Page 15 of Glass Wings
Her stomach rumbled. Despite the previous day's photo shoot replaying in her mind, she still had no money or any groceries. Hadley stumbled into the kitchen and dug through the fridge and cupboards. She came up with a small plate of string cheese, red chili flake packets from an old pizza delivery, and the last few broken pretzels at the bottom of a crumbled-up bag.
Hadley sat down at her desk and powered up her computer. There were stacks of books on formatting screenplays, outlining stories and emotional vocabularies. She had a secret, something she hadn't told Hector about. There was a contest, an audition, to get intoa writing program in New York City. She had planned to finish up the stage play that she had been working on and submit it. It felt like a long shot, so she didn't see the point of talking about it just yet.
Her phone chimed after thirty minutes of rewriting and editing one of her favorite scenes, a hilarious scene about her main character stealing for the first time at a department store. The message was from Grant, her stomach floating with butterflies upon seeing the name.
This was it. This was what she was waiting for. Hadley could actually put the stress of a looming eviction behind her. She just needed to suck it up.
I got one for you, Darlin. 200 dollars pay for the hour, after my cut, of course. Does that work for you? I'll come pick you up. Just send me an address. - Grant.
She immediately responded with a yes and sent him the address to the coffee shop down the street. Not giving herself time for doubt to creep in, Hadley jumped out of her chair and into the bathroom, running a scalding hot shower. Once properly scrubbed, she braided her hair back and applied a generous amount of eyeliner and jasmine-scented body spray.
This will have to do.
Hadley stared back at herself in the bathroom mirror and gave herself a hug, wrapping her arms around the front of her torso. Not letting go, she moved over to her room and let her arms drop before throwing on a black lingerie set. She covered it with a polka-dot blue sundress that was more than appropriate for the weather. Nothing about her appearance should raise suspicion or garner too much attention.
Hadley stepped into her flip-flops, grabbed her purse, and went to open her front door. She paused and headed back into the kitchen, where she grabbed a small metal corkscrew. She threw it into her purse just in case she might need to stab someone.
Better safe than sorry.
Hadley left her apartment and made the short journey on foot to the familiar coffee shop. The sun was out as it usually was. She passed neighbors walking their dogs or talking on their cell phones. Once there, she located Grant immediately by his standout car. It was a faded red Yugo that she guessed was at least twenty-five years old. More out of sheer embarrassment than anything else, Hadley rushed into the passenger side as Grant smiled at her with all his teeth, gripping the steering wheel.
“So, you take every girl to all her appointments,” Hadley asked once they began driving.
“At least at first,” Grant explained. “Girls like Reign mostly use me for bookings and client communication. I probably pick up three or four of you a day and bring you over to my favorite little motel.”
“I want to set some ground rules, or rather, best practices, seeing as you’re new to this industry,” he continued as he drove onto the interstate. “The first and most important thing is that you will get payment upfront in cash. Do you understand?”
Hadley nodded.
“Good. Next, you get that cash and then you send him into the shower. You always make sure that they shower. You are worth so much more than letting some slob rub his day all over you.
Once that man is in the shower, you hide that cash somewhere safe in the hotel room. Any questions on that?”
Hadley exhaled, her nerves caught up with her.
What have I gotten myself into?
“No questions,” she said.
“You might actually enjoy yourself, kid; I vet our clients pretty well. Make sure they wear a rubber and try to have some fun, will ya?”
As the car pulled off the highway, they drove past a family fun center with a go-kart track and arcade. Hadley had been there before with her mother when she was younger. She remembered getting vanilla soft serve and a seagull knocking it out of her hand as she waited her turn for the batting cages. She hadn't noticed before the parking lot on the opposite side of it.
A small two-story exterior corridor motel with a neon sign announcing “vacancy” stood in the distance. Its faded pink exterior matched the haze in the air that day.
Grant parked the car in front of the lobby window and handed Hadley thirty dollars, the cash crisp, straight as if it were freshly printed.
“They rent by the hour here. Go to the window and ask the poor, bored soul sitting there for a room. I will stay here. Once you walk into the room, get yourself ready. Some girls like drugs, but you seem pretty clean to me. The client has been instructed to knock five times. Let him in, and hide the money. I expect a text confirming that you are okay. If ten minutes go by and I do not get that text, I will be knocking on that door no matter what the circumstances. Go get ‘em, darlin; this will be the easiest money you’ll ever make in your life.”
Grant snapped his fingers multiple times and then moved on to encouraging finger gun gestures. Hadley gave him a nervous smile, and it was genuine. He was just so cheesy. She opened the car door and waved goodbye.
You are fucking doing this. You are such a badass.
The small, half-dead flowers that lined the sidewalk had suffered from the current California drought, adding to the beat-down aesthetic of the motel. She did as instructed and a few minutes later, walked back towards Grant’s car with a physical metal key attached to a fluffy pink keychain that had a tag reading “room 203” superglued to it.
She noticed that Grant had not taken his eyes off her the entire time, even when she walked to the opposite side of the motel, up the staircase, and into the third room on the left-hand side. It was odd, having someone look out for her like that.
Hadley locked the motel door behind her right away, pressing her back up to it as a barrier while she stared at the cheap blue carpet, taking a few deep breaths. She needed to do something with her hands. She took off her dress and replaced it with the cheap white bathrobe that hung on a hook in the shallow closet to her left. The room felt so empty, so intimate, and even though Grant was in theparking lot, she realized how utterly alone she was at that moment. She turned back towards the closet to find her purse and get the corkscrew before she heard it.
