"The owner expects every penny to be in his safe by six o'clock, every penny or the apartment keys, and I'd rather make you homeless than him make me homeless."

"The moment Mrs Cohen gets in I promise you!"

"You have an hour before I have to pay the rent money in, if you go down to the bar, you'll earn that fifty in just thirty minutes. I'll call the owner and tell him that I'm sending you down!"

My inner voice told me to ask him what I'd have to do to earn fifty bucks in less than an hour but deep down inside I knew. It had been a year since I'd last had sex and sex never really entered my head. I worked within fifty feet of my front door, I shopped on the ground floor, my life really did revolve around that quarter acre of land on the seedy side of Seattle.

I couldn't say no really, I didn't have the kind of tenancy agreement that most people in America had if they rented a property, I had a very strict 'Permission to reside' contract, my rent was due first thing in the morning and I had signed a personal clause that if I couldn't pay I'd voluntarily leave before the end of that day. My landlord and his superintendant weren't the kind of people who would take kindly to having to go into court to fight a contract dispute so I had to at least show that I was trying to sort out my rental shortfall so I agreed to go down into the basement of the building to see what work I could do before Sarah got home.

I was met at the club's back door by the owner, we went down the stairs to the kitchen and along the passageway that lead to the toilets, half way to the toilets there was a hidden door that opened into a passageway with five small rooms off it, I was taken into the room at the end of the passageway, it was the owners office where I was given a very strong drink and the owner told me what he was going to pay me for.

"Private Dancer Mrs Clarke or can I call you Vicky...the punters pay for a thirty minute private dance in a 'Chambre Séparée', you can work as many dances or as few as you want, that's up to you...I don't expect any complaints from my customers, they pay a lot of money to have a good time and you will get paid well to make them happy."

"What's a 'Chambre Séparée'?"

"Just a fancy name for a private room, separate from the main building."

He didn't say what the job really was, nothing that could be brought up in a court of law but I knew what was expected of me, I wanted to tell the dirty old bugger to go to hell but he would call my super and before I got to my front door, my furniture would have been on the sidewalk!

I was taken to one of the other four rooms on the secret passageway, a small room, just a little larger than a private video booth in an adult book store, it had what looked like a backless leather ...vinyl...sofa, what the European's called a 'Bonket Seat' against the back wall.

"You...erm...dance for your customer here in this room for thirty minutes, one complaint and you don't get a second chance, you get fifty dollars so long as your customer leaves happy!"

He was gone, he'd left me in the room on my own. I wasn't really dressed for entertaining a man, I was wearing my cleaners uniform from the Municipal Tower with their logo over my left breast. An Italian man came into the room, he closed the door, flicked the bolt over and a clock started counting down the man's thirty minutes. He looked me up and down, smiled at me and that was the end of the niceties. He hit me like a whirlwind, he seemed to have more hands than an octopus and I didn't really know what hit me, all I did know was that within five minutes of the whirlwind hitting me I was naked and flat on my back on the bonket.

I didn't have time to stop him, to tell him that he had to wear a condom and suddenly he didn't need one. He was actually very good at getting his money's worth out of a thirty minute sex session but he wasn't a greedy lover not like Barry had been. My customer gave me more sexual pleasure in ten minutes than Barry had given me in a whole year that we were together. I almost passed out at fifteen minutes and didn't really come back to my senses until the buzzer sounded, telling him that his time was up.

I was in a bit of a zomboid state as I dressed, couldn't find my knickers but then, did I really want to put them on over a pussy dripping with a stranger's semen anyway. I went to the office without really thinking about what I was doing.

"Your customer was really pleased with your dance Mrs Clarke, he even gave you a ten dollar tip so you get sixty dollars and our reputation is enhanced, Please come back any time that you need extra money, we need girls twenty-four hours a day for private functions."

I took my sixty dollars and was about to leave by the door I'd entered by but looking at the wall there didn't seem to be a door, the door was in front of his desk and I'd been sure that it had been behind his desk earlier. The door opened onto the bar area of the club, there were gaming machines, card tables, a roulette wheel and a craps table. There was music coming from a room to the left and through the door, I could see a woman dancing on a stage, twenty men were watching her as she took her knickers off and pranced up and down the stage totally naked.

A shiver ran through my body seeing a naked woman performing on the stage for twenty men, there were far more than twenty seats in the burlesque area of the club and for that matter, there were only ten men gambling and another fifteen men drinking in the bar area, "Very quiet at this time of the day, the men at the bar are mostly waiting for girls to become available to do private dances...like the one you just did."

