Fun was the last thing I expected this to be. I made a quick assessment of the group, and it wasn't reassuring. The man who had spoken was sitting on the bed clutching a half empty bottle of some type of liquor. His eyes didn't appear to be focussing all that well, but he was obviously doing his best to see through my sweater.
Ricky had to be the one sitting in the chair near the door. He had his boots up on the bed and was smoking something that you clearly couldn't buy in stores. His face was cold and hard, not a face I wanted to see up close. The three women, girls actually, had to be no older than young 20's, maybe even 18 or 19. They were small, thin and nervous looking, although they all seemed to cover it by projecting bored, sullen disinterest.
I was at least 20 or 25 years older than any of them, and I could tell the difference was of interest to each of them, probably for different reasons. I found out quickly that I was right.
"There you go," Ricky said, obviously addressing the three girls. "There's a fine looking woman. Not like you three skinny bitches. Damn, look at the tits on her. She's got more than all three of you combined."
I knew that was not going to endear me to the three young women.
The man behind nudged me and handed me a glass from the bathroom, half full of straight whisky. "Uh, no, thanks," I said. "That's a little much for me."
"You got a problem?" Ricky called from across the room. I didn't like the look on his face.
"Oh . . . no," I replied with a forced smile, and I took a small sip. He made a move to stand up and I could see the handle of a gun sticking up from his belt. The man behind me moved quickly. He took my hand holding the glass, raised it to my lips, and held it to my mouth until I had swallowed half of the liquid. I managed to swallow it all, but coughed as my throat objected to what it had just endured. All of them but Ricky laughed. He just watched me steadily, without a trace of sympathy.
"Come over here," he demanded. When I didn't, he looked to the man standing behind me. "Jack?" he said. Jack nudged me from behind and followed me across the room, making sure I didn't stop or move toward either door. I ended up sitting at the head of the bed, just next to Ricky's boots. "That's better," Ricky said. "Go on, drink up, this is a party, right?" He looked at me coldly until I emptied the rest of the glass in my hand.
Satisfied that I wasn't going to make any trouble, he turned his attention back to the others. "So, Jack, who's the new girl with you tonight? You got her working across the street yet??
"Yeah, Ricky, she's been there a few nights so far. Her name's Tina. I set her up over at the place on 4th street with Leslie."
"Welcome, Tina," Ricky said with a sarcastic leer. "You like working the booths, or you just too stupid to do anything else?" Tina looked at him with a vacant stare and said nothing.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," he mumbled. "And how about you?" he said turning back to me. "You making any money over there, or you just doing everybody for the fun of it?"
I was stunned to realize what he was asking. "I . . . I don't . . . do anything . . . over there! I just . . . look at the books. I don't even go in the back."
"Sure. You just rent this room to rest from the long walk across the street, right? How much you charge for letting a guy come back here with you? I could get you double that, a classy broad like you. You look pretty good for your age."
I was speechless. I sat there too stunned to say anything.
