Limit of Sums

By Emma Yates-Fourier

The snow crunched beneath the tires as the cars wove intricate patterns across the parking lot. "How bad is it here when the snow falls?" Ed had only been in Baltimore three months and this was the first appreciable snow fall, even though it was late in the season. "It depends on where you live or are driving to", Steve answered dryly, "but usually it is bad. Stay off the main road and interstates. Side streets might not ever see a plow but are passable as long as the snow doesn't pile up. What route do you take? You live in that Rockrose area don't you?"

Ed stared at the snow and pointed towards Linden Avenue, the road running past the warehouse entrance. "I take that into the city and then turn north on Morrison. I loop around the reservoir and that brings me to the back end of the neighborhood. I avoid the expressway."

Steve shrugged, "It might be slow but traffic will move."

"Another question. Where can I stop off for a drink and a meal between here and my place?"

"That strip shopping center by the belt road has a couple places."

"I was thinking of something a little less a lounge and more of a bar."

Steve smiled and lowered his voice, "I think I know just the place, Benny's. It is right there on Linden. You drive past it every day."

Ed thought. He took the same route every day and never noticed a bar, or at least a respectable bar, along the route. Hookers, dealers, corner groceries and bullet proof liquor stores were all that came to mind.

"You know the church? The big brick one near the top of the hill. Across the street is a long row of houses made from the same type brick. It is at the end of that block. I know the area looks seedy but once inside it could be any fashionable neighborhood. It might be described as blue collar but the owner is strict about no drugs or prostitutes. I play cards there every Monday." He lowered his eyes sheepishly, "That is when I don't have to work."

Ed smiled and shook his head. "When this expansion is completed you will have plenty of time for cards." His voice turned serious, "I do appreciate all the work you have done. We would not have made it this far without your help. I want you to know that."

Steve chuckled, "Yeah. If you stop off, the entrance is on the side street. Try to park there too, it is a bit safer than the main drag."

The heavy clouds made the route appear darker than normal. Ed cruised slower than normal along Linden on the lookout for the previously undetected bar. The church loomed on the left, lofty, dark and mysterious, on the right was the long block of row houses. He saw it. At the very end of the block, an unlit sign with faded lettering. He turned abruptly onto the side street. No parking spaces. At the end of the street he turned around. As he approached the main road a couple emerged from the side door and got in a car at the end of the street. Ed waited. They pulled away. "Prime parking spot" he said to himself. Across the street he noticed a girl on the corner. She wore sweatpants and a raincoat but no hat. The snow turned her hair into straggling strands. In her hand she held a plastic soda bottle.

Ed stared through the darkness. He occasionally liked to sample the wares they peddled but he had standards. If he had to pay, she had to be a bit older, not a strung out teenager, moderately attractive, be able to carry on a minimum conversation, and not hooked on hard drugs. He studied the girl; most likely she would not pass.

The entrance was a glass vestibule on the side of the building. As he entered the heat turned the coating of snow instantly to water. He shook the excess from his hair and entered. He stood opposite the bar which ran from the front of the building on his right about three-quarters the length of the building. At the end there was an open area with tables. Against the outside wall was a short cantilever counter and a scattering of occupied stools. The only unoccupied bar stools were at the far end of the bar towards the right, he took one.

He studied the clientele. Steve was correct, a blue collar, but seemingly friendly crowd. Behind the bar was a lone barmaid hustling to keep up with the demand for drinks. She stepped to the computer to input an order and stared in Ed's direction and held up a finger to indicate she knew he was there. She then turned away from the computer and flipped a coaster on the counter. "Do you want a menu?" Ed nodded. She pivoted, pulled a laminated menu from behind the liquor bottles and placed it in from of him. "Something to drink?"

The patrons clamored for service, raising their hands and holding aloft empty bottles or glasses. However, for these few moments, she was unconcerned and concentrated just on Ed. "A brandy would taste good tonight." She nodded, "Top shelf I presume." Ed nodded in reply. She placed the snifter in front of him, "I'll take your order in a minutes." And returned to the chaos along the bar.