I thought that he was showing me to the main exit but he took me over to the bar and the men waiting to have sex, he got me another strong drink and I sipped it as he introduced me to the line of men, it felt like a dating agency and I was being introduced to the men that the computer had picked out for me. Each man shook my hand warmly and made small talk with me. I finished my drink as quickly as I could, Sarah was on my mind and I knew that she could be home at any minute.

My drink finished I was allowed to walk away from the men at the bar. At the foot of the stairs to the main entrance I was given a card, "if you ever want a free drink, you can come down any time, as long as you chat with the guys in the queue, the barman will keep your glass topped up, if you see a man you fancy and we have a room free, well, getting fifty dollars from a hunk has to be better than taking pot luck in the private room. If you need to earn serious money, ring the number on the card and tell them how long you need a room for and they'll fit you in somehow."

My head was in a swirl, I climbed the stairs on auto pilot, I went straight to the super and paid the last fifty dollars of my rent and I still had ten bucks of mad money left as well. The super took my money and then he handed me an envelope, "This is from apartment five-one-seven, she had to go out and asked me to give this to you."

The envelope contained fifty five dollars, my pay for cleaning Mrs Cohen's apartment for an hour a week for a month. I went to the post boxes by the front door, my box was locked and there were letters in it, that meant that Sarah wasn't home yet, if she was home she would have taken the mail but relock the box to let me know she was home.

Home popped into my head again, Sarah and I played a game every night, I would ask her what she'd like for dinner, she would smile and she would say, "Thick juicy steak, burnt on the outside and bloody in the middle, Mushrooms in a garlic sauce, thick cut French fries and a side of garlic bread!"

I would open the fridge and look inside, "We're fresh out of that, how does..." I would say whatever we had in the fridge. For the first time in years I had money in my pocket that no one had demands on. Stranger-spunk was still dribbling out of my pussy and I felt dirty but instead of going to my apartment, I went to the deli on the corner, two five dollar steaks, not the best quality rib eye but thick and better than the chump that I would usually buy. I bought eggs, mushrooms, garlic cloves and a French loaf...the potatoes for the fries we already had in the kitchen.

I took the post to the apartment along with the groceries, food in the fridge and my body in the shower. I hummed a tune in my head and started to dance under the hot water, I was naked, just like the woman I'd seen on the stage of the Cherry Blossom Club and I was copying her movements under my shower.

I heard the door open and close, "Mummy, I'm home"

"In the shower darling, be out in a minute."

I made sure that all trace of my afternoon delight had been washed away from the deepest crevices of my inner body and then wrapped my body in a towel and pulled my dressing gown on and went into the living room to Sarah.

She was going through the mail to see if anything was for her, "Looking for something darling?"

"Yes, my invitation to the party."

"What party dear?"

"Anna-Marie Franchetti from dance class' at school, she's having her birthday party in her father's bar when it's closed on Sunday!"

"That's lovely dear, nice of her to invite you! Now, what would you like for dinner this evening?"

I got the expected answer, I opened the door to the fridge and looked in, I prodded this and that and then I looked over the door at her, "We seem to be right out of steak, how does yesterday's leftover meatloaf sound to you?"

Sarah looked thoughtful for a moment as she always did, "Probably better than I asked for actually."

"Well, we can still have the French fries, you peel the potatoes and make the fries as thick or thin as you like while I get dried and changed and then you can do your homework while I do dinner."

I went into the bathroom to get dry and to change into my casual clothes, when I got back to the kitchen I found a stack of very thickly cut potato fingers, they were over a half an inch thick and the same wide...they must have been big potatoes too as the chips were six inches long or longer.

I winced at the size of the chips, the outside would be carbon and the middles would be uncooked so I had the bright idea of boiling the fries before I actually fried them. Sarah was engrossed in her homework as I started cooking dinner, I boiled the potatoes for twenty minutes to make sure that they were cooked through to the centre and then I drained the pan and spread a tea towel on the counter to dry the potatoes off properly.

I got the oil in the fryer smoking hot and dropped the potatoes in carefully. I had a cast iron skillet on the burner getting it almost red hot. The best point to drop the steak in was when the skillet was at two-twelve Fahrenheit, I flicked a little water into the pan and it instantly boiled and started to fizz all around the bottom of the pan. I dropped the two steaks onto the hot surface and they stuck to the pan instantly. I sliced the mushrooms and dropped them into a pan with a half a jar of garlic sauce, I also peeled and crushed two bulbs of garlic and added that to the sauce and mushrooms to make the dish extra garlicky. I cut slices most of the way through the French loaf and forced frozen garlic butter into the wounds before popping the loaf into the oven to warm through and melt the butter into the bread.

