Tessa Sanchez's daughter is hot in the pants, Elsa thought as she watched them. Lord, she's going to bring more gossip around here than her daddy did.

Elsa made her way back down the stairs to resume her daily activity. She couldn't wait to hear from Tessa.

Aniyah dismissed Pete once they were finished. The discovery of s.e.x was how she had started her life at the age of sixteen, when she met a guy who went by the name of Danny.

It was during the time of year when tourists vacationed in Cancun, Mexico. Aniyah loved to go and watch the tourists shop for souvenirs.

Danny, as he called himself, saw her from afar. She wore a midriff top and a long, flared skirt. Her hair was covered with a sombrero to avoid the hot sun.

Danny came up to her. "Excuse me. Can you tell me where tourists go at night for a good fiesta?"

Aniyah's eyes lit up. She loved to dance. She hadn't been to any of the nightclubs, but she knew the locations. She began to name a few of the places.

Danny saw that she was full of life. She was the bait he was looking for. "I may need you as a tour guide. I'll pay you."

Aniyah grew excited. This was a way to bring money into her home. After all, her mother and her aunt worked long hours cleaning for barely anything. "Yes, I would love to. How much you pay?"

"Believe me, top dollar." Danny grinned.

Aniyah could see the man was in his early twenties. His chest was exposed from the opened floral shirt he wore.

"So what's your name?" he asked.

She paused. "Aniyah Sanchez," she blurted.

"Pretty name. You can just call me Danny," he said, not giving her his true name.

Danny asked that she meet him in the same spot after dark. Aniyah went home. She didn't tell her mother or her aunt about the man. It was her secret. They would never approve of her going anywhere with him. Although that's how she came into this world. Her mother had had a one-night stand with a tourist of African American descent. Her mother thought there was something special between them. The man went back to his home, never knowing he had a baby. Aniyah was disgusted with her mother because she didn't even get the man's name. All she got was a twenty-dollar bill on the nightstand.

"Aunt Tessa," Aniyah said, "it's so hot tonight. My friends are all at the hotel pool. May I go and swim?" she asked because her mother was sound asleep.

Local teens that had parents working at the hotel usually swam there during tourism time.

"Don't stay too long," Tessa said.

Aniyah got ready to leave the house. She still wore the same clothes from earlier that day. She carried her bathing suit in her hands. Once out of the house she dropped the bathing suit behind a trashcan. She would pick it up on the way back home.

She met Danny, who stood dressed in a pair of navy pants and a print shirt. His shoes had been shined. He held a plastic bag from the hotel in his hand.

"I thought you stood me up," he said as he looked at his watch.

"I had a hard time getting out of the house," she admitted.

"You mean to tell me your parents don't know you're out. How old are you?"

"Almost eighteen," she lied because she didn't want him to stop her from making money.

Danny saw that she was dressed in her same clothes. "Girl, you still have on your shopping clothes. You need a little more spicy rags to wear on that hot body of yours and a little makeup to perk up that pretty face."

"My face is ugly, and this is not good enough?" Aniyah asked as she looked down at her skirt.

"A little lipstick never hurts, and I've got the perfect dress for you," he said.

Danny pulled out a spandex black dress and a makeup kit. Aniyah thought of the dresses she had seen in teen magazines. She thought this was one of those dresses.

"You can get dressed in the bathroom in the lobby of the hotel where I'm staying," he said, starting to walk in that direction.

Aniyah followed him. She was going to be the prettiest tourist guide in Cancun tonight.

They went through the lobby in the hotel. They heard Latin music playing.

"Looks like a party is going on in here that I didn't know anything about." Danny was excited.

Aniyah shook her body to the music. "I love to dance," she said as she danced her way to the bathroom.

She pulled the dress over her head. It clung to her body and showed off all of her curves. She turned sideways to the mirror and saw that her b.u.t.t filled the dress. Her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s protruded slightly from the top. "I'm chili pepper hot." She smiled.

She smeared the red lipstick on her lips. She lined her eyes with eyeliner as she had seen her mother and auntie do many of times.

"Very pretty," she said as she admired her look in the mirror.

Aniyah found her way out of the bathroom to reveal her new look to Danny.

His eyes lit up. "Sweet mercy," he said. "I knew that dress was you. And your lips are as juicy and red as a cherry."

"You like?" Aniyah asked as she spun around. "Such a pretty dress. I wish I could go dancing in this dress."

"Girl, you forgot you're my escort. Let's go," Danny said.

"Come on, I'll show you where the night life is."

"Why waste the good music? We'll hang out here."

Aniyah followed him to the entrance of the hotel nightclub. The man at the door stopped them.

"How old is the senorita?" he said.

"You mean my wife?" Danny said, not a smile on his face.

Aniyah looked at him in shock. Danny placed his arm around her shoulder. He kissed her on the forehead. "Come on, baby, let's party."

The man stepped aside and they went in. The music played. They found their way to a small table in the corner of the club. A waitress came over to them. "What are you drinking?"

"Two rum and c.o.kes," he said.

Aniyah had never drunk before. But she was getting paid to entertain him. So she went with the flow of things. This was one of the happiest nights of her life. Danny took her on the dance floor. She showed him how to Latin dance. He gave her a few tips on how the Decatur, Georgia, people got down. The few drinks led her to be open to anything. She wobbled her way off the floor to the table.

"I'll have another."

"No more, baby," he whispered.

"I'm having the best night of my life."

