by Mia Archer
I guess I could understand that. We were about to go back out to where she worked. To where she might get in trouble for getting it on with one of her clients. I could understand it, but feeling her pulling away from me broke my heart.
"I had a good time tonight too," I said. "And I'll talk to you again soon. I promise."
She glanced down the hall and then out into the main room as though she was checking to make sure the coast was clear, then wrapped me in a huge hug. She also pressed her lips against mine and this time it was one of those lingering kisses. One of those kisses I'd enjoyed so much back in that private room.
Long, steamy, lingering, and oh so deliciously hot.
Unfortunately that kiss had to come to an end all too soon. She unwrapped her arms from around me, and just in time as a girl appeared at the entrance with a gentleman in tow. The girl stopped and looked between the two of us, her eyes narrowing. It made me wonder what the hell her problem was.
“Tara,” Jasmine said, a note of unhappiness coming to her voice.
“Jasmine,” the girl said, her voice sounding equally unhappy. "It looks like you have a client to take care of.”
"Yes I do,” Jasmine said, her voice dripping with ice. "And believe me it's none of your damn business."
And with that final obvious “fuck you" to the girl Jasmine took my hand and pulled me out. I turned around to look at Tara who stared daggers at us. There was obviously something going on there, and it was equally obvious I wasn't going to find out what the hell was going on between those two.
We got out into the main room and my ears and body were assaulted by the music. There was a relentless bass thump, probably because they had to play something with a beat for the girls up on stage.
The girl onstage right now was pretty good looking, but she didn't hold a candle to Jasmine. Heck, there was a part of me that felt a little guilty about looking at another girl even though it's not like we'd locked down anything.
No, I'd just had a really ill advised necking session with a stripper in a private room. I'd become a walking example of what you shouldn't do when visiting a strip club, and I was surprised at how much I didn't give a shit.
"I really need to get back to work," Jasmine said. "But I hope we can do this again."
I could see the blush come to her face even in the low light. She giggled nervously and shook her head.
"I mean we don't have to do exactly what we did in there, but…"
I gave her hand a squeeze. "It's okay. I know exactly what you mean."
She looked around again, and apparently she decided it would be best not to give me a kiss out here. Not where there were other people watching.
Maybe there was some rule against it or something. Whatever it was, she gave my hand a squeeze and then she disappeared, melting into the crowd.
Some of the men in that crowd gave her the eye, and I felt a surprising flareup of jealousy at the thought of other people looking at her.
Then I chided myself for being ridiculous. After all, considering what her job was anything that happened between us wasn't likely to last all that long if I got jealous over other people looking at her. Especially men who she presumably wasn't interested in considering everything that happened back in the private room.
No, it was time to get the fuck over myself. Besides, I might have gotten her number but I wasn't even sure if I was going to call her.
After all, everything I’d done here tonight was so crazy. It was so out of character. I couldn't shake the feeling that the next morning I was going to be the same old boring me I'd always been. That there was something about this night, something about going out with the guys for a bachelor party, that had changed me for a one-night only engagement.
Tonight I was wild. Tonight I was going a little crazy. Tonight I was doing crazy things like going into a back room with a stripper for a free private dance.
Who's to say what I’d be tomorrow though? I might be the same old boring slightly geeky person I always was.
I was still in a daze as I made my way around the stage to where the guys from work were gathered waving dollar bills at the girl on stage trying to get her attention.
"Well hello there," Dan said. "Did you have a good time back there?"
I could see the smarmy satisfaction on his face. Yeah, I'd proven him absolutely right. Once I got out here I'd gone a little wild, though at least he hadn't gotten to enjoy the show like he was so obviously planning on doing when he invited me out here.
“I don’t want to hear it Dan,” I said.
His eyes went wide and he put a hand to his chest. "You wound me Taylor."
"Yeah well I'm going to actually wound you if you keep up with this. What I did back there tonight is my own damn business and none of yours," I said.
"What's going on here?" Stephen asked as he pushed through the press of our friends. He saw me and his face broke into a stupid grin.
"Taylor! Back from your lap dance already?"
All the other guys turned and stared, and all of them had stupid half drunk grins plastered on their faces. I rolled my eyes. So much for hoping the whole office wouldn’t find out about what I'd been doing.
Oops.
I looked at each of the guys in turn. Tried to use my eyes to bore into their heads. To make it absolutely clear exactly how serious I felt about what I was about to say.
"Nobody breathes a word of any of this to anyone at work. Got it?"
Each of them suddenly looked innocent. Each of them suddenly looked as though they didn't want to meet my gaze. Finally Stephen spoke up.
"Do you really think we're going to tell other people at work about everything we did at a strip club?"
I smiled. Leave it to Stephen to make me feel better. And the man did have a point. It's not like they were going to talk about their good time at a strip club. At least not without incriminating themselves. Sure I maybe went a little crazier than they did, but we were all guilty by association.
