I have nothing to claim as my own except what Theresa and I managed to pack into my suitcases. I may not be depending on the kindness of strangers but I am definitely depending on the hospitality of newly-made friends.
I wonder if Xavier is thinking about me? Does he regret cheating on me with Ella? Does he at least regret getting caught and losing me as his future wife? Despite how he betrayed me, I miss him. Or at least, I miss the idea of him. It was comforting to know that my whole life was planned out for me and that the hardest decision I would have to make is what private school my children should attend.
This is a very real and new world I have to face. My friends and family will see me as a traitor. I am someone who threw away the good life for no reason other than misplaced pride and naivety.
At her apartment, Theresa pushes her clothes to one end of the sagging hanger rod and leaves me about a third of the closet. She pulls out some old sheets and blankets and tosses them on the couch for me.
“The few people who have crashed here found the couch to be surprisingly comfortable,” she tells me.
I am so overwhelmed by everything that has happened that I can barely squeeze out a “thank you.”
“Mickey should be at the club by now. You ready for this?’
I take a deep breath to calm my nervous heartbeat.
“Let’s do it,” I say. “Tonight is the first night of the rest of my life.”
8
Ryan
I am more than ready for life to return to normal. And when I say normal, I mean my normal. Normal for me is sleeping in until almost noon, going to the gym, and then heading to a job that requires me to take my clothes off for a living.
Whatever it was that I experienced with Aria is over and done with. It’s done, not just because I like where I’m at right now. It’s done because there is no way she will ever speak to me again after the way I treated her last night.
Even though I know I behaved like a world-class jerk, I am relieved it’s over. I like to keep my life drama-free and predictable, and it would not be either of those things with Aria in my life. I know it is laughable for a 22-year-old male stripper to expect his life to be normal and void of chaos. But this is what I strive toward and for the most part, I have it. The majority of the women I have sex with never want to think of me again except in their dreams or when they are disappointed in their husbands for not paying attention to them or their needs.
This is the way I like it: simple and straightforward. I am ready to get back to the life I have known and enjoyed for the last five years. Yet, I still can’t help but wonder what happened to Aria after I left her at the bar. Did she find another dancer at the club to make her forget what her fiancé and friend did? What do people who have everything do when their world falls apart?
I have never been close enough to someone who has money and family to know what they do when the going gets tough. Do things ever really get that tough when you have people who love you and the security of a flush bank account?
When you live like I did before I moved to New York, and you have nothing, the answer is easy. You keep plugging away because you have no alternative. I can only hope that Aria broke it off with the fiancé and will go back to Texas with her college degree in hand and do something that she loves. Of course, it’s more likely she will stay with the fiancé and spend a couple of years as arm candy before starting a family. Whatever she does, I have a feeling she will be okay. She’s beautiful, rich, and smart, and I am absolutely done thinking about her forever.
People like Theresa and me, we always have to be on our toes because the bottom can fall out and often times, it does. All I have to do is picture my father and mother fighting and then making up over and over and over again. Yes, they stayed married, which is unusual for families that lived the way we did. I don’t think a single one of my friends had both parents around growing up. But staying together isn’t always the best idea if all you manage to do is make each other miserable. When I was a kid, listening to my parents argue through the paper thin trailer walls, I promised myself I would never be anything like them.
I do some pull-ups before hitting the shower. The effort and the sweat feel good. Instead of going to the gym for a workout, I’m going to Central Park for a run. It’s a beautiful day and that means women in spandex will be out running in full force. It surprised me the first time a runner propositioned me in the park. It must be the heady combination of running endorphins and everyone being half-dressed.
I put in five miles and don’t get much of a reaction other than a handful of appreciative looks. This turn of bad luck with women is something I’m not used to. At least not since I began putting in the effort on my body and appearance.
I shake it off, and head back home. There will be more women than I can count fixated on my every movement tonight. All those ladies screaming my name will bring an end to this feeling of unease.
When I get back to the apartment, I crank up the music and strip off my running clothes. I am still slick with sweat from the run and am primed to work on some new moves for tonight. The ladies that are at the club are going to experience a whole new Ryan Temptation.
I told Mickey yesterday to ramp up the marketing because I would be doing a new performance. I want the ladies to come to the club with the express purpose of seeing me dance. I had already talked it over with some of the guys and they are game to do a warm-up act for me that will have the ladies writhing in their seats, and then roll perfectly into my performance. Tonight, I am going to bring one lucky lady up on stage with me and take it to a whole new level.
I am fired up when I arrive at the club and see how packed it is. Mickey really pulled out all the stops. I can hear my name being batted about at some of the tables. It is a direct stroke to my ego and it feels good to be the object of so much admiration and lust.
My warm-up guys, John and Cole, are about to head out on stage and the hum of excitement heightens and ripples through the crowd.
“Temptation, my man, the ladies are going to eat you alive tonight,” John, one of my guys, tells me.
