by Alden Odessa
“Yeah, I’ll spread it around, but most men in these parts head over to South Light for that.”
“We’ll see,” I said. “And let’s see about getting some coffee around here.”
With that, I was out the door and heading back to our trio of rooms. As soon as I walked out of the office, I saw a man standing in front of my door, and I realized my mistake.
Once again, I had left the room without my gun.
16
There Came a Tapping on Room Five
He was short and round and was grinning from ear to ear. The closer I got I realized who he was. He was our friend from the hardware store. The one who I had promised Stephanie to, and he was much earlier than I had expected.
He looked nervous as he anxiously stood outside room number five. Eagerly knocking, he looked around and then saw me approaching from the direction of the office. He stopped knocking as if it embarrassed him. I smiled and greeted the short man.
“I see you have taken me up on my offer!” I said.
“Yes, I hope I’m not too early?”
“Not at all, however, I’m not sure that Stephanie has woken up yet. Hold on one second, and I will get her ready for you.”
“How much is this gonna cost me?” he asked.
“Fifty, does that seem fair for such a woman?”
“It’s a little much, but she’s worth it. I’ve never seen a woman like her around these parts.”
“Oh, she’s just the start, but I’ll tell ya what—” his ears perked up as I prepared to make a deal, “—we’re new around here and we’re gonna be setting up shop here at The Side Light. So I will give her to you for half price, provided you spread the word.”
“Oh, I’ll certainly do that! I’ll tell all the guys at my card game.”
“Fantastic. Pay up front, and I’ll have her ready in a jiffy, but before that, ground rules. No hitting her. I’ve got a four-hundred-pound beast in the other room that will do things to you that you wouldn’t be able to think of if you harm her.”
“I would never think of hurting such a beautiful creature,” he said. He wasn’t offended, he was more surprised that he could imagine anyone ever hurting her.
“Great, well—that’s really the only rule.”
“I will treat her like a queen,” he said. Thinking I was doing him some kind of favor by taking his money for services rendered.
“I will let her know you’re here.”
There was no money exchanging hands; I just saw a +25$ appear out of the corner of my eye. This guy was ready. In fact, he was already pitching a tent in his pants.
I’m really tired of noticing other men’s dicks.
I went to room three and knocked on it. Bogo answered. I walked in, and everyone was in my room. They had a look of distress on their faces. Emily, Bridget, and April were all still naked, laying in the same bed together with the covers pulled over them. Courtney and Stephanie were on the other bed and Betty was standing beside Bogo.
“We didn’t know where you were. We didn’t know what to do,” Betty said.
“You need me to get rid of him, boss,” Bogo said.
“I’m sorry about that guys, thought I’d let you sleep in. I was at the office,” I said to Betty and the room, before turning to Bogo. “He’s fine Bogo. Paying customer in fact.” I then turned my attention to Stephanie. “Stephanie, your date has arrived.”
She took a second to think and then she said, “The short little fucker from last night?” She had such an elegant way of putting things.
“Yes. The short little fucker from last night. You want to get ready?”
“Hell yeah, let’s get this party started.”
“I’ll walk you into your room.”
She got out of the bed, and I led her back into room number five where he was patiently waiting outside. I let her know he knew all the ground rules, and that I was selling her at half price today. I told her the amount, and she was surprised that he was going to charge fifty for her down here. I let her know she was top tier talent, and that is what I planned on charging for her in The Lower Bottoms if we could get it.
She excitedly let me know she would do whatever I needed her to do for the group.
Socialist prostitutes. Gotta love it.
“Do you need me to jerk you off or anything before I get to him?” she asked. I almost abruptly laughed.
“No. Thanks. Save it for Tubby,” I said, and she gave me a thumbs up.
“Let him know I will be ready in ten minutes.”
I nodded and left the room. I told her he would be outside and to just open the door whenever she was ready before I left. I also let her know I would leave the door in between the two rooms unlocked and if anything went south, yell for Bogo.
She was already getting ready before I left the room.
Bogo and Courtney, the two peas in the pod, were already in room four when I went through and closed the door.
“Got it, Boss,” Bogo said, having heard the instructions I had given Stephanie. There seemed to be a real energy in the air, and the other girls all looked in from the other room. I have no idea why everyone was excited, but they were. Everyone seemed to treat this like it was the first day of school suddenly.
I guess it kind of was. Maybe not school, but the first day at a new job. I thought back about the previous night. They had all attacked cleaning their rooms with a certain vigor that was unexpected. I don’t know if it was excited to get started, or if it was just a certain feeling of camaraderie that they had not had in some time. Whatever the reason, they all seemed thrilled to be here. Even April had some extra spring in her step. Walking around naked and laughing at something that Bridget had said.
All three of the girls from last night were still naked and caused a bit of a commotion in my own pants. That may also just be my excitement for my first dollar earned in The Lower Bottoms.
