Chapter Twenty-Two
     Earl stopped off at the Screeching Falcon on his way back to his room. He wasn't in any hurry to get back to the Single Spire, hoping that whatever had brought Perris around would soon take him away. He wasn't particularly interested in any of the girls, none of whom looked half as good as Simone had. He patted his pocket and shook his head: it was hard to believe.
     He had a couple beers and chased away all the attempts to get his money, and toyed with the idea of staying for the dance contest later that night. None of the girls competing were amateurs, they looked like mostly girls from the other clubs, but it was a change of scenery and if Earl hadn't just been sucked dry, he'd have stayed.
     He always considered this to be just a bar, because Earl knew he wasn't going to get involved with any of the girls. They were fun to look at, and sometimes fueled his imagination, but now that he had someone who was better looking, in Simone, and someone who was genuinely nice, in Vicky, the female companionship at the bar did nothing for Earl.
     He could do the same thing at home that he was doing here, Earl realized after a couple beers, and cheaper. He left a dollar on the bar and headed back to the Single Spire, still taking his time. When he parked his car on the curb, he glanced up at the Tower window and was glad to still see that it was closed. He wanted to talk to Vicky, wanted to be her friend, but depending on how often he'd be getting together with Simone, he may or may not have any drive to pursue anything with her.
     Yesterday Earl had been obsessed with sleeping with Vicky. He'd been hurt and surprised when she showed up in the tower room, and more hurt and surprised when she'd rebuffed his advances. Now, with an aching dick and fresh memories of Simone, Earl felt that whatever Vicky chose to do would be fine with him.
     He strolled across the lot and saw that Perris' car was gone. Earl glanced at his watch and figured that Simone had called him by now and that Perris had gone to go pick her up. He opened his door and broke out in a grin.
     He'd been teasing Simone, but the whole room reeked of sex and nothing that had gone on here today failed to leave a mark. The bed was disheveled, pillows on the floor and the bedcover barely holding on by one corner. The sheets were pulled off the mattress in one corner and the whole scene brought back a flood of memories to Earl.
     He left it the way it was, but ran his face over the sheets, which were still streaked with blood from his lip and surprised Earl by smelling so much of Simone. He grabbed a beer out of the tiny fridge and sat down on the floor, unwilling to disturb the bed.
     He was halfway through the beer and wondering about smoking a bowl full, when he heard voices outside his open window.
     "I know you don't like him, but I've just got to see him a minute," someone was whispering, and Earl recognized it as Perris' voice.
     Earl hurried to his feet and quickly threw the bed cover back over the shrine of Simone and straightened the corners. He finished his beer and tossed it in the trash and opened another when he heard the knock at the door. As nonchalantly as he could, Earl opened the door to see Perris and Simone.
     Perris was wearing a sweatshirt and black jeans, and Simone had on a thick, bulky sweater and a pair of baggy blue jeans. Earl had never seen her so covered up, or so unlike a model out of Vogue, but he had a feeling that she wasn't trying to entice Perris into anything at the moment.
     "Hey," Earl said.
     "You're home," Perris said. "I came by earlier and thought I heard you, but there wasn't any answer when I knocked on the door."
     Earl looked over Perris's shoulder at Simone, who was looking at the stars. She glanced briefly at Earl, appeared frightened, then looked away.
     "Really?" Earl said. "Must've been the radio or something. I sometimes leave it on when I go out."
     "I guess," Perris said. "Mind if we come in?"
     Earl shrugged and stepped back. Perris threw a protective arm around Simone and led her into Earl's room. It was hard for Earl to read the expression on her face, and harder for him not to look at it. Whenever he looked at her, he pictured her naked and splayed on the bed right next to him, or looking up at him from between his thighs. Earl shook his head to clear the images, and tried to concentrate on keeping his wits.
     "Jesus," Perris said, "this place smells like a whorehouse. I guess you were busy when I came by." He gave a little wink at Earl, one that Simone couldn't see.
     Earl sat down at the head of the bed and Perris placed himself between the large guy and Simone. When Perris sat down, he patted the bed cover around him and said, "My God, Earl, you could at least cover the wet spot!" and laughed.