Not that I thought there was anything wrong with going to a strip club, necessarily. But what I thought and what the tight asses in human resources thought could be two very different things and that was a can of worms I was happy not opening, thank you very much.
"So we’re all in agreement then? Nobody breathes a word about what happened tonight?"
"Nobody was ever going to breathe a word at work about what happened tonight," Dan said.
"Good," I said.
I took a seat at a table they'd commandeered. The place seemed like it was starting to fill in. Maybe getting there right after work meant we’d arrived before the evening rush.
The place was packed now though. Packed full of mostly men. There was the occasional couple there, obvious enough because the girls inevitably looked uncomfortable about being in a strip club, but for the most part it was wall-to-wall men.
And I had to admit the rest of the evening turned out to be a pretty good time. Jason had disappeared and didn’t come around to bother us. Which was fine with me. If I didn’t want him to be part of the party I was more than happy when he removed himself from the party.
I got to watch Stephen get a lot drunker than I'd ever seen him at any of the office holiday functions. I got to see him get up on stage and get a lap dance. Incidentally the lap dance was from the girl Jasmine seemed so annoyed with when we were making our way out of the private rooms.
It was a little awkward during that dance. Everybody who was there for the bachelor party stood front and center by the stage as he got his dance, and while the girl was doing a good enough job of paying attention to him, the way she kept glancing over to me made it clear she was curious about me.
Though the anger bubbling behind some of those glances made me think it was a little more than curiosity.
Not that any of that mattered. I was going to be out of here after tonight and I probably wouldn't give a second thought to this place or that girl after that.
Even if I did see Jasmine outsi
de of this place.
I saw Jasmine a couple more times that night, but she was always up on stage dancing. I realized if we hadn't gotten there as early as we did I might not have had a chance to get that one on one time with her at all. She seemed reluctant to come out into the crowd if she didn't have to.
But she’d come out for me. Could it be that she was interested? Really interested?
Well I had her number, so I suppose there was only one way to find out for sure. I sighed. I never thought going to a strip club would make things so complicated, but here we were.
Only it was the best sort of complicated.
Eventually the night came to its inevitable close. Everybody was stumbling around and I realized with a start that I was the only semi sober person in the whole group.
“You guys have to get a cab," I said.
Dan swayed back and forth and fixed me with a goofy smile. "You really like that girl didn't you?"
I blinked. I was expecting him to tell me he’d be perfectly fine to drive, which it was obvious he wasn't. That he went straight to talk of Jasmine had me more than a little surprised.
"Excuse me?"
He leaned in closer and I could smell the booze on his breath. "There's nothing wrong with that," Dan said. "If you like her then go for it!"
I wondered if there was something profound in his drunken talk, but before I could ask him anything more he'd wheeled around and was whipping out his phone to call a cab, or maybe he was using one of those ride calling apps that seemed to be springing up like weeds in manure.
Whatever it was, I was glad to see that none of the guys planned on driving home in their current state.
That was good. The last thing I wanted was for the whole evening to end in tragedy. I could see the headlines now. Bachelor party goes wrong and ends in a crash. Or something like that.
Yeah, not good.
The other not good thing? I realized that all of them getting rides meant I was stuck here since I’d bummed a ride. And then an idea occurred to me.
"Hey Dan," I said. "How about you let me borrow your car tonight, and I'll bring it over in the morning and you can take me home? That way you don't have to leave it parked at the strip club overnight."
He shrugged and grinned again, then tossed me his keys.
Bingo. This night had gone away better than I thought. Of course whether or not I still felt that way in the morning remained to be seen.
8
Jasmine
I looked down at the French fries in front of me. I probably shouldn't be having these if I wanted to keep my figure in check, but I could just do an extra few minutes on the treadmill for the rest of the week or something. Maybe.
Okay probably not.
"Go on and eat them," Tiffany said. "You're always worried about your figure and you always look great."
"That's because I have to keep in shape if I want to keep making the kind of money I've been making," I said.
"Come on," Tiffany said. "You know you're one of the best looking girls in the place. It's why you're able to make so much money."
I looked at her and cocked an eyebrow. "Why Tiffany," I said. "That almost sounds like…"
Tiffany picked up a French fry and tossed it across the table at me. It hit my face and I felt something wet. When I looked down I realized there was ketchup on the tip of the fry.
"Gross!" I said. "You could have warned me before you hit me with that thing.”
Tiffany rolled her eyes. "Now there's a sentence that sums up my love life."
Again I looked at her. Again I arched my eyebrow suggestively. "You know if you are…"
She held up another French fry, and this time I could see she'd dipped more than the tip in ketchup. I held up my hands in surrender.
"Okay! Okay! I give up. Don't hit me with another French fry!"
Tiffany took the French fry she’d been about to lob at my face and took a bite out of the tip instead. Then she looked over at me and smiled with a sweet smile that usually meant she was up to no good.
"Glad we could come to an agreement," she said.
