Comforts

Emmett Berry had something to tell me when I saw him in town yesterday. Something bad, I figured, from the way he shuffled around and talked himself into a knot. Emmett ain’t the kind to be mealy-mouthed and that worried me, till he said he’d seen Housty in the company of a handsome stranger. ‘I’m sorry you had to hear it from me,’ he said.

Well, I thanked him and that was that. He thought I’d get mad, but I just shrugged it off. What Housty gets up to is no business of mine. I’ve got no claim on her and she’s got no claim on me, and that suits me fine, ‘cause that’s leaves me free to live a life of whiskey and sin. Truth is the only thing on my mind was the humping I was gonna give Cordelia; that’s why I was in town in the first place.

‘Hello Sweet Lips,’ said Cordelia, when she caught me mooching around in the lobby at The Parlor. ‘What brings you here?’ 

‘You’

Hands on hips, she sidled up close. ‘Something I can do for you?’ 

‘Plenty,’ I said, as I eyed her fulsome bosom.

‘What about the little lady… I thought she took care of your needs these days?’ She laughed when she saw me wince. ‘So, the little wild cat’s run out on you, huh?’

I swear that woman reads a man easier than a sign in a store window.

‘So what’s the matter… that heart of yours aching?’

‘It ain’t my heart so much. The ache I’ve got is a little further south.

‘Oh, I should have known. Hungry are you?’

‘Nope, but you’re getting a whole lot warmer.’

Cordelia smiled. ‘Gonna do what you did last time?’

‘Maybe, if you’re a good girl.’

‘Ain’t I always?’ 

Cordelia let out a yell when I scooped her up and carried her upstairs, and whispered something dirty in her ear.

‘Valance, if that’s what you want; I’m the girl to do it, free of charge and all night long. Just give me all you’ve got Honey, and I’ll do the same, with fried eggs in the morning.’

Hell, what a woman. Gave me her garter too.