"Well… I'm not certain, dear…" Claudia Gray replied in her controlled, husky voice. "You see, I do have a full agenda… clients right up to here, know what I mean?" She hesitated. "But I did say I'd read it didn't I?"
"I-If you're too busy, Miss Gray…"
"No. I told you to bring it to me if that beast, Fletcher, tried to exploit you… I remember." There was a momentary pause. "Did he, darling?"
"Well… I-I'd rather not say, Miss Gray," Karen answered. "Look, if you're too busy, I can understand…"
"Not at all, darling. We females must stick together," Claudia Gray interrupted. "Can you get it over here right away?"
"Well… well, yes, I can. I'll have it delivered by cab."
"Wonderful, pet. I'll try to give it a reading today. I do have a thousand and one things… but for you… Look, I'll call you tonight, Karen. We'll go from there, eh?"
"Wonderful," Karen said, clutching her bourbon-filled instant coffee. She smiled the mouthpiece. "… And thanks, Miss Gray."
"Oh… oh, nonsense. But it better be good, young lady," she said warmly. "Until tonight then…?"
"Yes… yes, until tonight."
Karen hung up, elated It took her five minutes to scoop up her dog-eared manuscript and hustle down to the street to send it on its way with Barney, the cabby. Back in her apartment, she dropped into her favorite chair and slipped into coffee-bourbon drinking.
It had been a hellish night sleep-wise. Her stupidity with Karl Fletcher had overwhelmed her, once she'd given it a little thought. Twice in the darkest tapering hours before dawn she had gone to the bathroom to retch. How she ever could have degraded herself to such a degree was beyond her now in broad daylight. That filthy, vile man… and she'd lain with him… given herself to him like some slut off the street. Yet… yet, she couldn't rid herself of the knowledge that he had satiated her… made her cum like a wanton! Nor could she shake the rapturous thought of the pleasure and bliss that had overwhelmed her at that moment. Dear God, had that only been her Jeff… What ecstasy would lay ahead for them… Jeff! Jeff! Jeff! My darling! Where are you? Come to me… find me! Oh God!
She went into the kitchenette and made herself more coffee, spiking it lightly. She had to get these unreasonable thoughts from her mind and concentrate on her work. A book lay half-finished on her typewriter table. It was good, too. She must concentrate on her work. Claudia Cray had her present book and she felt confident that the alluring agent would call her this evening as promised.
She would work all day! Give thought to nothing else. This was her life. It would all come out… she was certain of it… it would all emerge!
She swallowed at her coffee… tasted, and her face clouded. Too light on the bourbon, she thought, walking toward the kitchenette…
Jeff walked around the kitchen, naked except for an apron. Toni lay in the one-room combination apartment-bed. She had just gotten to her naked bicycle exercise performance.
"If you don't come out here and make the toast, I'm going to pour this bacon grease right on your ass," Jeff said, clutching four eggs in his hands from the refrigerator.
"Honey, when you speak about my ass you affect me deeply," Toni said, jumping to her feet and coming to the kitchen end of the room, her lovely little body jiggling excitingly in the right places. "Speak, oh master."
"The toast," he said, going to the stove.
"And why doesn't the lady from Pygmalion call?" she said, jutting out her posterior toward him in a waggling little performance to indicate he had rocks in his head
"She'll call, I tell you. She'll call… if I know my women," Jeff said, wondering if, in fact, he knew anything about women at all.
She had dripped all over him yesterday, made her desire as plain as a plumb-bob on a center-point. Sex… Christ, she exuberated with it. He'd bet his backbone… but that was yesterday. Here we were into today and we start all over again.
Toni said: "Well, I'll tell you the truth. That old man of hers is a brute in bed anyway. He's probably worn her so thin she can't lift the telephone…"
"How the hell would you know?" Jeff barked at her. He didn't know why he should get all upset, but her words had twisted him.
Toni turned to smile at him. He was looking back over his shoulder from where be stood at the stove, his eyes drinking in the loveliness of her naked, voluptuous little body. It angered him that she peaked his desire so.
"We're pen-pals, didn't you know?" she said, smiling provocatively, a piece of toast in one hand, a knife with a clump of butter in the other.
"You're a goddamned little whore!" he spat viciously. "That's what you are!"
Toni shrugged naked creamy shoulders as she spread the butter over the toast. She said: "That's the way it is, handsome. Some of us have it… some of us don't. And we latter have to do the best we can."
Jeff threw down the spatula, probably would have slapped her had the phone not rung. Toni joggled her buttocks toward it.
"One moment," she said, then half smiled back at him. "For you, oh massiveness… and it sounds awfully much like a British slut."
It happened fast and Jeff just listened. Her voice was like melted butter. He hung up in a half daze.
"I know," Toni said, biting into toast. "The mistress wants to go over the blueprints with you."
Jeff plodded toward his hardening eggs. "The
playroom," he said automatically.
"Of course," Toni replied "It could have been
the master toilet… but the playroom sounds exciting. So… what time this afternoon, darling?"
"Two o'clock… what the devil are you getting at, anyway?" he snapped at her.
Toni laughed, but it was a humorless effort. She said: "Mid afternoon, darling… It stands to reason, doesn't it? After all, she can't have you there when little old Nat is there. It's got to be prime time…"
Jeff slapped her on the bottom. "She's a fine woman," he said. "A great actress. You remember Pygmalion?"
Toni stared at him. Her backside stung from his blow. She licked at her lips. "How would you like the eggs I'm going to cook, Mr. Pygmalion?" she said.
Jeff grinned. "Sunnyside," he said. "Okay?"
"Sure… why not," Toni replied. "They're your lousy eggs."
It was after five and Karen felt pleased with herself. She had worked most of the day, although, she decided, a goodly portion would have to be re-written… and then the phone rang.
"Hello."
"Karen, pet…?"
"Yes…"
"I've read it… oh, this is Claudia, darling, Claudia Gray…?"
"I know… I know."
"I'm impressed, pet… impressed. I think we better talk."
"Certainly… where?" Karen said.
"My place… yes, my place would be good. Look, dear, why don't you have dinner with me?" the contained husky feminine voice suggested. "I'm at the Dallas Arms on Wilshire. Seven-thirty?"
"Y-Yes… yes, of course, Miss Gray… seven-thirty."
Karen leaped from her chair and did a little pirouette to her own satisfaction. Claudia Gray had read it, was enthused enough to invite her to discuss its prospects. Well, at least, she wouldn't have to worry about fighting off some sex-demented male. Thank God, she was dealing with a woman… What she needed was another drink…