Arcade looked uncomfortably down at the prostitute, and the prostitute looked up at him with professional interest. He felt eyed up like a slab of meat.
“Look”, Arcade said. “I’m not here because I want to but to do a friend a favour who thought I’d need this. Let’s just not get ahead of ourselves, I’ll be out of here in a couple of minutes and you’ll have your pay and can... whatever. Sit down and have a smoke. Although honestly, those are bad for you.”
“You’re not doing me a favour with fucking off after a couple of minutes, handsome”, the prostitute said slowly. “That’d surely ruin my reputation.”
Arcade rolled his eyes in helpless desperation.
“Come on, sit down”, the prostitute said and gestured to the bed as that was the only seating there was. “And don’t worry, I won’t descend down on your precious jewels like a deathclaw on a fresh kill if you don’t want me to.”
Arcade managed to force a twisted smile onto his face, but sat down. The prostitute in turn kicked off his boots and climbed onto the bed to sit behind him. “You seem awfully tense”, he said. “My name’s Jimmy, by the way. Don’t have to tell me yours, tough. Let me do something for you. Please?”
“As long as I don’t have to make improper noises to preserve your... reputation”, Arcade replied, already capitulating to the situation.
Jimmy chuckled softly. “Only if you feel like it.” With that he pushed the lab coat down from Arcade’s shoulders and, after settling in a comfortable position, closed his slender fingers around Arcade’s shoulders and began to gently knead the tense muscles there.

After a few moments, Arcade began to relax and sighed. “This feels good, to be honest. I didn’t know that this would be part of the repertoire of a... uhm... professional...”
“Whore”, Jimmy finished for him. “You can say it, you know. It doesn’t come as a surprise.”
“It does come as a surprise to me, sitting here, I mean. With you.”
Jimmy chuckled again. “You don’t usually utilize professionals?”
“No.” Arcade realised that the answer had been spoken rather sharply and took a breath. “No offence meant, of course. It’s just... paying for something like sex... it rubs me wrong.”
Jimmy rubbed his thumbs up and down Arcade’s neck, eliciting a deep sigh of pleasure from the doctor. “You’re the first man I’ve met that has these strange kinds of scruples.”
“Men with these scruples wouldn’t come here in the first place.”
At that, Jimmy had to laugh and Arcade discovered that he had a very pleasant laugh, not the high-pitched cackle as he seemed to have expected, somehow. “True. Oh how very true. And I gather you won’t let your curiosity get the better of you, either.”
“Curiosity?” Arcade twisted his head to look at Jimmy, a task made easier as Jimmy looked around his head to look down at Arcade. “I’ve been sleeping with men for slightly more than fifteen years now. I doubt there’s anything I could be curious about anymore.”
“Huh... I tend to forget that things like these are legal among you pr... Freeside People.”
Arcade noticed him stiffen at that, ever so slightly and only for a second, but his medical observance skills kicked in and several alarms went off in his head. He twisted his head a little more. “What was that? What did you mean to say instead of Freeside people?” It occurred to him first after he had spoken that he might have chosen a more tactful, diplomatic approach to that as Jimmy went grey in the face despite his dark skin and shook his head.
“Nothing, sir, really. It was just... just jumbled letters, really.” Yet at the same time he didn’t look at Arcade anymore and the way he shrank back against the wall made a dark, unpleasant suspicion rise in Arcade.