post to pick the rocks that had collected on the underside of my right boot out. I wore dark pants, boots, a dark jacket, and white button up that made my pale complexion appear increasingly fluorescent. I had no sense of fashion, so if Caro told me to wear something, I just did it. Generally, if she requested I wear ‘the white shirt’, it implied she had scandalous plans for our free time that night.
Caro enjoyed releasing her sexual desires on me. To put it more accurately, her violent desires. Oddly, out of all the harmless people in the world, I was one of the only people she felt safe with, the only one with whom she felt completely uninhibited. My shadow pined for Caro and enjoyed every moment with her. I enjoyed them enjoying each other, glad I was able to offer half of myself to her and that she appreciated that half of me- a part of me that most people had no use for.
I sighed and watched my breath accumulate in the slightly crisp air of the night. I felt the unease in my composure and reached into my pocket to pull out my orange bottle, pop the top and pour three pills out in my hand. I followed Caro’s
