Chapter 5
Instead of phoning Cee-Zee, he went back to the apartment for her. The combination of Donald and Lilio both in one evening! Too much. He wanted to be alone with Cee-Zee for awhile. Strip off the fancy suit and chase her around the bedroom.
He put the key in the lock and found that the door was open. The sound of cha-cha music blasted him. He stood at the living room entrance and watched unnoticed. She was wiggling her hips and snapping her fingers, eyes half closed, lips pursed in private enjoyment. Eric folded his arms and leaned aagnsit the wall, not wanting to disturb the picture. She had on a black velvet dress that left her back completely naked down to the waist, revealing the movement of her shoulder blades and the snake-like suppleness of her spine. Her buttocks poked out like an African native. He viewed its arching movements with appreciation. She whirled on her skyscraper heels and stopped abruptly, catching sight of him. Then she laughed soundlessly and danced over toward him. He put his arm around her and grasped one half of her behind, stepping with her now in time to the music. Their bodies meshed as she lifted her hips toward him and she darted the point of her tongue across his lips. As they passed the radio, she reached out and snapped it off, ducking out of his arms.
He grabbed for her but she swivelled away. "Mustn't mess the merchandise. Besides, you were supposed to phone."
"Yeah, and you weren't."
"Did I louse you up, I hope?" She tightened one pendant earring of sparkling amethyst.
"No, sweetie, you'll have to try again." He nodded toward the earrings and the dress. "I see you didn't waste any time spending your salary."
"And we're not going to waste any more time sexing around here, so cool your irons."
"You were pretty anxious this afternoon."
"Tch, tch. The mating season is over. We're going out on my business appointment. You're about to see an after hours joint that makes ordinary screwing look like its out of style. My knight in flabby armor has to be respected for one thing. He knows how to keep his clientele from getting bored. Besides, you'll meet all the best people. Isn't that what you like?"
He was more interested in finding out how she kept her breasts up in the two v-shaped pieces of material. The flesh jiggled as she spoke, threatening to fall out any moment. A heavy fragrance rose from her soft cleavage. He bent over and put his nose into it. "We can go tomorrow," his words came muffled from her skin.
She put her hands over his ears and lifted his head away. "You're supposed to be my friend."
He remembered, all of a sudden, the pact he'd made with himself about Cee-Zee. No forcing, no cajoling. "Well, what happens when we get there?"
"Oh, you won't be ignored," she laughed. "Plenty of licks and kicks for all. Strictly adult entertainment guaranteed." It occurred to him that there might be something he could take home for Donald.
"Promise one thing, Spooky. Be nice to me while we're there. I want to get Lilio good and jealous. And if you can't be nice, be real awful so he'll feel sorry for me and want to protect me."
"That's my girl, all curves and angles."
He waited while she went to fetch a matching velvet purse and stole, draping it around her shoulders so that the white satin lining folded over her arms. The characteristic easiness which had been a gratifying part of him during the past year was gone. In the past few days something had begun to force it away. A driving urge toward violence which had taken full control of him for an instant with Hilda. The muscles in his jaw flicked. He couldn't see himself. That his posture had taken a compact stance, bracing for an explosion. Something of a pallor seeped beneath his olive skin. His neck had thickened with a bulge of tendon. But all this was imperceptible to any casual observer. All he knew was that he was beginning to lose patience with people trying to make a revolving door of his private life.
They went out again and rode over to the West Side, speeding through Central Park. The cool rustling of shadowed trees was louder to him than the whine of the tires. He didn't talk much. He didn't feel like wise cracking with her. His legs were stiff and cold, his body felt rigid also. The sense of well-being, of suppleness replaced by a steel tube that held his guts in place.
Lilio's club was stashed in the basement of an old brownstone. They got to it through a series of passages fumigated to kill the smell of sewage.
"This better be good," he commented.
Before he had a chance to find out whether it was good or not, he realized that it certainly was interesting.
The huge low-ceilinged room was lit by a series of blue lights just bright enough to reveal the waitresses, each clad in a tiny gauze apron, flesh-tinted panties and a pair of rosebuds.
"This is the tired business man's appetizer," Cee-Zee murmured as she searched around the room for Lilio.
"Then maybe we better have a drink," Eric said. "Let's grab that table."
He caught the eye of one of the waitresses. She wiggled her way to them between the crowded chairs.
"Two Scotch on the rocks."
When she brought them, Eric pulled out a couple of bills and dropped them on the ash tray.
She smiled pleasantly enough, her white bleached hair falling forward over her shoulders.
"Keep the change," Eric said.
As she walked away, he watched her pink behind wiggling and dimpling beneath the huge pussy cat bow of her apron ties.
"The fate of the working girl," Eric grinned.
"And last winter, Geraldine was clerking for a credit jeweler," Cee-Zee added.
"You know her?"
"Obviously, shnook."
"Pardon me."
"Maybe I better go ask her if Lilio's busy inside."
"Yeah, let's go inside. This is strictly for tourists," he said, following her between the tables.
They reached Geraldine as she was bending over, shoving her collection of tips into the side of one shoe.
"You want to go back stage?" she said, looking up.
Cee-Zee nodded.
"Who's the beefcake?"
"Blood cousin," Eric said. "Pleased to meet you."
"He's always snotty," Cee-Zee put in. "That's all the charm he's got."
Geraldine rose to her full five feet one. "He looks like he might have something more."
"You're all right too, little girl. If you ever want to work overtime, let me know."
"Come on, flip hp," Cee-Zee said.
They wangled around behind the bar and bent down to get through a small door. Lilio was standing just on the other side of it, his fat belly obstructing the entrance. His plastered down hair gave off a rancid odor meant to be masculine perfume. He lifted a warning finger to his lips and motioned them to a table against the wall.
