by Nikki Ash
“That’s between him and me. I need this job. I am begging you. If you need to tell Hayley, I understand. I wouldn’t ask you to hide it from her.”
“How about this? I am looking for a manager. I could train you to take over. You said you know the business.”
“I don’t want preferential treatment. I am just asking to dance here. You wouldn’t hire anyone else who came in here for the dancer position, to be a manager.”
Caleb takes a deep breath. I can tell he is torn as to what to do, and I know I am making this hard on him, but this is my last chance.
“How about you start as a dancer and slowly I will show you the ropes so you can eventually take over as manager? You would be helping me out. I would like to have someone managing this place before the baby comes. So, I only have to be here a couple days a week.”
“Ok, I can agree to that. Thank you!”
“No problem. But if anything changes I can help…”
I shake my head to stop him. “No, this is perfect, thank you!”
“When can you start?”
“Would tonight work?”
“That will work.”
“Thank you so much, Caleb!”
“You have been working for him ever since we all met for breakfast? That was weeks ago! Why didn’t you say something?”
“I knew you wouldn’t understand why I’m dancing instead of waitressing. I need the money.”
“Damn right I don’t understand and you’re not dancing! You’re stripping! There’s a big fucking difference. You should have told me. If money is that bad, I can lend it to you.”
“I was embarrassed.”
“Well, now that I know, you can quit.” Kaden closes the distance between us putting his hands on my hips and tugging me close to him. Then he pulls me into a hug nuzzling his face into my hair.
“Whatever money you need I will give it to you.”
“I know you would but I don’t want you to. I need to handle this on my own. I can’t depend on anybody but myself.”
He backs up and raises an eyebrow and slowly says, “Ashley, you are quitting.”
I make it a point to say it back the same way. “No, I’m not.”
“Are you fucking serious right now? I am not letting you strip at a club for other men.”
“You aren’t the boss of me, Kaden. You are my friend. You don’t control my choices.”
He nods his head slowly. “Ok, we will see about that. You are my best friend and it’s my job to look out for you.”
He takes me by my hand and heads to the door.
“Where are we going?”
“To speak to Caleb about this.”
“No! You can’t do that. He might be your friend but he’s my boss. Can we please just go to my house? I’ve been embarrassed enough. Just be my friend tonight and take me home, please?”
He stops in his tracks, his eyes running down my body. I can see when he gives in temporarily. His jaw goes slack and shoulders slouch a little telling me he is calming down. “Ok, do you have clothes so you don’t have to walk out like this?”
“Yeah, in the dressing room. It’s right over there.”
We go to the dressing room and I change back into the clothes I came to work in. Then we head outside through the back, so Kaden can’t accidently run into Caleb. Since he didn’t come in his car, we take my car back to my house.
“I am going to wash this makeup off and change into pajamas. Want to order a pizza and watch a movie?”
“Sure.”
Kaden follows me into my room, grabbing a pair of sweats and a shirt from the drawer of clothes he keeps here for the nights he ends up staying over.
After he orders the pizza, we plop onto the couch. Kaden goes to grab the remote but I remember I don’t have working cable. “Want to watch a DVD?”
“What’s wrong with your cable?”
“I’m not sure,” I lie. I’m not about to tell him I am three months behind so they cancelled my service until I get caught up with the overdue balance. That will just lead to another fight over money.
He scrutinizes me for a moment but lets it go. We decide on one of the Fast and Furious movies and after popping it in, we snuggle up like we always do.
“I’m assuming you didn’t know who was in the room you were working in tonight,” Kaden says after a few minutes.
“No, I didn’t. Caleb didn’t mark it down on the sheet in the back that the bachelor party got moved up a week. I wasn’t even supposed to work tonight. One of the girls called out and I agreed to cover her shift; I didn’t have time to ask who was there.”
Kaden doesn’t say anything else. He pulls me closer to him, giving me a kiss on my forehead. We watch the movie in silence… not necessarily uncomfortable but not exactly comfortable either. I know Kaden isn’t going to let this all go, but living in denial can be a great thing.
Chapter Five
Kaden
I wake up and roll over only to find Ashley’s side of the bed is empty and hear the shower running. I roll back over onto my back and stare at the ceiling remembering everything that happened last night: The bachelor party. Ashley being the dancer. Hearing the guys say they wanted to fuck her. Me, throwing her over my shoulder and then demanding she quit stripping. Her, refusing to quit stripping. Me, realizing that I am falling for my best friend.
Yep, you heard me right. I am falling for Ashley and I know what you are thinking, how the fuck did I not realize this sooner? It’s called denial! