Always Turns Up Ch. 04

So I didn't get my personal revenge, but providence did it for me. Although I often think it was probably a fairly painless and even blissful death and she deserved so much more suffering. But that was a long time ago, so I am a little less bitter now."

Penny shrugged again, and gave me an apologetic look. Hatred didn't come easy to her, and I had heard the dark passion in her voice as she talked of Tilly's fate. I knew she felt guilty in all sorts of ways.

"I think you are right." I said. "I know I am biased too, but she deserved worse. But I am glad you didn't have to do worse. I think you did okay on that one, but I have to say I am surprised about you getting into the porn business. Not at all your kind of thing, I would have said..."

She straightened her back and thrust her chin out, in full defensive mode, and I regretted having said it immediately, but she said "I won't make any bones about it, there are some real bastards in the business. Exploiters and abusers. But Charlie was different. He knew that my agency was different. I only took on girls who came to me and were fully aware of what they were doing. I turned away a lot of young girls in trouble. In fact I helped them if I could, but I wouldn't let them do it for the easy money. I actually started a couple of other businesses, a cleaning service and a delivery service, and gave them jobs if I could. And I worked with some charities. So the girls who did the glamour work, and then the soft porn, knew what they were getting into. All agreed before the shoot. The girls who went to America to do the other work all had to convince me they knew the consequences. I talked a few out of it. But the others had iron clad contracts, and I made sure they were respected.

Charlie liked that. He had been in the business since the 60's, and had lived through what they call the Golden Age. He still had those ideas, wanting higher production values, and looking after the stars. Making romantic and erotic films. He hated the extreme stuff, and the raw crudity of what was being thrown out by the video camera age. Absolutely no ass slapping and calling girls names. So I started to only deal with him, and then... He was charming and funny and didn't judge me. And he asked me to dinner, and... We took a two month holiday, nothing to do with business, travelling around Europe, because he had never been. And then he told me he was dying, and he wanted to marry me. Which is not exactly romantic, and maybe a little manipulative, but he didn't mean it that way. He told me what he wanted to do with his money, and that I was the only person he knew that he felt he could trust. So it was business first. But not strictly business. I was very fond of him. So I moved to L.A. for the duration, took over his business and liquidated it all, and saw to the trust fund. So you see when I got fully into the business it was only to get out of it."

I said "I am sorry. I didn't mean to criticise you. It would be highly hypocritical of me, given my forays into erotic literature and, lets be honest, I have watched a lot of porn over the years. Between my hyper sexual manic phases and my terrible sex life with Ruth, porn has been rather more important to me than I would like, and as consumer I can hardly criticise the makers. I just meant that, back when we were young, even though you enjoyed a healthy sex life, or admittedly not so healthy one, you never watched porn, or wanted to. Not your thing. And given your experiences of abuse, I was a bit surprised that you would get into the industry as it is notorious for abuse. But what you said makes sense."

She gave me a long look and eventually said "Thank you. I jumped to conclusions. Sorry. I am used to being looked down on when people find out what I do. Or did. I don't have the agency now; the industry here has changed immensely. They shoot much more explicit films here now of course, and the whole revenue model has changed. Studios now recruit models directly, and there are so many girls from the eastern European states... It has disrupted things completely. But being in the field lead onto other business opportunities, when I got back from L.A., so I was busy for a while. But I have streamlined my portfolio, as they say, and the businesses I still have are all managed, all ticking over. So I don't have so much to do. It almost seems wrong to not have to worry about money. Or anything else."

"So you have done well then. And we are nearly all caught up, apart from the whirlwind marriage and divorce you mentioned. Would you like a nightcap? I was thinking of a hot chocolate."

Penny laughed again. Her rich and flirty laugh, that dropped a half octave and she almost purred "Oh my dear Sean, there is a lot more to tell. But yes, I could do with something to soothe the throat. How about we move to the bar? They have some Lempika paintings. You always liked Art Deco didn't you?"