Chapter 10

The next day, though, he found out where Debi had gotten that idea. Mona asked if he'd met his neighbor yet.

"She was coming up to her door with a can of cat food as I was leaving the other day. I thought I'd do you a favor ... I started talking to her and told her I had been there for a massage, that you usually did studio people on call but because I used to work with you, you gave me a big discount."

"So that's where she got that idea."

Mona laughed.

"Yeah ... thought I'd try to make up for her yelling at you. But I don't think she's all that bright, or she'd already forgot about it."

Came the day, though, Debi showed up at his door with a sly smile on her face and a five dollar bill in her hand.

"I hate to ask, but I really need a massage and I haven't worked much lately. Crowd scenes don't pay much, you know."

Harold thought about it, and decided that he might as well give her the massage, he'd be out nothing but time, and he didn't have an appointment that afternoon, anyway. Besides he knew that Debi might trick fate and become someone, if for no other reason than her looks. After all, starlets always came out of nowhere.

He invited her in and set up the table while Debi stripped down to her bra and panties. He'd given her a terry robe to use but she demurred because it was hot in the apartment and Harold would be touching all those places the robe might cover anyway.

Harold was a little surprised, though, at Debi's vocalizing while he worked on her back muscles. It was as if she were having sex.

"Are ... are you okay?"

"Oh ... yes ... your hands are wonderful!" she sighed.

"I've heard how a massage can make you feel like you are in love but this is the first time I ever felt that way when a man touched me."

Harold never took remarks like that personally or as a 'come-on', but her sighs, moans and occasional gutteral whimperings were having an effect on him. Specifically he was becoming aroused.

And at the moment his tumescence became so strong he had to rearrange his package, Debi turned her head and looked at his hand on his crotch.

"Oh my, you have a big one, don't you?" She didn't say it cloyingly or flirtatiously, just as matter of fact.

Harold sighed a little in relief. He began kneading her back, again and worked down to her glutes. Debi's sighs became more like moans. Then she giggled.

"Oh, that feels so good, I can't wait until you do my front!"

Harold, assuming she was talking about her bust, told her he didn't massage that part of the anatomy.

"It wouldn't be professional."

"Just for me, then? You can put your willy in me if you want."

This floored Harold. He'd never been propositioned like that before.

"Oh ... I REALLY couldn't do that. It would be violating your trust."

"What's trust got to do with it. All I know is I trust you to make me feel really good, and you are."

"Besides..." she almost whispered "It's been a long time since I've been around a really nice man. And you are really nice. Not like those producers who only want me to fuck."

Harold said nothing.

"Back home, the town is full of nice men ... not like here. So I haven't bumped dirty since I got here. They told me Hollywood would be full of bad men, and it's true."

Harold was incredulous. He knew he was naïve, but Debi did him one-up.

"Why are the men back home nicer?"

"Because they never offer me money and always treat me nice. They take me to dinner and wash my back when I'm in the tub and would never want me to do it in their offices. Not even the Mayor."

"And they take me for car rides ... sometimes two counties away, or to the city, and we get nice motel rooms. And they pay for it all. But they never try to buy me like I was a whore or something."

Harold marveled. "Don't they buy you things?"

"Well, sure! They buy me dresses and shoes and sometimes even diamonds ... well, not really diamonds but they look like diamonds. But that's what nice people do, they buy things and give them to their friends."

Harold now had a mind picture of Debi's 'back-home' life and it was greatly distressing to him. He wasn't sorry for her, he was imagining himself as one of those 'nice men'. And thinking about what happened between them and Debi. It was bothersome because he'd always hated boys and men who took advantage of simple girls.

"You know, it's been over three months since I've been around a nice man. I am almost tempted to let the next guy I meet put his thing in me. I miss it."

"You should try to hold out until you meet a nice man your age."

"I know that. But you're one of the few who haven't tried to get me onto their couch. Except the funny men, of course. They are real nice, even if they're sort of weird ... grabbing each other's butts and all."

Harold assumed she wasn't talking about comedians, but meant the Sunset Dandies.

"Oh, well ... it will happen. I can't have babies but I can still have a life. I'd like to be in movies for kids, maybe even play a kid's mom. You don't think I'm too young, do you? I am almost thirty."