He studied her. She wore a black polo shirt with 'Benny's' embroidered across the left breast and white shorts. The Benny uniform he surmised. She was average height, about 5' 6", jet black hair pulled back starkly into a pony tail, nose a bit too large and pointed, dark complexion, Mediterranean, Greek he would guess, and busty. It was difficult to ignore her breast tightly confined by the polo shirt. Ed's thoughts drifted. Imagine falling asleep on those!

She returned to take his order. Ed paused. He wanted to test her patience as the patrons forcibly requested service. Before he could order she spoke. "We are out of chili dogs. They are big sellers on snow days." She bent over the menu and ran a finger down the column. "Chicken tenders. Out of them. Crab cakes too."

"How is the chicken pot pie?"

"Good choice. Is that what you want? Good." She was gone.

Ed noticed a man standing in the corner of the bar fiddling with a cell phone. He put it in his pocket and walked over. "Your new here." It was a statement not a question.

"New to the city and new to this establishment."

The man chuckled. "We don't get many casual walk in customers, usually just regulars." His eyes scanned the bar.

Ed sensed a bit of unease. "A friend recommend this place to me. He said it would be a nice place to stop on the way from work. He said he plays cards here." That caught the man's attention. "His name is Steve Osborn."

His demeanor changed. "You work at that warehouse out the road. I hear they are expanding it a lot."

"We prefer to call it a distribution center but warehouse is good enough. I was hired to oversee the expansion. The first phase will be complete in a couple months. The entire project will take about two years."

The man extended his hand across the bar, "I'm Mickey, the owner. I've known Steve for some time, a good man. Glad to have you as a customer. Are you a card player?"

"I'm afraid not. Sorry."

"No problem." The barmaid returned with the potpie. "Toni, his next drink is on me. He is a friend of Steve's." He walked down the length of the bar and turned into the kitchen.

"What will it be, your next drink. I'm Toni and you?"

"Ed. Only been in town a few months."

"I hope you become a regular." She was off to service the far end of the bar.

Ed stayed longer than the expected. The crowd thinned but the snow continued. He called for his check. "When you get a chance." She added as she placed the itemized slip before him. Ed looked at the total, took out a money clip and peeled off a few bill, looked at the check and added another and pushed it towards the edge of the bar and rose to leave.

"Change?" Toni asked.

Ed shook his head, pulled on his coat and left.

Mickey walked over and stood next to Toni. "What do you think?" Toni shrugged. "Like he said, he is new in town. I don't think he is an agent."

Mickey shook his head. "I'm not so sure. If he comes back and makes a lot of small talk don't say anything."

"I have never done that. My lips are sealed."

Mickey smiled. "Except when the are not. By the way, stop in my office before you check out." Toni smiled and nodded.

Toni posed an intriguing problem for Ed. She was attractive, sociable and in a flirtatious way, friendly. He sensed an opportunity to take it to another level, perhaps not a relationship but at least sex. However, it also tested one of his tenets regarding fraternization, never mix business with pleasure. In the workplace that is a strict taboo he avoided. A bar venue may be construed differently, but Toni was definitely on the business side and Ed was the non-business side of the bar. He did not want to risk alienating the management. When he is more accustomed to the city and has more options, he would take the chance with her. For the time being he will play the friendly, flirty if slightly risqué patron who tips generously.

The drive home became a bit more interesting for Ed. Besides the occasional stop at Benny's, he now surveyed the streetwalkers for someone that would meet his criteria. There was no shortage of prospects. Every block had two or three, some just strolling, others feigning to chat on a cell phone, and a few just sitting on a stoop trying to make eye contact with a perspective client. Ed enjoyed the window-shopping, but the dark winter evenings made a proper evaluation difficult. He did not accept an offer without due diligence, rather, he took inventory with description and locations to investigate later.

Winter gradually loosened its grip on the city. The clocks changed and the daylight longer, which made Ed's assessment of the women on the street in the available light, easier. He checked his list as he drove. Most of the women he documented he never saw again, moved on to better markets, married, arrested or died no doubt. The ones he did recall fell far short of his criteria.

A brief, successful business, status meeting coupled with an unseasonal warm day tempted Ed to skip out early. Too early to stop off and see Toni. The traffic was light, so he decided to cruise the neighborhood and window shop. He surmised that most of the hookers didn't solicit until rush hour started. They understood their market that well. A few girls, eyes vacant and strung out from drugs sat, listlessly on the stoops of abandoned houses.