All the time I was preparing the rest of the meal I was prodding the steaks, as soon as they were free to move I flipped them over to stick to the pan all over again. the steaks were actually cooked when both sides had become free of the pan but Sarah liked her steak cooked a little more so I gave them two more minutes a side. I plated the meat and left it to stand for five minutes while I tipped a measure of cheap table wine into the skillet to deglaze the pan, lift meat scraps off the surface as well as any fat from the meat and then I tipped the glaze into the mushrooms to add to the flavour of the sauce.

I took the garlic bread out of the oven and made up Sarah's dinner, I carried the bread and Sarah's meal into the living room, "Books away please and you've got the wrong knives on the table!"

Sarah looked at her plate and the bread and she grinned at me before rushing to get two steak knives.

After dinner as I washed the pots and Sarah went back to her homework I went over what I'd done to get the rent. I should have been horrified, should have been ashamed of myself but I didn't feel like that at all, in fact, a man had paid me for sex and he was better by far than any lover I'd ever had before. As I remembered what he'd done to me I got a tingle between my legs. I'd gone for a whole year without even thinking of sex, mainly because I'd never had really great sex before but now that I'd had my first taste of really good sex, I wanted it again. I would have happily gone down to the club right then and get acquainted with another man...or...men.

I went to bed frustrated beyond belief, no sex in a year was no problem, a taste of good sex and suddenly I needed more, a lot more. I actually masturbated myself even though I shouldn't have needed to do that for some time after the seeing too I'd had that afternoon.

I was in a moribund mood in the morning too, I dressed in my overalls for my cleaning job and for the first morning in my life I wasn't skipping to work happy. I didn't have any extra work on today so by two o'clock in the afternoon I was free, I walked straight past the post-boxes in the entrance of my building and ran to my apartment to get changed, I chose a white blouse and navy skirt, I didn't have tights or socks on, I just slipped my feet out of my trainers and into a pair of three inch heeled dancing slippers.

I went through the front door of the Cherry Blossom Club, the doorman smiled at me as he opened the door for me, letting me go into the club without charge. I walked to the bar area, four men were waiting by the bar with drinks in their hands, the barman asked me what I wanted, a middle aged man offered to buy me the drink. I was about to say that I got my drinks for free but the barman had already taken his money. I chatted to the man who'd bought me the drink for fifteen minutes while I drank it.

I saw another man being given a slip of paper, he took his glass with him and walked towards the passageway to the toilets. I smiled inwardly, I knew where he was going and what he was going to do. I was chatting to another man now, he brought me a drink too and fifteen minutes later the middle aged man came back with a third drink, he took me to one side, "There's a spare room, I was wondering if you'd like to accompany me, bit of queue jumping on my part but I do have an appointment in an hour."

He gave me a wry smile and I took his drink, "Which room?"

He looked at his slip of paper, "Room three!"

Someone must have been keeping a watch on the passageway to the toilets because as we walked along it the concealed door popped open and we went through into the passageway. He was feeling me up before we got into the private room and before the door closed my skirt was off, I managed to hold him off long enough to get him wrapped in rubber and then I lay on the bonket and revelled in being fucked royally by a sex starved man. He fucked me for twenty minutes and blew his load into the condom, he just couldn't hold himself back any longer...and...as he said, he had an appointment.

I returned to the bar and had three more drinks before I went to the office to collect my pay for fucking the middle aged man. I was shocked to get seventy dollars, fifty for the fuck and twenty dollars as my share of the over inflated prices of the drinks that men were buying me, I'd drunk six in an hour and wasn't the slightest bit tipsy because the cocktails were really little more than mocktails.

I collected the mail on my way up to my apartment, there was a posh envelope, deeply embossed and Sarah's name was written on the front in real calligraphy. I was almost as excited for my daughter as she would be when she saw the envelope. We'd lived in that apartment for a year and this invitation would be the first sign that Sarah had been accepted by the in crowd.

When Sarah arrived home I was trying to be very casual about things, I just nodded to the mantle shelf, "I think there might be something in the mail for you, looks like a bill of some sort!"

Sarah turned into a kangaroo for ten solid minutes, bouncing around the apartment like a demented fool., "Mummy look at this, "We will meet at the Golden Dragon for a Chinese buffet lunch and be transferred to the bar by limousine for a disco...I'll have to leave here at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning to walk to the Chinese Restaurant and I won't be home until six o'clock in the afternoon at the earliest!"

Seeing my daughter so happy warmed my heart, almost as much as the man's cock did less than an hour earlier and then I got an idea, "What are you planning on wearing on Sunday, your pink dress with the white collar and cuffs always looks pretty on you!"

