A few doors down from my coffee shop was this art gallery. I’d seen some stuff in windows the few times I looked in, but not really knowing anything about art, it all looked the same to me. This woman ran it, and I would occasionally catch her looking me over as I passed. However, in the line of work I was in, that wasn’t anything new or special to me. So when she sat down at my table one day at the café, I really didn’t know what to do. The beautiful woman in a crisp and obviously expensive suit sitting down next to me in leather pants, a revealing tweak-type top, fading black eye, and healing split lip from my last run-in with a junkie who was convinced I had stole his stash. It was also probably quite clear that I wasn’t totally coherent at the time, still coming down from the night before. She offered to pay for my coffee, which I declined. She tried to get me to talk to her. I didn’t say much. This game went on for a couple weeks. Finally I just looked at her one day and asked her why she was bothering. She seemed taken back by this, it was probably the longest sentence I had said to her. Then her smile returned to her face and she said it just looked like I could use a friend. Then she got up, left money on the table for my coffee and left. I couldn’t figure her out. What did she want from me? Did she think I was some little boy that she could take home? Everything about her screamed dyke, so I didn’t think so. Did she know I was a girl? I had spent close to two years now acting the part of a boy, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be a girl again. The only thing that kept me sane were the occasional hook ups I’d have with girls I’d run into leaving clubs in the area. I’d take them to an alley and re-connect with myself, losing myself in sex that I wanted to have and could get release from, not just jerk some guy off. Later that same night, I saw her locking up the gallery, closing for the night. A bouncy blond girl came and joined her, giggling the whole time. The two linked arms and walked away from the gallery, walking past the café on their way out of the area. They saw me in the window of the café, and the woman said something to the blond, nodding subtly in my direction. The blond made eye contact with me, smiled briefly at me, and they continued on their way.