“Thanks,” Rudy said grasping the glass unsteadily, using his other hand to immobilize the shaking glass and help lift it up to his eager mouth. “I needed that,” he said, visibly relaxing and expanding as the elixir restored him.
“Tough night?” Sophia asked.
“You could say that,” Rudy said, wiping his attenuated lips with the back of his satin clown sleeve, affording Sophia a fleeting glimpse of his raw, track-riddled inner arm.
Heroin? Who knows? She wasn’t about to ask.
“You’re wondering why I showed up at your doorstep all of a sudden,” Rudy said.
“Well, yes I am.”
“And, you’re wondering what we were doing at that Momma’s Boys’ affair last night.”
“That too.”
She was waiting for more. For answers. She noticed Rudy’s frozen stare. Perhaps his drug-addled, alcohol-soaked brain was hallucinating.
When she followed his horrified gaze’s trajectory, however, she saw adorable Remy, jumping from Rudy’s lap, running like a miniature gazelle towards Titi, who had materialized in the living room. Remy was dashing for Titi as if she were a long lost fellow mouse. Headlong into death’s jaws.
Sophia raised her hands helplessly to her cheeks. Anticipating a blood bath, she screamed, “No. No. No. That mouse has a death wish.”
Rudy dropped his drained glass, dribbling out the last drops of whiskey onto the white tiles, and raced for the kitchen as Titi turned tail, bounding into that room with Remy following her.
Sophia feared the worst. Titi would tear him to shreds in the kitchen, offering Sophia the bones stripped clean.
Rudy and Sophia collided in the kitchen doorway as they raced towards a certain slaughter.
Rudy fell to his knees, sobbing with relief as he watched Titi cradling Remy between her two front paws, licking him vigorously while he twisted in ecstasy, offering up any spot she may have missed.
Rudy picked himself up and burst out laughing, his relief palpable. As if on cue, Sophia roared with laughter. They looked at each other, their laughter out of control, unable to stop.
Sophia stopped first. Tears streaming, she said, “I guess we can leave them alone. They found each other.”
“I don’t know what I would have done without my Remy.”
“I know one person who would have been thrilled if Titi had done her feline thing.”
“Ada just doesn’t want him near her,” Rudy said. “Let’s talk, Sophia.” Rudy abruptly shifted gears.
They returned to the living room.
“Now I need a drink too,” Sophia said, pouring herself a hefty shot of Johnny Walker Double Black.
“Before you sit, I could use a refill,” said Rudy.
He waved the glass he had retrieved from the floor in Sophia’s direction.
Relief faded as Sophia snatched Rudy’s glass and poured him another.
“Okay. What’s up?” Sophia asked, settling herself opposite Rudy on the yellow couch. She sipped expectantly.
“I know a lot of these Momma’s Boys. That’s why I was at the ball and took your momma along. Didn’t she look stunning in that authentic sari that I sprung for? The most original woman in any room,” Rudy gloated.
“So you know them. So?”
“I also know all about your little business venture. Innocent Sophia, the good little girl, ain’t so good after all. Saint Sophia, the therapist by day turns into Sinner Sophia, flogging her cunt to the highest bidder by night.”
His putrefying breath wafted across to her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, her hands tingling with fearful anticipation. She took a deep breath to dispel the adrenaline rush of anxiety. Her left hand shot up to her ear.
“Don’t play the innocent Madonna with me. I know you’re a cheap whore. Well, not cheap. Expensive. You’re cutting into my territory. I supply a lot of those boys with their fleshy treats. I finally found out you’re the one horning in on my business with your specialized tricks,” he snarled. “One of the poor deprived boys on your waiting list spilled the beans.”
The tremor was gone. Rudy banged his empty glass down on the side table. The sad shuffle had vanished. He sprang up, strode to Sophia, and wrenched her left hand away from her ear, twisting her arm behind her back.
“Rudy you’re hurting me.”
“I know I’m hurting you. You’ve been hurting me and I finally found out. You’ve been draining off funds from my perfect racket by taking some of these boys with particular needs away from me, you fucking cunt. I want a piece. I want a cut. I need to pimp you out,” he shouted, his voice steadily rising, saliva dribbling from his mouth. He looked like a rabid dog foaming at the mouth.
