Aurelia stirred from her slumber while Baron was gone. It took her a few seconds to realize that she was not at home, but instead in a hotel room…with a man. Or rather she was with a man. There was no sign of Baron anywhere now.
Oh wait. Was that the shower running in the bathroom?
Aurelia immediately relaxed when she realized that Baron hadn’t left her high and dry. That he was just getting his hygiene back on point.
Maybe I’ll join him, she mused, moving to get out of the disheveled bed.
Suddenly she froze. Was that money on the nightstand? And was that accompanying note actually declaring that those hefty funds were hers? All hers?!
Aurelia instantly felt ashamed, not flattered by the large stack of bills. She certainly felt no greed.
Yes, Aurelia had danced for the professor’s money tonight, but the sex had been free. She’d wanted to give herself to him. For free!
Now all that fantastic lovemaking they’d done tonight had been reduced to a filthy transaction. As a result, the memory of tonight would be forever tainted in her mind.
Unable to face Baron in light of this awkward and highly embarrassing misunderstanding, Aurelia quickly and quietly gathered her things and left. She’d take another shower once she got back to the hotel where the rest of the girls were.
Yet just like the fairytale Cinderella, Aurelia left something of hers behind in her haste. Not a glass slipper or even a piece of lingerie. No, she left behind a wig. One of her best wigs at that –made of 100% human hair.
* * *
When Baron finally emerged from that shower, he found Aurelia gone and the money still where he’d left it. She hadn’t touched the stack at all. Not a dollar was missing.
Why? Had tonight meant just as much to her as it had to him?
Baron would never know since he didn’t even know her real name. And he was pretty sure
But I do know where she works, Baron thought, recalling that Dingo’s club was in Friendly,
He even had a legitimate excuse to see Aurelia again – the wig he just spotted underneath the beige cushioned chair by the window. Surely all black women valued their hair, real or not. Surely Aurelia would want her wig returned as soon as possible. Right?
Baron found it ironic that he’d found the wig beneath a dancing lady chair of all things. Poetic, too.
No, I said I wasn’t going to stalk her and I meant it, he promptly reminded himself before things went too far. If Aurora, or whatever her real name is, wants to make this one a freebie, then so be it, Baron decided, ready to let the whole thing go, no matter how much it grieved him inside.
© 2009 by Mi’Chelle Dodson/Suprina Frazier
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Photo of a dancing lady chair:
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