She uses the phone... It does not go well.

Now alone, Glimmer looks at the phone as the door behind her closes after Two Trick steps out for the second time. Her mind spirals almost out of control, forgoing all concern as she tries to call the unknown number on the cellphone. She’s cross-legged on the bed, phone pressed hard against her left cheek. Tears practically drip from her eyes as her anxiety skyrockets. She listens to the old-school dialing tone, her eyes focused forward, imagining David’s face again, fixating on the thought of his lips against hers and the way he felt pressed against her body. Then the dialing tone stops, and a soft click sounds over the speaker. Glimmer blinks, checking if the phone has dropped the call or if something else has happened, her faith in the reliability of the old tech in her hands distant.

“Hello?” a voice comes out, almost inaudible away from her ear. She presses the phone against her cheek again and whispers, “Hello?”

“Hello?” The voice quality is low, and she can’t quite recognize it, but she knows it’s a man. Glimmer’s heart pounds. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” the man says with a slight grunt. “Who is this? Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“David?”

“Yes? Who is this? Why don’t you have any caller ID?” David’s voice sounds groggy, but it clears the fog from her mind, and suddenly she sees him perfectly in her thoughts. “Is this about an order? Are you one of my clients?”

“I…” she trails off, her voice catching in her throat. She hadn’t thought about what to say or ask if it was David. Now she’s dumbstruck. “David…”

“Who is this?!” he shouts, the tiredness in his voice breaking through in anger.

“It’s…” Glimmer frowns, and a tear finally falls from her eye; she didn’t mean to anger him. “It’s me.”

“Who? Who is this?” David sighs, the buzz in his voice amplified through the speakers.

She’s beyond hurt that he doesn’t recognize her voice when she knew it was him the moment he spoke. “It’s me, David,” she mumbles, sucking on her lips.

A long moment passes, and she checks if the phone is still on; there’s hardly any battery left. She hears David’s voice coming from the speaker while examining the cellphone and quickly presses it back against her right cheek. “Sorry. What?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know who this is. You sound… far. Where are you calling from?”

“It’s Glimmer,” she tells him, her voice rising slightly. “It’s me, David. I’m… I’m calling from an old cellphone. Can you hear me?” She glances at the metal slabs over her window, wondering if the security measures are making the connection difficult.

David’s voice softens when he replies. “From Pink Heat? How’d… how’d you get this number?”

It takes nothing for Glimmer to know she can’t tell the truth, but the notion of lying to David over the phone stabs her for some untold reason. She fumbles with her hands and stutters like a schoolgirl talking to her crush. Channeling her confidence—yes, it’s somehow still there—has become impossible. “Can we meet somewhere? Sometime soon?”

There’s a longer pause, but Glimmer restrains from checking the battery life and call status. “I’m not exactly near you,” he says. “I’m… well, you know, not from around that district. I was there for business. Maybe we can meet somewhere in the middle?”

“God,” Glimmer breaks into a smile. “I’d love that. A-are you in the Northern District?”

“I move often,” he says, not committing to details.

“Can you please tell me so we can make this happen?” Glimmer’s smile falters, split by the complications of reality while talking to David. “Are you married?”

“What?” David laughs. “No, I’m not married. I’m not even dating anyone. I think you’ve spoiled me; I couldn’t just move on.”

A stupid smile plasters itself on her face. “David, this phone doesn’t have much life left. Could you please tell me where we can meet? I’ll go there every day and wait after work.”

“I’m not in a position to move around freely right now,” David explains. The acoustics of his voice change, sounding like he’s pacing. “We can try to meet on Sunday at the—”

The phone dies, and Glimmer knows immediately the battery is drained. “No, no, no! Fucking now?! No! No! NO!” Her voice rises to a bark, and she nearly throws the phone like she has many other things but stops herself at the last moment. She jumps out of bed and bolts from her room, racing down to the ground floor in search of Two Trick. She was smoking—that much Glimmer recalls. Still dressed in pajamas, she walks into the lounge, where she finds Two Trick in her business attire—a pencil skirt riding a little high as she talks to someone old and tired-looking, the details of the moment long lost.

Glimmer marches forward and extends her hand, open with fingers spread. “Charger. For the phone. Now.”

Two Trick slides her eyes over, exhaling smoke, giving the gentleman at the bar a glance. “This is the cousin I was talking about, the one I’m living with during my stay.”

The man looks at Glimmer. He’s too tired, maybe too old, to care. “I’ve never seen her before in my life.”

Glimmer’s eyes dart between the two, her hand still outstretched. He gets up. “Well, I’m not sticking around for family matters. Thanks for letting this old bird talk your ear off, Miss Fischer.”

“Anytime,” Two Trick murmurs, her eyes narrowing at Glimmer as she slaps her hand away. “Hiii, Gliiimer.”

“I want that fucking charger for this goddamn phone. Now,” Glimmer spits.

Two Trick scoffs, looking away before bringing her cigarette back to her lips to take another puff. Glimmer narrows her eyes more and curses. “Come on, are we going to do this? I was just talking to him.”

