“Everyone’s a goddamn pervert.” Dee traced her nail along her palm, following the lifeline up to the base of her index finger. “We repress that. We deny it, turn it into porn, the door locked, like it isn’t what we dream. But we all have these tiny demons. They’re our essential thing.” “What about her?” Val nodded toward a woman at the far side of the tavern, her hair pulled back, posture straight.

“Two masseurs, lots of oil.”

“And him?”

Dee considered the man leaving, his pink striped sleeve rolled up one arm. “Squeaky toys.”

“You’re projecting.”

Dee wiped her hand through the drink rings, pushing the thick puddles into small lines, making a long claw-like streak. “The thing about men is that they love to stare at their hard cocks, like a rare and marvelous wild thing.” 
“They’re like little boys, amazed by that thing between their legs. They can’t fathom anything so stupendous and god-like.”

“Wards off the fear of death.”

“For, like a minute, anyway.”

“And then…”

“Back to the perversions.”