Chapter 8
“WHAT!” NO, YOU'RE KIDDING!”
Tess was literally shrieking in my face.
“You went on a date with the guy who broke into your room!” She rolled back onto the bed, her feet lifting to the heavens, giggling like a little girl. “What the f*ck Alice, that's so random!”
“Well if you'd shut up for a moment and let me finish maybe I'd be able to explain it!” I said, shouting over her laughs.
She stomach-crunched her way back up into a seated position and crossed her legs, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and planting the most serious expression she could manage onto her face.
“OK, explain.”
I took a deep breath and started talking. “He seemed nice enough and explained the whole breaking in thing. He said Jen worked for him and he was trying to track her down...”
“Shit, intense boss!” Tess interrupted. “What was she working as?”
I raised my eyes and huffed. “I'll get to that.”
I could see the light shining her Tess's eyes. She loved a good drama.
“OK, so he said he wanted to apologize for everything - breaking in and all that - and said he might have work for me, right.”
“Mmmhmmm.”
“And you know how desperate I am...”
“Yeah...so what happened...what's the job?”
I could hardly bring myself to say it. “He took me to this fancy restaurant, into a private room and everything, and then asked me...”
“Yeah....” I could tell the suspense was killing her.
“He wants me to strip. Can you f*cking believe that, strip!”
Tess's eyes opened wide, a sort of dirty smile appearing on her face. “Really?” she said, her voice lacking the incredulity I expected. “Are you gonna do it?”
“What the hell do you think Tess! Of course not!”
I could see her mind ticking over. “I dunno babe, might be a good idea.”
HUH! “You're kidding right. This is all some big old joke, just a massive prank? Where's Justin Bieber...surely I'm being punked right now!” I looked around the bedroom theatrically as if I expected him to jump out of the closet.
“Err, I think Justin only punks celebs Alice,” she said with a grin.
“Look, seriously, you are kidding, right?”
“Well, what's the money like?”
I mumbled something along the lines of “pretty good.”
“I'd do I reckon,” she said triumphantly. It didn't actually surprise me all that much, Tess wasn't exactly the shy and retiring type, not if the stories she told me were to be believed. “Is it private dancing or stage dancing?”
“I dunno,” I said, shaking my head, “private I guess. What does it matter Tess - it's stripping in front of men! How could you be up for that?!”
She shrugged her shoulders. “It's sexy isn't it. Knowing they can't touch you, that they want to f*ck you but can't. It gives you power, and you get paid a f*cking bomb to do it. I dunno Alice, beggars can't really be choosers.” She said it lightly with a grin but there was a truthful slant to her words.
She had a point. I needed work, and I needed it now. My rent was due in a couple of weeks and my bank account was about as dry as the Sahara. Now that I'd finished my paper that part of the course was finished too and I had a new module coming up. I knew what that meant - more damn textbooks, more damn work. Oh, then there was just the small matter of food and drink - you know, the vital parts of life. At least oxygen was free.
“Yeah well I'd rather be a beggar than a stripper,” I said.
Tess put her hands up and pulled her shoulders back with an expression of “have it your way” plastered all over her face. She could be infuriatingly self righteous sometimes. I'd love to see what she'd do in my position, if she'd actually go through with it. She was all talk.
It was getting late when I finally left her room and went back to mine, stepping into the cell, the walls bare, the floor cold beneath my feet. I looked over at Jen's empty bed. I can't believe she was a stripper. You think you know someone and then, pow.
I wondered for a while how far she went, whether she only stripped to her thong or went all the way. I'd never have pegged her for that - she was so quiet, so unassuming. To think she'd been going down there every night, getting her kit off in font of drooling men.
I wondered why Kyle had been so keen to track her down. Couldn't the girls leave when they wanted? Couldn't they quit? Maybe she got fed up with it all, walked out on a client. Maybe she was one of Kyle's prized assets. I wonder where she is now?
I turned my mind to other things as the night drew on. Priority number one had been completed earlier in the day. Now it was time to focus on priority two - get a job. That task would start in earnest tomorrow.