Read Quarry's Deal for Free Online Page B

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    I tasted the fresh drink and said, “I may give up Coke completely.”
    “Oh shit,” Lucille said. “Here comes another empty tray to fill. Listen. We close in an hour and a half. I’ll be out of here fifteen minutes after that. Let’s do something.”
    “Fine,” I said.
    While I was waiting I went back out to the tables. By closing I’d lost half of my winnings from draw poker at seven-card stud.
    I wasn’t sure yet whether I was winning or losing tonight.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    10
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    “YOU’LL HAVE TO excuse this place,” she said, flicking on the light as we came in and locking the door behind us, “but I haven’t exactly had much time for decorating. As a matter of fact I haven’t unpacked.”
    “Looks fine to me,” I said.
    It also looked small: one twelve-by-twelve room serving as living room and bedroom and everything else, except for a cubbyhole kitchenette off to the far right and a bathroom to the near right. There was a beat-up couch against the left wall, a coffee table nearby, an armchair by the window, and on the kitchen table a portable television with a screen the size of a TV Guide folded in half. The walls were plaster, light green, the carpet wall to wall but worn, dark green. Not an elegant layout, but clean and not as depressing as some places I been in. The major problem was a pygmy could get stir crazy in there.
    “I’ll fix us something to drink,” she said.
    “Nothing with booze.”
    “This time I agree with you. Instant Sanka okay?”
    “Sounds fine.”
    “Just take a second to make. You go ahead and pull out the bed.”
    “The bed.”
    “You know, the couch. It’s a hideaway bed.”
    “Oh. Well, sure.”
    I pulled out the bed.
    “Are there sheets on it?” she asked from the kitchenette.
    “Yeah. Also some blankets.”
    “That’s a relief. This friend of mine who was supposed to be getting this apartment ready for me, well, she’s a kind of a scatterbrain. I didn’t expect things to be so well organized. She’s got the cupboard and refrigerator stocked for me and everything.”
    “How’s the Sanka coming?”
    “Just take a minute to get the water heated up. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable.”
    “On the bed, you mean.”
    “Of course on the bed. Is it hot in here?”
    “A little, yes.”
    “I don’t think the heat can be turned down. I think the thermostat’s broken or something.”
    She fixed the Sanka, brought a cup over to me, and pulled off the sleeveless red sweater she’d filled out so admirably at the Barn. “I hope you know I’m taking terrible advantage of you.”
    “Oh?”
    “Sure,” she said, undoing her bra. “If it wasn’t for you I would’ve had to hitch a ride home with one of those creeps at the Barn. And you saw how well I got along with the waitresses there.”
    “Maybe they were just giving you a hard time because it’s your first day.”
    “First day and every day. I mean, I make more money than they do, so what can you expect? I could’ve got a ride from one of those guys dealing for the house, I suppose, but fraternizing with them is against policy, I’m told. Besides, I didn’t see anything in that room that appealed to me . . . with one exception.” She unzipped her denims. “Excuse me a second, would you?” She let the denims drop, stepped out of them and went into the bathroom.
    “You see, I have a car of my own,” she called over some running water, “but I loaned it to my girl friend.”
    “The one who got this apartment for you?”
    “That’s right. How could I refuse her? She gave me a ride out there and I told her I could find a ride back. And I did, didn’t I?”
    She emerged from the bathroom, walked over to the kitchenette, got her own cup of Sanka, and flicked off the kitchen light, and the overhead light, too. She was wearing transparent