Sometimes fate has a way of utterly mucking things up when least expected. Occasionally, things work out for the better. Sometimes...you're just screwed.

Tonight will not suck, Raya told herself as she slipped her new designer pumps on. In her book, any night that involved new shoes was a good night. These were her favorite kind -- tall, blood red, and very expensive. Just like her.

She smoothed her fiery hair with her hand, and checked her makeup in the mirror. A grey smokey-eyed look worked splendidly for her. Her black mini-dress, like most of her clothes, was tight enough to pass as a second skin. So snug, that it forced her to reach in the top to fluff her bosom to keep them from appearing small. They darn-tootin' should look big; her boss paid a pretty penny for them. Her plump bottom looked ravishing enough, she decided, as she turned this way and that to check.

What difference does it make? She wondered finally, knowing she'd be out of the dress within the hour anyway.

Undressing was part of her job. Sure, she could just get paid petty cash to keep the wealthy, sometimes attractive, and often times intelligent men company, but if she really wanted to make a profit she would have to part with her skimpy threads sometime during the night.

As per usual, it wasn't enjoyable for her; it was just work. She steadied herself and tried to forget that, at age twenty-seven, she should already have her own law practice, but instead, here she was - a call girl. A high class call girl, but a call girl nonetheless.

While she stared her mirror-self in the ocean-blue eye and gave the usual mental "you won't have to do this forever" pep talk, her phone's ringtone went off. She took a moment to let herself get into the music, nodding her head in time with Eddie Murphy's Party All the Time before she snatched it from her nightstand.

"Raya speaking," she greeted.

"Where the hell are you? I've got a man calling by the name of Bruce, says he's a big spender, keeps requesting two girls. Everyone's already out except you and Queenie, so grab her lazy ass and get down to Market Street," her pimp -ahem- boss demanded.

"Hold your damn horses, Gary. I had to make soup for Queenie, I'm on my way, but he'll have to settle for one girl because she's out of commission. Poor girls been puking her guts up all day. It's like The Exorcist. Seriously, it's very unattractive...unless this Bruce dude is into those things. You know-"

"Save the rambling. She ain't pregnant again is she?" Gary's cold words sliced through Raya as though she were hot butter.

"No. I think she learned to be more careful since last time," she answered flatly, frustrated at just the thought of the hell he raised when her friend and roommate ended up pregnant on the job last year.

"Good, 'cus I'll fire her ass before I pay for another abortion, and I damn sure ain't putting her on maternity leave. Just find someone, I don't care who, and get your ass down there. Time is money. He's in the Holiday Inn room 4C."

"Fine, I'll be there." She ended the call roughly, jabbing her red lacquered nail on the end button.

What an uber prick. She thought to herself. If he didn't run a classier business I'd just go out on my own and hook on the street corners.

But she thought of the kind of women who conducted such business on the street corners. She thought of the hookers laying cold in a metal freezer drawer, murdered by serial killers. Her mind flashed to the drug addicted prostitutes who used just to forget about the crappy lifestyle they lived, the same ones that were more than likely spreading STDs. She thought of the cheap Johns who frequented that area. Ultimately, she thought better of her angry mental outburst. At least with Gary she had regular check-ups and body guard protection. At least she got paid more than four times the amount of any run-of-the-mill street hooker; six times that on a good night.

Now she would have to come up with a partner on short notice. Raya went through her choices -- which were scarce -- in her mind. Being a call girl kind of hindered her girl time; she just wasn't the type of woman who had many friends. Not even in high school, when most pretty girls like her would usually be surrounded by friends. For some reason, other girls just hated her. Her only friends were work related, and since everyone was at work already - excluding a very sick Queenie - her choices were practically zilch.

Unless her sister was available.

Raya's sister, Lana, wasn't a call girl. She was a librarian with a long term boyfriend...well, at least she did have a boyfriend. As things stood now, Raya wasn't sure if Lana was still with the douche or not. He had gotten her in quite a jam, which was the biggest reason why Raya actually had hope that Lana would be willing to help her out. She knew Lana could use extra money to pay her huge, newly acquired fines. Taking the rap for a boyfriend's stash of marijuana was never cheap, or a good idea. Since then, her shiny record became blemished and her funds were suffering.

Raya only hoped Lana hadn't made previous plans.

At the library, where Lana worked her bland day-job, her lanky boyfriend, Robby, had just sauntered through the door.

"Lana! Baby!" Robby kissed her on both sides of the cheek in a very french manner.

