I may have been solicited...

On Thursday morning on my way to work, I stopped at the BP station right down the street from our apartment to see if they carried gas gift cards. As I'm walking in, I notice a minivan sitting under the covered portion with Illinois tags. Inside the van is a middle aged white woman (late 30s, early 40s -- looked like heavy smoker, regular drinker -- long fingernails painted pink and sparkled) and her teen daughter (probably 17-18). I go into the station (no gas cards) and on my way out the lady says "Hey. Excuse me."

I stop by the window and she says, "Oh, nevermind. I was going to ask you a crazy question."

I linger and say "It's ok. What do you need to know?"

"Are there any places around here that have prostitutes, hookers?" She asks.

I shrug and replied, "Not that I know of," and left it at that.

On my drive in to the office (yes, this conversation was at 7:10 a.m.) my mind is running through the motivation behind the exchange. (I should have asked why, but that may have opened a big fat can of worms.) I came to three possible conclusions: 1) Most likely, she has a husband/boyfriend who is running around; 2) With the out-of-state tags, possibly a runaway daughter they are looking for who my be hooking; 3) She was looking to earn a quick buck. I hope it wasn't #3, because that would make me sad. She was haggard looking and her daughter ... well, that's just child abuse. Also, #2 makes me sad to think about. I'm leaning toward the jerk husband/boyfriend because that's the only one outcome that can give me some piece of mind.

On a side note, do I look like 1) the kind of guy who knows where the brothels are, or 2) the kind of guy who's going to pay for a quickie at 7:10 in the morning?