I bombed my daughter out, she went from one hundred percent excitement to zero in a flash, I got that, "Muuuuuuuummmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" whine, followed by, "I can't possibly wear that dress, I'll look like a junior...no...no...I'll look like a kindergarten student. It's taken me a year to get 'IN' with the cool girls at school and now that I've got my invitation, I've got nothing to wear..." she was flapping her invitation from side to side now, "...mummy, this won't be my first invitation, it'll be my last if I don't have anything cool to wear!"

I looked at my handbag, I'd never had the luxury of saying this before but because I'd pulled two tricks in two days, I actually had one hundred dollars and change that hadn't already been accounted for, "Well, we'll just have to go out and find you something cool to wear!"

Dinner was forgotten, we only had a few days, we had lots of shops around us but if we couldn't find the right thing, we may have to go further afield, perhaps even an out of town mall!"

I looked in the window of a specialist 'Junior Miss' shop, even the tackiest outfit in that shop was one-fifty bucks, I was sure that my hundred would cover it but that was looking doubtful. Even at a hundred and fifty dollars Sarah turned her nose up at the dresses, "Too young...far too young!"

We were walking past the charity shop, people had donated furniture and books and the like, the window was full of all sorts of things that the charity were selling to raise money to provide legal assistance to under privileged people in Seattle. Sarah skidded to a halt, "Come on, there are two more shops to look in and only fifteen minutes before they close."

Sarah wouldn't budge; she was staring at something at the back of the charity shop. "Mummy, can I have that please?"

It was a struggle to see that far back but there was a manikin with a black dress almost covering its plastic flesh. I let Sarah drag me into the charity shop, as we walked she whispered, "That's a Stella McCartney original, it's got to be worth...like a thousand bucks and it has a twenty-five roller tag on it!"

I peeled the back down a little to see the label, it just had, 'S McC' embroidered in the label. The dress was made after Stella was famous enough to drop her full name from her labels and had used real gold thread for the embroidery.

Sarah had the manikin stripped and was waving the dress under my nose, "Mummy, I have to have this dress!"

"Darling there isn't even a changing room to see if the dress fits."

Sarah gritted her teeth and gave me a strangled whisper, "Mum, this is a Stellar McCartney for twenty-five bucks, I'll make it fit...I'll wear it even if it doesn't fit!"

I paid the money over to the clerk, she didn't even offer us a bag to put the dress in, she just wanted to get us out of the shop and close the door before anyone else wanted something from her.

We raced home and as soon as the apartment door was closed Sarah was out of her old dress and had the designer dress on. I stopped myself laughing at her, I could clearly see her white cotton bra and knickers under her new dress, it was a little too big for her but not much, the dress had been made for a size zero model and that's why it was on the charity pile, not many real women would fit in a dress so small.

"Looks like I'll have to shell out for some new underwear as well but that can wait until tomorrow, I'll meet you out of school.

No fun and games at the Cherry Blossom Club for me unfortunately because of meeting Sarah out of school to take her to a shop a little further from home. She liked a bra that was twenty five dollars, ridiculous really because a bra in the same style to fit me was only fifteen dollars. I searched the shelves of the store and spotted the same bra that she liked and in her size came as a set with knickers and a suspender belt for thirty dollars. I even bought her a pair of stockings to complete the ensemble.

Sarah would go to her friend's party better dressed than I'd been dressed in my life, even on my wedding day. I helped out a little more in the evening by making temporary darts in Sarah's new dress and being just temporary, the darts could be let out as Sarah grew so she'd be able to wear the dress for many years to come. While I was in the discount shop I bought myself the same outfit in my own size for twenty-five dollars so I'd blown most of my extra money already.

The next day was Friday, I would finish work at twelve o'clock so I used the phone number on the Cherry Blossom Club card to ask if I could have a room from twelve o'clock until three, in theory, the potential to earn three hundred dollars in three hours but I was more realistic and set my sights on two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars.

I even took a change of clothes to work with me on Friday morning and changed in the toilets before I clocked off work, I was in my private room in the club at five minutes past twelve. I had a bit of a whirlwind afternoon. Men had paid for thirty minutes but they needed to get back to work so they were rotating through in around twenty minutes a man. The club was ultra busy and I ended up risking being a little late home for Sarah to look after a eighth man during my three hours and a few minutes and walked out of the club with four hundred dollars.

On my way home I had to admit to myself that no man I'd met in the club since that first day had matched up to that first man but then, perhaps I wasn't the same woman either, for example, I'd stupidly allowed that first man to fuck me bare-back, allowed him free reign to do whatever he wanted to do, unrestricted access and I'd reaped the benefits of outstanding sex. Since that first day I'd made the men wear condoms and had been a little more in control. So no one lover was as good as the first but 8 lovers in just three hours had been very pleasant as well.