"It gets better the later it gets," he said. "Let's get out of here."

Danny got up and pulled her close to him. She held on to him, as she tried not to fall down from intoxication. They reached the outside of the club. Danny pulled his room key from his pocket.

"I need you to do one more thing for me tonight," he said, "and I'll pay you big."

"I love this work. I get to have fun while I show you a good time." She giggled.

They went up to his hotel room. Inside he tossed his shirt off. Aniyah made her way to the bed. She lay back on it. Her dress rode up her thighs.

Danny pulled her up off the bed. "Come here, baby," he said and kissed her.

Aniyah felt like a woman. She had heard of other girls talking about their encounters with men. Now, she was with a man she had just met like her mother; however, she knew his name and he made her feel beautiful. She kissed him back. She made Danny's job easy. She hungered for him.

"It's nice being an escort for such a s.e.xy man." She eased her hand down his chest. "Cocoa skin," she marveled.

She pulled the spandex dress over her head and dropped it on the floor. She began to do what she heard other girls did for tourists to get big pay.

Danny stood and let her have her way with him. He had found himself a diamond. He had to get her back to Georgia to work her skills on potential clients.

In the morning, she found her way home. Tessa and her mother fiercely awaited her. She walked in the door now dressed in her own clothes. Danny kept the dress he had given her, to keep her from having to explain where it came from. Aniyah forgot the bathing suit behind the trashcan.

"Where were you?" her mother scolded her.

"It's almost daybreak," Tessa exclaimed.

"I fell asleep at the poolside."

"No one saw you at the pool. Don't lie," Tessa said.

"I went with new friends to another hotel."

Tessa noticed Aniyah was a little off-balance. "What else do you wish to tell us?" she asked.

"It seems like you have a hangover."

Aniyah became angry. "I haven't been drinking. I don't know which one of you is my mother at times. Aunt Tessa, you always act like you're the mother. Mama, make her stop treating me this way!" she cried.

"Don't hurt your Aunt Tessa's feelings. She loves you like you're her own daughter. She lost her baby daughter a year after you were born. Give her respect!" her mother yelled.

Aniyah broke down. "Sorry."

"Go to your room. Stay away from trouble. It's tourist time. Men prey on young girls," her mother warned.

Aniyah went to her room and slouched on the bed. She pulled out the money she had stuffed in her bra and counted it. She tucked the two hundred dollars under the mattress.

In the following days, she found ways to be with Danny. The last week of his two-week vacation, they lay in bed in his hotel room. They sipped on rum. Aniyah made sure she limited herself to one drink.

"My plane leaves tomorrow," he said as he kissed her on the neck.

Aniyah sat up in the bed. "No, don't leave." She wanted him to stay. The pay was good. Being his escort built her bankroll to six hundred dollars.

"I have to leave. Duty calls."

Aniyah pouted. She bent over to rest her head on her knees.

Danny ma.s.saged her back. "Hey, baby, come back to Georgia with me. You can make double the money living with me."

"Wow, that's plenty of money for my family."

"Oh yeah, baby, it is," Danny said as he pulled her back down on the pillow to saturate her lips with his.

Aniyah counted the money in her head. Her mother and her aunt wouldn't go for her leaving with a stranger, but she was tired of always hearing them speak of how hard things were around their house. Most girls had lots of clothes, but she had a few pieces her family brought home that their employers no longer wanted to be seen in.

"I'll go," she said. "But I have no plane ticket."

"What about your family? I don't want any police coming after me."

"I won't tell them. I'll run away," she said. "I'll make money, and then I'll come back with lots of it. My family won't be mad when they see all the money I've made."

Danny smiled. "They'll be so proud of you. But there's one problem: I'm short on cash until I get back. Use the money you already made from me to buy your plane ticket. I'm good for it when we get to Georgia," he said as he kissed her on the neck.

Aniyah was absorbed in the attention from Danny and didn't think twice. She used the money to buy her air fare. She packed the few clothes she had and left a goodbye note to her family.

She wrote, "Going on a trip to do great things for the family. I'll return when I have a big surprise for the family so we don't have to suffer."

She left in the middle of the night with a fake pa.s.sport.

Aniyah reached Georgia. Danny got her settled into his home. The first week he wined and dined her. Then, the next week he gave her a story about how he had been laid off his job and didn't have enough money to pay her the money back he owed her, much less pay her for escort services. He slowly began to introduce her to his so-called friends, but in reality, they were clients for her.

Aniyah's first job was to entertain a bald-headed Chinese man. She was his escort for a dinner party. She did everything Danny told her to do to keep the client happy but inside the car, the client touched her on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Aniyah pushed his hand away. "I'm just your escort. Danny is my man."

The client laughed. "Danny is your man? Danny is strictly about business. I'm one of his biggest meal tickets. He'll be mad if I tell him you're not being nice."

Aniyah didn't believe him. "Take me home!" she shouted.

The client picked up his cell phone and made a call. Aniyah heard him say, "This one is a lemon." He drove her to Danny's house. "Get out," he said as he pushed her.

"Pay me my money," Aniyah demanded.

Danny came running up to the car. Aniyah was happy to see him. She was convinced that he would straighten out the man, but instead, Danny s.n.a.t.c.hed her out of the car by the arm. He threw her up against the car. He grabbed her by the neck. Aniyah trembled.

"Look, I hope you don't think you came here to Georgia to live on me. We need the money. Get back in the car and give the man whatever he wants so we can get paid."