“Let go of me, you piece of shit.” Sophia shouted back.
He abruptly dropped her arm and swiftly slapped her cheek, causing her teeth to clatter, leaving five angry welts behind.
“Fuck you. Get out of my house.” Sophia was incensed. “And take your mouse with you before I feed it to the cat.” She stood shaking.
Rudy ran into the kitchen, scooped up the pampered mouse, leaving Titi in mid-lick, and hurried to open the front door.
“You will hear from me again, stinking twat. You can’t go solo for this long,” he screamed, slamming the door.
She ran to the door, opened it to shout after him, but instead, helplessly watched the retreating clown, clutching his mouse in one hand and his ridiculous pointy hat in the other.
Twenty Nine
“Don’t stop,” Sophia moaned.
“My tongue is numb,” Maria said, trying to rub life into her jaw. “You’ve come three times. You’re being a hog.”
Maria, naked save for her beloved boots, rubbing her jaw, rose up from the bed. Her ample breasts jutted out over a rounded belly. Sophia was looking at her vee of neatly trimmed crinkly ebony pubic hair, sprouting around her thick mauve labia.
“What is with you? You come over hours before you’re due here demanding sex. What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Sophia said. Just get your mouth back over here.
“I’ll be right back,” Maria said.
She returned with a royal purple dildo strapped to her. It was an eye-popping spectacle. She turned the vibrator on and it purred, taking on a life of its own.
“What are you going to do with that thing? It’s huge. I’ve never used such a hefty one,” Sophia protested.
“Shut up and lie still, hon. You’re going to have the ride of a life time. You’re all ready to receive Balthazar. Lubed up after three orgasms. I’m not going to put anything on him. Ready or not, here I come,” Maria said.
Ignoring Sophia’s anxious stare, Maria mounted her gently. Grabbing onto Sophia’s buttocks, confident she was ready to receive the moving monster, she eased into her, finding herself more than a little aroused when she entered Sophia.
They fell into an easy rhythm. Sophia’s fluttering eyelids, grasping fingers buried deep in Maria’s hair, and frenzied head whipping from side to side inflamed Maria. Sophia’s moans and groans escalated, metamorphosing into ecstatic high-pitched wails in no time. After, she lay still, surfeited, in a semi-stupor.
“I told you old Balt would be just the ticket.”
“I just had the time of my life,” Sophia murmured.
She rose up lazily on one elbow, licking her full lips, staring at Maria with purple Balt still strapped on, lying next to her, grinning like a fool.
“I came, too. Now that’s what I call hot sex. Scalding. Show me any man who can beat my tongue and a dose of bucking Balt thrown in,” Maria said, pinching Sophia’s erect nipple. “Or, even just my tongue for that matter,” Maria said, looking like a triumphant general.
“Okay, Maria the conquering hero. Pull in your horns.”
“You loved it. Right? You showed up begging for it and I upped the ante,” Maria said.
Sophia imagined her pounding her chest, saying, “Me Tarzan. You Jane.”
Sophia
grabbed Maria by the hair and dug her tongue deep into Maria’s willing mouth.
“I’m going to shower now. Café con leche?” Sophia asked. She wound the mint green sheet around her, heading for the bathroom, glancing backwards coquettishly when Maria landed a resounding slap on her behind.
When Sophia, having hastily donned a red terry robe, hanging on the back of the bathroom door, her wet and limp mahogany hair looking two shades darker, stumbled into the kitchen barefoot, her café con leche was waiting for her in a cheerful, oversized red cup. Next to it stood a full shot glass of a thick, honey-colored liqueur.
“Drambuie,” Maria said.
“Looks irresistible,” Sophia said, knocking it back in one gulp, running her long tongue along her lips to savor the sweet, viscous residue. “Sexy. Just the way I want my world right now. I don’t have any cigarettes,” Sophia continued.
“I’m pretty sure I have some Gitanes somewhere. A friend left them,” Maria said. She rummaged through kitchen drawers producing a crumpled blue pack of unfiltered cigarettes.
