Panties for Sale (23 page)

“Ok, fine, keep your secrets, darling.
 
It doesn’t matter to me, what you did with
Mr. Nimbin, as long as he is happy right?
 
I was just curious because that man has been a nightmare.
 
Ever since Abigail left, he was just never
happy.
 
I have tried all my girls.
 
I really didn’t know what do next.
 
So wonderful!
 
He has already booked you again!
 
Can you believe it!
 
But seriously
honey, Dora showed me your schedule.
 
You
are working like almost every day.
 
That
is too much. Chieko?
 
Are you there?”

“Hei, Yes, I am here.”
 
Chieko wasn’t sure she wanted to see Mr. Nimbin again.

“Are you ok?
 
Are you
sure?
 
I mean, I know the money is nice
but you need to take things slow.
 
I
don’t want to burn out my most popular girl.
 
Maybe, Chieko, I’ll only book you for 5 appointments a week?
 
Maybe 6.
 
Mr. Roberts, Mr. Smith, Mr. Nimbin, Mr. Dobbs, and 2 new ones a
week.
 
That will be plenty.
 
At least for now, don’t you think?
Chieko?”
 

“Hai?
 
Oh yes, ok,”
Chieko nodded into the phone. “Yes, thank you.
 
Good bye.”

Chieko sighed and wandered back to her closet.
 
She wished her clients were more fun.
 
Everyone in Canada seemed so serious about
sex.
 
Stupid Mr. Nimbin.
 
Why can’t he be more fun?
 
It was a good idea to be a dominatrix, it
really was. It could have been so funny.
 
Now, he’ll want to push me around.
 
Just like the others.
 
Chieko
sighed as she combed out her long hair.
 
Maybe I should just go back to Tokyo, she thought.
 
But do what?
 
Work at the sex shop for real?
 
But the guys in Tokyo were no different than the men here, not
really.
 
Plus, she didn’t think she would
be so popular there, either.
 
In Tokyo, she looked just
like every other girl.
 
And she would
have to deal with Japanese businessmen.
 
No, here, in Toronto, she was different.
 
What did Carl call her?
 
Oh yes,
his ‘oriental pearl’.
 
Chieko slipped
into her new feathered high heeled slippers and shuffled out into her
kitchen.
 

She hummed to herself while she rinsed out a mug from the
sink, measured out a teaspoon of green tea leaves, and then covered them with
boiling water.
 
As she waited for the tea
to seep, she wandered over to the kitchen table.
 
Her English books were stacked neatly waiting
for her to open them.
 
She should really
sit down and do her assignment.
 
She was
supposed to write a letter to a Travel Agent to book a holiday somewhere she
always wanted to go.
 
Why couldn’t she
just call the travel agent she thought to herself?
 

She flipped open the pages looking for the chapter on
travel and noticed a note stuck to the top of page. “Ohma!” Chieko gasped and
grabbed the yellow paper.
 
“Chieko!
 
Let’s go to the moon together!” A picture of
a full moon with her and Jay sitting on top drinking champagne was drawn
underneath.
 
Chieko smiled.
 
When had Jay put that in her book?
 
How cute was he?
 

Thinking of Jay from her English class always made Chieko
smile.
 
Maybe it could work? She imagined
her life with Jay, walking down the street holding hands, jumping on a bus,
going to the movies, sharing popcorn.
 
Just being with a boy for fun.
 
Just talking. And taking it slow. And getting excited about sex.
 
And having sex that means something.
 
Sex for love, with hugging and kissing
and…
 

“No.” She scolded herself.
 
Stop thinking ahead. Wishing about things that are not going to
happen.
 
It’s just a silly note.
 
But, she thought as she sipped her tea, it
was something.
  
With a smile, she picked
up her pen and began to write a request for a trip for two to the moon.

The phone made Chieko jump.
 
“Mooshi, mooshi.
 
Hello?
 
Hai?
 
Oh.
 
Yes.
 
Yes.
 
Ok.
 
5 minutes.”
 
Chieko threw down the phone and slammed her
English books shut.
 
She ran into her
bedroom, jumped into her new black dress, carefully cutting off the tags with
her nail scissors, and then jammed her feet into her new silver heels.
 
They were half a size too small, but so sexy,
she just had to buy them.
 
She glanced at
her reflection in the mirror.
 
Deciding
that it would have to do, Chieko grabbed her purse and ran out the door.
 
She could hear the car horn honking as the
elevator doors slid open. “Ok, ok,” she ran down the sidewalk to the waiting
car.
 
As she stepped off the curb to open
the car door, the engine revved.
 
Chieko
squealed and slipped, falling into the front seat.

“Well, finally,” Ahmed laughed as Chieko swatted him with
her purse.

“What do you think you are doing?
 
I almost fell.”

“What, did I interrupt a hot love fest?”

“No.
 
Stop
joking.
 
I was studying.”

“Studying.
 
Is that
what we are calling it?
 
Fine.
 
So today, we are going to the Holiday Inn.
 
Yes?”
 

“Yes, I think so.”

“Yes, that is what Angela said.”

“Ok,” Chieko opened her purse and took out her make up
bag.
 