On Saturday I was on edge all day, I was doing things with and for Sarah, things like washing clothes, ironing, mending, cleaning, cooking...all the things a mother did for her children but all the time my mind was sixty feet below, my mind firmly thinking of what was going on in the Cherry Blossom Club, wondering how many men were waiting for a turn in the private rooms or the 'Chambre Séparée' as the owner called them.

My phone rang, Sarah was first picking it up, "Mum, it's a Jerry Flint for you!"

I didn't know that the owner of the Cherry Blossom Club's first name was Jerry, just Mr Flint so I rushed, excitedly over to the phone.

"Hi Mr Flint, Victoria speaking."

"Vicky, as you know, the club is usually closed on Sunday afternoons but I have a special event on tomorrow from twelve o'clock until around three in the afternoon and I need my four newest girls here for my most important customers to get to know!"

I smiled at Sarah as she backed away from the phone and went back into the kitchen and then I whispered, "Mr Flint, I did mention the other day that I wouldn't be able to work on weekends because of my daughter."

"Vicky, I wouldn't ask, I did say that you were free to work at any time and also free not to work at all, but, this is a one and only occurrence, if these men start asking for you by name you could be talking big money...tell you what, I'll pay for a babysitter for you because I need you to come in so badly."

"Well, as it so happens, my daughter has something on tomorrow so I'll actually be free between noon and three PM tomorrow."

After dinner I took a quart of Rocky Road from the freezer and two spoons and Sarah and I slobbed out on the sofa watching trashy 'Rom-Com's' on TV.

Sarah's party wasn't due to start until eleven thirty, she didn't have to leave the house until eleven o'clock but she was in the shower at seven o'clock in the morning starting to get ready. I tried to keep out of the way as much as possible while she was fussing around doing her hair, doing her makeup, shaving her legs even though she didn't have a single visible hair on them and dressing in her very sexy underwear and stockings. She didn't actually put her designer dress on until five minutes to eleven and at eleven o'clock I walked out with her to the Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant...well, no not to the door, I took her to a street away and Sarah begged me not to walk her all the way to the door of the restaurant.

I was at the Cherry Blossom at five minutes to twelve, there was a three foot by two foot sign standing in the open doorway proclaiming that the club was closed for a private party. In the bar there were three other young women, I was the oldest of us girls by far, there were also twenty men, they all looked very prosperous business men. I got a drink, and as usual, it was light on the alcohol, at twelve o'clock on the dot Mr Flint called us into his office. For this party the men weren't going to pay the bill for fucking us, Mr Flint was picking up the tab, we were each given a number to hold and we had to parade from the office, out to the bar and then back to the toilet passageway so that the men could see which girl would be in which room. We each had to take on five men in three hours and Mr Flint would be paying us just two hundred dollars instead of the two-fifty we would get if the customers were paying the bill.

As each man had around forty minutes with us he could really get to know us and we could have a little more fun than usual. I was just running through the end game with man number five when I heard music strike up in the stage area. The man bouncing on top of me doubled his speed, he wanted to see what was starting at three o'clock but he wanted to empty his balls first.

It was a bit of a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am kind of an ending to my afternoon's work. I already had my payment and in theory I should have just dressed and headed home. I heard clapping and whistling from the audience and my curiosity was peaked. Hanging on the back of the door was a dressing gown, just in case we were raided, it was cherry red with white blossoms embroidered across its back. It was nylon or rayon but looked like real silk. I pulled the dressing gown on and went to stand at the end of the toilet passageway to see what was going on.

The stage usually only had one woman on it dancing for the men but this afternoon, the stage was quite crowded, eight young women were dancing to the loud music while between twenty and thirty men watched them clapping and whistling in front of the stage, encouraging the girls to put more effort into their gyrations on the stage. I watched the girls performing with little interest until Mr Flint stepped up on stage and stopped one of the girls dancing, "Gentlemen, may I introduce you to my daughter, Anna-Marie Flint, this is her birthday party..."

"Franchetti daddy, you know mummy changed my last name to Franchetti, her family name, when you wouldn't marry her."

"...okay baby, I just don't like that your mother did that just to spite me."

My ears pricked up and now I was scanning the seven other girls on the stage to see if Sarah was there. One of the men that had fucked me an hour earlier held up his hand, "Over here darling, come and dance with me!"

Anna-Marie was released by her father and she walked sexily down the steps off of the stage, she took the man's hand and walked with him to the small dance floor just to the side of the stage.

"Sarah, where are you Sarah?"

I saw Sarah step out from the group of girls, "Now gentlemen, this is Sarah Clarke, she hasn't had her birthday yet, she likes dancing and running long distances, she also plays soccer and hockey at school..."

