Excerpts from
Over the Brink
© 1997 by Edessa Ramos

The bar was not as seedy as she expected. She stepped into the semi-darkness from the glare of the sidewalk off Morton Avenue. Around her thighs, the folds of her short wide skirt swirled slightly and she was conscious of the bartender’s gaze. She gave him a tight smile, not for any reason other than habit, for it was her nature to smile easily.

"Hi...uh...I’m supposed to meet Martin", her greeting ended in the tone of an uncertain question. The eyes peering at her from beneath overgrown brows studied her face in a rudely direct manner. Vaguely she noticed his left hand caress a barrel-sized belly while the other wiped the countertop with a dishcloth.

The bartender jerked his head toward a booth behind him, half-hidden in the shadows. "Over there."

Kim walked to the table and sat down. An African-American man with long shiny coils of hair smiled at her from atop his glass of whiskey. To her he seemed as thin as death itself, and the flash of gold in his teeth sent a cold bolt of lightning down her spine.

He interviewed her for an hour, offering drinks between questions, which she refused each time. At his request, she stood up and turned around, slowly, deliberately, mustering enough cool to brave the temptation of dashing back to the safe space behind the tablecloth.

The man’s grin spread wider. From the corner of her eye, she caught the bartender stealing a glimpse of the curious meeting.

With that infuriating grin still plastered to his face, the man who called himself Martin handed her a business card. "Tomorrow night," he said. "We start at seven."