Chapter 2

Carla picked up her purse at the front desk and the young man smiled at her hiding his dirty thoughts about watching the video of her later when they reviewed the security tapes. He had seen her taking it from behind a couple of times in the viewing room and the jokes and the laughter was rampant in the room the entire time. There was no doubt that she was a spicy number and she had to be careful not to get a client with a bum ticker because she was kind of girl that would inspire a monk to get busy doing the two step tango.

She took a quick whiff of her asthma inhaler before heading out into the Miami Beach traffic patterns. Her car was a reject from the rental trade, but it was a decent model and got very good mileage for a six cylinder car. The air conditioner was a little flaky at times and she hoped it wouldn’t pick today to act up because she didn’t want to get sweated up before heading over to her son’s school for the parent/teacher meeting.

Her mom was still getting her nails done by Josie the girl from the first floor. Josie was a nice girl and she knew all the tricks of the trade when it came to fixing nails and hair and facial make-up. She had worked for a short time as a make-up artist for the television studios downtown but they had all turned to some union agency that only hired in-house people for that kind of job anymore. It had kind of bothered her that there were no girls of color in the new mix, but it wasn’t worth her effort to make a fuss because it was a done deal and she wasn’t going to change a thing, no matter how much she felt it was the right thing to do.

Carla’s mom was still a fairly “hot” number despite her advanced years and Carla didn’t begrudge her the fact that she could get a date with guys the same age as her daughter. She had a deal with Carla that around the house, they would refer to Carla as her “sister” and not her daughter because it might make her look too old for business or social relations.

Carla was pulling down an easy two grand after paying out her comps for the hotel staff and other expenses each week and was clearing a hundred “G’s” a year without paying taxes or other shit like the regular workers on a time-card job. They had come after her one year for not paying taxes and she went down to the courthouse and gave the old guy behind the desk a quick on her knees performance that yanked his chain real good. He lost her file real quick and she never heard anything about it again. Of course, one day, they would probably want to know why she didn’t have any quarters on her Social Security account and would make it tough for her to get any pension because of lack of records. That was a bridge she would cross when the time came around.

She had been putting funds aside now for the last eight years into the banks and credit unions up to a maximum of nine thousand in each one and she knew she could access the money without any problem because it was below the ten thousand ceiling and she never tied it up in a CD or other higher interest account that still was not paying shit when it came to income.

The school was all lit up and that was a good sign because it was not in a good location all things considered. It was not a problem during the day because of the police and the fact there were a lot of authorities around the school. It was a different story at night because the drug distribution cartels were all over the place fighting for the best corners and it was dangerous for everyone concerned that might get caught in a cross-fire without any reason to be in the mix other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

None of the kids were at the school because this meeting was just for the teachers and the parents to get acquainted and understand what would be required of their child for the remainder of the school year. She had paid extra for her daughter to attend the school and it was a step up on the public school with the drug and the loose sex problems. Of course, her daughter was only in the fifth grade, but it seemed like things were starting earlier every year that passed.

The teacher’s name was Mister Crowley and he was not a native Floridian. He was a transplant from New York City and didn’t speak a word of Spanish. In a way, that was a good thing because it made all the kids learn English a lot faster and they had to use the English words to explain their work and that was even more valuable than hiring an English tutor. After a few years of having to use English in the school systems, most of the kids spoke English better than Spanish and eventually they only used the Spanish to talk in code to friends and relatives without being understood. Of course, with Spanish, one never knew who could understand because it was the most popular foreign language in the school system.

There were only about eleven parents in the group.

There were five sets of two parents and she was the only single parent in the group. That meant that only about 25% of the parents even bothered to show up for the only meeting of the entire school year. It was not a positive sign of participation that the district office wanted from the parent group.

Mister Crowley explained that his wife had not joined him from New York as yet because she was still working in New York and they had both decided it was better for her to keep working up there instead of relocating to Florida without a job lined up that paid at least what she was making up in New York and kicking into the family bank account.

That made a lot of sense to Carla and she felt sorry for the handsome young man way down in Miami beach all by his lonesome while his bride was up in the Big Apple with all those horny toads chasing after pussy like a bunch of wolves in the forest. He opened up is wallet and passed around a photo of his wife and she had to admit the woman was “hot” and would heat up his bed considerable as soon as she arrived.