Lana blushed, looking up at her "forever boyfriend". She tried to pinpoint the charm he had over her - maybe it was his startling green eyes, or the way his ruffled dark hair fell down in them. Maybe it was his sense of humor. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't his finesse.

Robby plopped a thank you bag down on the desktop before her - the kind with the smiley face on them, preferred by most take-out places. Then he stared at her proudly, as though he'd fought dragons and pirates to retrieve it for her.

"What is this?" Lana wondered, lifting it between her first finger and thumb with a look of disgust.

"Awe, now. Lana, you know you like my slippery noodles," he teased playfully.

"Always a kidder, Rob. You know I don't eat that junk," Lana said, rolling her eyes and blowing the loose bangs out of her face.

"Hey, while you're blowing, how about blowing me?" Robby laughed at his own raunchy joke.

"Really? That's enough. I'm at work," she whispered, somewhat annoyed. "People can hear you. Take your ass on somewhere," she added in a hasty tone.

The shrill sound of the phone ringing took her thoughts from her rude boyfriend.

"I have to get that," she said.

Robby leaned over the desk and pulled her toward him, giving her a deep kiss that shouldn't happen on a Wednesday night inside a library. Or any night for that matter.

"I'm trying to work, Robby. I said, go," she demanded. The phone kept up it's steady rhythm of rings.

Regardless of her reaction on the outside, inside she was feeling a bit turned on by his kiss. She chastised herself, reminding her libido that she was at work, yet she was still a bit breathless as she picked up the receiver.

"New York City Public Library Inc. how may I help you?" she said, as professionally as she could muster.

"Hey, sis, it's me. Are you busy?" the voice of her sister, Raya, replied through the muffled phone.

"Not really, just having a row with Robby. What's wrong?" she asked.

Rays sighed through the phone. "Oh, nothing. I just wanted to hear a warm voice. It's good every once in a while, you know?" she said.

"Well, you know I'm always here when you need me, right? Family comes first."

"Yeah, forever!" Raya agreed wholly. "Speaking of...listen, are you busy after work?"

Robbie drew Lana's attention by coming around the counter and plopping down in her cushiony computer chair, then propping his feet on the desk rudely. She shot him an annoyed glare before speaking into the phone. "Nothing planned."

Then she heard a loud thump in the background of Raya's line.

"Lana, I've got to go. I'll call you when you get off, okay? Muah," Raya said hastily, not giving Lana time to reply. Then the phone line was nothing more than a tiny hum.

Lana held the phone loosely in her hand for a rather odd amount of time with a blank stare, then hung up thinking, what the heck that was about? She smacked Robby's feet off the counter.

"Miss? Miss!" A guy slammed his meaty palm on the desktop. The bag Robby had brought in bounced and shook next to the rude man's hand.

Purposefully forgetting her own manners, she snapped. "Yes?" she said, a little louder than she should have.

The guys eyes widened as though he'd been hit in the ass with buckshot. "Can you tell me where I can find books on modern art?" He made sure to sound extra snooty when he said the word modern.

"That would be in the non-fiction aisle. First shelf on the left, under 'A' for 'art'," she replied, morphing into the helpful librarian.

And learn to be nice or someone might break off those pudgy fingers, she thought bitterly as the man sauntered off.

"Artsy-fartsy, rude ass son of a twat," she grumbled under her breath.

Lana began to fidget a little out of boredom, but soon came back to her senses, remembering that she had a ton of books to catalog and sort through. Once again blowing the bangs out of her face - and noting that she was going to cut them as soon as she found the time - she bent down to grab a stack of books and, to her surprise, arms wrapped firmly around her waist and lifted her off the floor. She wiggled and twisted until she was nose to nose with Robby, who was holding her in a bear hug. Her feet touched down on the floor again, but she was still being squeezed.

"Robby! Get off!" she screamed, but he didn't let go.

Lana smacked her pestering, too-touchy-feely-at-work boyfriend across the face, leaving a nice red hand print on his cheek. That cleared the stupid smirk off his face, and he released her. He put his hand on his cheek, shocked she'd struck him, as if he did nothing wrong.

That's what he gets for scaring me at work like that, she thought.

"I've had enough! Leave. Just- just go," she demanded angrily.

His innocent act was just making her angrier. Her eyes swept the library to be sure none of the customers were paying too much attention, but they were. The sound of her palm meeting his face must have done it. Everyone seemed eager to walk out of the library with a new juicy slice of gossip at her expense.

