Human Conditioning (24 page)

“What kind of proposition?” she
asked nonchalantly as she pulled her t-shirt over her head, leaving her stark
naked. She didn’t need to look at Aiden to know he was taking her in. She could
feel the intensity of his stare as she opened the top drawer of the chest of
drawers to locate her underwear. She added determinedly, “Whatever it is, it
can wait until tomorrow. I need to get out. I’ve got some money and I intend to
spend it.”

“I thought you’d packed in
your job?” Aiden asked, somewhat distractedly.

Gina finally pulled on a pair
of knickers, subsequently taking out a matching bra from the drawer, and she
put that on too. She replied, “I’ve been babysitting Barbara’s little one on
the floor above. He’s only six and he’s already got a mouth like a sewer.”

“How much d’you get?”

“Forty quid for five
nights...”

She turned to Aiden and raised
an eyebrow when his eyes lowered to the dark patch beneath the lace of her
knickers. He attempted to disguise a gulp and averted his eyes to meet hers. He
added, “I can promise you double that for
one
night, if you’re up for
it?”

He finally had Gina’s full attention.
The promise of money didn’t come often in their world, so it was wise to grab
what you could get when it was offered to you. “How?” she asked, intrigue
written all over her pretty, though tired looking and slightly thinner, face.

“A film...”

Her eyes narrowed. “What
kind
of film?”

“Nothing too risky. Just a bit
of tit and that...”

Gina stared at him in
disbelief. “Aiden, are you seriously asking me to do a porno?”

“It ain’t a porno. Stop being
so fucking dramatic...” He lit a cigarette.

“Sounds like it to me!” she
retorted, then strutting over to him, she wrapped her arms around his waist. “Now,
if you fancied making a video of
us
, then that can be arranged...”

He pulled her arms from around
him and stepped back. “I’m serious, G. This could be a big earner for us. I’ve
been working hard, been in talks with a bloke who’s able to distribute across
the whole of the East End. That’s what I’ve been doing over the past few weeks.
I’m thinking, if it takes off we can think about getting out of this shithole
and start up somewhere else... together, like.”

Gina continued to stare at
him. For a moment, Aiden thought he might not get his own way on this one, but her
expression eventually became animated. “Do you mean that, Aiden?”

“Will you do it?”

“You want us to move in
together, for real?”

“
Will you do it
?”

She swung her arms around his
neck and planted a long kiss on his lips. Aiden responded, slipping in his
tongue, as always. When she finally pulled away, he asked once more, “Will you
do it?”

Gina nodded. “Alright, but you
have
to be there and you
have
to make sure it ain’t too sordid. I
want to look glamorous, like Chasey Lain!” She ran her hands through her thick,
dark hair and ruffled it up between her fingers, posing in front of him as if
he had a camera.

“Yeah, whatever you want,
babe...” he laughed.

Aiden left five minutes later.
He had told Gina to meet him at Ashley Connor’s flat in one hour.

************

Ashley Connor’s living room was no Hollywood film set,
but that was of no consequence when you considered the people who would
eventually buy the film he was about to make. Ashley was a middle-aged, short,
stocky East Ender with a short neck and no hair. He hated poofs, he fucked
prostitutes, and he drank too much. He didn’t touch drugs, though, and Aiden
had already been informed of his strict no-drugs policy. Naturally, ever the
one for challenging the rules, Aiden had taken a couple of grams of bass before
his arrival.

“What type of dirty are we
talking here, Aiden? I mean, there’s dirty, then there’s
dirty
, know
what I mean?”

Ashley had been making budget sex videos for the past
four years. His cousin owned a couple of sex shops and his supply was always
welcome, at the right price. Ashley had made over a hundred and fifty films,
using mostly local girls he knew who fancied earning a few quid on a Friday
night, and business had ticked over alright the past few years.

“Whatever you think is gonna
sell, Ash. You’re the expert,” Aiden replied, preoccupied with taking in the
set-up of Ashley’s home-built studio.

Aiden was feeling the buzz of
his consumption now, and was tinkering about in the spot-lit room, checking out
the apparatus that Ashley had positioned in various areas around the room to
form some resemblance of a set. In the centre was a couch with a red velvet
throw slung over it, and on the floor, a patterned rug. There were three spot
lights hanging from the ceiling, positioned towards the middle of the room and
on either side were two video cameras resting on tripods. Aiden was impressed
and it showed.