I was getting the feeling that this was all going to work out, or at least, I was feeling better having some sort of an idea what I was going to do and how I was going to do it. I needed to fill them all in, but I knew every step would take longer than I thought it was going to as I was still working out the details in my head.
“Bogo, you have one job. Keep an eye on that door for any sounds of Stephanie being hurt. If she yells your name get in there.”
“Got it,” he said.
“Betty, check on food. See how much we have and if we need to do a market run. Food down here, as you know, is cheap, but shit. I need to know if we need to make a run to The Upper Bottoms.”
“Check,” she said and went right to the food basket.
“April, supplies. Make sure everybody has what they need.”
“Okay.”
“Bridget and Emily, do you have everything you need to get started down here?”
“For clients?” Bridget asked.
“Yes.”
“Ready to serve,” Emily said.
“Courtney, is there anything you need?”
“Just paying customers,” she said.
Fuck. I love my harem.
They all seemed to be chomping at the bit to get into the thick of things, and it all seemed to move a little faster than I was ready for, but as I was thinking before, I couldn’t show pause. They were following me into the battle here, and whatever doubts I may have had, it would be best to keep them to myself.
I ran to the other room and came out the door, then realizing that I could have just gone out of room number four. But since I had already gone into my room, I went to the nightstand and grabbed my gun. I will not make the same mistake for the third time.
I went out the door and approached my fat friend and caught him holding onto his crotch, anxiously prancing around like he was about to piss himself.
“Hold on there, don’t ruin your chance to get your money’s worth.”
He looked at me and gave me a nervous smile. Then suddenly the door opened. It was Stephanie, naked as the day she was born.
“Well, hello sailor,” she said, flashing him that big smile as well as her round tits and bald pussy. The squatty little man got one look at her and then bent over and moaned.
He came in his pants right then and there.
He repeatedly convulsed as Stephanie stood in front of him and me to his side. Stephanie and I both glanced at each other, and she put her hand over her mouth. Stifling a laugh while he continued to ruin his underwear.
He stopped shaking and looked up at me and then to Stephanie. “I’m so sorry,” he said. I swear he almost had tears in his eyes.
“Oh man,” he said, looking down at his crotch and the wet spot there. “Oh man, I will never get to have sex with her!”
“Hold on,” I said. “How about a mulligan?”
He looked up to me as if he didn’t understand what I was saying. So I put it in more layman’s terms since he probably didn’t get in many rounds of golf here in The Lower Bottoms.
“A do-over,” I clarified.
“Seriously?” he asked.
“Think you can get it up again?”
He turned and looked at her; he stared straight into her groin. “I’m sure of it.”
I looked to Stephanie, “Steph, how about you take him inside and help him out of his pants and see if you can’t interest him in getting his money’s worth.”
“Sure,” she said and took his hand as she looked him in the face. “This is better anyway, with the first one out of the way we can really have fun.”
She led him into the room, closed the door and locked it. We were off to the races.
Now what do I do? Everything was moving so fast I hadn’t stopped to think what to do next. To be honest, I didn’t have enough money to do anything else, but I needed to put everybody to work, either by way of sex or something else.
I walked back into room number three and April was sitting on the bed. She looked at me.
“What do I need to do?” she asked, starting to be a little more outgoing.
“You’re with me today. Go wherever I go, and do whatever I do,” I said this as if I had any idea what I would be doing today.
“Okay,” she said, quite literally letting out a sigh of relief. I still didn’t know what to do with her.
Next thing I knew, there was another knock on the door.
Shit.
Betty walked to the passageway between the two rooms and looked at me with a concerned look and before I knew it, Bogo was right behind her.
Every time I hear a door knock for months I’m gonna lose my shit. It happened again, and I realized it was a feeble knock, not say a—Bruce knock. To be safe, and learning from my mistakes, I motioned to Bogo and took the gun from the back of my pants and held it in my hand.
I could feel my awkwardness holding the gun. I looked like a guy who had never been trained to carry, much less shoot, a gun. Because I hadn’t.
I went to the window next to the door and pulled back the curtain slightly to look out. It was Augustus and Beatrice, the old women from the Laundromat. They looked terrible; only their clothing was slightly cleaner than it had been the night before. My doing, of course.
I turned back to everybody in the room and let them know it was okay and who it was. I opened the door and greeted the ladies.
“Okay Mister, What’s the catch?” said Augustus, as pleasant as ever. They both looked around the room and checked everybody out. There were a lot of us in a small space. No one would ever describe The Side Light as roomy.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You gonna kill us or what?”
“Why would I do that?”
They looked at each other despondently. “We don’t know.”
“Wait,” I said, “you came here thinking you might get killed?”
“We figured it was a fifty-fifty shot.”
“And still you came?”
“We don’t have a whole lot going on,” Beatrice said, sadly yet matter-of-fact.
