What Beauty Takes

DISCLAIMER--
The song above is just a nice song I thought people would enjoy, it's one of my favorites and how I got inspired by this story. You of course do not need to listen, just thought I would share.

As Rose looks in the bathroom mirror warm salty tears escape her hazel-colored eyes, along with a smile. A tilt to her head and combing her hands into her dark brown messy hair seems to help. She keeps doing this many times; a tilt, fingers comb her hair, then a smile. A smile knowing she's beautiful. Her puffy rose lips smile once more until a knock on the door reminds her of what gives her such beauty. Her head turns toward the door before pausing.
"Are you ready to go again ?" A man whose name she has forgotten, in fact now that she can recall she doesn't even remember getting his name. As she wipes her makeup smudged eyes she opens the door in response.
Once she opens the door out swings the guy, pulling her into his arms and immediately kissing her neck, his scruffy beard scratching her neck and chest as he did so. It isn't the kissing that she actually enjoys, it's the feeling of being wanted and knowing they choose her.
Laying on the bed with the man she sees the time "4:21 A.M" so she gets up and looks at the sloppy sleeping man, she then tiptoes with her white chipped painted toes and goes to grab his blue jeans that were on the wooden floor and sticks her shaky hand into the pocket trying to be as quiet as she can knowing that if he wakes up all hell would break loose. Emptying all the pockets she finally feels what she was looking for this whole time. A ripped brown leather wallet in her shaky hand; as she opens it she just stares at the wallet with disbelief thinking it's nothing new. She just always feels awful when she sees a picture of their family or the fact that they even have a family. One child and a wife smiling; she stares at the picture wondering if that could ever be her. She quickly lost that thought when right there she glanced at herself in the body mirror of the room, she can't have a family or even remotely close to one. She was far too dirty and a mess, she didn't want her own kids to see that. Her eyes start to water from looking in the mirror as she does it again; a tilt to her head and a smile. A smile trying to tell her this isn't her life, it will end soon. The first time she ever saw a family picture she had felt like it was her fault, her mistake, she was just purely disgusted with herself and promised in her head she would never again, that she only needed the money one more time, that she could get over the feeling of pure lust and being wanted, it soon happened many times after.
The man grunting and turning gets her out of her memories as she quickly tightens her grip and hides the wallet behind her back, a gasp of air and a beat in her chest that won't start back up contemplating the thoughts of getting caught. He then slips the thin blanket more on himself and snuggles into it. This causes her to sigh in relief as she lessens her grip on the wallet and opens it up. As she does so she keeps an eye on the man to make sure he doesn't wake up and grabs all the money.
"5,10,15..." She trails off counting the money. It ends up as $200 out of 50s and three 100 dollar bills. As she smiles in satisfaction she hurriedly folds all the money in her hand and starts to quickly get dressed, putting on her black skirt and shirt without anything else under. Her bare feet tiptoe out of the lousy room and head to the main building. When she reaches the exit of the main building she quickly puts her platforms on by a nearby outside bench. Once she feels adjusted she starts walking, her feet blistering up halfway through the progress. She usually likes to pick motels across town for safety, but don't forget about the price. She was walking when she sees a bus stop bench, takes a seat, and just rests herself for what she wanted to be for about 2 minutes when a jet black Audi TT pulls up right next to her and lowers the window. A man whom she didn't care to see or hear appears from the window.
"You realize a bus isn't going to be here until 6 A.M. right ?" the man who had a brown combover haircut and a dazzling smile began to say.
She looks at the open window and instantly becomes mesmerized by this man's ravishing looks. His brown eyes reflecting back to hers. It has almost been about a minute now that a word hasn't gone by from her as the man just looks at her with an eyebrow raised. After about a minute he starts to awkwardly roll his window up, Rose mentally giving herself a slap on the face as she tries to respond quickly.
"No, I didn't know that." She says in a soft voice where for the first time in a while she realized she was actually nervous. The man stopping his window mid-way, and smiling.
"You know I've actually seen you around, you look so familiar" Rose looking like a deer in headlights had so many questions after that. Has he seen me with men ? Does he know what I do and that's why he stopped ? She wouldn't put it past him, she has seen so many men who she thinks are nice looking gentlemen but when their friends tell them what her job is they automatically treat her like a prop or toy.
"I... uh work nearby" Which in her case isn't a lie and he knows that too.
"I do too, what company ?" He asks more persistently which makes her start to feel queasy.
"If you must know, I am actually self-employed." Rose says in a matter-of-fact tone as she gets up off the bench.
"I bid you a good day sir." She finished saying as she walks away. She was mesmerized by his looks, but not idiotic enough to fall for looks. The man just watches her leave knowing she'll be back at that bench soon. She desperately wants to look back at that car, but before she fulfills that urge the car drives past her like a cheetah trying to catch its prey. She sees the black Audi TT pull into a huge parking lot for an even larger building. As she walks past the building, mumbles of regret stumble out of her mouth wishing she accepted the offer, and where the offer would have taken her.
Once Rose arrived at her apartment she sees a white envelope hanging on her door. She grabs and opens up the envelope a sigh escaping her mouth as she reads it. "Studio 209 due for payment" She looks at the other paper inside the envelope showing the bill; Rose had been missing 3 full months of rent, $2,085. Her eyes start to tear up as she just continuously stares at the paper knowing the owner won't let it slide no more. For a second she even thought about going over there as a payment, but she knew she couldn't do that to the landlord, the one person who has been treating her right when everything has been going wrong.
As soon as she gets inside her house she goes to her home phone to call the landlord, her hands shaking as she dials the number. All she could hear was ringing for a few seconds, then a voice.
"Hello ? Rose from 209, is everything alright ?" A man who's tone made it seem as if he did not just put an eviction notice on her door. Rose had many ways to answer him, but decided it was best to play nice.
"Um, hi Mr. Malcomson everything isn't particularly the greatest I'll say" Rose began to say with a chuckle and tears forming in her eyes.
"I was just calling you to talk about my due payment of 3 months and I was wondering-" She had continued until Vic Malcomson had stopped her.
"Oh right that, well Ms. Miller you must understand that you haven't paid since January,
I've been holding off on you for a while because I know you have problems, but please Ms. Miller we all have our problems." Rose takes the phone and puts it to her chest to cover the speaker as she bites her bottom lip while closing her eyes, a tear falling out of both hazel colored eyes. She takes a deep breath to steady out her breathing as she goes back to the phone.
"Sir please just give me this month I promise you." Rose began to plead as she was trying to figure out a last option.
"Forgive me Ms. Miller, but is that not what you said last month ?" As she finally figured out one last option she spoke.
"I...I'll take out a loan Mr. Malcomson, please don't kick me out. I need this place, I have nowhere else." Her voice cracking in the middle of her sentence. A three second pause appeared before she heard his voice again.
"Mm alright, just this last time Ms. Miller. I won't be giving you warnings, next time you don't pay you're out. Understand ?" Mr. Malcomson had said as Rose sighs with a smile in relief.
"Thank you so much Vic, I really don't know what I would do without you." Rose exclaims in joy.
"Yeah yeah, houseless is what you would've become." Vic half joked.
As they hang up, Rose picks up the mail and newspapers from the table, determined to find a company where they give loans. After a nice one hour nap to forget her struggles and hours of looking her hazel eyes stop at a section, Cooper's Notary with a phone number and details about their business, "Handling loan documents since 1970!" Since they have been open for 20 years she figured they were reliable, so she picks up the phone again and dials away.
"Hi, this is Janice from Coopers Notary. How may I help you today ?" A woman with a perky voice answered.
"Hi, I was looking at a newspaper and I came across your company which says they give out loans. I was wondering what the process would be to receive one ?" Rose says with woe.
"Oh yes, we do, we would just have to gather a bit of information about you first, like your credit and what you would want the loan for." Janice from Cooper's Notary responds. Rose shudders at the fact that she knows she has a bad credit history.
"My credit score is 480 and I would be needing a loan to help pay for my house that I am three months behind on." Rose began to say as she shakes her head knowing her credit is low.
"Ah well 480 is not quite where we would recommend someone to be at when requesting for a loan, especially for- well what price were you hoping for ma'am ?" Rose's eyes began to water again. She was done for; no money, no house, and no one.
"$2,100" Her voice cracking in the process.
Janice from Cooper's Notary had felt sympathy for her so she had a meeting with the higher-ups and unfortunately none had agreed. Once they declined the offer her only hope is to do what she has always done, get her payments. Except for this time she couldn't handle the feeling of humiliation and regret. So she gets dressed in a short black skin-tight dress and goes to a liquor store. Once she's there she can't even comprehend the surroundings feeling dazed and confused as she contemplates what is going to happen now. She buys a 12oz of tequila and slugs it down walking to the bus stop bench she always goes to. As nighttime starts to creep in the lighting starts to decrease, getting pretty dark to see, Rose starts to know her business is now open, literally. She picks up the bottle to her face and squints to see the now ¾ empty bottle of tequila and scoffs at the fact she's almost finished. As she puts the bottle down from her face she sees a jet-black car approach the curb, Rose knowing none of her regulars would have such a car, stumbles over to the car as the car lowers his window. Rose who was leaning into his window takes a step back embarrassed that the man with such a smile is seeing her like this right now but then realizes this pig is here at the stop.
    "You need something ?" Rose says as one of her eyes scrunch up. The man looking at Rose with his light brown eyes smiled with his eyebrows furrowed.
 