I gasped, I had to cover my mouth as a man held up his hand and Sarah was sent down to him to go and dance with him next to Anna-Marie. I fought an internal battle with myself not to jump right in and drag my daughter out of there. I watched as Sarah started close dancing with a man old enough to be my father, never mind her father.

I was in a dilemma, my daughter was dancing with a very much older man, very close dancing, his lips were against her as they danced and then against her neck. Anna Marie changed partners and set off dancing again, I saw the man with Sarah slip his lips from her neck to her collarbone. I was regretting buying her that dress, it showed off far too much of her skin to dirty old men.

I wanted to march straight in there and grab her wrist, drag her out of there for her own good...the only thing stopping me was the light...Sarah was dancing in a very dark area of the show lounge but her face was actually lighting the whole area up because she was beaming with excitement.

One by one all eight girls were introduced to the audience and men were calling out for the girl to join them on the dance floor. I watched as Sarah hopped from one man to another on the dance floor. The men were all taking turns at watching the girls dance and then taking their turn at dancing with them and all the time I could see that Sarah was glowing away like a light bulb.

I couldn't step in and stop things, I was remembering back to my first time, I was younger than Sarah was now. I was brought up sheltered, my parents kept me away from boys, they controlled what I watched on TV, they controlled what I read. They took me to school every day, brought me home after school...until one day, my mother had a late appointment in town, I was told to come home with Susie Carter, stop at her house until my mother got home.

I sat in the Carter's kitchen while Susie got changed, her older brother came in the room, he flirted with me a little, Susie came back and she convinced me to go out to the garden shed with her brother. I watched as he kissed Susie and then she pushed me into his arms and he kissed me. Susi was at my side as I let her brother kiss me, Susi was undoing my dress, unfastening all the buttons down the front of the dress, she pulled my dress open and let her brother touch my body. Before I knew it I was naked on the floor of the shed and Sarah was urging her brother on to do me, do me harder.

It had been exciting as her brother put his cock in my pussy, and exciting as he bounced up and down on top of me as Susie goaded him on to go in further, do me harder, do me faster and when he finished I crashed out of my high within seconds. Her brother had been my first, her father was my second a week later and her uncle Barry was my third a month after that. I kept getting fucked and I kept going back.

I was still younger than Sarah when I fell pregnant with her, as near as we could work out, Susie's Uncle Barry was probably the father and we ran away to the city before my parents found out that I was pregnant. Sarah was born in New York while I was still under fifteen years old and we had to keep hopping around the country from one large city to the next just before we got found out.

I'd seen Sarah dance with her tenth man, again, as soon as he wrapped her in his arms they kissed and it went on from there. I just stood, hidden in the shadow watching my daughter prove over and over again, just how grown up she was.

I lost the cover of the shadow, the croupier turned the lights on in the gaming room, he was cleaning the roulette table and checking the spindle and the roulette wheels balance, he was getting ready to open for the evening session. I checked the time, it was six thirty and the club would be open to the public in thirty minutes. I went back to my 'Office', pulled the dressing gown off and was reaching up to hang the gown on the hook on the back of the door as the door opened, the girl that was introduced as Kelly O'Connor was being dragged into my room by one of the younger male guests. He saw my naked body, apologised and dragged Kelly into room number two.

I dressed and left, as I passed room two I heard the sounds of Kelly and the man she was with making love. I just peeped a look in the main room before I left, Sarah was still in the show lounge, she was standing against the wall with Dan Moranne and they were into very...Verry heavy petting, I could see from sixty feet away that Sarah's hand was down the front of Dan's trousers, I had that conversation with myself again. In the end I came up with the answer, 'Kelly O'Connor was in one of the private rooms fucking like a rabbit, Sarah was just engaged in a little harmless petting out in public, I knew which I would prefer Sarah to be doing. I knew what Dan Moranne liked, he was the first of Jerry Flint's friends in my room that afternoon.

I forced myself to leave the club, all the way up the stairs. It was ten minutes to seven, Sarah would have to be out of the club in around ten minutes so I'd worry myself to death in my apartment building's lobby while I waited for Sarah.

I watched as Anna-Marie and three other girls left the club and walked to the limousine, the four of them were whisked away by the driver, men started walking out of the club to cars parked on the Sixth and Cherry car park. At seven o'clock I saw Sarah and Dam Moranne appear on Cherry Street, they kissed for a few minutes and then Dan started to walk towards our lobby but Sarah stopped him, she stood on the steps to our building and watched as Dan headed off towards the car park.

