Fuck you. Fuck this. Fuck everything. Don’t ever believe a goddamn word I fucking say. After all, everyone’s pretending. After all, this is a work of fiction. Sometimes, there’s a possibility that we could lose ourselves between fiction and reality. Some could make it back to reality, while others completely lose themselves in fiction. And to be perfectly honest, I enjoy getting lost in fiction since reality itself is too sobering most of the time.

There goes Rita, dressed in blue satin, you couldn’t tell if she’s in her twenties or thirties. She’s one of those women who’s appearance is age proof, and she’s using it to her full advantage. Lots of women wish that their looks could stay the same. Especially the soccer moms living in Manhattan and New Jersey. But Rita, she’s child free by her own choice. And she’s glad that she lives in the neighborhood of Bushwick, NYC. She’s got this nice one bedroom apartment on Wilson Avenue. It’s almost eight o’clock at night and she’s standing in front of the mirror analyzing herself. She doesn’t need to tell herself that she’s beautiful, because she’s conventionally attractive; Caucasian, long blonde wavy hair, blue eyes, slender figure- She’s pretty much the doppelganger of the late Hollywood actress, Sharon Tate. She stares at her face one last time and tells herself, “Good luck tonight!”. She then finally leaves her apartment and heads to Carousel, a new bar with with the retro vibes of 1980’s Miami, on Wyckoff Ave and Starr Street.

The minute she arrives at Carousel, all the eyes of men, and some women are on her. And she’s also very aware of it. Yet, she tries to appear ambivalent. She takes a seat at the bar and orders a glass of vodka tonic. She looks around the bar, seems to be looking for someone. At one of the booths, there’s an older man, in his late fifties or early sixties, dressed in an expensive suit. He seems to be preoccupied with Rita takes a sip of her drink and walks over to his booth where he’s sitting alone. She takes a seat across the booth table from the lonely man, without any hesitation. The man who was staring down the table with his hands crossed, looks up to her pretty face and slightly smiles.

“Gary?” Rita asked.

“Yes, hi.” He replied.

“I’m Rita, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

A cocktail waitress comes over to take their orders. He ordered a Makers Mark on the rocks, while she ordered a cosmopolitan.

“So, you wanna head over to the hotel after this?”

“How much is your service fee again?”

“Oh, it’s the same amount on the text I sent you.”

“Could you confirm?”

Rita seems to be baffled and felt strange at the same time.

“Sure, it’s $5000, cash only.”

“OK, copy that.”

Gary takes out an envelope and gives it to Rita. She immediately accepts it, opens it up, and sees cash inside in one hundred dollar bills. She counted it and it’s $5000 total.

“Thanks. So where’s your hotel?” Rita asked.

“There’s no hotel.” Gary answered.

“Don’t expect me to suck your cock in the bathroom, that’s not gonna happen. And don’t even think that you can fuck me in the subway. I don’t do sex in public places. Let me very clear about that.”

“No, you don’t need to do any of that.”

Rita started to look baffled.

“Okay, so what do you want to do?”

“If we could just sit here and talk, I’d appreciate it.”

“You’re not gonna ask me questions like some creepy journalist?”

“No.”

For a split second, Rita finally felt almost comfortable in the presence of Gary. I think someone can say that it’s her lucky night, she got paid $5000 with no need to perform sexual services. Just listen to whatever Gary has to say. The cocktail waitress delivered their drinks and he started to talk about his life- how bored he is with his wife, who he’d been married to for the last eighteen years, how he regrets having children who are now both teenagers. How he wondered how would have life turned out for him if he remained single. It’s funny really, how some “successful conformists” people like him have regrets about marriages and having children in their middle aged years. In a way, Rita is beyond glad that she hates children and has no plans of having one or dealing with one. Biologically, she’s still young and healthy enough to bore an offspring, but frankly, she knows for a fact that she’s not equipped for it. And also, she wants to spare any future human the suffering of life’s harsh reality without the pink motif of the Barbie movie that everyone was blabbing about as if it was some masterpiece motion picture from the 1930’s.

“I think I’m gonna divorce my wife and leave my kids.” Gary said.

“What? No, are you serious?” Rita replied.

“This whole family guy living situation is strangling the hell out of me! And half of my friends who remained a bachelor seems to have less headache than I do. I hate my kids and I don’t love my wife.”

“Gary, I think you’re making your decisions too quickly.”

“Oh yeah? What would you do if you’re the one in my place?!”

Rita was thinking very carefully before she says anything back to her client. She looked at the bathroom hallway and saw her friend, Carlos, a handsome Puerto Rican native who moved to NYC when he was sixteen years old, now he’s thirty. He walked out of one of the bathrooms zipping up his pants, looked around to make sure no one was looking, after he left the bathroom hallway, a fat guy with bearded face, wearing sunglasses also came out of the same bathroom where he was. Rita saw that and she smiled to herself.

“Rita!” Gary exclaimed.

“Hey, I’m sorry… I got distracted” She responded.

“So what would you do? Huh? If you’re the one stuck in a marriage and a couple of teenagers?! And all I want is for me to be happy! I think I deserve it.”

“I know you do. But you have a responsibility as husband to your wife and father to your children.”

“You don’t get it”.

“You’re right, I don’t. Because I chose not to be married, and not to have children. This is basic common sense.”

“Well hell, I think I got my answer.”

Gary then hurriedly stands up from the booth and looks at Rita. Rita seems to be confused.

“Thank you, I needed this.”

He then walks out of the bar. She watched him exit the bar, he walked out like an accomplished graduate student from NYU who finally completed his MBA and is now ready to take on the fucking world. Good luck to Gary. Rita then left the booth and moved towards the backside of the bar past the mezzanine seating area, and ordered herself an absinthe-based cocktail. She looks to her right and she sees Carlos again, who at this time, making out with some random guy, definitely someone from his age range. He noticed that Rita saw him. He then stops making out with the rando, seems to be nervous and then sits right next to Rita.

“Oh hi Carlos, who’s your friend you’re having some mouth to mouth action with?” She asked with a smirk in her face.

“Listen, it’s not what it looks like! I’m not gay!” Carlos replied.

“I never said you’re gay! Could you relax?!”

“Well, you’re making assumption about my sexuality! I’m straight, I’m not gay!”

“Carlos! I’m not making any assumption of anything! Just live your life, no one cares!”

“I always live my life. But so you know, sometimes I have to do things I don’t like just for the money.”

“Oh believe me, I understand completely. So who’s the fat guy with the beard that you were in the bathroom with? And that blonde twink you just made out?”

Carlos looks annoyed and irritated.

“Don’t talk to me like that! What’s the matter with you?! I’m not gay!”

He then storms out of the bar. She then smiles to herself. Rita thought it was funny that Carlos blatantly after she saw him in homosexual action. She never really understood why he keeps lying about his sexuality. Not just lying but also in full denial. The song “Chandelier” by Sia is playing in the background and she thought to herself, that night wasn’t so bad. It was an interesting tale of the prostitute and the liar. She also realized that life itself is one big costume party, and the biggest mistake anyone can make is by dressing up as themselves.

THE END