Chapter 15

Luz and Raphael went home the next afternoon -- the birth had been without complications and the baby was a fine, healthy little squirt with big lungs and even premium health insurance wants you in a wheelchair going out the hospital door while the anesthetic is still working. I figured that Luz would be off-line for a couple of weeks, minimum -- and so did everyone else.

Babies cry -- something I find nerve-wracking. Raphael was LOUD! Luz moved into the nursery to be close to him and keep the reaction time down, with Carmen on backup. Carmen wasn't a producer of milk, but she had big chewy nipples and Raphael loved his pacifiers; problem was, he would chew Carmen's nips and she would get hot and horny -- and I would get raped. I know it sounds like I'm complaining, but frankly, the more Raphael chewed, the more I liked it...

Cheryl cleaned up after Luz at Manny's the next day -- and handled his other problem, too. Manny was solicitous and brought Luz some flowers at the house on Wednesday. "I can't do marriage and I can't do babies, but I LOVE that pussy..." he confided in me.

Luz was philosophical about it. "At least he's a regular." Nothing seemed to bother her -- especially if she had a teat in Raphael's mouth.

Thursday evening, I was sitting in my office, hiding from Raphael, when Ted came back from the reception desk of the store. "Woman to see you, Don." I treated Ted as a necessary evil; if he was watching the phone and scheduling calls, the girls were all out and I wasn't doing it...

I went out to the counter and took a look -- nice-looking classical Italian face, tastefully dressed in a little jacket over a thin white halter that showed off some juicy-looking jugs and an above the knee skirt that displayed some curvy, muscular legs. Her feet were in some dressy-looking wedge sandals and she wore an ankle bracelet -- always a draw with me, especially when the ankle looks nice -- and this one did. Nice, wavy dark hair framed that face ... She was in her early to mid-thirties, I figured -- the age of chicks I OUGHT to be dating... "Your assistant didn't call..." she said.

"Gladys?" I was floored! This woman looked nothing like the harridan at the free clinic!

"You didn't recognize me? I hope that means I clean up nice..." Gladys smiled winningly.

"There's, uh, no question -- you certainly do!" I exclaimed.

"At work, I need to be motherly and supportive to women and threatening to men -- and I'm pretty practiced at it," she related, "But I'm not a sexless old hag and I'm not a lesbian..."

"Duly noted!" I muttered.

Gladys gave me a sultry sidelong glance, "Then my efforts weren't wasted. I came to see your little empire..."

"Who's in?" I asked Ted.

Ted glanced up at the board. "Darla. Cheryl and Evvie are out. Luz, too, naturally..." Ted was organized -- and persnickety about it -- I had to give him that. He had a whiteboard up with magnetic markers to indicate where people were and a log of addresses -- all kinds of stuff.

"Let Darla know Gladys is here. Luz, too, for that matter." I returned my attention to Gladys, "It's a cleaning business."

Gladys cocked her head. "Don, I told you a long time ago that I'm not a cop."

I shrugged. "I have to protect my people. This is a business that contracts cleaning, hospitality, and some other personal services. I have partners and I have employees, and they don't need to lose their jobs or their investment in our future because I claimed something else." I waved her along with me. "Let's go upstairs and see Luz and Darla and we can talk about things." Once in the stairwell, I said, "I made a rule that we never discuss 'extras' in the office. We don't contract for 'extras' in the office -- the employee on site does that or we call back from a disposable phone or whatever. As long as the business is sacrosanct, I can protect the girls. If one gets picked up, I'm her employer, not her pimp. If someone comes here and wants to look at the books, they're all above board. We charge an hourly rate for cleaning and hospitality services that varies a little bit based upon how messy things are. Sex is nowhere on the written schedule of services. In-house, the only sex that goes on is between us -- we don't entertain on-site."

"Maybe you should have patted me down for a wire," Gladys suggested.

I stopped dead on the stair. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"The girls sold me in Luz's hospital room, Don. I'm too old to pussyfoot around. Yes, you're in the crosshairs," Gladys declared.

I shook my head. "I never cease to be amazed."

"There's something else," she added. "I always wanted to be a madam -- only I wanted to do for the girls what YOU'RE doing for them. I see so many come and go and life is just too hard on them. Pimps are just too hard on them."

