‘Come in then, cocker.’ Her voice was jovial. ‘Would you like a cuppa or a drink?’ George walked into the room. He watched the woman’s scrawny buttocks disappear behind a curtain and looked around him, heartsore. The room was filthy, the large double bed taking up most of the space. It had black sheets on it, and George was not sure if that was their original colour or just the result of years of use. The cord carpet on the floor was covered in cigarette burns. Around the iron fireplace there were hundreds of them. Obviously the men who had used this room over the years had tried to flick their cigarettes into the hearth from the bed, and the majority had missed. One large overstuffed chair stood under the window covered in items of apparel: stockings, suspenders and other types of underwear.

Tippy came back with two relatively clean glasses full of vodka and tonic. George took his for want of something else to do. Tippy placed hers on the old bureau. Picking up the underwear from the chair, she dumped it on the floor.

‘You have a sit down, luv, and I’ll go and get myself ready. Sorry about the mess but you caught me on the hop like. I’ll only be ten minutes. She disappeared through a door that George had not noticed before and called over her shoulder, ‘Take your coat off and get comfy.’

He stood with the drink in his hand, deciding whether or not to make a run for it. Elaine’s houseproud ways got on his nerves but he would rather them than this dirty cat’s way of living. He walked to the chair and looked through the grubby net curtain. The street below was busy. George watched the people rushing about their business and just for a second he wondered what he was doing here. It was a disappointment. George did not class his pastimes as dirty in any sense. He had never thought that prostitutes and squalor went hand in hand. He had always imagined them as they were depicted in the media - beautiful young girls who loved their job and lived like queens. Reality was different and George did not like reality.

He had just turned from the window, intent on leaving, when the woman walked back into the room. She looked completely different! She saw George’s mouth drop open and smiled. She had her hair in two pigtails. Her eyes were made up with heavy black eyeliner, her mouth was a deep red rosebud. She had discarded the dirty wrapper she had been wearing and had on long silky black stockings and suspenders, a black peephole bra and crutchless panties. An overpowering smell of Freesia perfume hung around her like a cloud. She grinned at George.