John lay down on his side and, leaning a little closer, continued to ask:
– What about erotic novels?
– I haven’t read fiction at all for ten years now.
– It may be none of my business… partly. I just had a lot of women, especially before I got married. But in bed, none of them are capable of even a small part of what you can do. I used to think that orgasms mainly occur in women. Somewhere you mastered all this..
– During our third year as students, we studied psychology in detail. There were several subjects, each of which was dedicated to one particular area: family psychology, labor psychology, personal psychology, interpersonal psychology, group psychology, ethnic psychology, and so on. One day we began to study a section called «the relationship and interdependence of psychology and physiology». In my free time from studying, I began to study this section a little deeper. I dug up a couple dozen additional books and plunged headlong into research. As a result, I learned all the intricacies of how the human body reacts to a variety of stimuli, including sexual ones. I also studied the differences in male and female physiology. So one day I decided to test the whole theory in practice. Well, then…
The silence continued for several agonizing seconds until John’s voice broke it:
– What’s next? Come on. I crave details.
– Then I realized that I can charge hefty prices for my skills in bed.
After these words, Carla looked at John’s thoughtful face and laughed silently. A wide smile appeared on her pretty face, revealing her snow-white teeth.
Endlessly admiring Carla’s nakedness, John said:
– Will you treat me to a cigarette?
Carla held out her half-smoked cigarette.
Before inhaling through the filter, John asked:
– For free?
Slowly blowing a cloud of tobacco smoke above her, Carla said:
– No. This is covered by the promotion «one hour of sex and half a cigarette in addition».
She got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. John hungrily looked from behind at her shiny, convex moving buttocks hidden under a layer of sweat, which made him say after her:
– Listen. But let me still pay for two full hours.
Carla turned around for a moment and replied:
– No.
– Come on.
– I really can’t. I have a client waiting for me at four o’clock. It takes a long time to get to his house.
– Why are you so principled? – Paul asked twitchily and indignantly. – It’s okay to be stubborn. Name the price and let’s go.
Paul was seventeen years old. He was a first-year student, learning the specifics of the hotel business. The first time he saw Carla was in this same place, when she was talking about something with Mats. That day he played billiards with friends and, of course, lost big. Since then, Paul began to lock himself in the toilet twice as often. One could say that he decided to have a frank conversation with Carla only because he plucked up courage, but more likely he simply ran out of patience. He couldn’t stand it for so long. On the way to and from college, he met Carla five or six times a week. Animal urges became stronger and made themselves felt more and more often. Everything inside is burning and itching, and the mode «rise up soldier!» turns on automatically.
Carla did not take Paul seriously, to put it mildly. For her, he was an ordinary boy with a standard set of complexes and changes that come with transitional age and puberty. These words did not cause anything from her except restrained laughter.
Sitting at the bar with a smoking cigarette in the hand, crossing her legs, Carla said with a note of sarcasm:
– Go and start rubbing the bald without me, and by the time I get there, you’ll be finished. Your body is young, so you won’t have to work for long.
After a prolonged silence, completely despairing, Paul asked in a faded voice and with his hands hanging down:
– How did I offend you? Tell me. No offense, but you’re a prostitute. You sleep for money. I pay. What’s wrong?
Rolling her eyes around the ceiling, Carla replied:
– You see, Paulie, I am a commodity. But I strive to become not just a commodity, but a special commodity. Let’s say a crowd of office workers is sitting in some room. All these clerks are no different from each other. They sit in the same room, every single one does paperwork, gets the same salary, wears the same suits, comes and leaves at the same time. Each of them will remain part of this general mass, in which no one will be paid special attention. And all because they are in the same row, do the same thing and behave absolutely the same. They are no different from each other. So I strive to make whole crowds turn their attention to me; I want to write my name in history; so that people like me become an endangered species. I want this world to remember me. Never mind the fact that I’m a whore. This is also, you know, a lot of work. And this requires talent, which is not given to everyone.
– So…
– If I give myself to everyone who offers money, then my quotes will immediately collapse. I will no longer be any different from a banal low-grade whore who spreads clap. In simple terms, I want to become like a bright star in the night sky – to be dazzlingly beautiful, alluring, and at the same time remain inaccessible to absolutely everyone.
Paul’s sarcastic voice rang out:
– Like the best should not be available to everyone.
– Absolutely right, my boy – Carla said with a smile.
Sighing heavily, Paul took a book out of his backpack and once again turned to Carla:
– Well, at least can you help with ethnography?
Putting out her cigarette in the ashtray, Carla said, tapping her palm on the upholstery of the next chair:
– But in this matter I am available, like a collapsed meteorite.
While Paul was standing next to her at the bar, Carla turned to Mats, holding out a bill:
– Give us two glasses of Coca-Cola.
Matthew was Carla’s best friend. They met at the pool, where they both used to go until they were completely immersed in work – Matthew began to receive more orders in his car service, and Carla began to work on improving her skills, coming up with new positions and discovering new erogenous zones for her clients. She continued to develop her skills, even though all her clients were already happy to be in bed with her. BUT! Carla still wanted to be special, even if she was a whore. Matthew often came to her with a disc of some new Hollywood release, which they watched late at night, sitting in front of the TV with a bottle of something non-alcoholic. From the moment they met, they congratulated each other on every date marked in red on the calendar, without missing a single holiday. And they celebrated the last two New Years together; plus Georgina and several other friends were with them, with whom it turned out to be a small New Year’s get-together. At the friend’s birthday party a couple of weeks ago, Carla was remembered for the fact that thanks to her, Matthew became the owner of a painting in which he was depicted leaning against the front fender of a silver Ford Shelby Mustang GT 500 model. It was essentially a reproduction of the poster for the movie Gone in 60 Seconds. This was Matthew’s favorite movie. The painter did an excellent job on the canvas, which was practically no different from the image on the poster, except for the detail that instead of Nicolas Cage’s head in the drawing, it was Matthew’s;