I blinked. "Were you ever in the business?"

"Once, for a very short time. I just had to have the rent money and an opportunity came my way. The people involved knew I was an amateur and paid extra for me to make it personal, not a trick. It was less than a week, but I learned a lot -- including how you get ripped off." Gladys smiled crookedly. "I made the rent, though."

I nodded and turned to finish climbing the stair. At the landing, I made to open the door, but Gladys grabbed my wrist. "Are you SURE you don't want to check me for a wire?"

I frowned. "Either you want to be felt up badly or you're hinting broadly that I've already screwed up. I have no problem feeling up women, but stairwells are a little too, I dunno, impersonal. If I'm in trouble, it would be good to know it."

Gladys sighed. "Okay, there's no wire -- I promise."

"Okay. I'll make a point of feeling you up, somewhere. Deal?"

"Deal."

I turned away, rolling my eyes. When did I become absolutely irresistible to women? At least Gladys made sense -- she was my age and her options were no doubt limited by her everyday persona. Carmen did NOT make sense -- but it didn't stop her from finding her way into my bed and going nuts on my cock on a regular basis.

The women had gathered in the living room; I settled back in my recliner and let Luz and Darla be absolutely candid about what went on around the house and in the business. Gladys was fascinated. Carmen came in and she and Gladys took one look at one another and it was clear even to me that there was a fight over territoriality in the making. Carmen saw Gladys as a threat, and Gladys saw Carmen as the competition -- which begged the question, "What are Darla and Luz? Chopped liver?" The reaction was totally different...

I got up and took Gladys on a tour of the place, pointing out the room where Cheryl's girls slept and the nursery... "And this is Carmen's room..." I muttered.

"Where do Luz and Darla sleep?" Gladys asked. "And Cheryl?"

"Uh, with me..."

"Uh huh..." Gladys eyed me. "How long has it been since Carmen slept here?"

"I'm, uh, not sure. Luz slept here for the last couple of days, I think, but she said something about it being lonesome..."

"Uh huh..."

We moved on. "This is, uh, the master suite..." I muttered.

"Two beds pushed together? What are those, queens? You STUD, you!" Gladys simpered.

"I usually get the crack..."

"I bet you get more than one crack..."

I hunched my shoulders and let it pass. As we headed back down to the living room, Gladys said, "It isn't going to happen here, is it?"

"No."

"Okay. Have you had dinner yet?"

"Well, no..."

"Can I blackmail you into taking me out?"

So when we hit the living room, I announced, "I'm taking Gladys to dinner."

Luz looked up. "Okay, Boss. I don't think anyone is cooking. Darla just left. Have a good time; Gladys is nice people." But she looked behind me.

I didn't -- I kept my eyes straight ahead and marched out of there.

Gladys suggested a good, middle-of-the-road Italian place. Inside, she took off her little jacket, which exposed enough of her to make me wonder if she could come out of that top by accident, and she enjoyed my reaction as we ate and drank wine and talked. When we'd shooed off the waiter and his dessert menu, she leaned up and murmured, "Not here, either, huh?"

"Too public," I sighed.

"My place?" she asked.

"If I stay overnight, I might as well have brought you home -- in fact, it would be better if I did, rather than sneaking around," I said quietly.

"She can't expect to monopolize you."

"Neither can you."

"She's what, eighteen? She'll recover. She has her whole life ahead of her. Too much of mine is behind me."

"I keep telling her that."

"So..."

"So we go home and face the music. It's straight up or not at all," I declared.

"Very well -- take me home, then, Don," Gladys insisted.

It took Carmen about six seconds to find us in the living room. Luz sat there, rocking the baby, and nodded to herself. I wondered what it was about until Carmen said, "Luz said you would be back, with or without her."

"Luz is anything but stupid," I agreed.

"Luz said I shouldn't be stupid, either," Carmen said, eyeing me carefully.

"Like I said..."

"I just don't understand," Carmen protested, "She's..."

"My age?" I cut her off.

"Sweetie, you're sharing Don now -- what's one more? I can't be any more possessive than you are," Gladys insisted. "Maybe it won't work -- in which case, you lose nothing. Maybe it will -- in which case your piece gets just a little smaller -- but Don has plenty..."