     Earl was glad that Perris was laughing, but wanted to get him out as soon as he could. There was no telling what Perris might find. "So what's up?" he asked, trying to turn Perris' attention away from the room.
     "You've got a new neighbor," Perris said. "Me."
     Earl choked on the beer he was drinking. "You? A neighbor? What do you mean?"
     "Well," Perris said, "like I figured, the frat kicked me out." Earl watched Perris, and noticed that the younger man was pretty drunk. He was, too, Earl thought, but Earl felt he was doing a better job of maintaining.
     "That blows," Earl said, and glanced across Perris to see Simone, hands in lap, staring blankly at her feet. Not that long ago, Earl had been kissing those feet.
     "Yeah, well, I knew it was coming. Since I don't have a job I can't afford a real place and, other than the frat guys, you and Vicky are about the only people I know, so I moved in here."
     "In here?" Earl asked. "The Single Spire?"
     "Yeah, right down on the corner. Room 106."
     Earl recognized that as Vicky's old room. He wondered if Perris knew that. He also wondered if that meant that Simone would be around here all the time. It would be wonderful to have her to look at every day, Earl thought, but it would make it much harder to keep their affair a secret.
     "So, yeah, I'm here," Perris said. "Is there anything I should know?"
     Earl filled him in with brief descriptions of the other tenants, at least the ones that ever ventured from their rooms. He didn't know many of them, since both Earl and they kept to themselves, but he told Perris what he could.
     "And, of course, you know Vicky, up in the tower," Earl said. "That used to be Scott's room, but she got it ahead of me when he moved out."
     "Is that whose juices I'm sitting on?" Perris asked, a little crudely.
     "No."
     "So what do you do around here for excitement?"
     "You know," Earl said. "You used to work around here. There's nothing much here, just the liquor store, and what's up and down the block. A little coffee shop, the Screeching Falcon, a convenience store, and a bad Chinese food place."
     "So what do you do?"
     "Just hang out, mostly. Stay out of trouble." Earl had little to say to Perris, who was now treating him like a concierge. Simone, he noticed, hadn't said a thing, but Earl could understand that completely. If he had a choice, he wouldn't be saying anything right now, either. Other memories were too fresh, and Earl needed to process them all before he could act normal around her.
     "Can I have a drink of something?" Simone asked, pretty much out of the blue.
     Earl looked over at her, and she returned his look with a bright and happy smile. "Please," she added.
     "Sure," Earl said. "Gin and tonic?"
     "That will be fine."
     "I'll have one, too, Earl," Perris said. It looked as if it would be another of those nights, and Earl hoisted an internal flag and got ready for the spectacle.
     He passed out the drinks and, instead of sitting on the bed, took his place on the floor near Simone's feet. She giggled as he gently grabbed her ankles and steered her feet to a comfortable place, and they all clinked glasses and began drinking.
     Some time later Earl dragged out his Monopoly game and laid it out across the bed. He knelt on the floor at the foot of the bed and Simone was on one side and Perris on the other. Earl stretched his legs out under the bed and soon found Simone's. She gave a tiny yelp when Earl slid his foot up along her leg, but Perris accepted her apology, which she blamed on a cramp.
     The three of them played the game and Perris was winning, but not at anything that mattered. Simone's foot was in and out of Earl's crotch the whole night, and when Perris was close to driving them all into bankruptcy, the game was interrupted by a knock at the door.
     Earl got up and answered the door. As he expected, it was Vicky.
     "Hello, hello!" she chirpped. She was wearing her thin cotton dress again, her good one Earl figured, and looked to be a little drunk. "Whatcha guys doin'?"
     "Playing a game," Perris said. He stood up at the same time Simone did, and there was a tight group clustered around the door.
     "Who's winning?"
     "That would be me," Perris said.
     "Ya wanna bring it up to my place?" she asked and Earl and Simone exchanged glances with Perris. They all shrugged their shoulders.
     "We can forget the game," Earl said. He clapped Perris on the shoulder. "You won."
     "Whatcha guys drinkin'?" Vicky asked.
     "Gin and tonics."
     "Why don't you bring those up, too," she said and turned and stumbled across the lot up to her room.
