C1 Chapter 1

Peep Peep

In the desolate neighborhood close to the train station, Marlene stood in front of a shabby building, considering the photos in the storefront’s display case.

Pictures of garishly made-up women whose real faces were hardly recognizable underneath. That was nothing special – she saw that every day when she was on the set.

But because these women here were not her colleagues, at least not directly, she could hope for a bit more . . . excitement from them. Carmen had been right; she’d really been missing that lately, the excitement, the genuine arousal, not just what they faked for the camera.

A bordello was out of the question for her; the only customers allowed through the door were men. But a peep show – no one could forbid her entrance there.

She walked through a dark, tiled tunnel that smelled like a bathroom where men can’t quite find their way to the toilet, until she came to the entrance of a former movie theater. The old cinema palace now housed cubicles for – usually – men who wished to pay a few Euros for a close-up view of a woman’s private parts.

Marlene looked at the line of doors to the cubicles. Most of them stood open; it was still early in the day. She chose one and went inside. She made a face at the smell, much the same as the usual odor of sperm and male sweat in the studio when she was filming. But here, in this close space, the odor was even thicker, really unbearable. It clung to every fiber.

Marlene was tough, though. She sat on the chair that had been placed in front of a now-shuttered window. The chair was sticky, but she didn’t let that deter her.

She pulled her wallet out of her pants pocket and took a couple of Euros out. Acknowledging the absurdity of spending the money she earned on pornos here, she stuck a coin in the slot.

The shutter opened. In the middle of the small stage, a woman was spreading her legs in front of another customer’s window. Marlene could only see her back. The woman heard the shutter of Marlene’s cubicle opening and turned around.

She danced with simulated lust toward Marlene’s window, spread her thighs again, and presented her crotch to the glistening pane.

Then she turned around, presented her behind, and pulled her labia apart so that Marlene could see almost all the way inside her.

Marlene unfastened her pants and slid a hand into her underwear. Suddenly, she froze. The performer had seated herself right in front of Marlene’s window, and now she could see her face.

Carmen.

So this was her second job.

And the shutter closed; her time was up.

Marlene sat there with her hand in her pants, immobilized and slightly bewildered. She had come here to see other women, and now she was seeing the one she did it with every day . . .

She shook her head vigorously, as if to clear her thoughts.

Like an automaton, she pulled out the next coin and tossed it into the slot.

The shutter opened once more. Carmen had turned away again, to face another new customer. It seemed that business was starting to pick up now. Carmen could no longer give so much individual attention to each one and tried to stay in the center of the stage and turn so that everyone could see something.

Marlene watched her, but the hand in her pants remained still. She knew every inch of Carmen’s body too well. Not the least bit was unknown to her. And she’d explored all those bits in much more depth than was possible here.

She pulled her hand out of her pants and closed the zipper. This was a total failure. Why hadn’t Carmen wanted to tell her about this second job? There was nothing to it, really. In fact, it was rather innocuous compared to what they often did in the studio.

Surely, Carmen would turn over the stage to a colleague at some point, but Marlene didn’t feel like waiting that long. And in any case, her lust had quite faded.

That was a new feeling for her, one she’d experienced often lately. She took a deep breath and grimaced again at the smell, which was bothering her even more than it had when she arrived.

There was a time when she couldn’t have imagined this happening. She was always in the mood, more often than she had women to satisfy her. She could go from zero to sixty in a second if necessary – if it had to be a quickie.

At truck stops along the highway, she often hadn’t had much time. The schedule was tight. The rest stop bathroom or the cabin of her tractor-trailer had to suffice for the few minutes she did have. The waitress – or whoever it might be – climbed in, didn’t even bother to undress all the way, just exposed the necessary parts, and Marlene got her needs satisfied in the shortest amount of time possible.

Once again, she took a deep breath and sighed. Those had been really good times. Nothing like now, with lots of sex, and no satisfaction. What a topsy-turvy world.

Her nose wrinkled. The smell had become so repulsive that she decided she couldn’t stay any longer. She cast one last glance at Carmen, and when the shutter closed, she opted not to waste another coin.

She stood up and left.