Free Sugar & Salt by Pavarti K. Tyler

claim her has another thing coming.
    Salt shifts in his sleep. He rolls away from her, leaving her cold. A familiar loneliness wraps around her heart, reminding her how everyone wants something.
    She slides out of bed, careful not to disturb him. She uses the bathroom, retrieves her bra from the floor and pulls it on. Her underwear hides somewhere out of sight, and she decides to just leave them wherever they ended up. She picks up her dress as Salt wakes up.
    “You weren’t going to say goodbye?” he teases with a cocky smile.
    She swallows her lingering sadness. After almost a decade building a business in the sex industry, she’s seen enough to know what men are really like. Who is he to demand anything of her?
    “No, but since you’re up, goodbye.”
    “Icy. What’s wrong? Are you upset?” He sits up in bed, crossing his legs under the sheet and staring into Janice’s eyes.
    If he’d looked at her body or made some crude joke, it would be so easy for her to leave.
What does he want from me?
“No, I’m just awake. What did you expect?”
    “I don’t know. I guess....” He runs a hand through his disheveled hair and turns away.
    “This, whatever this is, was fun. It was.”
    “Shit. What’s this about, Jan?”
    She balks, unable to speak for a moment.
Jan?
When did he start using a nickname for her? “Just the truth. I have no room for you in my life.” She straightens her skirt.
    “I don’t understand. I thought we had a good time.”
    She detects a sad undertone in his voice. His eyes are still drooped in sleepy contentedness, but she can almost see him trying to understand. Nonetheless, the fact is she’ll be the one upset if she lets this continue.
    “You like me, right?” His expression is full of unexpected vulnerability.
    She slips on her shoes and gazes out the window as the sunrise bursts over Central Park. “I do. It’s nothing like that.” She turns and gives him her most practiced work smile.
    He flinches, seeing right through her act. “Is this because I teased you last night?”
    “No.”
    “Look, I’m sorry I kept putting you off, but... well, this sounds so awful, but most of the women I date don’t mean much to me. It’s hard to get close to people. Everyone wants something, and when people find out too much about me, it seems like they always change. I’m sick of it, and just wanted to get to know you without all the bullshit.”
    “What bullshit?”
    “You know how it is out there—you meet someone attractive and think, maybe this is someone I can actually spend time with, and then they find out you have something they want. My parents always had money, and I grew up traveling all over the world and really not wanting for anything. My mother was an actress in Australia when she was young, and my dad was high up in politics in South Africa. I don’t tell people because they always end up more interested in taking from me than getting to know me.”
    “It must be so hard to be a spoiled, rich boy.”
    “Don’t start judging me. You don’t exactly carry yourself like someone who doesn’t know their way around the finer things.”
    “I worked for everything I have. My father may have had money, but I never took a cent from him. Everything I have, I earned.”
    “I’m afraid I can’t sit quite so proud on my high horse, but I don’t just sit around and set my parents’ money on fire. I have a job I love, and do something I believe in. But no one ever wants to hear about that. Women in New York are all about how much you have to give.”
    “I’m not.”
    “I know, so don’t leave.” He stares at her with open trust, seeming to truly believe that.
    She pauses for a moment, tempted... but then she remembers who she is. “I have to.”
    “What else do you want to know? I’m 37 and I work at the UN.”
    “Are you serious?” She rips her eyes away from the view and turns on him. This is completely unbelievable. If he got caught with a Madame, she’d be out