In a last attempt, Robby tried to grab Lana. "I'm sorry, baby, look...calm down, it's not that big of a deal," he insisted. But he already knew he'd messed up.

"No. Stop it, Robby! Everyone is looking." She suddenly noticed how loud she had become and immediately softened her voice. "You've done enough. I can't take it anymore. After everything that happened...and now your childish behavior at my work? I mean it. Go!" she said.

Robby' face twisted into a scowl. He spun and knocked a tall stack of books off the desk. They landed in a mess on the floor. As though that wasn't enough, he turned back on Lana and roughly shoved her to the floor as well.

"Fucking bitch," he said as he walked off, leaving Lana laying there startled. He always got angry when she turned him away, but he'd never actually shoved her down before.

"Prick," Lana grumbled.

Back at Raya's apartment, Raya hung up the phone and rushed to the sound that cut her call short. She found Queenie in the living room, laying on the floor and looking rather disoriented.

"What the ever-loving fuck, Queenie? I told you to stay in bed," Raya complained.

"No, I have to go to work. Gary'll have my ass if I miss again," she slurred.

"No, you have to go back to bed."

Raya slipped her hands under Queenie's arms and lifted all hundred-fifteen pounds of the woman with difficulty. She wasn't usually the lifting type of person, unless you counted lifting a credit card.

"But Gary said you need me tonight," Queenie objected, trying feebly to free herself from Raya's support.

Raya rolled her eyes. Of course Gary would call Queenie to jump her shit for not going to work even after Raya told him she was sick . . .

"You're too weak to even walk. You're as hot as boiling water! What you need is fever medicine and rest," Raya grunted, hefting her roomie toward her bedroom. "Lana will come along, don't worry. I'll get you some Tylenol."

She helped Queenie into her fluffy bed and covered her with her butterfly embroidered blanket.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I already told Gary you're sick, and I already checked to see if Lana is busy after work. She needs the money, she won't leave me hanging," she said, feeling confident that her sister would be up for making some extra bucks.

After bringing Queenie a few Tylenol and a cold drink, she seemed to drift off. Raya hated leaving her roommate alone like this. She speculated staying home for a while, but her time was money. Finally she settled on calling Kevin, the bodyguard Gary hired for the girls. Kevin was always on standby for any problems that arise. Client gets tough, call Kevin. Client doesn't pay, call Kevin. This wasn't a usual 'call Kevin' problem, but Raya had nobody else. He agreed to sit with Queenie, even though he kept reminding Raya how far it was from where she was going.

"I'll be fine, Kev," she assured him for the twentieth time. "I grew up in the south, I can handle myself."

"You just make sure you keep this close," he said, handing her some pepper spray.

She tossed it in her handbag. "Always looking out for me," she said. She leaned in and he bent down to let her plant a red-lipped kiss on his stubbly cheek, then Raya slipped out of the apartment.

She locked the apartment door tight, and glanced at the time on her phone. Fifteen minutes until Lana closed the library. She decided to just drive on down and surprise her at work.

The New York City traffic was on her side. She reach the library with nearly five minutes to spare.

Robby was standing outside the library door as she walked toward it. Raya scrunched her nose like she smelled something rotten. Though Robby didn't stink physically, he was emanating a figurative stink-and-a-half.

"Hey, Red." He smirked. "When are you gonna let me have a freebie?"

"Shove off, asshole," she said as she passed right by him.

"If that dress was any shorter, I'd call it a bra!" he called out as the door shut behind her.

Who cared if her dress was short? She had bomb-ass legs and she wasn't afraid to show them. She wasn't ready for the looks of the library patrons, however. A woman setting behind a computer spared her a condescending glance, as well as a man who spied her over his book. Another female abandoned her note-taking to make an 'o' face at Raya's ensemble, and a guy she knew couldn't afford her, peeked around a bookshelf for a bit of ogling.

No matter how many times she endured people assuming the worst about her, it still got to her sometimes. She was a human, she had feelings and bills to pay. She had to eat, too, didn't she? So they should mind their own business.

Raya blew passed them all, knowing her sister could be found shelving books at this time of the evening, and sure enough, Raya spotted her down the seventh aisle, in T-V.

Lana, alphabetizing books, stood with her back facing Raya, but Raya would recognize her sister anywhere. Her small frame, smaller even than Raya's, was almost pixie-like, and her sleek hair hung like a black waterfall down to her shoulders.

"You'd think people in here have never seen a call girl before," Raya said, drawing Lana's attention.

