She walked a couple of blocks before hailing a cab. This part of the city was just starting to go to seed, but it was still safe enough to walk in the evenings. After midnight, though, nobody in their right mind would be outside in this locale. She had the taxi drop her off a block away from the local tavern she was headed for, at a spot where there were several other places she could go to. Once the taxi had crawled away out of sight in the late traffic, she let herself breathe a sigh of relief before heading to the Moonlight Tavern. This part of the city was mixed commercial and lower-income residential, and there were still plenty of people outside enjoying the early Fall evening. Krissy ignored them, as they ignored her, and went into the bar. It was dimly lit inside, smelling of beer and liquor. She walked past the half-dozen patrons seated at the bar and straight to the back of the room. There were some booths there, hard, bare wooden benches facing each other across hard, bare, battered dark wooden tables. She went to one and slid onto the bench across from Tito. Tito was always here. Maybe he owned the place, but it didn’t matter to her one way or the other.
“Hey, girl,” he looked up and smiled as he recognized her. “You got somethin’ for me?” He was anywhere between forty and sixty, the light brown skin on his face, deeply creased and scarred just above his left eye. His pencil mustache always annoyed her, but she’d learned to ignore it, just as she’d learned to ignore the three gold teeth that showed when he smiled.
“A couple of cards,” she replied. “You want them now?”
“Depends,” Tito shrugged. “How long they good for?”
“Probably until noon tomorrow,” Krissy answered. “Maybe a little longer.”
“Eh,” Tito shrugged again. “Yeah, slip ’em over. I’ll see what I can get with ’em. Ten percent still good for you?”
“Ten percent of the gross,” Krissy said. “You shorted me last time.” She pulled the credit cards out of her handbag and passed them to Tito under the table. As always, Tito held her hand for a moment before he took the cards and let go.
“Told you that was a misunderstanding by one of my guys,” Tito grinned. “He won’t be doin’ that again.”
“And you still owe me,” Krissy said as she leaned back, unsmiling.
“Aw, babe, don’t be like that,” Tito chuckled. “I swear, I make it all up to you with the next payday. Deal?”
“Deal,” Krissy replied after a moment. “And you’d better keep your word. There are other guys I could deal with.”
“But we make such good business partners,” Tito chuckled. He lifted his tiny espresso cup and sipped from it.
“We’re not partners,” Krissy corrected him. She started to go.
“Hey, hey, hey, babe, why the hurry?” Tito reached out but didn’t quite touch her. “Stay a minute. Have a drink. Compliments of the house.”
“Why?” Krissy demanded, but she sat back down.
“I like you,” Tito smiled. “You know, you could make a lot more by working for me, especially with that cute girl-next-door face and that hot little body of yours. Don’t you get tired of rollin’ drunks in cheap hotels?”
“Not interested,” Krissy smiled back nastily. “You aren’t going to whore me out. And you know I like girls anyway. So forget it.”
“Can’t blame me for tryin’,” Tito shrugged as she got up again. “Come see me in a couple days. I’ll have your money.”
“You’d better,” Krissy called back over her shoulder as she walked away.
Once outside of the bar she turned right and kept walking. It always bothered her when Tito gave her that greasy smile and that tired old pitch about going to work for him. She had no doubts that she could make a lot more money that way, but the thought of being one of his call girls and whoring herself out to men turned her stomach. Men, with their hairy bodies and flabby bellies and bad breath and groping hands…ugh! It was getting a little tiresome occasionally ‘rolling drunks in cheap hotels’, even if those hotels were not really all that cheap, just three-star instead of five-star, but it more than paid the bills and at least she could pick and choose her marks and be the one in control. It was far more lucrative to pick her targets at more upscale locales, but those places had too many security cameras that worked, as well as actual security personnel. It took a lot of work and planning to get in and out of one of those, but the rewards, and the thrill, were a lot greater. In between those jobs she kept hitting low-profile targets in low-profile places. She ought to be able to keep this up for years. And by the time she was getting too old to play the game anymore, she should have more than enough saved up to buy that little place out West that she’d been thinking of, and live quite comfortably into her old age. But that day was a long time away, and in the meantime she enjoyed planning her moves, laying her traps and rolling her marks.
Anyway, her business was done, and she had the rest of the night to herself. She felt like celebrating, but Linda’s shift at the hospital wouldn’t be over for hours, and she would get back to her apartment tired and cranky, so there was no point in calling her. That relationship was coming to an end anyway. Krissy considered her other possibilities. She always had some. The city drew people from all over, many of them young and naïve. The more naïve they were, the more desperate they became after a while. There were a number of places that existed to give those desperate people a meal and a place to sleep. Krissy made a point of donating to a couple of those shelters from time to time so that she was actually welcomed if she happened to drop in. There was one girl she knew of at one of those shelters: Amy. Amy was fresh off the farm, and of legal age, if barely. Krissy had been feeling her out for a couple of weeks now, and it was time to make her move. There was a small park just across the street from the shelter, and Amy often hung out there. Krissy turned her steps in that direction. She always felt like celebrating after one of her jobs, and the prospect of doing that with a new girl excited her.