Only half a dozen people were in this room and none of them paid any attention to the disturbance of Cee-Zee and Eric. The reason for this was a girl in a sequined bikini, rocking on her knees in the middle of the circle. Sitting on the floor beside her was a chimpanzee trying to peel a banana. She was making cooing sounds at the chimp, attempting to distract his attention by slapping her thighs and leaning toward him. Occasionally the chimp would glance at her. But always, his attention returned to the food in his mind.
Eric looked around to see that both men and women at the various tables were desperately involved with whether the food or the girl would finally win the chimp.
"Come on, Adam," one of the men rooted drunkenly. "You ain't that hungry."
Lilio said, "Five minutes, forty three seconds."
"There's a time limit and she's not allowed to touch him," Cee-Zee whispered. "That's what makes the suspense."
"What happens if she loses?"
"You'll see."
Eric crossed his legs and expelled a long breath. "How much of this do we have to go through before you make your impression on Lilio?"
Cee-Zee frowned without answering him.
Meanwhile the chimp had edged closer to the girl and was now leaping up and down, the banana half peeled, biting into it contentedly as though he were all alone with it.
"Three minutes, twenty nine seconds," Lilio announced.
Excitedly the girl clapped her hands in front of Adam's nose. But he rubbed his eyes, dropped the banana skin and waddled away.
"Smart cookie," Eric whispered.
Now all the men started to lean over. "Here, Adam." They snapped their fingers and put glasses of water on the floor, banging the glasses with knives or forks.
Adam stopped, bewildered by all the noise. He scratched his head and yawned, curling back his upper hp in what seemed to be a superior laugh. Then he sat down and rolled over, one arm curling around his neck.
Eric lit a cigarette and yawned too, letting the smoking match fall to the floor.
Of all things, it was this match which attracted Adam's attention. He leaped over and squatted beside Eric's foot. Then he reached out a hand and caught his trousers cuff, pulling it and screeching.
Cee-Zee burst into a roar of laughter. "You're it," she squealed. "Spooky won the package."
He watched her double over in fits of uncontrollable giggling. Then he looked about, very sure that he didn't want to find out the cause of her hysterics.
Lilio came over and hoisted the chimp into his arms. He patted Eric's shoulder. "Ah, monsieur is most fortunate," he said. "Adam has chosen you to take his place. Bon voyage."
Eric looked from Lilio to Cee-Zee to the girl lying on the floor. He put his hands up. "Oh, no," he said. "I'm just a bystander."
"You do not wish to...."
"Mus' be a fag," someone shouted drunkenly, interrupting Lilio.
Eric stood up, the chair toppling backward from his movement.
"He ain't no fag," Cee-Zee shouted back.
She reached forward to grab his belt buckle. He caught her wrist and twisted it away. "Take it easy, kid," he said from between grim lips.
Eric flung Cee-Zee away from him. She fell back against the chair.
"You take it easy," Lilio's voice came out breathily. His eyes seemed to sink deeper into the rolls of fat as they became pin points of anger.
The drunk wavered forward, tottering toward Eric. But the flashing sequins attracted his eye. He hiccoughed and flopped down on the floor beside the girl. "Not nice to fight in the presence of ladies," he mumbled, tangling his fingers in her flame red hair.
"You better get out, monsieur." The bland camoflage had dropped completely. The chimp hugged Lilio, bouncing up and down in the crook of his elbow.
Eric's arm came up and he whacked Lilio across the face with the back of his hand. He knew the insult of this was more sickening than any punch. The round, oily face became hard, menacing.
"Watch yourself," Lilio's voice was a whisper. "You be in trouble now, monsieur."
"Go to hell."
Eric strode out, leaving Cee-Zee with Lilio.
Ducking through the door, he searched for Geraldine and found her skimmering through the crowd, holding a tray of glasses high above her head, her pendulous breasts slapping as she walked. He waited beside the bar until she served the liquor and returned.
"Hi," she said. "Where's your girl friend?"
"You want to make some more money for that shoe?" he asked, ignoring her question.
Geraldine shrugged.
"I mean real money. Say a couple of hundred for a night's engagement."
"That's a lot of money, mister."
He figured Millardson wouldn't think so. "Give me your phone number and you'll find out."
"I work for Lilio."
"No free-lance, eh?"
He let her inspect him until she was satisfied that he wasn't kidding. Then she came close and whispered her number into his ear. "Mornings only," she said.
"Check."
He left the place thinking that Donald would consider her a poor substitute for Robin. Yet Geraldine had her points. He didn't doubt that she had the know-how to give Donald whatever perverted kicks he might require.
When he got home, the apartment seemed peculiarly empty. He took some ginger ale from the refrigerator and added gin to it, promising himself that if Cee-Zee came back, he'd kick her down the steps. She wanted her Lilio. Now she had him. He looked hopefully around to see if, by any chance, she had forgotten to take the key with her. He didn't want Cee-Zee bouncing in any time of the day or night. It made him feel helpless to know all the hours during the week he'd be stuck at the office, leaving her free to come and to do as she pleased.
He saw a pair of her soiled underpanties stuffed into a corner of the couch and he jammed them into the garbage can beneath the sink. What burned him more than anything was the way she'd played along with the drunk. It was a small but traitorous action which clued him into the fact that Cee-Zee was hopelessly no good. He must have been some kind of crazy to consider helping her. From now on, he promised himself, dames would be dames for him and nothing else.
He sank down onto the couch and found his mind idling in the sea green mist of Robin's eyes. He shut the thought off with a violent snap. The telephone began to ring.
At this hour it could only be Cee-Zee. He let it ring on, counting the limits of her patience. It stopped for awhile and then began again. He got up and went to the phone, unscrewed the mouthpiece to stop the buzz, and put the receiver under his pillow.