The New York Doll Read Free Page A

it’s wrong and my mom would have killed me, but it feels too right at the moment and my primary instincts take over my mind like it will happen several times again in the future.
    Julie texts me: “Are you coming home tonite?” It’s already late but I’m too shy to ask if I’m staying overnight.
    - Ari, why don’t you take Tonya for a walk?
    Tonya is a huge black Italian mastiff with quite an unstable attitude towards almost everybody as I found out later.
    - Ok, mom. Get dressed, we’re going for a walk, puppy, - he winks at me again and all I can think about is to stay with him one on one.
    It’s a pitch black night and we are walking towards a big park right next to their house. No lights at the point where we climb over a little fence.
    - Aren’t we supposed to stay outside? I thought they close it for a night.
    - They do, of course. But that’s always the coolest part, when you break the rules, don’t you think?
    - I guess…
    I can’t even see Ari, all I hear is the chain rattling as he unleashes Tonya and she runs free.
    - Aren’t you afraid she’ll run away?
    - Girls don’t run away from me.
    He pulls me close and kisses me. I thought I would die of happiness. All I thought at that moment is how lucky I was to find my estranged family in the face of the hottest boy in New York. And that boy wants me! Me, unsecure, shy girl with a bunch of daddy issues and guesses why I couldn’t find a man who would love me the way I deserved. And this handsome American boy now wants me to be with him! And that’s when I fell in love with him, crazy, deeply and unconditionally.
    We come back home and Ari tells my aunt that I’ll be sleeping in his bedroom tonight as I’m afraid to sleep alone in a big new house. She agrees of course. He closes the door, goes to the closet and picks out one of his T-shirts.
    - It gets chilly at night when the air conditioner kicks in.
    I nod, take the T-shirt and go to the bathroom to wash my face and use the mouthwash. I stare at myself in the mirror for a second and think: “Ok, what do I do now? What do I do?” But my panic attack disappears as soon as I smell his perfume on the T-shirt I’m putting on. All I know is that I’m open to the bright, happy future with the boy I’m in love with. And I open the door to his bedroom.
     
    Chapter 3
     
    Several days later we went to the club that Ari and my aunt Anna were talking about. I went with Julie since Ari had “some stuff to take care of” and promised to meet us there. Ari was very excited about the whole club thing since it was his first business project after he graduated from college. His father’s business projects with heroin trafficking from Europe to New York made him go away for a little four year vacation somewhere in Colorado and while he was learning his mistakes in prison, Ari was supposed to take care of the family.
    - You’ll see how much money we’re going to make there, babe! Doctor Weinstein knows everything about the club business and he’s going to teach me everything! He’ll be the big boss and I’ll be the manager. And you’ll be a cocktail waitress, so we’ll be seeing each other every day here…and every night at home, if you are a good girl, - he winks at me and I melt with a stupid smile on my face.
    Julie and I sit on the second floor of a three floor club under renovation and wait for the other members of staff to show up. Dr. Weinstein, a very sneaky looking fifty-something-year-old Jewish man, finds us looking at the new bar.
    - Are you girls pole dancers? – his first question leaves us speechless for some time.
    - No! – I’m genuinely offended. – We’re cocktail waitresses, we are friends of Ari’s.
    - Oh I’m sorry, - he smiles at us and shakes our hands. – You are very beautiful girls and I got confused.
    Julie gives me one of her “where-the-hell-did-you-bring-me” looks and purses her lips. “Oh, whatever!”- I think and roll my eyes. At this point when we are