Perfect Imperfections

PROLOGUE

This book is dedicated to all those that have fought battles you were expected to lose and won.
                        ************

EVELYN DAKOTA

Friday night and Evelyn Dakota was finally done with the graveyard shift at the Gold bar where she worked part-time as a stripper. On a good day, she tended the bar but today was not one of them. Evelyn was finally going home to be with her son, who was her only source of joy in a world filled with creeps. Take it from her, she knew them all. There were men and even on rare occasions, women that groped her at her place of work. Some were even as audacious as to try to rape her on the premises of the bar. They always ended up with a black eye or two depending on Evelyn's mood. Evelyn had learnt a long time ago that survival was only for the better prepared.

Evelyn's phone buzzed in her satchel. It was probably her mother. She had been calling a lot lately. She was the same person that had thrown Evelyn out of her life on finding out she was pregnant at sixteen. Evelyn's mom had left her to fend for herself in the big city. She must think Evelyn was stupid enough to let her back into her life after she had suffered on her own for four years. A disgrace, she had called her as she had slammed the creaky old oak door of the farmhouse in her face. Evelyn knew that her mother was seeking atonement for her sins because she was dying of cancer. Damn her to hell. Her mother was not even the worst of them all.

Evelyn's piece of shit boyfriend came number one. Gabriel had played the going-abroad-for-college card immediately she had broken the news  of her pregnancy to him. Evelyn knew he was faking his renewed desire to go to college. He was already way past the quintessential age for going to college. Damn him to hell.

Evelyn put on her long  trench coat as she had come to work in a flimsy red dress topped off with extremely fake pearls. She checked her satchel for her pepper spray then slung it over her shoulder. Sometimes she wished she could carry a gun but getting a carrying permit would take time and registration which an illegal immigrant like her wasn't going to go through.

Her phone rung and she hesitantly pulled it out to check. She hoped that it was not her mother calling again. The caller ID read Elena and she quickly checked her wrist watch for the time. It was just after nine. Evelyn already knew that it was not going to be Elena on the other end of the call but her son,  Ryan. Ryan always called at nine p.m, if she wasn't yet home to give her a good night kiss and to also throw in a little tantrum owing to her absence. A four year old boy wasn't exactly accustomed to being without his mother for a whole week but what could she do. A girl had to bring in the dough.

"Mommmmmmyyy!" her four year old son sang over the phone.

"Hey peanut. Before you say anything, I am coming to pick you up." She imagined Ryan pouting as he prepared himself to throw the fifth tantrum of the week. Evelyn really hoped that she could make something of herself before Ryan was old enough to understand what she really did for a living. Evelyn had lied to him that she was a secretary for a rich law firm. Not in that flimsy red dress she wasn't.

"I did everything like you said mommy and aunt Elena helped too. Should I pack up? " he said excitedly. It was hard to say no to that enthusiasm. Evelyn wished she possessed some of his innocence. She had gotten to experience the lee ward side of the world very early in life.

Evelyn told him to get ready and he quickly hung up the phone.

"How rude! Not even a goodbye kiss." Evelyn muttered as she stuffed her hands in the deep pockets of her brown trench coat and walked the remaining few blocks to her house so that she could change into more "secretary like clothes" and not look like the whore she thought she was, when she went to pick up her son from Elena's place.