I realized I was still holding the gun and put it back behind my back. “Well, you’re in no danger of me, provided you follow the rules.”
“What’s the rules,” Augustus said.
“Very few,” I began. “Treat everyone nice. Do as I ask. Work hard, provided you have work to do and serve the greater goal.”
“What’s the greater goal?”
“To get into nicer accommodations.”
Again they looked at each other. “So, again, what’s the catch?”
Man, people in this part of town were so jaded, it’s like I had to reprogram each one of them. In a sense, I guess I was. I didn’t know what the programming for these ladies was like. I assume to be old hookers, but I had no use for them in that capacity. I didn’t even want to think about these ladies having sex, much less dedicate protection to them while they did it.
“No catch, I promise. You’re housecleaning. Can you do that?”
“Like a maid?”
“Sort of I guess. Just keep the place clean, bring up any repairs that need to be done and I will figure out how to do them. Maybe we paint, maybe we replace things, who knows. That’s what you will be doing. I don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to things like doing the laundry.” They were hanging on every word I was saying.
When we had started talking, they were tense, but with every word that came out of my mouth, they seemed to become more at ease. They were trusting me in all of this, taking me at my word. Why wouldn’t they? My character was programmed that way.
“Does all of this sound like something you can do?”
They both nodded their heads and their shoulders relaxed. I really think they were coming here convinced that they would be killed.
“Good,” I said, “in exchange for all of this, I will provide food and shelter and some degree of protection. Just know your top priority is making sure that these girls are taken care of. Everything we do here is for the girls. Keeping them comfortable and keeping them safe.”
“What kind of fucking pimp are you?” Beatrice asked.
“Just call me Buster.”
17
The Frequent Fuckers Club
I relied on Betty for a lot of different things. After laying out the ground rules for Beatrice and Augustus, I turned them over to Betty. She had become kind of the boss of the harem, or I guess, my work-wife. She took to it well. She was always still very grateful for everything. I guess this is what happens when you save someone’s life.
The two older ladies seemed both relieved and saddened that their career as a prostitute was over. I could tell that it would take them a couple of days to learn how to adjust to this new life. Probably not as long as it was taking me, but whatever.
Betty had adjusted well to becoming the madam of this little thing I had going on here. I was thankful for this. She always seemed to know what to do in relation to all things prostitution. I’m guessing that anything she doesn’t know about it; Augustus and Beatrice do. They strike me as two women who have been doing this for a while.
This is how the day would go, business wise. We would continue to use rooms four and five as the sex rooms, five would be the showcase room. When men came in, the girls would stand in a line for their selection. Betty would facilitate all the money, details and rules. All the while, Bogo would stand at attention. His one job provided nothing went south, was intimidation.
I really needed to figure out how to get one of those tablets that the pimps by The Reference had, this would make it all much more manageable.
I wasn’t expecting a lot of foot traffic today so part of that would be up to me. In fact, all of that would be up to me. I couldn’t do much advertising, so I was going to have to rely on word of mouth. I don’t know how long it takes for that kind of thing to travel down here.
I had to hope that all of this would work. I reminded myself of a previous thought: Hope was a terrible strategy.
I walked out of room number three and lit up a smoke. I needed to think; I needed to make
a plan. Although things were looking up, I had a long way to go.
I now had nine mouths to feed and shelter, not including myself. If we are using two of those rooms primarily for sex, then that means there will be times when eight of us were crammed into room three. That would not work. I needed more space to operate. I’m going to have to make another deal with Ben.
Over by the small, shitty market and hardware slash grocery slash general store had been another motel. I remember it looking pretty run down, and there was a possibility it could have some more paying customers. I would have to go check that out. Then I needed to check out some of these card games that the fat man had talked about. I had learned that gambling men could also be enticed to take a break and get some sex.
It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was better than relying strictly on hope.
April walked out of room number three and came to me. She was dressed and ready to go about the day. She knew she was with me today, doing whatever I needed her to do. She was the happiest at that, and I was breaking her into her new life slowly. I certainly didn’t mind her company although she wasn’t as fun like the other girls, I felt about her the same way that a person would feel about a wounded animal. A wounded animal you had sex with.
I really hate where this analogy is going.
“So, what are we doing today?” she asked.
I pointed off into the distance. “See that building?”
She looked, “What is it?”
“It’s a print shop.”
“What for?”
“For printing things,” I said with a smile. I knew no more about it than she did.
“What kind of things are we going to print?” she asked.
“Business cards,” I said. I just hoped I had enough money.
She nodded her head. “What do you need me to do?”
“April, if I knew that, I’d tell ya to do it.” I looked at her, and she didn’t know how to respond. I had learned from past experience to not let people, especially my harem, think too much for themselves. It’s best if I just keep talking, even at the risk of saying something that would just confuse them. And since this was April, I had to constantly worry about hurting her feelings.