Chapter 149

It was almost noon when the interview finished. Veronica was pleased with herself when she affixed her name and her agent ID number to the contract.

Betsy Hamilton's move had been a foregone conclusion, so much so that Celina had prepared the contract and it was predated. It simply needed Katey's signature and that of a witness. This fresh signing meant something to Veronica. Five Friends had sought her out. They had called her out of the blue, explained what they were doing and asked her to come work with them.

No one had questioned a booking. Even Adam just accepted that she wouldn't send him somewhere nasty – and he questioned almost everything. They had placed an amazing amount of trust in her to guide their careers – particularly since she had been unable to guide her own.

Mostly, it was the respect they showed her that drew her closer to them.

As with Shelly Smith, respect was a foreign concept to Veronica Davis for most of her life. A daughter of a domineering mother and a henpecked father in eastern Kansas, her young adulthood had been troubled. Nothing Veronica did seemed good enough to earn a kind word from her mother, so she simply stopped trying.

If Veronica brought home a 'B' on spelling test, she would be lectured for 15 minutes about why it should have been an 'A'. A selection to the junior varsity soccer team was met with a diatribe about how her mother hadn't spent "hours and hours of her life" watching Veronica play soccer to settle for a scout team.

Veronica's father tried but he was spineless. He worked at a factory in town but as Veronica's mother grew more strident, he found more and more reasons to work overtime. Veronica's mother didn't care. She enjoyed the money and ruled the checkbook with an iron fist.

Veronica cared, though. With her father at the plant at all hours of the day and night, Veronica lost her sole ally – and the only person who could direct her mother's venom in another direction (at him).

Veronica had left Kansas on a Greyhound bus for Las Vegas the day after her high school graduation. She knew she wasn't destined for college and a profession. She was determined to get a job as a waitress in Las Vegas and to live her life as she chose.

As with many plans of 18 year olds, it didn't work out the way Veronica hoped. Most of the restaurants served alcohol and couldn't employee anyone younger than 21 in a waitressing job. There were 500 recent arrivals looking for every menial job in the city. Most of them were willing to go to great lengths to get the job, too.

Veronica still had principles. Her rebellion hadn't led her into the sexual realm. It just wasn't done openly in her small Midwestern town. She finally found a job as a cashier in a convenience store and, after a month or so, started dating another guy who worked there. He talked her into coming to Los Angeles with him when he landed a "dream job."

The job wasn't for him. It was for her. She was going to work as a nude model, he said. She'd start out doing small-time web stuff but before long she'd be in the pages of "Aficionado." He was wrong. Before long she had moved from glamour photos to hardcore pictures (co-starring her boyfriend, of course).

Then the guy met someone else and left her cold. She was stuck with the rent on a place she couldn't afford and little or no skills to earn more money – except on her back.

It hadn't taken Veronica long to realize she had a pleasant face and a good body. A natural body in Los Angeles was rare but one in the porn industry was almost unheard of. She accepted a job making a video, landed with an agency and her life went downhill even faster.

Veronica experienced firsthand every horror story about the industry. She picked up an STD (curable, thank God) in the first month in the business. She got involved in the party scene and lost herself in a world of alcohol, drugs and random sex. She even traded a 'porn star' blowjob to a greasy kid to score some pills when the money ran out.

She was exploited by her agencies, the companies that hired her, the men and women she worked with and by random people she would meet. She finally decided she had enough the morning after her 22nd birthday. She awoke in a hotel room with a limp-dicked loser she couldn't even remember meeting let alone fucking. She reeked of alcohol, cigarette and marijuana smoke and body odor. She throat, face and legs were bruised from a gangbang scene a few days before. She had constant hemorrhoids from having so many things stuffed up her ass. There hadn't been a day in the past month when she woke up without her breath smelling like someone's semen.

She knew she wouldn't see her 23rd birthday unless she changed and she was amazed when she realized she truly wanted to see another year pass by. So she quit. She quit the drugs with the help of a program. She quit the alcohol at the same time and in the same way. It was easier because she left porn behind at the same time.

Still, life after porn wasn't easy, either. Few jobs are available for women who leave the industry. The jobs that are available don't pay nearly as well as fucking on camera does. There wasn't much of a job market for Veronica Davies. She had no more skills at 22 than she did at 18.

The market for Kristi Clear was better. She was offered a job at a strip club and with an agency that specialized in feature exotic dance tours through dive clubs in the middle of nowhere. But that meant making a living with her body again and never having a permanent home. Still, it was better than the only other well-paying job she was offered – prostitute at a Nevada bordello. She knew a lot of girls from the business who had taken that route but she knew it would lead her right back to the place she had just struggled to leave.

She stuck it out, living off her meager savings and taking menial jobs. She soon realized that even decent jobs were fraught with pitfalls. She finally found employment as a waitress in an L.A. eatery. They knew of Veronica's resume but she seemed like a decent sort. She lost that job when a drunken patron of a nearby bar – who regularly ate at the restaurant with his family each Sunday after church – stumbled in one evening and asked in a loud voice if she would blow him for $50.