“Two timing me with a Gitane smoking dyke?”
Maria’s face lit up.
“Jealousy. I love it.”
“I’m not jealous.”
“Like hell you’re not.”
Maria sat down opposite Sophia at the kitchen table, admiring her exhaling plumes of foggy blue Gitane smoke, tendrils slowly dispersing into nothingness.
“Why are you staring?”
“Just appreciating how beautiful you are. I love the way you smoke. The way you flare your nostrils when you inhale and the way you purse your pretty lips when you exhale. I could watch you all day.”
“Now you’re waxing corny,” Sophia said, a wisp of unease whispering warnings in her ear.
“So why did you show up rabidly horny?” Maria asked. “Not that I’m complaining,” she continued, reaching across the scarred wooden table for a Gitane, releasing a potent aphrodisiac scent of sweat, sex, and woodsy cologne.
Sophia inhaled deeply.
“These are like cigars. They’re so strong,” Maria said. She rose and sauntered over to Sophia for a light, her hastily donned red robe parting when she leaned over.
Sophia tugged at a clump of Maria’s pubic hair before standing up, wrapping and tying her robe closed, and kissing her carefully, tasting a heady brew of malty scotch and her own sex, mingling with the potent, peaty tobacco.
“How many red robes do you have?” she asked as they both resumed their seats.
“Lots,” Maria said, grinning wickedly, her dark eyes sparkling with an inner fire. “I’m lost in the moment. I know I was asking about your unexpected appearance, but now I don’t care. I’m just happy that you’re here.”
“I have something to get off my chest,” Sophia said.
“And what a chest it is,” Maria said, staring lasciviously at her big bouncy breasts, straining against the robe.
“Enough Maria. Even I’m sated. I tried to escape into sex, but the party is over and my disturbing encounter with Rudy is again uppermost in my mind.”
“That slimy clown your mom hangs out with?”
“Yes. He showed up at my door this morning, stinking of booze and drugs, and demanded a cut. He’s on to me and feels I’m cheating him. He pimps for those boys. That’s why he was at the ball. When I brushed him off, he got rough and slapped me.”
“I’ll kill that cocksucker,” Maria said, walking over to Sophia to stroke her back.
“You’ll do nothing of the kind. One death was more than enough, thank you very much. I’m still having nightmares.” Sophia flung Maria’s arm off.
“You’re right. You’re right. I just see red when I think of that asshole threatening you and laying a hand on you.”
“Besides, my mother would be devastated. She loves that creep. Wait. I wonder if he’s the one who’s been leaving the black roses. No. That can’t be. He said he just found out about me,” Sophia said. “Someone on the waiting list snitched.”
Maria slowly returned to her seat.
“Okay. Don’t get mad. I have a confession to make.”
Sophia looked up from her ponderings as if seeing her for the first time.
“What are you talking about? This isn’t the time to tell me you have another lover.”
“There you go again. Jealous. No. I’m the one who’s been leaving the roses,” Maria said, looking sheepish.
“You? No! I don’t believe it. Hold on. You didn’t know me long enough, did you?”
“I left you the first one the day I met you. When you walked through the door, I saw Gloria coming back to me. Resurrected. You looked like a shining vision. I was hooked then and there. That was my way of connecting. I discovered black roses in Moscow, where they were a hothouse commodity in that shitty climate. I lavished them on Gloria.”
“Didn’t you think it would be disturbing? Almost like stalking me. Well, yes. Stalking me with a nasty gift.”
“Come on. You have it all wrong,” Maria said. What’s the difference now? It worked out better than my wildest dreams. I don’t need to leave you secret presents. We’re together. I can give you flowers any time I want. To your face.”
Sophia looked at her skeptically.
“See? I told you that you needed protection. The clown needs straightening out and I’m the right person for the job.”
“I agree. A warning though. No death threats.”
“Leave it to me. I know how to handle it. Where does he live?”
“I have no idea. We’ll have to ask Ma. Can you come with me or do you have clients?”
“No. I’m free. But Ma doesn’t know what to make of me.”