“Yea, especially after we get them hot for you. You’ll be able to knock them down with a couple of quick thrusts when we’re done performing,” Cole says.
“If that were the case, you’d be headlining,” I reply.
All this talk is for the most part good-natured and it helps us get worked up for the show. It’s like a sales guy repeating affirmations in the mirror before hitting the lot with the intention to sell the most expensive car. But dancers give each other shit instead of affirmations, so you go out there with something to prove. Tonight I have something to prove to myself. I need to see that I am back to normal and that I have gotten my feelings toward Aria out of my system.
The lights go down and cheers erupt. It’s so loud that Mickey has to wait forever before he can be heard over the audience, even with his microphone.
“Ladies, I want to thank you all for coming out tonight to Mantropolis.”
The women start yelling and whistling again.
“Are you ready to be wowed, to be tantalized, to be aroused by the man of your dreams?”
Mickey is working them to a fever pitch.
“Ladies, I need you to calm down. I don’t want to have to call 9-1-1.”
A hush falls over the crowd.
“Here he is, the one, the only, Ryan Temptation”
The ladies chant my name, “Ryan, Ryan, Ryan,” the music goes on, and I hit the stage. I feel the groove immediately. The women are still chanting and money is raining onto the ground at me feet. I peel off my shirt and reveal my sculpted and tan chest. My fans respond accordingly. I survey the audience, looking for the perfect woman to pull up on stage. And there she is, the perfect woman, and the last person I want to see.
Aria is here at the club, and she is working behind the bar. Is this some kind of sick joke she and Theresa are playing on me?
I don’t know if I’m more surprised b
y her being here or that she is working a bar. The din of the women shouting for me has receded to a dull roar in the background. Then those haunting blue eyes meet mine across the crowded club and I know I am lost. I don’t even hear the music I am dancing to anymore. I am so distracted that I know I won’t be pulling an audience member up onto the stage. How can I pretend to make love to another woman, when the woman of my dreams is mere feet away and watching me?
For the first time in my career, I don’t want to be up here performing. All I want is to get off the stage and find out what the hell she is doing here.
Theresa definitely has something to do with this. She lives for trouble and would love to see me rattled by Aria working at the club. She is always on me about women and relationships, and how I’m missing out on the best part of life.
It’s lucky I’m good at what I do because at this point, all I’m doing is going through the motions. I can feel the energy leaving the crowd. They came here to see something new from Ryan Temptation and instead they are getting a listless and uninspired performance that will have Mickey putting me on the Sunday afternoon shift.
The worst part of it is that Aria is witness to the entire act. I am like a deer in the headlights beneath her gaze. I do my best to get back into the moment and give all of these women what they came here for. I unzip my jeans and remove them like a snake shedding its skin, slow and sinuous. This gets the crowd going again but it is far from the performance I was hoping for. For the first time since I started dancing, I am grateful when the music ends and I can leave the stage.
I dodge Mickey who is glowering at me. If it weren’t for the fact that he has to save the night and gear the ladies up for the next act, I know he would have chewed me out for my lackluster performance.
I need to talk to Aria and find out what she is doing here. She must have left her fiancé and is either afraid to tell her parents, or they have cut her off. From what she told me the other night, they are very rigid in their beliefs. I gathered that her father is quite ready to play the whole, “I’m going to write you out of the will” card. Did Aria actually walk away from everything? I knew there was something about her that I liked from the get go. A beautiful woman with both pride and principles … a girl like that is a true diamond in the rough.
I plop down on the same stool I did last night. Theresa is making a point of ignoring me, which leaves Aria to take my drink order.
“I’ll have a …”
“Let me guess; a Macallan 18 … no ice,” she interrupts.
She remembers what I like to drink. There may be hope for us yet. Then I remind myself that I’m not interested in hope; I’m interested in getting my life back. But Aria looking incredibly cute behind the bar with her little black apron, and her hair pulled up in a high ponytail, isn’t making it easy on me. All I can think about is what it will look like when I pull the elastic out and it falls in waves down her back.
“I’m surprised to see you here,” I tell her and reach out to take her hand.
She pulls back from me and turns to the bottles behind the bar.
“I’m surprised, but it’s a good surprise. I knew you had it in you,” I persist.
She turns back to me, and the beginnings of a smile hint at the curve of her lips.
“Thank you, Ryan,” she says with a huge smile on her face.
9
Aria
I know it shouldn’t matter, but it does. Ryan saying how proud he is of me for trying to make it on my own really means a lot. He is a man who came from nothing and has been surviving on his own since he was seventeen. His respect means a lot to me. Theresa’s support means almost as much. In truth, it might even mean more. I wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for her help last night.
Even tonight, when I’m stuck here behind the bar doing cleanup, I feel good about the choice I made. My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out to see that it’s my father calling. I am ashamed of myself for the flicker of hope I feel at the possibility that he has changed his mind. Might he actually let me go back to my apartment until I have a better job and more money saved?