Sarah was still walking on cloud-nine when she danced into the lobby of our building, she was doing a kick-turn with her arms out to her sides on the lobby carpet when she saw me. She ran over, leaped in the air and landed an inch from my toe and planted a kiss on my lips before throwing her arms around my neck.

Sarah was bubbling up like a geyser about to explode. She was babbling about her meal, babbling about the limo ride to the club and then she jerked to a stop. "Anna-Marie's father owns the club below our building, she used to be called Anna-Marie Flint but because her father wouldn't marry her mother, her name was changed to her mother's name...I had no idea...I mean, right under our feet all the time."

I smiled at my daughter's exuberance, "Did you have fun?"

"Beyond my wildest dreams!"

"Were there any boys at the party?"

She shook her head, "No, no boys!"

I started to worry, it was bad enough that my daughter had spent the afternoon with a group of men but to lie to me about...

"No boys but there were a few men at the party."

"Men, how old were these men?"

"Mum, don't worry, I'm fourteen years old, that's like twenty-one in guy years, there's like a scientific formula to work it out but girls mature earlier than boys, three months earlier per year!"

"Anyone special?"

I saw Sarah's cheeks redden slightly, "A few really nice guys...Anna-Marie's dad is like 'Sex on legs', all the girls love him and there was another guy that I danced with a lot, I got the feeling that he liked me!"

We climbed the stairs, well, I climbed them, Sarah floated up them on her own personal cloud.

"Mum, I need to get out of this dress before I crease it too much, do we have a hanging bag to put it in to keep it clean until the next time I want to wear it?"

I went into the cupboard, my best dress was in a hanging bag, I unzipped the bag and added a second hanger into the bag by the time I turned back to Sarah she had removed her dress and she slipped it on the hanger while I held it up for her, she was standing in her strapless bra, stockings, suspender belt and bikini knickers. There were a row of little red welts down her neck and across both collarbones.

She saw me looking at her neck and her hand came up to cover her throat, "I think some of the men were trainee vampires! There is more than half of that Rocky Road left over yesterday, shall we try and finish it off before it goes mouldy?"

"If you want to but ice cream doesn't last long enough in this house to be in danger of going off...I could order in a pizza, we could eat that first and then kill the Rocky Road as we watch the world go by on Cherry Street."

Sarah nodded her head excitedly.

My hand was on the handset of the telephone when it rang, I picked it up, "Sarah, is that you?"

I turned my back on Sarah so she couldn't see my face, "No Mr Moranne, I'm her mother!"

Silence...long silence before, "You have me at a disadvantage, you know my name, I wonder how...and I don't know yours!"

"What can I do for you Mr Moranne?"

"I was given Sarah's telephone number by Anna-Marie Franchetti, Sarah was at Anna-Marie's birthday party earlier, I'm a very good friend of her father's."

"Why do you need to speak to my daughter just fifteen minutes after kissing her goodbye in the street?"

Another silence, I was expecting to hear click-purrrrrrr as Dan hung up on me. Did I want to stop Dan talking to Sarah, if I did, he'd just meet her out of school if he was that desperate to talk to her.

"Erm...can I ask you how you know my name?"

"You told it to me yourself earlier today!"

"I...erm...I only told...one...person...my name earlier today...I recognise your voice now as well Vicky!"

"So, again, what do you need to talk to my daughter about?"

His voice relaxed, Vicky, I'll be honest with you, I liked dancing with your daughter at the club, I enjoyed our conversation and I got quite a way with her but she stopped me and I find that a man has to strike again quickly after facing a setback, try another attack as soon as possible so I was going to invite Sarah to dinner tonight."

I looked over my shoulder at my daughter, she was kneeling by the window, just watching life going by out on the street, her face still illuminated with her earlier excitement, a grin stitched on her face that looked permanent

"Where are you thinking of taking her?"

Another long silence and then, "The little Greek place across the road from the Cherry Blossom Club!"

"Sarah prefers the Italian around the corner. If I allow Sarah to come out with you for dinner, if you upset her in any way I'll have no hesitation in telling the police what you and she were doing at the side of the stage at six-thirty this afternoon and as it is a school day tomorrow she has to be home, in this flat, at nine o'clock this evening, no matter what!"

I turned to Sarah, "Telephone for you darling, looks like the Pizza will have to wait until another day, not sure that the Rocky Road will survive the evening though."

Sarah looked confused as she took the telephone from me and pressed it to her ear, "Hello!"

"Oh Dan, I didn't expect..."

Sarah stopped talking and looked in my direction, she had a serious look on her face, her eyebrows lifted and her mouth fell open and then she lowered the phone and pressed it against her belly to close off the microphone.

"Mum, don't be mad at me for earlier but can I go out to dinner with Dan, he's invited me to the Napoli Restaurant please?"

