That was another movie misconception—the deal itself. The movie john drives up, rolls his car window down, and asks, “How much?” In fact, the deal was more often a sad, empty flirtation, the man maybe trying to convince himself that she really likes him, the woman convincing herself she isn’t what she is, the money sometimes an afterthought, other deals made in dope or booze or a ride somewhere or the offer of a roof to sleep under. This barter was another form of denial, the lie that the intimacy of this transaction was no different than the transactions of straight lives, the trading of
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