“Lover boy,” Two Trick smirks at her. “I bet he was dying to hear from his favorite whore.”

Glimmer grits her teeth, her hands balling up into fists. “Why do you have to be such an asshole? What is it I did to annoy you?”

Two Trick rolls her eyes, snuffing out the filter on the counter. “You just do. You have one of those annoying faces that can be homewrecking. Have there been any divorces lately?”

Mr. Blank comes to mind. Even without showing it in her expression, the truth bleeds through in the pause. Two Trick clicks her tongue, shaking her head. “Naughty, naughty. You know it’s girls like you that give all women a bad rep, right? You sexualize your gender and then complain that men are perverts, but if it weren’t for said perverts, you’d be in the street doing worse or dead?”

“Could you not? I really, really, need that damn charger, Trick!”

“Oh, now she’s begging,” Two Trick smirks, pushing away from the counter. “Do you usually dominate or are you submissive little slut?”

The burn that flares up over Glimmer’s face goes cheek to cheek. She wasn’t proud of everything she’d done, but this was the first time she’d ever been judged or so harshly teased. Two Trick licked her bottom lip, obviously pleased with herself. “Now she’s silent. You look like you’re about to cry, you know that?”

Glimmer didn’t notice the tears prickling in the corner of her vision, but when she did, she went to wipe them, which caused Two Trick to laugh with audience-building laughter. Glimmer looks at the room, the dark lights giving almost no features to the others in the longue, just a sense of exposure… Her bare feet on the clean carpet, her painted nails, and short pajama-shorts… She fidgets with the hem of her tank top and looks down. How could this get any more humiliating? She then worried that management could find out about this somehow, and she’d lose everything.

She felt like she was on the verge of bursting. She closes her eyes and stares at Two Trick. “Give me a chance to explain my story.”

Two Trick’s expression dulled like she was slipping into another mask, one without emotion or features. “Sob stories do better when they have credit or worthwhile information. Who knows, you might have something I actually find interesting.”

“Can you at least give me the dignity to have this conversation in my room?”

Two Trick looks at the room and shrugs. “Might as well.”

Glimmer unravels, going into more detail than she needs to. At first, it’s through **** laughs and pauses, but eventually, she breaks down into tears. By the time she talks about David, she’s hunched over, staring at her toenails. When she tells Two Trick why she’s Alexander to be gone, she’s blabbering– panting through sobs about how he **** her.

Two Trick isn’t just still as Glimmer bleeds out emotionally, she’s indifferent at the end. However, she gives Glimmer a few seconds to gather herself. “This doesn’t have any information I care about.”

Glimmer sniffs, eyes still down. “What do you want to know? I’ll tell you anything if it means getting another call with David… We were just about to make plans to meet up.”

Two Trick’s mouth clicks when it opens, but no words come out. She hesitates, changing gears and finding something else to remark about at the last moment. “Does Alexander come to Pink Heat often?”

Glimmer shakes her head. “I don’t know… I get the client list every morning. Barely any notice. Why?”

“He’s my job, isn’t he?” Two Trick sighed, bringing her attention back to the TV in the room. Glimmer had spent enough time with all types of people to know when there was more to be said, but she was too drained to ask what it was, or what was on Two Trick’s mind. She looked back down and shuffled. It felt like she could use another shower.

“Can I have the phone charger?” Glimmer asks after as if she had swallowed, making sure to withhold all the desperation she wanted to announce. To her dismay, however, even after spilling her guts about her life and what David meant to her, Two Trick denied her.

“I don’t have it on me. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting you just to call the number willy-nilly. You do realize you only have two more uses for that phone before Sevens and I start pulling personal favors out of you, right? I wasn’t kidding about that.” Two Trick once over, Glimmer and grimaces with disgust. She was a mess of sadness, pink eyes, red nose– Glimmer looked different now that she was stripped of her shields and guards; vulnerability wasn’t a good look on anyone, especially in this field. “Get some sleep. I’ll take the couch.”

There’s no protest… Ironically, there was some part of Glimmer’s mind that always teased the idea of having someone in her apartment, a friend, a coworker… a lover… but now, as she reviewed her first guest, she wished she’d never had that idea. Her options were always slim and never decent. Now she had this could-be-killer… a contractor, cold-blooded and without a heart, sleeping just a few feet from her bed. The news of the lack of a charger was what hurt the most, though. And it pained Glimmer to know she’d left David on the phone mid-conversation.

Now she was wishing it… Wishing David back against her, kissing her again… holding her and warming her and talking to her and hearing his voice. These wishes were reduced to pieces that were a fraction of their worth, however. Because she also remembered the annoyance in his voice, and now the new questions she had for him. What was his job? Why was he moving around so often? Where did he want to meet? Glimmer thought the tears shed had drained her body of it, but they threatened to come out again. Seeing Two Trick's unchanged emotional status made her anxious, too. She didn’t give a fuck about her, and now Glimmer was scared to ask about the charger again… When could she have it?