A woman caught Ed's eye as he waited at a light. She stepped from the entrance of a corner store holding a plastic grocery bag, tapped a cigarette from a fresh pack and lit it with a disposable lighter. She took a long drag and slowly exhaled, scanning the street as she did.

She wore a fresh white shirt, white Bermuda shorts and white sneakers. Strawberry blond hair pulled in to a ponytail accentuated her very pale skin. Ed guessed her age, late thirty's or early forty's, bit over the hill for a streetwalker. Ed pondered a move as she stepped from the entrance and turned down the side street.

The light changed. He slowly accelerated to the next intersection, turned on the side street and right again. He stopped at the corner and glanced to the right and noticed the woman walking slowly in his direction. He hesitated. She stopped three houses from the corner, finished her cigarette and adeptly flicked the butt into the street before climbing the steps and entering the house.

Ed urged the car slowly around the corner looking to his right. As he passed the house the woman was standing behind the glass storm door. Ed made eye contact and stopped. The woman opened the door and approached the car. He lowered the window and she leaned in.

"Hi." She rested her forearms on the door and gave a faint smile.

Ed used his standard line, "Would you like to go for a ride?"

The woman glances left then right. "Why don't you come inside? It is safer."

Ed was not inclined to enter a stranger's house in an unfamiliar city with an unknown woman. He studied her features. She was not as youthful as he observed, faint lines around her eyes, slight wrinkles on her forehead and creases at the corners of her mouth when she smiled. She still appealed to Ed. He nodded.

The house was a narrow, workingman's row house, one of the thousands build in the early 20th century when the city was an industrial powerhouse. Most now serve as low income houses. The woman held the door and Ed entered. She looked back to the street, locked the storm and closed the main door giving it a push with her bottom to make it catch. He found himself in a narrow vestibule leading to a kitchen at the back. To his left was a small parlor with old overstuffed furniture.

"What do you need?" She asked without presumption.

Something seemed out of kilter but Ed couldn't put his finger on it. He nervously cleared his throat and asked casually, "Well, I was interested in a blowjob."

The woman smirked which morphed into a smile spreading across her face. "OK. I can do that. I'm Ann and you are?"

"Ed. I'm Ed."

Ann nodded and led Ed to a chair in the corner by the front window and pushed him into sitting down. She loosened his belt and unzipped his fly. Abruptly she rose, went to the kitchen and returned with a handful of paper towels that she set on the floor by Ed's feet. She knelt before him, gaze over his knees and reached to extract his cock from his boxer shorts. "Uncut! I like that." She smiled as she held the semi-limp organ in her open hand and gently teased the sensitive underside. The organ twitched and the smooth head emerged from the soft foreskin.

"How is that?" Ann asked with a wry grin.

"You're doing great."

Ann continued massaging the organ until it attained full hardness. A touch, a squeeze a gentle stroke and a drop of precum emerged from the tiny slit. Ann cleared it with a flick of her tongue, lowered her mouth over the baldhead and with a free hand stroked the erect shaft.

"No. No." Ed pleaded, "Just use your mouth."

Ann placed a hand on each of his thighs rose up on her knees and took the full length in her mouth and hesitated. Slowly she raised her head, keeping her lips locked firmly on the shaft and applying pressure with her tongue. Ed sighed. With rhythmic precision she bobbed up and down, relaxing the suction as she descended and increasing it as she pulled up.

Ed moaned, "Don't stop. Don't stop. Faster."

Ann picked up the pace trying feverishly induce an orgasm. Ed began to pump his hips in time with Ann's mouth action. Anxiously, Ed placed his hands on the back of Ann's head and pressed while at the same time pumping his hips violently into her face. Ann increased the tempo and pressure as he held her head and she was forced to accept the violent thrusts. With a gasp, Ed came and as a large dollop of come spewed into her orifice and he released his grip.

Ann lifted her head panting and sweating. That was a good blowjob and she knew it.

She collected herself and reached for the paper towels and cleaned the body fluids: precum, semen and spit from his shorts. "Can't leave any telltale stains for the missus to notice can we?"

Ed nodded appreciatively.

