'Models' read the sign, the handwritten text looking scruffy against the tired fluorescent yellow background. It was stuck on the entrance to a narrow dimly lit staircase which led up to who knew where.
John quickly looked up and down the street to see if anyone would notice what he was doing, then quickly nipped in through the door. Walking up the narrow staircase was like stepping back in time to the 1960's, when Soho had been the centre of England's sex industry. The stairs were covered in a worn dirty carpet. The walls papered with something that had probably been fashionable a few decades ago. And the wood work was painted a deep red. Overhead a naked bulb shed just enough light to give him confidence that he wasn't going to be mugged as he ascended.
He stopped outside the door on the first landing, though the stairs continued up to at least one more level. He knocked and an old lady opened the door. She could have been Dot Cotton's older sister, the one with an even more intense smoking habit that Dot. She was so old that it was impossible to figure out exactly how old she might be, but she definitely had a lot of miles on the clock.
"Come in", she said, opening the door wide and ushering John in to the tiniest living room ever. There was a tired sofa, a set of cupboards, a tiny kitchenette unit and, looking out of place on one wall, hung a large flat screen television. With the exception of the TV, everything looked to be of a similar vintage as the décor in the hall.
There was a second door in the room, and no sooner had the old lady safely locked John in the flat, than a petite mature lady popped her head round it. Wavy brunette hair framed a pretty, if slightly tired looking, face. A big smile spread across it.
"Come in darling, come in," she said, in a lovely French accent, "My name is Lucy."
She opened the door wider, revealing a slightly curvy yet still firm body, covered in a long summer dress. She looked to be around 50 years old, but still very attractive, with that aura of sexiness that a women confident in her own looks has. She held out her hand to John, and drew him in to the room.
