Lady is sitting on her giant, filthy, rocking chair in her office. The chair looks deteriorated and a bit damaged. There is a giant, red stain on the carpet, near the rocking chair. The red stain looks quite old. Lady looks quite older too. Her skin looks rotten. She is smoking cigarettes and at the same time drinking directly from the bottle. She looks pretty much disturbed and torn apart. Her eyes are red, which gives her a more devilish look. She is talking to herself, yelling once in a while.
Someone knocks on the door. The door is ajar.
“Go away,” Lady shouts. “This is just the office. You talk to the girl directly, pay her directly too.” She goes back to talking to herself. “That is the rule in Lady’s House. Always pay for the fuck, and always pay it upfront.”
The door slowly opens. A bouquet of flowers appears. The door is now completely open, and Lady sees the one who is holding the bouquet: a bearded man, with long, black hair, and shameful eyes. He is looking down.
“What the fuck?!” Lady yells.
The man looks up. He looks familiar, Lady thinks. She gets focused on his blue eyes. She recognizes him finally. “Oh, good, a free-rider is here. Did you learn your lesson? Are you ready to pay now, or you are hoping to steal more from Lady’s House with that cheap flower bouquet and that shy persona that you are impersonating. You can fool them, but you can’t fool Lady. I didn’t waste my four years at Harvard. I have learned all about you scums, and all your little—”
“— Starlet, is she still here?” Dick interrupts the Lady’s rambling.
Lady doesn’t respond. She is thinking and thinking. Dick wonders why she is taking so long to answer such a simple question. She takes another sip from the bottle and answers finally as she is nodding her head.
“Yep, yep, yep. We do have a dummy in our house. You might speak more fluently now, but you are the same idiot you were four years ago. What were you thinking? That she would hang around for you, wasting the best years of her career, just because a pretty-face kissed her? No. No, idiot. No. She moved on, she moved on very quickly. She took the job with that Dick-ing-son fella, the next week, right after she turned 18.”
Dick looks crushed, and this satisfies Lady. The sad look on Dick’s face encourages Lady to tell more and more.
“And she fucked for them on camera over 17 times. Because apparently Scorsese wasn’t quite satisfied watching the first few shots. I think Scorsese himself might have fucked her between the shots to explain exactly how he wants it. That Dick-fucking-son surely did. He fucked her for a while afterward, promising a big role, a bright future, a celebrated life, becoming a movie star. But I knew he was just a free-rider.”
The more Lady talks, the more Dick looks crushed. And the more hammered he looks, the more encouraged she gets to tell more.
“After she got fucked for free for a few months, she learned her lessons, the hard way. Hollywood flushed her out, but, lucky for her, Lady was here with open arms, putting her pieces back together, and giving her a fine opportunity, a career. Lady’s House might not be as big as Hollywood, but being a star here offers steady pay at least.”
Dick looks deeply crushed. The last smidgen of hope he was holding on to, is now entirely gone, and all that is left is a smashed heart. He is not crying, but the tears are pouring down his face. Lady appears to enjoy the tears, and it makes her feel victorious.
“So…,” Dick says with a hoarse voice. He takes a second to swallow his spit. “She ended up working here?”
“Working!” Lady exclaims. “She is a star now. Men line up every night in front of Lady’s House, just to wait for their turn with her. She has fucked almost every man in this city, except you, of course, unless you have learned your lesson and willing to pay now? I can even arrange a threesome with Tatiana if you are willing to loosen the purse strings a bit more. Huh? What do you say, pretty-face?”
Dick says nothing. The bouquet falls from his hands. He notices that and takes a long look down at the flowers on the floor. As his look is down, he slowly turns away and leaves. He feels faint and is about to lose his balance. He holds a grip on the door frame to maintain his balance. He slowly exits the room, leaving the door open. Lady, looking quite satisfied, goes back to her routine of smoking and drinking together.
Dick is at the beach. The sun is about to disappear, and the city lights find another chance to show off. He is walking towards the water with fragile steps. He is near the water when he falls to his knees. He pauses in this state for quite a bit. He is taking labored breaths. He turns his face back and takes a look at the city’s skyscrapers that are victoriously standing up behind him. That reassures him and gives him the strength to get up to his feet. He continues by stepping into the water. The blue sea is reflecting on his blue eyes.