SUNSHINE MEETS BAY

"Tell me how this works."
"It's like dating. Sometime new friends know exactly what they want."
"'New friends'? Is that what you call your clients?"

[Mahlena wrote this short story. Tell a Friend. 🙆🏾]

“You look exactly like your picture. That never happens. Not that I've done this before. Any of this.”





September 2016


“You must be Sunshine.” He rose to hold out the white chair at the small metal table for her.


“I hope you’re Bay.”

“I am. It’s nice to meet you.” He pushed her in closer, then took his seat.

“I am so nervous. I should start the time.” Sunshine clicked a button on her digital watch. “We only have 30 minutes, so I wanted to arrive early. How did you get here before I did? I’m usually the first person wherever I go.”

“Would you like something to drink, or eat?” Bay glanced at the chalkboard menu hanging behind the glass counter of the café. 

“I’m good for now, thanks.” Sunshine looked down. “I thought I would be calmer by the time I was sitting.”

“It’s okay.” He cracked open his water bottle. “I won’t bite. Unless you want me to. But that’s extra.”

Sunshine looked up at him. “That’s a joke.”

“You’re smiling.”

“I know Brenda explained the whole operation to me when I went into the office for all the paperwork and payment and interview and tests, which I passed, thank goodness. I didn’t think I wouldn’t, since I’ve only been with one person for the past 10 years. 15 years? Gosh. But who knows what he was doing.”

Bay listened patiently.

She shook her head. “I never talk this much. Can you say something instead?”

“What do you have in mind?”

Sunshine rubbed her goosebumped arms. “Tell me how this works from your perspective.”

“It’s like dating. Sometimes there’s a short, initial meeting, like we’re having, to get to know each other beyond a photo and a few sentences. Sometimes new friends know exactly what they want, so they select someone who meets their needs and book a longer session.”

“‘New friends’?” Sunshine asked. “Is that what you call your clients?”

“Some of them are old friends by now.”

“How many do you have at a time?”

“It varies. The holidays can be a busy season.”

“I can imagine. Rich, single ladies with no family to go home to.”

“Not always single,” Bay corrected.

“I had no idea what I wanted. Brenda was asking such specific questions about what I was attracted to. I couldn't help. I told her that my friend Addison,” Sunshine whispered, “said I should look up the agency because it helped after her divorce, and I wanted to make sure the person I was matched with was nice, because I don't know what I’m doing.”

“You’re doing fine.”

“Brenda showed me three potential ‘friends’,” she air quoted. “The first one looked too much like Basil, my ex-husband. The second one, Zack? Too… preppy.”

“True. Good guy, though.”

“The third one was you.”

“Winner by default!” Bay fist pumped the air.

“I chose you!” Sunshine protested. “Not only for obvious, superficial, aesthetic reasons.” She gestured to his print model face and lean muscles. “I also like that you specialize in massage. Though I’ve never had one. Strangers touching me? Ew.”

Bay retrieved his hands from the table.

“Not you,” Sunshine insisted. “Other people.”

Bay placed his hands back on the table. “Is that what you’d like to start with?”

“Eventually, maybe? That could be nice.”

“We can take it slow.”

Sunshine relaxed. “That would be perfect.”

“This is about you. We don’t have to do anything.”

“Do some friends just talk?”

“Many of them do.”

“That would help me feel more comfortable, before I try new things.” She checked her watch. “We only have…” Sunshine checked again. “25 more minutes left.”

“What else would you like to know?”

“Everything about you!” Sunshine laughed. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue.”

“That’s everyone’s favorite color. Not mine. What’s your favorite food?”

“My mother’s peas and rice and fried plantains. Her mofongo’s pretty good, too.”

“What would we do on our first date?”

“I have been thinking about this. Under Hobbies, you wrote Puzzles.”

“I couldn’t think of anything else. I’m usually at work or transporting my daughter somewhere. She’s with her father this weekend.”

Bay leaned in. “Would you like to go to an escape room? We’d have to talk with each other to get out. And then lunch afterwards?”

“I’ve always wanted to do one of those. So, yes. As long as it’s not too hard.”

Bay took her hand. “I’ll make this easy for you.”

Sunshine nodded. “You already have.”

FIN

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