She finished the rest of her fry and that was too much for me. I dipped into mine. I didn't care if it wasn't healthy. I didn't care if I was going to have to spend extra time at the gym to work it off.
All I cared about was relaxing after a long night of working and dancing and being constantly distracted because I knew Taylor was out there somewhere. I was constantly searching the crowd trying to find her and smiling when I did.
After all that I was exhausted and I needed to reward myself. So I dove in.
Tiffany grinned. "That's more like it," she said. "I wish I had your metabolism."
"Metabolism my ass," I said. "This is one hundred percent sweat and work in the gym."
“Uh-huh. Enough of that crap. Are you going to tell me anything about that girl you took into the back?"
I very nearly choked on my fries. I figured it was only a matter of time before Taylor came up, but I thought Tiffany would at least give me a couple of nights before she came out with the questions.
I should have known not to take her powers of observation for granted. Still, that didn't mean I was going to give anything up too easily.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, trying my best to sound sweet and innocent.
"You okay?" Tiffany asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said.
I felt ridiculous even as I said it because of course I didn't look fine what with tears streaming down my face. I was still having a little trouble breathing.
"Good," Tiffany said. "Now that we've established you're fine, why don't you cut the bullshit denying that there’s anything going on with you and that girl and go ahead and tell me what's going on with you and that girl?”
"You can be really annoying sometimes," I said. "I want you to know that."
Her smile grew even wider. “We wouldn't be best friends if I wasn’t annoyingly perceptive sometimes."
I opened my mouth to say something, anything, and thankfully I was saved by the waitress coming over with a pot of coffee in hand.
"Either of you ladies need more?" she asked.
"I'm fine Gladys," I said with a smile.
"I could use some more," Tiffany said. She held out her cup and Gladys obliged.
I looked down at my own cup. It was tempting to have another, but caffeine could do screwy things into my system. Caffeine was about the hardest thing I allowed in my system. It was too easy to go on a slippery slope considering some of the things that were tossed around in the dressing room at work.
Gladys beamed at both of us and I smiled right back at her. It was hard not to like her. She was a sweet old lady who'd been a career waitress. Heck, for all I knew she'd been working at this same diner down the street from the club since she was our age.
This neighborhood had been a lot nicer once upon a time. Not the kind of place that catered to strip clubs. That was all a long time ago though.
Not that it was fair of me to get too judgmental about my current profession considering it was my current profession. Gladys didn't get judgmental about it either. No, she was more than happy to have us as customers. Though the large tips we left after work probably had a lot to do with it.
"You girls let me know if you need anything," she said in her sweet voice.
"Will do Gladys," I said. Tiffany was too busy downing her own coffee to say anything.
"You know you're not getting off that easy," Tiffany said.
I dipped my fry in my ketchup to buy myself a little more time. Even with Gladys coming up and asking us about coffee I still hadn't figured out a way to get out of this conversation I didn't want to have.
Finally I sighed. Looked up at her. I briefly considered hurling my ketchup covered fry at her, but that wouldn't be very nice so I didn't.
"What's there to say? The girl wanted a lap dance so I gave her a lap dance," I said.
"Oh no you don't," Tiffany said. "You're no
t getting away that easily. I saw you come in from that dance. I saw you put your stuff on as quickly as you could and then turn right back around to go out on the floor."
"So?"
"So you never do that," she said. "Getting you to go out on the floor for dances is like pulling teeth."
I sighed again. One of the bad things about trying to have a conversation like this with my best friend was she knew everything about my work habits. Heck, everybody knew about my habit of avoiding going out on the floor.
Usually I made enough from my time on stage, and there were other girls who were more than happy to give up their slot on the stage if it meant they could go out and get a private dance which usually paid more.
I could probably make more too if I could put up with it, but it was something I usually only did if I was hard up for money. Or if there was obviously one of those couples out there looking for a walk on the wild side.
Those couples had become my specialty, and it was another thing the other girls were more than happy to toss to me.
"So I gave a private dance to a girl," I said. "The money…"
"Don't bullshit me," Tiffany said. "I know you didn't take a cent from her."
I dropped the fry I'd been eyeing. Looked at Tiffany with wide eyes. "How did you…"
I realized my mistake the moment I opened my mouth, but by then the words were out and it was too late. She didn't have any idea how much money had or hadn't changed hands when I went back for that private dance with Taylor. No, she was on a fishing expedition and she’d just landed a whopper.
"You really suck, you know that?"
"At least you can realize when you've been had," Tiffany replied.
I growled. "So I thought the girl was hot. So sue me. I know there’s probably been guys you had the hots for. It didn't mean anything."
"So did you get her number or not?" Tiffany asked.
"What's it to you?" I replied.
Now Tiffany came out with a frustrated sigh. She shook her head.
"You know I'm your best friend. That means you're supposed to confide in me. It doesn't do any good if you have a best friend you don't confide in.”