Ann showed him the door, looking furtively in both directions as she did. Ed went to his car, looked back and noticed Ann standing behind the storm door as the first time he saw her. He hesitated, trying to think of some appropriate words to say. When he looked up the door was closed. He drove slowly down the street not noticing the tall woman in a light windbreaker looking intensely at him. A he passed her she took a small note pad from her pocket and scribbles a few words. Ed turned onto Linden Avenue. The woman continued down the block to the house Ed just left, ascended the steps and entered.

"A new customer I suppose", the woman asked Ann with a tinge of anger in her voice.

"Just a friend. Nothing more."

The woman turned and ascended the stairs.

Ed favored prostitutes. There was no need to be overly polite and no topic was off the table. Everything was negotiable. In that regard Ann was more appealing. On the other hand Toni was more attractive and most likely more sociably acceptable. However, pursuing Toni may violate Ed's self-imposed restriction of business and pleasure. For the time being, he would continue being the frivolous flirt with Toni and avail himself of Ann whenever possible. Perhaps if the social situation changes he would reconsider but for now this seemed like a fair compromise.

The work project continued more or less on schedule. Phase One was implemented, more or less on time but below budget. Ed's workload decreased slightly. He continued seeing Toni at the bar a couple days a week while expanding his pursuit of Ann. During the commute to and from the office, he explored the side streets near Ann's house. The neighborhood varied greatly with no obvious planning. Some houses were neatly maintained while others in the same block stood abandoned or dilapidated. Ann's block was one of the neat blocks, no vacant houses and no trash littering the gutter.

He cruised passed Ann's door each day but the door was always closed. He contemplated walking up and knocking on the door and asking for her. Caution won out in the end. He did not know much about her and would be at a loss if a husband or boyfriend answered the knock.

This day he felt unusually curious and circled the block a second time without any purpose. The door was opened. He pulled the car to the curb and waited. After a short pause, he gathered himself and walked to the door. As he approached the storm door, a woman pushed it open, glowered at Ed, and continued down the street. As she walked away, she turned to check out the license on Ed's car, gave a final glance back and was gone.

Ed felt an air of familiarity as she walked away but he turned back to the door where Ann opened the door and beckoned Ed inside. Before he could speak Ann added, "It is my daughter. Nothing to worry about she just thinks we are dealing." Ed nodded as Ann took his hand and led him passed the parlor to the kitchen and opened a door leading to a narrow staircase to the basement. Ed entered and Ann slammed the door and secured it with a hasp and lock

The front room of the basement had an old fold out sofa bed and a single end table. Opposite the sofa was an old TV mounted on a wooden crate. The door to the back of the basement was secured by the same type hasp and lock as the door leading down the steps.

Ed felt uneasy as Ann bid him to sit on the sofa. Locks like those on internal doors signal something irregular. Maybe it is something as benign such as letting a room on a weekly or monthly basis, in violation of a zoning law or something more nefarious such as concealing criminal activity.

Ann sensed Ed's discomfort. "Lara sometimes returns claiming she forgot something. Don't worry nobody will sneak in on us."

Ed sat on the sofa and Ann knelt before him and began to repeat the ritual of a week earlier. Before she could work her magic, Ed motioned her to stand and reached out touching the hem of her T-shirt and gestured it upward. Ann complied and smoothly slipped it over her head and let it drop to the floor. Without prompting, she then unhooked her bra and cupped a breast in each hand and presenting them to Ed.

"Do you like them? Not as big as a lot of girls but they work for me."

Ed examined them from a distance. The nipples were very pronounced and, even when not aroused, protruded from the areole like gumdrops. "Suitable for sucking." He noted as he reached out and tweaked them between his thumb and forefinger. "Yes, suitable for sucking."

He tugged at the front of her shorts. Ann kicked her flats off and slid her shorts to the floor and stepped from them. She hesitated a moment and then removed her panties revealing a neatly trimmed slice of ginger colored pubic hair pie. Ed smiled.

"Do you like it?" Ann shook her hair free and rubbed a hand through her pubic bush. "The drapes match the carpet. I'm all natural." She raised her hands over her head and did an amateurish pirouette. Half way through, Ed reached out and halted her. Adorning the left side of her ass was the tattoo if a green four-leaf clover with a gold border.