"Hey!" Lana turned, her eyes an exact replica of Raya's, dark eyeliner and all. Both women flashed a genuine smile, and Raya shuffled to hug Lana.

"Wow, you? In a library? What gives?" Lana asked.

"It appears my sister works here, and I was wondering if she'd want to make some extra cash tonight?" Raya replied with a hopeful face.

"Oh, Raya, you know I don't like being pounded by strangers-"

"You don't have to pound. Although there was that one time . . ." She let her voice trail off and put her finger next to her mouth in a 'thinking' gesture.

"Shhh!" Lana's eyes grew wide as she glanced around to ensure their privacy. "That was once, and he was totally hot. Besides, that doesn't count," she said with a cheeky smile. "And anyway, I'm not dressed for it."

"Sure you are, you naughty librarian, you."

"Raya, you do know I have a boyfriend," Lana reminded her.

"Boyfriend? He's a piece of shit, Lana. You're wasting your time with him. He's done nothing but bring you down. Right now, at this very moment, he's probably out there yelling obscene slurs at people and shaking his dick at them!"

"Jesus," Lana replied, throwing her hands in the air, sadly knowing it was probably true.

"Lana, may I have a word with you?" a slightly chubby woman with brown curly hair and thick glasses asked.

Raya snarled her nose at the ugly floral dress the woman wore. To top it off, she also had on one of those chains that waited to catch her glasses if they somehow inconveniently managed to slide off her flat nose.

The woman was Lana's boss, and Lana knew something was up, because the woman almost never left the back room.

"Yes, Miss Richardson," Lana replied, secretly hoping that whatever it was, it had nothing to do with Robby.

Lana noticed her chubby boss looking her sister up and down, but found it confusing whether the look was in disgust or in admiration. She followed the woman into her small, cluttered office, leaving Raya alone with the silence and the library patrons.

"Please shut the door behind you," Miss Richardson ordered.

Lana did as she was told, the door creaking in it's old frame. She took it upon herself to have a seat on the dusty chair which often remained vacant. The chubby lady ruffled through some papers licking her thumb after every shuffle, finally pulling one paper out and lying it face up on the desk. TERMINATION it said in loud capital letters. Lana's gut tightened and panic inched it's way up her throat.

"But-but-" she stuttered while she tried to muster up a plea-any plea, to not have it end this way. It had been so hard for her to find a job after the pizzeria she worked at for four years had shut down. It was almost a miracle that she'd nailed one at the library. It had taken her forever to even get a call-back. She loved it there. She sure hadn't stayed at the job for nearly five years just for the pay, which was mediocre at best.

"Lana, dear, you know you aren't suppose to have personal interaction while on the clock. That means no boyfriends or family members coming by unless they're checking out a book," Miss Richardson explained while Lana stared on in a stupor. "All of this is a distraction. It interferes with your work description."

"But-" Lana tried again, but was quickly cut off .

"I saw what your boyfriend did." The boss looked truly apologetic. "I'm sorry you're in such a situation, what with needing money and all, but this is something we just can not tolerate going on around here. I fought for you for so long; I held this job for you for three weeks and smoothed it over with the board when you had to go to jail. I had hoped you would be done with that young man, but..." -the woman seemed to choose her words wisely- "You are a good girl, Lana, but this just isn't going to work out." She finally finished shoving the metaphorical knife through Lana's heart.

Lana adverted her tear flooded eyes, and glanced up at the security surveillance recording taking place at the entrance of the library, and sure enough, there he was. Fucking Robby, shaking his crotch and yelling at people. She watched as he flipped a cigarette at a passing man. She saw the man turn around and start punching Robby while he tried to block the blows to his face. The film was silent; God only knows what was being said between the two.

Lana glanced back at the head librarian, who stared back right in her eyes with that look that says "look what he's doing. Clearly you see that I had no choice."

She said, "you are dismissed, Lana Loveridge."

Lana left the room in an embarrassed hurry, meeting her sister at the library door.

"I'm fucking terminated," she complained. "He got me fucking fired. Can you believe this shit?"

"Seriously?" Raya said, following her angry, humiliated sister out the door and dodging the fighting twosome...well, fighting onesome. Robby wasn't really fighting back.

She gave pause, but Lana snapped, "Leave the piece of shit. Lets go get some work done."

As much as Raya would have liked to watch Robby getting his ass handed to him, she respected her sister's need to distance herself from the creep. They got in Raya's car ignoring Robby's calls of, "Baby! Baby, wait!" in between getting punched.