(A/N: chapters from here on out will be in third person POV.)
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Pep looked left and right before finally resting her head on her folded arms that rested on top of her oak desk. She felt drained, she never expected the turn of events. Tash was currently sitting in her usual room waiting on her client to come and start their session. Pep was experiencing levels of stress that she wasn't accustomed to and she didn't know how to cope with it. Tash was getting hooked on cocaine so she tried to limit the amount of coke she had stashed around the place.
The only thing easing her mind right now was the fact that she switched the appointment schedule and someone else will be getting Tash's client. Pep expected her to barge in here soon enough complaining that she's not making any money even though Pep regularly questions where she went wrong in giving her everything she wanted, she showered her with financial freedom; wasn't that enough?
"Taaaiiidaaaan." Pep smiled when she heard the door crack open and Tash's soft voice echoed through the cool dimly lit room.
"Ma chérie." Pep raised her head from its spot on her arm to greet Tash.
"I'm so sad." Tash pouted while walking over to Pep's desk.
"Why?" Pep pushed herself back to allow Tash to sit on her lap while she wrapped her arms around her torso to keep her close.
"I'm not making any money. My client didn't come." Tash squished her cheek against Pep's forehead.
"I'm so sorry." Even though Pep was the furthest thing from sorry.
"Is it that I'm not attractive anymore?" Tash expressed from the deepest part of her soul, she had been wanting to ask the question for some time now; afraid that maybe Pep would feel the same way and leave her.
Pep immediately felt bad but it wasn't enough for her to feel sorry for canceling and rescheduling her appointments. She didn't want her woman to be selling sex when she didn't need to. Pep had other girls who were willing and able, so she was more than happy to take Tash off the lineup.
Tash was and still is the most beautiful woman she's laid eyes on and Pep had experienced the finest. It had more to do with her beauty that radiated from the inside than physical attributes even though she was still greatly beautiful in that aspect as well. Her soft fine eyes stirred something in Pep that she'd never experienced before, they looked at her in a way she only thought her mother could. Tash seemingly loved Pep despite all of her cynical faults and that made Pep want to give the world and the stars to the young woman sitting on her lap. Pep was still wary, thinking that maybe one day Tash would see the real her and money wouldn't be able to keep her around anymore.
"No, no. Have you ever heard of Edgar Allen Poe?" Pep kissed the scar that rested on the bottom of her chin, she knew she was the one who inflicted any scar that littered her sweet melanin; so she might as well love them.
Tash shook her head while Pep smiled a lovestruck smile. Pep didn't know where she fell for the short, expressive young woman but she didn't have a fault with it.
"It was many and many a year ago
In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me."
Pep started to recite the beautiful words of Edgar Allen Poe as if she had written it specifically for the woman currently sitting on her lap, Tash is her Annabel Lee and she wouldn't have it any other way. Tash felt her breath hitch in her throat, it wasn't a new feeling; she was completely smitten by the likes of Pep, she was beyond the point of return and she wasn't hoping for a reason to go back.
