"Well, if you think it's all right," Connie said. "Okay then. We'll talk later, okay?"
"Sure," Sherry said. "Have fun, dear. Gil's really quite harmless." She remembered the night she had made love with Gil and her comment was directed somewhat cruelly at Gil who had not been able to make her reach an orgasm.
"Bye-bye," she said, as Gil tugged her by the hand toward the hotel.
"Catch the act tonight," Gil called as they walked away.
Victor stared after Connie who was literally tripping as Gil whisked her away rapidly. "God, I hate Las Vegas," he said.
"Gil's just lonely," Sherry explained.
"You mean horny," her father said.
"Well, I guess they're the same thing," Sherry said. "Speaking of horny, what time do you feel like taking our nap?" An afternoon nap prior to the first show had become a ritual with them, as it was with many performers. Sometimes a nap was just that, but sometimes it meant fucking too. If they planned on fucking they began the nap earlier. Sherry wanted to get the schedule set in her mind.
"Let's nap early," he said, which meant he wanted to fuck. He glanced at his wrist watch in the cement beside him. "By now Gil's probably screwing that tramp Connie's ass off," he said, grinning.
"Does the idea excite you?" Sherry asked. "Does picturing them doing it together make you anxious to fuck me? I bet you wouldn't mind sticking your wanger in her yourself – for variety's sake, would you? Why don't you go up to Gil's room and watch them fucking and sucking?" She was baiting him in a very hushed voice so that no one could possibly tell the subject of their conversation. Often she did that just to read his reaction. "Fuckee, fuckee, fuckee," she sing-songed.
"You know that's ridiculous," Victor said. "Nobody does the things we do together and we both know it, dear. After you, making love to Connie would be like…" – he groped for words – "… like…"
"Jacking off?" she said.
"Precisely," he said. "I couldn't have said it better."
"Good," she said, not daring to touch him in public. "That's what I wanted to hear. Yes, they're probably just bungling away, like a couple of dogs or horses. No finesse."
Victor nodded. Their conversation sometimes took an entirely different tone when they were in public. Sherry abandoned her little girl role and became the precocious girl she actually was and he spoke frankly just as he would to any other adult. "Yes," he said. "Mere copulation. Sheer getting one's rocks off. Grunt, grunt and it's all over."
"Do you really think they're already doing it?" Sherry asked.
"Who knows?" her father said. "With Gil anything's possible."
Upstairs, in Gil Turner's room, they were not doing it – at least not yet. Gil had just mixed a pitcher of martinis and Connie sat primly across the room sipping her drink. Her legs were crossed and she jiggled the top leg slightly.
It was a nice leg – long and smooth. Gil lay on the bed staring at her.
"You operate sort of fast, don't you, Mr. Turner?" she said.
"Always," he affirmed. "Whether in business or in pleasure I don't believe in fooling around. If an act has promise I sign 'em and work my ass off so everybody makes money. If I see a girl I like I tell her so. Why not?" Connie was wearing casual shoes but they had heels. "Stand up and walk across the room," Gil said. She stared at him briefly, surprised, then tilted her head to the side and set her martini down on the table beside her. "Why not?" she said, rising and strutting slowly about the room.
"Do you like me?"
"You wouldn't be here if I didn't," he said. "Got any boyfriends?"
"Casual dates – you know."
"Do you swing for money or what?" Lots of the cocktail girls in Vegas, Tahoe, anyplace where there's gambling are part-time hookers. Connie certainly had the looks for it and Gil wondered if she supplemented her income with extre-curricular fucking.
"No, Mr. Turner. Some of the girls do, but I do not." Her voice was a bit icy. "It isn't my scene."
"What is your scene?"
"Right now I really don't know. I suppose someday I'll meet someone I dig, preferably with money, and get married."
"Naturally," Gil said. "The reason I ask is, I travel a lot and I get lonely. There's a lot of paper work that has to go back and forth from me to my office in New York. I could use someone like you to travel with me for a while. It would pay good, even when you wouldn't be working and I'm in New York. I'm not talking about getting married, I'm talking about getting laid. Regularly."