Reaching up, she flipped down the
car mirror and powdered her face until it was flawless.
 
Then she slowly covered her lips with red
lipstick.
 

“So, you are not talkative today.
 
Not nervous, are you?”

“No, not really.”

“You must be getting used to this by now.
 
You’re an old pro!”

“Sure, a pro.”

“So you never finished telling me about Japan love hotels,”
Ahmed looked at Chieko, raising his eyebrows as he noticed the pink lace
peeking out from underneath her low cut dress.
 
“I’ve never gone to Japan.
 
Maybe
I should, if they are all like you, hey?
 
You look good today.
 
You were in
Tokyo, right?
 
Big love hotels there?”

“Hai, Tokyo.”
 

“Why does a nice girl like you know so much about Tokyo
love hotels?”

“Ha ha.
 
Very
funny.
 
Tokyo is different from here.
 
Maybe we are more,” she paused “more open,
no, no. Not open.
 
But, um, adventure,
playing, you know, about sex.
 
Ok, you
want?
 
I will tell you a funny
story.
 
One time, I was in a theme
hotel.
 
Do you know?”

“Theme hotels?”

“Yes.
 
They are love
hotels, like I was telling you before.
 
You can pick your room and pay by the hour.
 
But theme hotels are special because each
room has a theme like a movie or country.
 
And they have better things.”

“Things?”
 

“Yes, in regular love hotels you can have a choice of
lights, or regular sex toys from the catalogue and they give you lotion or
shampoo or something.
 
Oh yeah and you
can order costumes.
 
But in a theme room,
they give you extra special costumes and food to match the theme.
 
Ok?
 
So
every room is a different adventure.
 
Do
you understand?
 
Well, once this one room
I went to was like an old western movie.
 
Like cowboys and shooting.
 
Bang
bang,” she pretended she was shooting out the window with her finger guns.
 
“And it was crazy!
 
The walls were painted like a desert.
 
You know orange sky with red sun going down
and, what’s that tree?
 
The one that
hurts?”
“I don’t know.”

“You know, in the desert.
 
Caca tree?
 
Oh, I don’t know, but
they were on the wall.
 
And a few big
wood ones in the room.
 
And there was a
big wood bed and a big plastic cow in the corner.
 
Oh, you won’t believe the cow in the
corner.
 
If you walk around the back,
there was a hole.
 
You know?” she pointed
to her behind, “for there.”

“For what?” Ahmed laughed. “No, I don’t believe you.”

“It’s true.
 
It was
all plastic and soft.
 
I put my hand in.”

“You are nuts.”

“No, not nuts.”
 
She
looked out of the window quietly for a moment. “Adventurous. Anyways, they
served us American food, like beer and hot dogs. And on the wall above the bed
was this, what do you call it, Bambi?
 
Oh
yes, deer.
 
A big deer head with
horns.
 
And big eyes just staring at
you.
 
Really.
 
Anywhere I went in the room, I turned around
and it is still staring at me.
 
And the
costumes were all very western.
 
You
could be a cowboy or, what are they called?
 
With the feathers and oh oh oh,” Chieko held her hand in front of her
face and howled.

“Indians?”

“Yes, that’s it.
  
I
wanted to be an Indian princess.
 
The
costume was so pretty with big feathers.
 
I wanted to wear my hair long and look like Pocahontas.
 
But my man friend wouldn’t let me.”

“Man friend?”

“I don’t know how to say.
 
He wasn’t a boy.
 
He was much
older than me.
 
But he was sort of like a
friend.
 
But I wasn’t in love with
him.
 
So how do I call that?
  

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Ahmed laughed.
 
“I like ‘man-friend’.
 
Can I be your man-friend?”

“No.” Chieko laughed at Ahmed.
 
“Anyways, my man-friend, he wants me to dress
up like a cowboy man with big cowboy boots.
 
But guess what?” she smiled mischievously.

“What?”

“He got dressed up,” Chieko paused, “like a horse.”

“A horse?
 
Why?”

“I don’t know, he liked it.
 
Maybe he was horse in his before life”

“His past life, you mean?”

“Yes, that’s it.
 
And, I had to wear a big cowboy hat and I have whip.
 
A real leather whip,” she added thinking of
the plastic flogger that Mr. Nimbin had stolen.

“A whip?
 
What for?”

“Well, when he was naughty horse, I have to whip him.”
 
She giggled. “He liked it.
 
The whip. I didn’t hit the whip on him, just
the air behind him to make the sound.
 
But if I did hit him with the whip, he didn’t mind, because he had a big
horse suit and a horse tail.”

“Was he very naughty?”
 

“Oh yes.
 
He would
not listen to me and would neigh really loud and sometimes tried to throw me
off his back.
 
Or he wouldn’t take me
where I wanted to go.”

“Wait.
 
What do you
mean, throw you off?”

“He rode me around room.
 
I sat on his back like a real cowboy and whipped him, till he ran
fast.
 
He liked it.
 
So what?
 
I’m not heavy.
 
Anyways, sometimes
he was good.
 
And if he was good, I give
him candy.
 
He liked candy too.”

“You are lying, I don’t believe you.
 
No man wants to dress up like a horse.
 
I thought you were a nice girl.”