I'm a pretty good listener. You know where to find me." Without another word, she was gone, but the sweet scent of her flesh lingered in the cab for what seemed like a long time, mocking me, paralyzing me.
I remained parked outside Nicole's residence for a few minutes before finally departing, my lips shouting a curse in a long-dead language. No distractions! Dalliance was not my purpose.
Yet, I could feel something awakening inside the very core of my being, a very unique kind of hunger. And this lack of self-control on my part angered me. I had shut down that part of me. Surely, I could be able to choose the time when again that would no longer be denied to me.
Later that same shift, driving down East Main, I again saw the harlots, smoking their cigarettes, waiting for customers, and it did occur to me that they might indeed have a certain utility. Yes, utility was an appropriate term, for it seemed that they could be a tool for my use, albeit an extravagant tool, but a tool nonetheless for me to use to assuage my hunger in an impersonal way that would minimize my distractions and keep my hunger under control.
An hour after sunset, on a night free from my hopefully temporary indentured servitude, I parked my Toyota a few blocks away and used the locomotion of my own two feet to seek out these ladies. The Negress was nowhere in sight. The blonde stood on the same street corner, smoking a cigarette, the smoke intermingling with her own breath, visible with each exhale. At close scrutiny, her faux fur coat looked ratty and of little defense against the cold, which was probably fairly mild, unless one had to stand in it for hours at a time. I made a show of pulling my leather jacket close to my body, though even the most severe cold merely provides a slight stinging sensation, like beams of the sun when it is low on the horizon.
"Need to be warmed up, honey," she said in a hoarse, unalluring contralto as I approached. I turned and looked directly at her. Her face was covered with a hardshell foundation cover, but still looked very pale. Close scrutiny revealed dark roots in her blonde hair. Thick lines circumscribed several circles around her plump neck. She opened her coat enough to show ample cleavage.
"It is rather cold, is it not?" I replied.
"I know where we can go to get nice and warm."
"Where?"
She pointed toward a ramshackle house just around the corner.
"How much is this hospitality worth in this day and age of high inflation?" I asked.
She laughed lightly at my "foreign" manner, which suited me just fine. Let her think I was a foreign visitor, feeling just a bit lonely, just as long as she did not see fit to overcharge me.
"Fifty bucks," she replied, "but it'll be worth a lot more. You'll see."
"Excellent. Lead the way, my dear." As I followed, a vague sense of alarm poked dull daggers into my being, but I merely attributed it to the realization that this action was illegal, this being the puritanical American Midwest and not someplace more practical, likeAmsterdam orVienna .
Her flat was as shabby as the exterior would lead one to believe, and it reeked of more organic materials than I cared to consider. Still, my purpose was not to critique this woman's aesthetic proclivity toward interior design, and thus I phased out the sights and smells of this abode.
"Come with me," she said. The tart tossed her coat aside, took my hand and lead me into the bedroom. "God, we gotta warm up those cold hands." Her dress was bright red, strapless and extended just below her hips. Stockings covered trunk-like legs, supported teeteringly by black stiletto heels. As a gentleman, I wanted to massage her feet, but realized that she was not the one who was paying for services-to-be-rendered.
I lifted fifty dollars from my wallet, which she immediately snatched from my fingers. She reached inside my leather jacket and tried to unbutton my shirt. I twisted away and sat on the bed. "Take off your dress," I said. The lady let the dress fall to the floor and stood before me in red brassiere, black panties, stockings, garters and high heels.
"What would you like me to do for you?" she asked.
"Remove the rest of your clothing and come sit beside me." She complied, giving me a view of her ample flesh, which was