Chance Encounter

On this night in particular, it must have been around ten or so, I was walking down the street, thinking about whether I should go home or walk around a bit more. The nicer side of Nairobi looks real nice when it’s dark, and it’s safe (ish) too. The streets are well lit.

A holler pulled me out of my thoughts and I turned my head to look over my shoulder. My walking speed slowed but I never stopped. Can’t be too careful after all. The one who called out to me was a young, attractive lady. Her short, thick braids fell down the sides of her head, she had a black leather jacket over a white tee, a black tight fitting skirt that barely went down her thighs, and black boots that laced up to her shins.

“Looking for a good time?” she propositioned me with a smile.

I stopped. She looked to be in her twenties. Though with how fast they wear out in this business, she could have been in her teens. I decided against it.

“No thank you,” I returned her smile with my own, turned my head back and started walking again.

“What, too upright to shag?”

I turned my head to reply over my shoulder as I continued walking, “no, too stingy to pay. I prefer to have sex for free.”

She snorted derisively.

“Honey, nothing in this world is free. Especially sex.”

I stopped again and chuckled to myself.I guess a short conversation wouldn’t hurt,I thought. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a good discussion. I walked back to stand in front of her, maintaining about a meter or so of space between us.

“My girlfriend and I got together while I was dead broke. We had plenty of sex even then. What do you say to that?”

Her smile became amused.

“Would you say that you’re a nice man?”

“I’d say I am.”

“And you didn’t stay broke, did you?”

“No, I did not.”

“And this girlfriend you talked about, is she your current?”

“Yeah, but where are you going with this?”

Still smiling, she cocked her head to the side as she looked at me.

“You were nice enough, so she didn’t mind getting with you in the first place. But, if we’re going off what you said, the only other thing you had going for you as a partner, was your potential. Yet it seems that was decent enough to get her to stay, at least until the cash rolled in. Sounds to me like your girlfriend is an investor.”

She looked me up and down.

“And a damn good one at that.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Damn good one? What makes you think I’m that good of a catch, when I don’t even have a car to get around with?”

My clothes were good quality, sure, but they were simple in design and muted in colour. The kind of threads any middle class guy could afford… if he was spoiling himself that is. Still, I doubted that would be enough to count me as a ‘damn good investment’ in her eyes, no matter how approving that lookover was. She nodded to a building that was back a ways and across the street. A warm, yellow glow spilled out of its large, street facing windows and bathed the area outside it.

“I saw you coming out of that restaurant. I’ve had a...