A Taste of Spring

SPRING

The chimes of her ringing cell phone rankled Spring Lafayette's nerves. She turned her attention from the passing scenery of city life and settled back into the backseat of the taxi. Spring glanced at the cell phone in her hand then up at the rearview mirror. Her eyes met the driver's gaze through the reflective image.

The driver, a young woman with purple hair and considerable patience, smiled.

Spring offered a half smile as she worked on calming her pounding heart which overshadowed the continuous ringing of her phone, but not enough for her to ignore it. She groaned as she tapped the answer button.

"Listen Springy, I've thought about it and you don't have to do this."

(Yes, I do.)

tried to sound confident. "We talked about this already." She waited for her sister's response but whatever

I have to

my boss," Summer attempted to say, but it came out as a

know you can, and I can handle this. How hard can it be?" Spring's thumb hovered over the disconnect button. "I'll call you if I need to." She pressed the button

icon. She opened the email her sister forwarded to her and

bill perfectly

hair, in long thin box braids,

she wasn't working-a little mascara, a little liner,

counted to ten as she took in, then let out slow even breaths. She attempted to calm her racing mind and

are not paid pieces of flesh. They are intelligent, respectable people who provide companionship for clients who have no time or desire to search for it. Clients are generally not hard up perverts who just want to get the escort naked. Most of the time they are just regular people with normal lives who for whatever reason decided to bypass

was not a practice of Spring's to get so involved in her sister's life, but she owed Summer and she meant to pay her back, or start a payment plan of sorts, and taking her place