"Over there," she said as she slipped the ring back onto her pinky finger and then and pointed to a cluster of buildings down the block across the street. A neon sign in front of them that should have read "MOTEL" but was instead intermittently flashing "O T E." There were several cars parked out front with several young men clustered around them, music and bass pumping.
"It's cheap. Short walk to work. I've paid for it all myself," Cassie explained with an obvious note of pride in her voice. The way Cassie saw it, she'd been thrust into a hopeless situation and was making the best of it on her own.