Frenzy

'Hey, easy, chief,' she said, trying to remember what Greg had told her was the best way to handle this. He stunk of booze.

'C'mon. One kiss. One little kiss, whatcher name? Tiff? Tiff?' She nodded. 'Tiff. Short for Tiffany.' He laughed into her cat's eyes. 'Oh, Christ almighty, that's great. I really like that one.' He started kissing her on the mouth. 'Yeah. That's real original. I only ever met one other working girl with the name Tiffany. Marvy.'

'That's my real name,' she said, slightly angry. 'I use Tiff mostly.'

'Tiff the Quiff. Hell, I like it. I might get you and my other Tiff the quiff together and we'd like get into something. A little double-Tiff menage a trois?'

'Menagerie what?' she said, trying to pull free a little.

'It means whore sandwich in French, love.' He was kissing her now on the mouth, but more and more he was taking her whole mouth in his when he kissed, big sloppy wet smackings suckings as he sucked her lips into his boozy mouth. He was as strong as an ox and she was starting to get angry. He took two powerful fingers and pinched her lips together in an ex-aggerated pucker, saying, 'Ummm. Not menagerie what. Menage a twaaaah.' Saying it pedantically and drawing it out, speaking almost into her mouth, his sour tequila breath about making her gag. 'Now you repeat after me, Tiff-quiff, say it. Muh-naaaaahhh-hhhj ...'

'RRRRmmmmmgg.'

This broke him up and he breathed more sour breath and tequila in her face and he squeezed the lips together more. 'Oh, puss. You're so damn cute. I just gotta bite that little ole saucy mouth of yours, okay?'

'Rrrrr,' she tried to pull back, unsuccessfully. It reminded her of an old aunt on her mom's side who always was going gitchee-goo to her when she was little and pinching her cheeks real hard. And even when she got older, the aunt would try to pinch her like that. But it only hurt a little bit and Tiff always tried to smile because her aunt was nice except for that. And suddenly his big, hard, yellow teeth are sinking into her lips and biting her mouth practically off and she is trying to scream but she can't get anything out except 'AAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMM- MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM-MMMMMGGGG-GGGGGGGGGGG' as he bites into her and she can't stand the pain and her mouth is caught in that awful vise and it is like pushing against a brick wall and by reflex she has enough presence of mind to lash out with one of her pointy-toed high-hell boots, kicking him with all her might right in the leg and he yelps and she manages to tear free from his grasp as he makes a little noise like 'Waaaauuuugggg.'

And she is crying and screaming and almost hyper-ventilating, screaming in pain as she runs into the bathroom to see if her mouth is in tattered shreds or what. Oh my God oh Jeez it hurts so bad, she cries. It feels like her lips are bit clear through, and she's sobbing almost out of control and trying to get her breath and he's saying something this maniac is mumbling some garbage and she isn't listening she's holding a cold, wet towel gently against her bruised mouth and crying and looking at the deep teeth marks in her face there in the motel bathroom mirror, but the john is in the next room and he doesn't care.

He's in the room where he bit her and he has his penis out now and he's standing there grinning and whacking off and squinting his eyes shut, grunting, making a strained, groaning noise as he climaxes almost within thirty seconds shooting a hot arc of milky white sperm to die amid the filth of the worn, burned, stained, sleazebag carpet.

'Waaaaaaaauuuuuggg,' again as he shoots his wad, immediately rubbing his leg again where the bitch kicked him. She'll pay dearly for this oh sweet Mary and Joseph yes she'll pay.

He smiles darkly and in a mock-conciliatory tone says through the door, 'GOD dammit! Oh, I'm SO sorry, little Tiffy.' He can hear her still bawling her lungs out in there. He knows he shouldn't bite them but by the blessed Virgin it's hard. And you lose control sometimes when the real young stuff has a nice sexy mouth like that one. Oh God he could cum right now, cum again just thinking about it, and he touches himself all smeared and wet with his orgasm and keeps apologizing through the door to the young hooker.