Ashley slumped down onto the
couch and lit a cigarette. He replied, “Well there’s the usual... masturbation,
doggy-style, buggery, blowjobs and what-not, then you got lesbianism, of course,
and dildos, threesomes... then to add to that you got other sex toys and objects
such as fruit and veg...”

Aiden turned to face him, his
nose crinkled in disgust. “Fruit and veg?” 

“You know, girls fucking
cucumbers and marrows and that...?”

Aiden smirked. “Go on,” he
said, turning back to peer through the lens of the video camera. 

“Then there’s the harder stuff...”
Ashley added, taking a long drag of his cigarette.

Closing one eye to hold focus
through the lens, Aiden replied, “Oh yeah? Harder than sticking a marrow up
your gash?”

“We in the business call the
people that buy it the
specials
. This is proper back-room shit – the
kinda stuff you’d get locked up for if the Old Bill was ever to catch up with
you... but you get the right girl on the job and you could earn a fortune...”
Aiden’s interest was immediately piqued, and leaving the video camera, he eagerly
pressed for more information. Ashley eagerly obliged. “There’s a range of
different stuff. It can go from light to heavy: rape, gang-rape, forced use of
objects... It can get proper nasty: a good battering and a golden shower ain’t
anything I haven’t seen before... there’s some other shit too, but I ain’t
getting into that kind of mischief...”

“Like what?” Aiden’s eyes
sparkled with intrigue.

“Ah, Jesus, there are some
sick cunts about, Aiden. You don’t even realise. Men who get off on kiddie porn
and that, but that’s not me. I’ll do all the rest, but with adults. I ain’t no paedo...”

Aiden frowned, disgusted once
more. “Nah, fuck that! Leave it to the nonces, eh?” He jested, but he couldn’t
deny that this was somewhat of a learning curve. He just hoped Gina would be up
for at least the lighter stuff tonight.

Backtracking, Aiden asked with
a cunning glint in his piercing blue eyes, “So... how do you get a bird to
agree to all that hard stuff?”

Ashley smirked and stubbed his
cigarette out in the ashtray his mum had brought back from Cyprus for him. It
was grey stone with a map on it. He knew it was as ugly as shit, but he loved
his ma and would never want to offend her. He looked into Aiden’s handsome
face. The eagerness in the lad’s eyes couldn’t be disputed. The kid was game.
He had big ideas whirling around in his drug-crazed mind. He could potentially
work with this kid, if he impressed tonight and laid off the drugs a bit.
Ashley sat up.

“Look, most of the time they
don’t
agree, Aiden. That’s the beauty of it, mate. That’s what turns on these
fucking head cases who buy this shit. They like to see the fear in a girl’s
eyes, a struggle. A girl being up for it just don’t float their boat. That’s
why the harder stuff is sold round the back of the shop... that’s why it’s so
fucking lucrative. These
special
people will pay big money to get their
sordid kicks.”

Aiden nodded, deep in thought.
He liked the word ‘lucrative’. He’d learned what it meant from Kamal and it was
his new word, a word that made him sound like he knew what he was talking
about. You say ‘lucrative’ to a man in business and they beam with enthusiasm,
like he was doing now.

Ashley went on. “So, your
girl’s a looker, then, yeah? ’Cos if she’s some munter, Aiden, we ain’t gonna
make much from the film... it might not even make the shelf. If I’m putting
time into doing this for you as a favour to your uncle, the poor bastard, I
want a good return, understand?”

“I’m telling you, she’s
alright... what about the male lead? Shouldn’t he be here by now?”

“I thought we’d do lesbians
tonight. Shelly’ll be here at eleven.”

Before Aiden could press for
more information, there was a light knock on the door. “That’ll be Gina,” he
announced apprehensively. 

Ashley jumped up to open the
door. As he disappeared from the room, Aiden thought about what had been
revealed to him so far tonight. He already knew that sex videos could result in
a reasonable earn, but from what Ashley was saying, you could earn
big
without the added cost of professional equipment, proper studios and well-known
actors. The potential made him nervous. He’d not done anything like this before
and now he had dragged Gina into it with no real knowledge of what was expected
of her to make this all worthwhile. 