The manager was outraged – at the patron not at Veronica. But the man was well-respected in the community so the owners decided keeping Veronica employed wasn't worth losing business. She was contemplating taking the same route so many women did when they tried to get out: going right back in to the industry when times were tough. She hoped she could survive it.

She was only days away from that point when Sarah tracked her down and offered her a job with the newly formed Five Friends Casting. Her original duties were murky but she figured it would be worth a shot. They were offering $3,000 a month so even if it went under in a year it would give her time to find somewhere better.

Now she couldn't imagine ever leaving. She hoped she was the first person to take advantage of the company's retirement plan – in 40 or so years. She really enjoyed what she was doing. She was interacting with some really nice people, not only at Five Friends but with the company that owned it and the companies it dealt with. Veronica really believed she was making a difference.

That would shock everyone back in Martinsville, Kansas.

She had made a vain attempt to reconcile with her family when she left the adult industry. It was futile. Her mother refused to even speak to her. Her father had finally gotten fed up and taken a job working for an oil company in Iraq or Kuwait. Her mother refused to give her an address or to even tell her the company name.

She'd like to talk to her father, if for no other reason than to ensure he was still alive.

"Maybe Mary has a way to track him," Veronica thought. "I'll ask her when I see her again."

Lunch was just being served at the upper house and the group invited Lucy to join them.

"Unless you have other plans," Allie said.

"I have absolutely no plans," Lucy said. "Is it OK if I bring Snuggles with me? I hate to be a bother about him."

"I don't think anyone will mind," Adam said. "How in the world did you get him here from Miami?"

"They allow pet transport," Lucy said. "That was my contribution to the first month out here. I had enough frequent flyer miles from my father that I could spring for us to fly out here. The rest of our clothes and stuff are being shipped out on a truck."

"So, you're friends with your roommate?" Mary asked. She had listened to a portion of the conversation as the group entered the dining room. Erin, Katya and Leslie joined her. Katey was off somewhere else and Sean, Rachelle and Meredith were taking lunch out.

Lucy paused.

"No," she said. "We had a common goal. Alexa had enough money to come out here or to live out here, but not both. I was in the same position. So we pooled our resources and came out together. We both planned to get into the industry but she knew a girl who works as a stripper. They got together as soon as we got into town and the next thing I know, Alexa is working at the Pink Flamingo. I suspect our partnership will end in a couple of weeks. We're only renting the apartment for a month. But I have my biggest worry taken care of."

"Well, if you run into difficulties, we'll make room for you out here," Mary said. It caught Lucy completely off-guard. Mary had barely spoken to Lucy the day before. Now she was telling her that she could have a room in the house if she needed one. "In fact, we'll make room for you if it's just better for you. You don't need any difficulties."

"Thank you," Lucy said. "I appreciate it. But I don't want to be a bother."

Adam heard the change in Lucy's voice and knew she was nervous. He suspected he knew what she was nervous about.

"Mary grounded out yesterday with the winning run at third – twice," he said. "She is a very competitive person. If she was less outgoing yesterday than the rest of us, it is because she was pissed off at the game. It wasn't because of you."

Mary's mouth dropped.

"I'm sorry if I gave you that impression," she said quickly. "He's right. I was stewing about the games. I was happy to meet you and I hope you'll feel welcome here. Maybe you can class-up this joint a little."

"This coming from a woman who bared her breasts at the breakfast table yesterday," Sarah said with mock reproach. "That was an appalling breach of etiquette, if you ask my opinion."

Lucy looked puzzled but someone came to her rescue again. This time it was Veronica.

"We need to show you the rest of this house before you'll really understand the comment," she said. "But just know that the jokes and picking are in good fun. Although it's true that Adam and Mary sometimes share manners – because both of them use them so rarely it was silly to waste two sets – she is an extremely sweet woman who would do just about anything for her friends."

Lucy watched as the group with afternoon classes finished up their salads and emptied the plates just moments before a second group entered the dining room.

"Time to start banging the boards for a shift change," Veronica remarked.

St. Mark's School, the all-boys companion to St. Xavier, had an excellent hockey team. Lucy understood the reference and smiled.

"Took me a week to explain that one to Adam," Veronica replied softly. "I'm still not sure he understands it completely. Wait until fall. I'm going to drag him to a Kings game if it's the last thing I do."

The new group was just as friendly as the last. Walt was first through the door and gave a wave. Shelly and Rebecca were close on his heels and both bent to give Lucy a friendly hug with Trinity following a few seconds later and offering the same.

"Should have gone for the hug," Walt remarked. "Thought about it and decided it would look creepy."

"Shouldn't have raced to the table," Rebecca rejoined. "If you didn't insist on getting the first plate of food, you would have seen the rest of us give her a hug and then the precedent would have been set. Of course, because it's you, it still would have looked creepy."

At least Walt didn't comment on the kisses the girls gave Adam after Lucy's hug.

"Allie is taking your car," Trinity said when she sat down. The junior college group usually rode the bus or took Meredith's car. But with Rachelle, Meredith and Katey already away from the house, it meant the afternoon crew at USC had to take the Subarctic SUV.

"OK, but that means Lucy is here for the day," he pointed out. "Actually, I suppose we could walk her home if she wanted to leave. It's only about six blocks from here."