In the bathroom she is still sobbing, but between sobs and blowing her nose she is trying to tell him off and he is asking her to forgive him in the next room and the madder it's making her. And she's getting as mad as fury as she feels the pain and looks at the ugly teeth marks burning red around the sides of her mouth, and all she can think of is how mad Greg is going to be and she runs out of the bathroom trying to catch her breath as she sobs and yells at the crazy john, 'LOOKWHATYOUDIDTA ME YOU, UH, YOU-UHUHUH, MY BOYFRIEND'S GONNA KILL —'

'HERE!' He scares her yelling back at her as he holds up a handful of money and she swings at his hand, but he's fast and he jerks his hand back before she can knock the money out of his hand and he screams again, 'WAIT. JESUS. DAMMIT. WAIT. LOOK HERE, WILLYA!' He fans out all the hundreds. A handful of hundred-dollar bills again right here in her face. It looked like over a thousand dollars all spread out like that. 'Oh, I'm so very sorry, honey,' he says, very sincere and contrite-looking as he sells it to her. 'This is to make up for that. I don't know what came over me. This is yours, dear; take it, please.' The fan of money again. It was the only thing that would have worked for him and somehow he knew to push the right button. The money stopped her dead-cold. 'It's a grand, Tiff. A thousand bucks. Plus the hundred I was about to pay you.'

She reaches out, still angry and hurting, and snatches the money from his grip, snapping, 'You should have to pay that and more. Look at me. Are you nuts or what? I'm not going to be able to work for days looking like this.' She fingers the tooth marks.

And he keeps talking, conning her, lulling her with a big, dopey, apologetic look on his face. '... so very, very sorry for losing control of myself, I don't know what came over me to —'

And she's thinking to herself. One hundred and one hundred is two hundred dollars ....

'Don't expect you to forgive me but let me make up for the amount of time you can't work. It's only fair that I pay for —'

And she thinks, And two hundred and eleven hundred is thirteen hundred, that's one THOUSAND, three hundred dollars!

'Know how much that must have hurt,' and he keeps gentling her down, but she's not listening, and then she sees his hand come back out of that pants pocket and it is just loaded with money and she hears him rattling on, 'Want to give you some more to make up for it, okay?'

And all she can do is examine the math in her mind and suddenly the pain is totally gone. This is a fourteen- year-old child sitting here in her goofy whore outfit with some maniac who reeks of booze, trying to press more money on her. And all she can do is think about Greg and what he would say, how he sent her out today saying, Don't come back without at least six hundred bucks for me, six tricks. And she's got it all for today AND tomorrow, she thinks as he sits there begging her, but she only hears his apologies with half an ear as she continues her computations.

No way would she have done ten more hundred-dollar 'dates.' She knows this full well. With the two bills she already has, thirteen hundred, Greg could put over a thousand dollars into their nest egg. And she might not even have to go back out tomorrow.

That would still leave plenty of money to party with, and the thought of escaping from the pain and memories of this became very strong. A desire to smoke suddenly engulfed her from out of nowhere and she realized she could buy a dozen crack vials on the way back to the motel and still hand her man twelve hundred dollars. She ran into the bathroom again, idly wondering if makeup would hide the deep bite marks, and she took a little plastic bottle out of her purse and did a couple of lines right there. Sniffing and running her tongue over her sore, reddened lips. The angry red bruises looked so ugly and scary.

'Could make it up to you,' his harsh, slurred voice intruded on her thoughts as she came back in the room, 'and I was thinking . . . Hey, come over here a second.' She stopped where she was. 'I have a way to make it up to you right now.' He had his big roll of money back out again.

'Party with me for just fifteen minutes more so I can get off — I'll be gentle as a lamb, I swear — and I'll give you fifteen hundred dollars more. How's that sound?'

'You kidding me or what?' She was almost speechless.

'Hey, Tiff. Does it look like I'm kidding? I'll pay ya up front. And here's the whole thing right now, in advance. Jes' so you know I'm not kidding you.' He had fifteen one-hundred-dollar bills counted out and was extending his arm toward her. She still didn't move.

'You mean including the eleven hundred — you'll pay me four hundred more if I let you ball me?' It hadn't