the little gifts they’d bought Talie and taped it closed along with a letter from each of them, and a book of stamps for her to use.
“Tomorrow we’ll go to the post office and mail it, okay?”
“Okay, I can’t wait for her to get it! I bet she will be excited!” Darcie answered.
~~~
Talie walked the perimeter of the exercise yard for the umpteenth time. She had no idea how many times she’d circled the yard. All she knew was it was sunny outside today — cold, but sunny — and she was going to take advantage of every minute of fresh air she could get. She didn’t really interact with anyone other that her guard, Sheryl, so she just walked. The buzzer sounded to let the women know it was time to return to their cells. Most of the ladies were excited because before they went back to their cells, they were allowed to stop at the small ‘store’ the jail had set up to allow them to spend a little of the money in their accounts.
All kinds of things could be bought — candy bars, soft drinks, extra socks, magazines, chips, tampons, just to name a few. It was almost like a concession stand, but more for daily needs. As some of the women took a right as they walked inside the building to go to the store, Talie turned left to just go back to her cell.
“Talie? You don’t want to pick up a little something extra for yourself?” Sheryl asked.
Talie shook her head. “I don’t have any money in my account. But that’s okay, I don’t really need anything.”
Sheryl laughed and slapped her own thigh. “Girl, you better check your account.”
“What? What do you mean?” Talie asked.
“I called your man like you asked. I gave him the account information. Your deposit came through today.”
“Really?” Talie asked, grinning.
“Yes, girl!” Sheryl said, waving Talie over closer to her. When Talie was close enough to hear her, Sheryl dropped her voice so only Talie could hear. “Girl, he put three hundred dollars in your account.”
“Three hundred?!” Talie exclaimed.
“Hush, now! Don’t be telling everybody what you got!” Sheryl scolded.
Talie looked around to be sure no one was paying attention to her. “Why would he put that much?” she asked, her voice lowered.
“Because I told him we couldn’t accept more than three hundred. That man wanted to send even more than that,” Sheryl said.
Talie just shook her head as she thought about Roman.
“You got a good one there. Don’t let him go,” Sheryl said.
Talie smiled at Sheryl. “I have no intentions of letting him go.”
“Good. But, if you do, give me a heads up so I can get a head start on winning him over myself. That man is pretty! And nice! Usually you get one or the other, not both,” Sheryl said.
Talie stood a few feet away from the counter, speaking to Sheryl, waiting for everyone else to choose what they wanted so she could take a look at what they had to offer.
“What do you want?” the man behind the small counter asked her.
Talie’s eyes flicked over all the options they had. She smiled when she saw the snack pack pudding cups. “Can I have one of the pudding cups, please?” she asked.
“Number?” the man asked.
Talie rattled off the number she’d learned was her account number.
The man pulled it up on the computer sitting on top of the counter top and his eyebrows rose. “Must have you a sugar daddy or something,” he remarked, reaching behind himself and grabbing a pudding cup off the shelf and slamming it down on the counter in front of her. Then he reached beneath the counter top and produced a plastic spoon and handed it to her.
“No sugar daddy,” Talie said. “Just a husband.”
“Whatever works,” the guard said.
“Got to get you back,” Sheryl said.
Talie nodded and reached for her pudding and plastic spoon. She turned and walked ahead of Sheryl all the way back to her cell. She smiled to herself as she sat on her bunk and enjoyed the simple cup of pudding that she was able to have because a man loved her enough to find a way to take care of her even when she was locked away from him. She smiled to herself as she finished it off. Life sucked sometimes, but it seemed that whenever it did, at least from now on she’d have Roman at her side. She felt a wave of fear at the aspect of trusting