    "You're the one who came up to my car ma'am, so do you need something ?" The man sitting with a smirk as Rose gets fed up, huffs and turns around to walk away.
    "Let me take you somewhere." Rose thought that was one of the weirdest ways someone could ask but agreed and gets in. Rose being drunk starts sobbing about her rent and situation, the man biting his cheeks and grinding his teeth all the way there as if he was nervous. Rose kept blabbing to him until she noticed he was taking her to a hotel, not surprising. Once they enter the hotel room she sees one twin bed, she looks towards him thinking it's a bit too small for both of them. Here we go again, Rose thought to herself as she goes to lay on the nice soft bed though the man doesn't, instead he goes in the restroom for what she thought eternity as she slowly dazes off. The man coming out of the restroom takes the bottle from her, smiles, covers her with his jacket, and leaves.
     When Rose wakes up an immediate headache grows so she goes to the restroom. A scream can be heard from inside the room, a scream of happiness as she picks up an envelope with a $2,100 check and a card that says Cooper's Notary, under it a name with a handwritten note and phone number. You were in the distance yet your distant beauty and color was the art and pigment of my mind. Sincerely, Alex Cooper. Tears of joy run down her face as she looks in the mirror, tilts her head, combs her hands into her hair and smiles, unlike her other smiles this pearly smile was the one, the one where she knows it ends.