The Fallen Elitist
Or
It Never Happened
Β© 2018 Daniel de Laire
It had been a long day already. She was a 33-year-old urban professional; what they called a "yuppie" in her parent's generation. The daughter of blue collar parents who wanted a white collar for their little girl. But she wore a black collar under her frilly white one and it, like her, belonged to the man who was ringing her phone at the moment.
She had made the mistake of leaving the phone set to announce aloud all callers, and the phone recited in its robotic, pseudo-female voice "Call..From...County Jail". A twinge of embarrassment welled up in her gut and burned at her face as her co-workers in her shared office looked over at her while she answered the phone. They all knew her situation, and they all knew she was too weak or naΓ―ve to remove herself from it.
"Hello?" she answered, thinking that her boyfriend/Dom had gotten himself into yet another drunken argument for which he would require her services as defense attorney to smooth over. Oh, well. At least it would be a peaceful night, as they wouldn't release him until he sobered up.
Her hopes were soon dashed as she listened to the details of his arrest for soliciting a prostitute. He needed bail, a ride, and a pack of cigarettes. Don't forget matches.
After she hung up the phone, she started to tell her co-workers that she needed to go when one interrupted her dismissively.
"Just go", said Mary, with a wave of her hand.
She packed up her things into her purse and walked to her car. This wasn't the first time she had to pick Daniel up from jail, or even the first time he had been out with another woman, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.
Her boyfriend/Dom had fallen into her life in a way most unexpected; he had been a "pro bono" client of hers on an assault charge. 50 hours per year was required to keep her bar registration. He immediately took charge of her heart and her life, and made a wreck of both.
He would come home at odd hours always reeking of cigars and booze, and usually reeking of some other woman. She could smell it on him as soon as he'd walk through the door. The one smell she did somewhat enjoy on him, as a sort of justice for his many cruelties against her, was the unmistakable odor of stale vomit, piss, and steel that is the smell of jail. She didn't let it bother her; she'd just pull his pants down for him as he sat down in his favorite recliner with the fresh beer she brought him and start sucking the taste and smell of the other woman off of his dick while he drank beer and watched porn on television. It did no good to refuse him anyway; she had tried that and he just raped her. He would occasionally beat her for the sheer hell of it. Her co-workers all knew it, no matter how hard she tried to hide it underneath a generous amount of foundation from Sephora's "it never happened" collection and her favorite Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses with lenses the size of saucers. Whenever the sixty-some odd year old convertible he made her buy him would break down, he would just ask her where the hell the money was to get it fixed, and it would magically appear out of her savings. Just like the bail and impound money he needed at the moment would.
She made her way to her Lexus and started on her usual route she used when she had to pick Daniel up from jail. Up to the 7-11 for a pack of his usual after jail cigarettes and a lighter, then to the commissioner at the county jail. Thankfully, they took credit cards.