"Tonight. One of the regulars came down with her monthlies a day early,
damn her. I need you to pinch-hit."
"What's the setup?"
"Double date," Spinelli said. "Two purchasing agents from a midwestern
department-store chain company are in town, and an air-conditioning
outfit promised to send them a couple of girls, just to sweeten things
up. You and Tania are the dates. They're staying at the Hudson. You
meet them there at six for dinner, and the rest of the evening's up to
them. Take your cues from Tania and it'll be all right."
Tania phoned a few minutes later to arrange to meet her. Tania lived
on the next block; they met at the corner of 59th and First and hailed
a cab to the Hudson Hotel. Laura wore one of her new dresses, an
extremely _decollete_ affair which bared her breasts practically to
the nipples, while Tania's dress was a severe, high-neckline affair
that pulled taut against her body and accentuated the sharp outjutting
contours of her bosom.
The purchasing agents had a suite on the ninth floor. At six sharp,
Tania and Laura were knocking on the door.
The man who answered was in his late forties, tall and plump and
bland-looking. Before he could say anything, Tania said warmly,
"_Hello_, there. Are you Lou Hazen?"
They stepped inside. The second man emerged--shorter, leaner, a little
older. His name was Dave Hesse, and the girls introduced themselves.
Deftly, Tania slipped her arm through Lou Hazen's, thereby establishing
a coupling for the evening and avoiding any possible confusion about
which date was which, at least at the start.
They had a gay and lengthy dinner at a nightclub, and stayed around for
part of the floor show. Then Hazen suggested, none too subtly, that
they return to the hotel and have a little "party."
In the two-bedroom suite, they ordered drinks and setups from room
service, and until about eleven-thirty they had a party. Tania did
as little drinking as possible, and Laura followed her lead. The men
seemed to be having a good time. They told the filthiest jokes Laura
had ever heard, and they grew increasingly uninhibited as the evening
wore on; Tania sat on Hazen's lap, and he had his hand thrust up under
her skirt between her legs, while Laura sprawled out on the couch with
her head in Hesse's lap while he slipped his hands into her dress, and
under her bra to cup the warm large breasts and play with her stiff
nipples.
Still later, the couples were kissing intimately, and finally Hesse
leaned over Laura drunkenly and said, "C'mon inside. We need some
privacy."
Obediently, Laura went into one of the bedrooms with him, and Hesse
closed the door. "Take off y'r clothes," he ordered thickly. She did
so, while he undressed too. He was hairy and had the beginnings of a
potbelly. He eyed her admiringly. "You got a nice paira tits, you know?
Jeez, if my wife only had a pair like that. Wish I could take them
back to Illinois with me."
He staggered forward toward the bed and tumbled down on top of her.
"Letsh have relations," he whispered. "Isn't that what they call it,
relations? They got some other words for it, too, but I like relations."
He began to laugh, as though he had said something tremendously funny,
and he was still laughing as he entered her. Laura caressed him
impersonally, as though he were a statue come to life, and he continued
to chuckle until it was over.
Almost immediately, he was asleep.
Laura lay by his side for a long while, hearing laughter coming from
the next room. Suddenly the door opened, and Hazen stood there, stark
naked, his fat body pale and soft. Tania was with him too, also naked.
Her nakedness had a sleek, tawny quality about it.