Caminah Smuts

You Can Leave The Lights On

Dusk settles between the ragged apartment buildings that tower over the roads that Camila drives through. She has no idea what she's doing, where she's driving. But the night is as good as any to avoid the emptiness of her apartment, the loneliness that comes with success, as mild as it is. She turns right, catches a sight of women in packs of threes, smoking. Swigging something tucked in unmarked brown paper bags.

Camila listens to the music from the radio as she drives. It helps to prevent the stifling silence from catching up to her thoughts that often curtails into a bout of melancholy. She shrugs it off and drives her way closer to the docks. Which sounds like a terrible idea since it's getting late but Camila has yet to find someone that fits the description she wants. Not like she's picky. All she wants is a Polynesian with golden blonde hair, but most of the girls she keeps driving by are faux brunettes. Camila feels as if her meager requirements are not that much to ask for in a street-walking prostitute, so she doesn't pick them up.

The street lamps flicker and Camila rounds another corner. A blonde woman catches her eye, dressed in a red plaid skirt, a lacy black bra, and a sheer cardigan tied underneath her breasts. She has a captain's hat perched on top of her head, flanked by two other women wearing a different set of attire as revealing as the blonde's. Camila has eyes for nobody else but her.

She pulls over to the side of the curb and honks the horn. The three women glance over to her and Camila lowers her windows. She sees the woman. Realizes who she is. After all, Camila knows that nose she once coveted, those brown eyes, and those plump, pink lips from anywhere.

And apparently, she recognizes Camila too. She murmurs something to her companions and they both nod. She approaches Camila's vehicle alone. Bends over to lean against the door of her car. "Camila."

"Dinah," the brown haired girl whispers, almost reverently. She swallows hard, ignores the insistence of her cock to make itself known. Camila hastily wonders what to say next. Decides to opt for the trajectory of professional conversation. "How much for a night?"

Dinah doesn't seem to expect the question. She blinks, eyes Camila suspiciously. "Three hundred. You pay for the hotel room."

Camila chews her bottom lip. Almost decides against it but Dinah's abs are right fucking there and she's always dreamed about that plane of skin like a landing pad for her cum. She clears her throat. "Okay."

"Cash only." Dinah adds, but she walks around the car and boards the passenger's side. Camila nods and reminds herself to find an ATM. She doesn't carry that type of cash around. And besides, she didn't expect to actually find someone she wants to take to a hotel and fuck. Most of all, she never expected to see Dinah.

Camila drives in silence to the nearest motel she knows of. Fifty bucks a night and it doesn't look as grungy and dirty like the other motels with their off-white walls and harsh orange lighting. She glances at Dinah, still dressed in her sexy getup as she reads the paper off the rack. Camila signs them into a non-smoking room while ignoring the judgmental looks of the receptionist. Fuck off, lady. Camila thinks. She hands Dinah the other key card and withdraws six hundred in cash from the machine before following her to the elevator.

Up to the third floor they go, and Dinah opens the room for them. She carries no purse so she plops herself down on the edge of the queen-sized bed. Camila fidgets with her purse. "So..."

"Any reason why you bought a prostitute, Camila?" Dinah demands. She reclines back, her skin stretching across her stomach, her ribs. Camila almost groans at the sight, but her cock does twitch. "Is this a thing you do regularly?"

"No." Camila sets her purse on the writing desk and stands before Dinah. She hasn't seen her since high school, and all those years of pent up frustration is resurfacing, like dead starfishes in the sea. But not quite dead, as her heart flutters when Dinah stands and saunters over to where she is rooted to the floor. "I just wanted-"