“Celebrate what?”
“Well, I might have myself a date and an office for the scandalously low price of two hundred dollars a month. I’m going to be working for myself, baby. Bringing in the greenbacks while an army of men serve me french fries all day, stripping as they do it.”
“Don’t tell Rocky. He might get jealous.”
“He’ll be in charge of them. Give them the orders to strip.”
“Sounds a bit gay. Lots of men stripping together. Do they even need you around?”
“Maybe I’ll just employ him as my very personal assistant. Rocky, could you file that for me? Rocky, could you lick that for me? Rocky, could you insert that in me, please?”
“Cathy!”
“What? I’m talking about plugging in a computer.”
“First time I’ve heard you call it that.”
She winks at me and blows me a kiss. “Get changed. Put on something slutty so we can try and get free drinks.”
“How about I go naked?”
“Maybe a little less slutty?”
“A thong and those tassels that strippers wear?”
“Perfect. We are celebrating baby. We do not come home until we’ve thrown up, passed out, or ideally both.”
“You are such a classy lady. I can see why Rocky liked you.”
“Less yakking. More changing. Come on, I needs to get drinks down me.” She makes a drinking motion with her hand, faking a loud belch as she does it.
“You sound like you already have.”
“Come on!”
“All right.” I head through to my room and run through my wardrobe. At least I won’t have to worry about what to wear tomorrow night. I just hope whatever he sends me doesn’t look too awful.
When I come back out from my room, Cathy looks me up and down. “Black dress,” she says. “Classy, little bit of cleavage, nipples kind of visible and your ass looks great. I reckon you’ll get at least five free drinks out of that.”
“I’m not planning on getting out of it,” I reply, folding my arms across my chest. “They’re not that visible, are they?”
“I’m kidding. Come on, let’s go drinking like it’s going out of fashion.”
We go on foot to our favorite hang out for this sort of thing. Belucci’s Bar on the corner of our block. It’s a dive bar but not a dangerous one. Most importantly, the drinks are cheap.
We’re there for a couple of hours before it all starts to go wrong. At first, I listen while Cathy outlines all her plans for her new office. When she’s done with that, and we’ve worked our way through our second bottle of wine, she turns to me and points, grinning as she does it. “So, you going to fuck Vincenzo or what?”
“What?”
Her smile broadens. “Come on. I know you like him. Why not ride that horse until it crosses the finish line.”
“Are you comparing him to a horse?”
“He likes you. I can tell.”
“You haven’t even met him.”
“He gave me the office for peanuts. No reason to do that unless it’s to impress you.”