Stripped Read Free Page A

time for the year. Wait did you just say that you have to work tonight? But it's Thursday.”
    I nodded, “Yeah I'm on tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday. Though I'm not really sure how it works if I get a date tonight and then I would see someone else tomorrow. It seems kind of weird to me.”
    She shook her head. “It's all weird to me.”
    She decided not to press any further and stood up moving over to the kitchen where she grabbed a stool so she could start to pretend to reach the bottles. After she had missed three times I offered to trade places with her. I could tell she wanted to do it on her own, but short girl problems made her realize she needed my help.

 
     
    4
     
    As I arrived at the club that night I felt like everyone's eyes were on me. I barely walked through the door when Monique pulled me aside by the arm.
    “Everyone is talking. They've seen it all on the news. Has anyone come to you?”
    I shook my head. “No. No cops, no reporters, no one knew I was there. I don't know how you got that detective to keep his mouth shut but thank you.” I felt like I was on pins and needles all week. Anytime someone opened the door in one of my silent midterm halls I would look up anticipating handcuffs and a news crew, but it never came. Monique had certainly done her job to keep the lid on my situation.
    “Well good. However some of the girls are little bit upset, they've known the judge for years. So just give them some space, okay?”
    “Sure. Wait like space meaning I shouldn't be here?”
    She looked me up and down. “Girl please. No one is going to stop you from making any money. Oh that's right money. Here's yours. It's just a little something but it's just a preview of what can come. Good luck tonight.” She gave me a white envelope and it felt heavy and my hands. I didn't want to open it in front of all the other girls so I stepped out into the hallway and just took a little peek. There was at least a thousand dollars in there, in all hundreds. I hadn't even done anything and I'd still made a grand. Enough to cover my rent for almost two months. I walked back into the dressing room and put my money in my bag. I grabbed the black corset and matching ruffled panties off of the rack and got dressed. A tall blonde walked up behind me.
    “Hi, I’m Vivienne. Listen I'm really sorry about what happened to you last weekend, some of us have been there before. Though it doesn't usually happen to the nice guys.” Her voice was like velvet and I couldn't tell if she was being sincere. But somehow she put some sort of trance over me and I couldn't look away. She had almost translucent skin and deep red lipstick with a shiny blonde bob. She was incredible.
    “Oh thanks. Yeah it was pretty rough.”
    She nodded. “I'm sure it was. I remember when Jimmy got whacked last year, it was terrible. News crews everywhere, cops questioning me for months afterwards…”
    I interrupted her. “Months?”
    She shrugged. “Well I mean Jimmy had a bit of the history. And I was with him through a lot of it. I hadn't been to the club in over a year when I came back single.”
    “You were with a client?”
    She put her finger up to her lips and smiled devilishly. “We're really not supposed to be but the Madame made an exception. Jimmy’s crew used to spend a lot of their money here. Of course a few of the guys were mobsters. But you don't need to worry about any of that, they have the regulars. Girls they can trust. They're definitely not going to flirt with some girl whose last client ended up dead, know what I mean?”
    Suddenly her velvety voice sounded more like poison. She was making sure that I wasn't going to get with any of her clients. “I know exactly what you mean. But I've learned pretty quickly here that the men kind of choose for themselves. Oh and I'm really sorry about Jimmy.”
    I turned around and continued to powder my face and put on my lipstick. Two could play her game, and I knew exactly how to play