Leslie reached Rose Hills by 9:30 that night. Ever since her conversation with Taylor, she’d been buzzing with curiosity about this thing called “feminism.” She’d even caught herself mumbling the strange word in her sleep the night before. A few minutes before ten, an old pickup truck rolled up beside her. Leslie smiled the moment she spotted Taylor behind the wheel and quickly climbed into the passenger seat. “Hello again,” Taylor said with a cheerful smile.

“Hi!” Leslie replied, unable to hide her excitement. “So…where exactly is this feminism place?”

Taylor chuckled. “For the past few weeks, it’s been in the Grove.”

Leslie’s smile faltered. “The Grove? That place isn’t safe.”

“It’s not that bad as long as you know where you’re going and how things work around there,” Taylor said. “We’re heading straight to the warehouse, and I’ll bring you back in one piece. Promise.” “Okay…” Leslie agreed with a soft smile, though reluctance still lingered in her voice. The Grove was widely known as the most dangerous part of Paradise. It was where the poor lived - the people who actually had to work for a living. Leslie had been raised far away from its streets and couldn’t remember ever meeting anyone who was poor enough to live there. As they crossed into the neighborhood, though, a strange thrill ran through her. She pressed closer to the window, eyes wide with wonder.

“Is that a corner girl?” Leslie gasped, pointing at a scantily clad woman standing under a flickering streetlight.

Taylor let out a low laugh. “Yeah. There are plenty of them out here.”

Leslie knew very little about either world, but she understood that corner girls in the Grove were nothing like the professional mistresses of Rose Hills and Paradise Place. Corner girls had no secure companion house and worked on their own. Some had pimps for protection, but most didn’t. Professional mistresses were carefully vetted by their houses, kept cleaner, and carried a certain level of respect. No one respected a corner girl. Taylor glanced over at her with a soft, amused smile. “You really don’t get out much, do you?”

Leslie’s gaze stayed glued to the strange world passing outside the window. “Definitely not here. I told my parents I’d be in Rose Hills tonight. They’d probably kill me if they knew I was in the Grove.”