I nodded my head, "Okay Dan, mum said I can come, see you there in thirty minutes."

"Mum, Dan said that you saw me...erm...kissing him at the side of the stage...saw what I was doiong to him...are you mad at me for doing that?"

"If I was really mad at you I wouldn't let you go out with him again tonight, you have to be home at nine o'clock, no alcohol, if Dan upsets you in any way you have to tell me as soon as you get home, if you say no that means no, you can't let him talk you around. You have to remember, he's a business man, he's used to getting his own way but with you, it has to be your way or there really will be trouble. You'll be at school tomorrow, no matter what you do tonight and if school reports that you aren't paying attention, this will be the last time."

Sarah nodded her head and then she grinned at me, "Mum, I'm going to need my new dress again please."

I walked around to the restaurant with Sarah, Dan was standing in the street waiting for her, he blushed a little when he saw me and then he shook that off, he scooped Sarah into his arms and kissed her before he acknowledged me, "Thanks for walking Sarah over here Vicky."

"This area isn't safe for a young girl to walk around dressed like that on her own!"

"I'll see her home and she'll be in before nine o'clock."

"I've told her that she isn't to have any alcohol..."

"Muuuuuuuuuum, you're embarrassing me!"

I turned and walked back home, leaving my little girl in the arms of an older man.

I did myself a ham sandwich for my Sunday dinner and then filled up on a pint of ice cream while I sat in the window watching the comings and goings down in the street, the men going down to the Cherry Blossom Club. I didn't know exactly what time Sarah would be home so I resisted the temptation to go to work for a few hours.

Sarah was home at eight thirty, Dan brought her all the way to the apartment door, Sarah came in and whispered, "Mum, can I invite Dan in for a coffee? We didn't have time to have one at the restaurant."

"You can but you still have to be in bed at nine thirty at the very latest!"

Dan came in and sat with me in the living room while Sarah made two cups of coffee, one for me and one for Dan. She delivered the coffee and then went to her bedroom while Dan and I chatted in the living room, when Sarah came back she was in her nighty, nothing under it and nothing on top. Sarah sat on Dan's lap and spent thirty minutes snogging with Dan in between snippets of conversation between me and Dan.

Sarah ran to her bedroom at nine thirty on the dot after kissing us both a good night. Dan hadn't finished his coffee so he was still sitting in my living room after Sarah went to bed.

"Your daughter is a remarkable girl Vicky, I tried everything I could think of to get her to let me progress but she wouldn't have any of it, she was willing not to see me go home with blue balls, just a hand job but now I'm even more desperate to have her, I'll have to invite her to another meal later on in the week, or perhaps next week...when will you be at work next? And would it freak you out if I asked for you...you know, me trying to break your daughter as well as paying you for sex!"

"What did you tell Sarah about how I knew you?"

"You obviously didn't tell her that we knew each other so I didn't either."

I showed Dan out, I got a kiss at the front door that was about half as passionate as the kissed that Dan was giving Sarah all afternoon.

Before I went to bed I called the two women in my block that I cleaned for to tell them that I wouldn't be cleaning their apartments anymore, my reasoning to myself, why work five hours a month cleaning a flat when I could put that five hours into working at the Cherry Blossom Club and earn five hundred dollars a month instead of fifty-five.

I dreamed about what I'd seen Sarah and her school friends doing at Anna-Marie's birthday party and ended up masturbating in my Murphy bed. Sarah went off to school in the morning at her usual time, bright eyed and bushy tailed, I put my overalls on and walked the few yards to the Municipal Tower. I was ten minutes early for work, went to my pigeon hole but there was no clocking-in card, just a note to see personnel before I started work. I knew that my six months probation was about to come to an end, this had to be the meeting to sign my full work contract and get the information as to how much my pay would increase as well as the benefits package.

Wow, how wrong could I be, cutbacks, rationalisation, fewer staff working harder and the last one in would be the first one out. The long and the short of it was that I was the last to join the company so I was the first one out. The personnel director of the company was surprised at my reaction, I kissed his cheek and thanked him, he'd made my future job choice very simple, thirty hours cleaning for less than four hundred and fifty dollars or working flat on my back, the same amount of time would net me three thousand dollars a week.

I went back home and changed into my street clothes, I phoned the Cherry Blossom Club and went straight to work. I took a pot luck punter for my first of the day, fun but nothing special and my second customer walked in, it was Dan Moranne, he'd put in a request to be called the next time I came in to work.

Dan had been fun the first time he screwed me, this time he was paying for me himself and he made it an extra special fuck. I was beginning to really enjoy working at the club full time!

9,323 Words.

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