When Ashley came back into the
room, he was beaming. “She’s fucking
hot
,” he whispered
enthusiastically, thumbs up and all.  

Gina came into the room, all
big hair, make-up and legs, dressed in a denim mini-skirt, a tight white
t-shirt and black, leather-look ankle boots. Ashley’s excitement surprised
Aiden. Of course Gina was a looker, but he’d not really taken in how beautiful
she actually was. In fact, she was perfectly formed from her silky dark hair to
her impeccable arse and long, slim legs. Aiden stared at her for a few seconds,
considering all this. 

Yet for all her beauty, he
couldn’t see her as anything but someone he fucked as and when he felt like it,
because in reality, though she might be an eleven to Ashley – who didn’t have
much going for him in the looks or body department – to a specimen like him she
was a generous eight. But this was Aiden all over. He knew how good-looking he
was, so he always kept his options open. Furthermore, he found himself
thinking, Gina Watson would never match Lily Summers in the looks or
personality department. No one had ever bent his head like Lily. She had taken
his heart with her when they had parted, and it had never returned...

He shook his head. These drugs
were turning him all fucking sentimental!

By the time the introductions
had been made and Ashley had got everyone a drink, Aiden had forgotten his earlier
nervous flutters. Now he was full of determination. Gina could make him a mint
in the near future, and tonight was about impressing the man who could make it
all happen.

Shelly Matthews arrived just
after 11pm. She bustled into the room, all loud chatter and laugher, dressed in
a cheap fur coat, a tight leopard-print mini-dress, and black, knee-high patent
leather boots. She wasn’t as much in the looks department as Gina, but she had
a cracking body and an electric confidence about her, Aiden thought, as she
pulled off her coat and slung it over the couch.

Shelly was of African descent.
Her hair, dyed a deep red, was alive like hundreds of springs bouncing off her
scalp, and her long legs would give Naomi Campbell a run for her money. Ashley explained
that she was an old friend of his, as in she had worked for him several times
before. He had got in a pro to show the new girl a thing or two.

“Shelly will show you the
ropes, Gina. Let
her
guide
you
,” Ashley announced once Shelly had
settled herself down with a drink and a cigarette in hand.

Gina looked petrified all of a
sudden. “It’s just me and her?” she quivered.

Aiden’s eyes narrowed and,
before she talked her way out of a job, he quickly intervened, “G, can I have a
word?” Pulling her up from the couch, he took her into the front room. As they
left, Shelly rolled her eyes.

Aiden closed the door of the
front room behind them and pushed Gina away. “You do whatever he says, alright?
I’ve got a lot of money riding on you, G,” he sneered with a surprising amount
of frustration.

“A lesbian act?” Gina spat in
a cold whisper. “I didn’t agree to no lesbians!” Aiden grabbed her arm again,
using all his strength, and it hurt. “Get off me!”

He didn’t let go; this wasn’t
a game. Pulling her towards him, he pressed his nose on hers. “You’ll do this, G,
or you’ll be answering to
me
!
Don’t
make me look like an idiot,
you got it?”

Gina was furious. What an
overreaction! She struggled to break free from his grip, but it was of no use. He
was far too strong for her. “What the hell has got into you?” she seethed, and
when he refused to unhand her, she kicked out, landing a hard stiletto-heeled
blow to his shin.

Aiden jumped back in pain,
simultaneously releasing her. For a moment, he was so shocked by her retaliation
that, in his drug-crazed mind, he didn’t quite know what to do. He felt his
face begin to flush, and all of a sudden, as if someone had thrown a bucket of
cold water over him, he saw the situation with complete clarity. He was on the cusp
of something big, something that would broaden his small empire, and he wasn’t
about to let this bitch ruin that for him. He would never live it down if she
bailed on him now. He was acutely aware that he
needed
Gina on this one,
and this wound him up all the more. Aiden Foster refused to rely on
anyone
.
It had been easy to learn that lesson growing up with a father who didn’t give
a flying fuck about his family and a mother who kissed the ground the fucker
walked on.