“She’s a big girl. After the horrors of a camp, I think she can handle a manly woman with a pretty face. I’d like you to come with me because she came home to a bag of shit on her bed. Maybe you can help me get to the bottom of this. The rotten tomatoes and now this. I wonder if the person is dangerous.”
“Do you know who it is? The one you mentioned at the ball?”
“No, I don’t. Ma is convinced it’s that scrawny, stringy lady, Magda. They were both in this camp. Who knows what went on there? I can’t imagine without going wild, so I just shut it down.”
“That was a fucking long time ago.”
“It might be fresh in this woman’s mind. The primitive unconscious mind knows no time. Just love and hate and I want what I want.”
“I wonder what could have happened.”
“Ma will never spill. She doesn’t tell me anything. Mum’s the word. Back to Rudy. Do not seriously hurt him. Ma could not live without him.”
“Okay, worry wart. I get the message.”
“Now let’s get dressed.”
Thirty
“What possessed you to get a Hummer?”
“Now don’t start that again. I like it. I’m a macho girl who wants a dick,” Maria said, grinning at Sophia before she reversed out of her parking spot.
“Okay. Sorry. I’m too critical. It’s so big and South Beach is a crowded, cramped town.”
“There you go again. You can’t stop.”
“I’m nervous about this whole thing. Ma, you, Rudy,” Sophia said, her left hand rising to worry her ear. She turned to face Maria. “At least I don’t have to worry about the black roses any more. Just your stability,” Sophia said, wrinkling her brow as she worked her ear furiously.
Maria slapped her hand away from her ear.
“Aw, hon. I just want to love you and keep you safe,” Maria said, stroking her cheek.
“Keep your eyes on the road, Maria.”
They arrived at her parents’ dilapidated apartment building in no time. A mere twenty minute walk. It would have been unbearable in the September heat.
“I’m a nervous wreck. I don’t like this one bit,” Sophia said, jumping down from the Hummer’s height, feeling her heart’s relentless staccato in her chest and all the way up to her pounding temples.
“Cool your jets.
It’ll be fine. Remember, I’m your guardian angel.”
Sophia looked at her askance.
“This place is a little run down, but what a great location. You know we’re in a third world country in Miami. Anywhere else, this would have been snatched up by ruthless developers chomping at the bit to rip off the rich and disenfranchise the poor.”
No need to ring the bell. The front door was wide open. Sophia made sure to click the door firmly shut, muttering about careless slobs. They trudged up the stairs, feeling the heat in the dingy hallway, smelling of urine, cabbage, and moth balls.
The unlocked apartment door, its thick layers of paint cracked and rusting, gave way to Sophia’s hesitant touch, swinging wide to reveal an astonishing tableau.
Maria turned to Sophia, bursting into infectious raucous laughter. They were holding onto each other, gripped by paroxysms of cackling.
Red-faced, but unrepentant, Sophia calmed down enough to attempt to introduce Maria to Ta.
Ta, resplendent in Ma’s gold kimono with the emerald green dragons sporting golden eyes, was plopped in Ma’s lap. She was wearing her favorite. The red kimono with the red eyed black dragons.
Their glass mugs of brown Swee-Touch-Nee, flanking the bowl of snow white sugar cubes, were cooling on the weathered red Formica table top. Max secured his sash before rising from Ada’s enveloping lap and sauntering over to his chair with as much dignity as he could muster, considering the circumstances and his outfit.
They looked like two guilty school kids caught with their hands in the candy bowl.
“Ta, we’re not laughing at you. We’re laughing with you. Are you getting ready for the South Beach fashion runway? This is my friend, Maria,” Sophia managed between titters, going over to kiss him on the cheek now that he was safely ensconced in his own seat.
“You are laughing at me. Nice to meet you anyway,” Ta said unconvincingly, wrapping Ma’s robe even tighter around himself, his eyes burrowing into Maria’s as if he hoped to unearth her gender by close scrutiny.
“She’s not a bucher,” Ma interjected by way of explanation, her stormy eyes flashing. “Something to eat?” Ma asked, rising to her feet, her imposing figure blocking out the light streaming in from the balcony, cloaking the cramped room in sudden semi-gloom.
Time's Harlot: The Perils of Attraction, Seduction, and Desire Page 11
