Addictive Love

Lilian walked down the busy streets of New York. It was raining and she was already soaked all the way through. Nights like this weren't strange to her. It was on nights like this that business was always booming. Lots of people standing in clusters, to get out of the chilling rain.

She headed into a bar. The music blared loud to an almost deafening pitch. Perfect! The business was in session. She sat at a table, hoodie up, eyes sharp, looking for a perfect target. While she searched around, she ordered.

"One dirty martini"

"Dirty martini. You want that with lime or on the rocks?"

"On the rocks."

The bartender got to work. She peered through the crowd and finally found her target: a rich, unsuspecting lady, probably in her mid-thirties, dancing at the far corner of the club.

"You're martini, ma'am"

She took the glass and downed the contents in one gulp. She paid the bartender and proceeded to make her move. As soon as she got up from the seat, she was pestered by a drunk fuckboy.

"Hey there beautiful. How bout me and you blow this joint, ay?"

"How bout you fuck off", said Lilian. She was not in the mood for games

"Oooh, you're a feisty one, aren't ya? I love it"

Lilian was losing her patience. She rolled her eyes and checked to see if her target was still where she was.

"Go fuck yourself! Now piss off!", she hissed. And with that, she went away. She cautiously approached the lady and spotted her bag in her hand. Bingo! Now it was time for a distraction. She pulled out a rubber snake from her pocket and surreptitiously dropped it near the lady.

"Ahhhh! Snake! Snake!!", cried Lilian, and in an instant, the whole place was in disarray. The lady jumped up in utter fright, almost pale. Under the cover of confusion, Lilian made for the bag and in a flash disappeared through the front door. She picked up the pace and ran through the streets, taking complex turns and routes to make sure no one was tailing her.

After a lot of zigzagging, she stopped to catch her breath. She turned and saw all was quiet. She found an empty route and headed home. This was her job, this was how she survived, and this was how she paid her bills. It wasn't pretty but it was lucrative and besides, those rich folks had more than enough to spare.

Lilian made it home and opened the door. She looked around behind her before she entered. You could never be too careful. She headed straight to the dining table to check her loot. It was risky opening it on the way. The bag felt heavy. Had she hit the jackpot?

"Yes! This is such a score!", she cried. In the bag was $100,000 in bills of 50 and 100 as well as a new phone and jewelry worth millions. This was more than enough to pay her rent for the year. She sat back, relaxed. In her mind, she made her expenses. Immediately, she made for the phone. She deleted all means of tracing and contact to cover her tracks. She wasn't ready to go be a jailbird.

Life had been tough on her so she had to be tough on life. And tough meant doing everything possible to survive. She had some cheap champagne and got ready for bed. She tucked the money safely away. She would pay the landlord in the morning for a year's rent and get back to work tomorrow. One score was never enough. Soon the alcohol began to take effect and she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

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