I might even invite Theresa to come and stay with me to pay her back for all the generosity she has shown me.
My father quickly brings an end to my day dreaming like a splash of ice water to my face.
“Aria, have you come to your senses? Are you ready to return to Texas and marry Xavier?”
“Dad, I told you, I caught him with another woman. How can you still want me to marry him?”
“I know you are disappointed in Xavier. I am too. But this behavior is not uncommon in men, and technically you are not married. Xavier will learn to practice discretion and show you proper respect. I spoke about this with him this morning and he agrees with me and is very apologetic about what he did. He has assured me it won’t happen again.”
I am beyond hurt by what my father is saying and also left speechless by the cruelty and disrespect he is showing me.
“Xavier mentioned to me that you were at a male strip club and he was feeling insecure about your commitment to the relationship. This helps explain his actions.”
I can’t remain silent anymore. I won’t have Xavier blaming me for what he did. “It most certainly doesn’t explain anything. You think that my going to a club makes it okay for him to have sex with my best friend? Did he tell you they invited me to join them?”
“Stop being dramatic, Aria. You are normally such a practical girl. You need to think about your future and the family business. If you walk away from this engagement, it hurts your mother and me. It also has a tremendous effect on our company. Your actions do not only affect you.”
I feel sick to my stomach at his casual viciousness. Being practical is what brought me to this crossroads. And I question if he is being honest with me about the business. Xavier’s father is the head of the law firm that represents our company, not an investor or rival company. At most, my departure might mean the necessity of finding new lawyers, not the layoffs of hundreds or thousands of workers.
“I’m not a pawn, Father. It’s time for me to take ownership of my life. You’ll just have to find another way to get ahead in business that doesn’t involve whoring out your only daughter.”
“We are done discussing this. What I said yesterday stands. If you are not back at the end of the week and you don’t marry Xavier, your mother and I will be forced to cut you off.”
I want to throw my phone across the bar but now that I’m a working girl, all I can think of is how many drinks I will have to serve before I can replace it. I’m glad Theresa and Ryan weren’t here to overhear the call with my father. Ryan went to change but said he’d be back to take us to a late dinner.
His dance didn’t go as well as he’d planned but I think he still made a lot in tips. I wonder what it would be like to dance for men the way he does for women. Then I remind myself that no man has seen me naked and I don’t care how much money you can make. There is no way I would turn to stripping to cover the bills.
“You done cleaning?” Theresa asks.
She is back from taking the garbage out. She said tomorrow it’s my turn to do trash duty and that I may want to get some mace. Not because of muggers, but because of the rats.
“The rats aren’t afraid of anything and will come at you if you interrupt their dinner.”
I run to the restroom to freshen myself up. I tell myself I’m not doing it for Ryan, but really, who am I kidding. I would never date him though. Not after the way he treated me the other night. That and all the stories Theresa has shared with me about him and women. She says the longest relationship he has had lasted until lunch the second day. I guess I really should thank him for blowing me off. Otherwise I might have done something that I would regret.
Knowing all of this doesn’t change the fact that I want him to find me desirable, though. I take my hair out of the elastic and brush it out over my shoulders. My skin is glowing from the exertion of working behind
the bar all night. I wish I had brought something to change into but when Theresa and I left for work, I didn’t think I’d be having dinner with the one and only Ryan Temptation. I suppress a giggle and remind myself that there are quite a few women here tonight that would give their right arm to be in my place. Even if it is just a friendly dinner with friends and absolutely nothing will ever happen between us.
Ryan is leaning against the bar and his eyes rake over me as I approach, causing a delicious shudder to course through my body. I’m glad I took the time to brush my hair and freshen up my make-up.
“Alright kids, lets cool it,” Theresa says. “It’s a PG-rated night for the three of us.”
I pretend to search through my bag to hide the fact that I’m blushing and Ryan says he doesn’t know what PG is.
We take the subway a couple of stops to a neighborhood I have never been to before. It’s not that I’ve never been on the subway before, but it was rare and usually with Ella, who spent the trip mocking the other people on the train. With Ryan and Theresa, we are part of the crowd and no one is judging anyone, or under the impression that they are better than anyone else. However, both Theresa and Ryan tease me for not knowing how to use the turnstile.
Outside of the restaurant, a group of kids are drumming on turned over buckets. Ryan praises their skills and drops what looks to be a twenty into a hat that is partially filled with singles and spare change.
“Oh man,” one of the kids says. “You’re here with two ladies, Ryan? Good for you.”
“Watch it, Jamie. These ladies are good friends of mine. Show them some respect.”
“Hi,” I say. “I’m Aria! Your music is wonderful.”
The other kids start ribbing him about falling in love with me. Theresa rolls her eyes and tells us she is starving and it’s time to stop playing charity and come inside and eat.
Line of Scrimmage: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (Pass To Win Book 2) Page 23