     Earl and Perris gathered the drink supplies while Simone put away the game. Earl tucked his cigar box under his arm, and he saw Simone avoid looking at it. They trailed across the lot, Perris and Simone in the rear, and walked single file up the stairway to Vicky's room.
     She'd left the door open and was in her kitchen, washing out some glasses. "Oh, here you are!" she said and ran over, hugging and kissing Earl. He slipped an arm around her waist, and Vicky melted into him. She was soft and warm and vulnerable in all the places where Simone had been vibrant and extreme, and Earl didn't want to have to choose between them.
     They took the same places they'd sat in the night before, with Earl on the floor facing Perris and Simone on the loveseat. Vicky, tonight, sat right next to Earl, either holding his leg or laying her head on his shoulder.
     They talked about Perris moving into her old room, and Vicky seemed to be happy that someone she knew was living there and not just some stranger. Earl fired up a joint and passed it around, and when they all finished their drinks, Vicky got up and did a little dance.
     "What's that about?" Earl said. "It's cute, but what are you doing?"
     "It's a little celebration," Vicky said.
     "What for?"
     "You know that Danger Earl put me in? I may have found a way out."
     "Really?" Simone asked. "That's great!"
     Vicky walked over and sat on the arm of the couch next to Simone. She balanced there precariously, and Earl was glad that Simone was still attentive enough to be able to grab her if she started to fall.
     "And I may not need that twenty-five hundred dollars he's going to give me, either." Earl didn't like the way that story was changing. Now it was money he was going to give her, tomorrow it might be money he owed her.
     "Why not? What happened?" Simone asked.
     "I have a secret plan," Vicky whispered, swaying slightly and leaning forward. "And it worked."
     "What plan?"
     "I made a hundred dollars tonight, and I can make lots more."
     Earl didn't like the sound of this. "How'd you get a hundred bucks?"
     "You know that place down the street, that Falcon place? They have a contest and I was in it and won a hundred bucks."
     Earl dropped his drink, spilling it on the floor. Simone looked at him sharply and Perris just stared blankly ahead.
     "You were dancing in the Screeching Falcon?" Earl asked. "You know what kind of place that is?"
     "Yes I was," Vicky said. "You want to see my costume?" she sprang from the arm and ran across the room, returning with a large paper bags with handles on it.
     Earl had mopped up his drink with his sleeve, and now ran that wet fabric across his face. Simone looked stunned, and Earl could understand it. Vicky was kneeling down, digging in her bag, and pulled out a tiny pair of red sequined shorts. These she laid out on the floor and it was obvious that the garment would cover no more than a quarter of her butt and was cut way below the navel.
     "Pretty, isn't it?" she said.
     She continued to reach around in the bag and pulled out a matching bra, that had cups the size of half dollars and a bewildering assortment of strings. "This was my top," Vicky said, "but I couldn't keep it on."
     "Did you really wear that?" Simone asked, as she picked up the shorts. There was nothing to them except red sparkle.
     "Yes, and the judges loved it. I got third place!"
     Earl held his head in his hands and felt his stomach churn. He couldn't bear to think of Vicky in that club, being pawed by hundreds of drunk men and being lied to and promised everything in the world. He was part of that crowd, sometimes, and he couldn't imagine Vicky anywhere near that environment.
     Simone was looking at Earl coldly, as if blaming him for this. Vicky was smiling away, oblivious to the attitudes of the others.
     "Do you have any idea what type of place that is?" Simone said at last. "How they treat the women and all that?"
     "I've been there," Perris said, surprising everyone. "It's a fuckin' dive that I wouldn't let my dog in."
     "They were all real nice to me," Vicky said. "They told me I was special."
     "Oh, Vicky," Earl sighed. "You can't go there and put yourself on display for all those guys."
     "You said I was pretty when I did it for you," Vicky said. "And that was my practice."
     "Those men will eat you alive, Vicky," Simone said. She dropped the depressing red shorts on the floor and reached out to take Vicky's hand.
     "No they won't," Vicky said. "I have a great big boyfriend who will kick all their butts if they try." She threw her arms around Earl's neck and held his face against his chest. "Did you know that he's staying up here with me?"