You want the truth?"
He smiled again. "The truth, of course."
"You're all the same to me," she said, meeting his gaze steadily. "You might as well be goosing me with a Coca-Cola bottle for all the difference it makes."
"Don't you feel anything, ever?"
"Sure," she answered. "I'm human.
But not with the customers. I can't afford it.
They pay for perfection." She ground out the cigarette in the tray. "When I feel I got to get my kicks, I take a week off and go out to one of those dude ranches that cater to married women on holiday.
There's always some cowpoke out there who thinks he's making it big for me.
And he is, because I don't have to give him the best. But the Johns pay. You're entitled."
"But aren't you cheating the Johns?"
She smiled at him.
"Do you feel cheated?"
"No," he said. Then he added quickly, "I don't know. I didn't know you were acting."
"I wasn't acting," she said, taking another cigarette. "I was working.
That's my job." He didn't speak.
She lit the cigarette and gestured toward him. "Look," she said. "You eat a good dinner.
Afterwards, you say to your friends, that was a great steak. The greatest.
You don't mind talking about it. You even tell your friends where you had it so they can get themselves one.
Right?" He nodded. "It's like that with me," she said.
"You got a friend. This time it's Irv Schwartz.
You're playing gin and he looks at you and says,
'I had a great piece last night.
The greatest.
Jennie Denton.
Give her a blast.'
So you come over and put your money on the table.
You climb up, you climb down. You get filled with air like a balloon and float around the world.
I’ll bet it's a long time since you popped three times in as many hours.
Do you still feel cheated?"
He laughed, suddenly feeling young and strong.
She was right.
He hadn't felt like this in a long time, maybe twenty years. He felt the warmth return to his loins.
He got up, letting the towel fall to the floor.
She laughed.
"You're younger than I thought.
Look, its midnight."
"So?" He stared at her.
"The deal was two bills till midnight," she said.
"You're all paid up.
It's three bills from here till morning.
But that includes breakfast."
He laughed. "You're worse than MCA. O.K., it's a deal."
She smiled and got to her feet.
"Come on."
He followed her into a large bathroom with a giant square marble tub sunken into the floor.
There was a rubbing table against the wall under the window.
She gestured to it. "Get up there.'
He sat on the edge of the table and watched her open the medicine cabinet. She took down a safety razor, a tube of shaving cream and a brush.
She filled a tumbler with water and soaked a washcloth under the tap. These she placed on the edge of the sink near the table.
"Lie down," she said, dipping the brush into the tumbler and working up a lather with the cream.