FIRST DRAFT: MY NOVEL PREVIEW #1: CARNAL BARGAIN

Titled "That's Show Biz", it centers on the crew at The Candl Club, a cafe/strip club on Manhattan's Lower East Side in the mid-late 1950s.

After a show, stripper Sugar Red goes backstage. She encounters Wheezy Gibson, a comic (and casual lover):

Red cleaned her pancake makeup off properly in the ladies’ room. Then, realizing she might or might not be returning for a while, she walked into her dressing room to gather a few items to bring home. To her dismay, lying on the couch was Wheezy. He smoked a cigar, had a beatific expression, and a huge exposed erection.
Red sighed and put her hands on her hips. “Alright, Wheezy, what is this??”
“Come on, Red, it’s not as if you’ve never seen it before.”
“I’ve seen it, I’ve sucked it, I’ve fucked it. But why is it out at this moment?”
Wheezy got up from the couch and ambled towards Sugar Red, his cock out and bobbing in front of him. “Oh, come on, Red. For the moment, I’m bereft of feminine company. Then I thought of you and this came up.” Wheezy grinned smugly and shrugged. “I figured we might pick up where we left off.”
Sugar Red was insulted. “So you think you can just come back and get it? Pig.”
“Cunt.”
“Out." Red jerked her thumb at the door.
Wheezy looked as self satisfied as ever. “Come on, baby. I’ll make it worth your while…”
Red eyed him resentfully. She opened her mouth to say something, then changed her mind, tilted her head and said something else. “This time you’ll pay through your fat nose, runt.”
“Of course, m’lady. Only the best for my whores.”
Red shut her eyes. “Well, I’ll see you tonight.”
Wheezy stepped forward, vaguely menacing. “Oh, no, babe. Papa wants a little action now to seal the bargain.”
Red looked in his eyes sternly. “Then Papa pay now; that’s the way I bargain.”
Wheezy took on that smug little smile, reached in his wallet, withdrew some cash and waved it in Red’s face. He snatched it away when Red reached for it. “I oughta make you bark”, he said. Red was ready to object, but Wheezy slipped the money into her hand.

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY MILTON KNIGHT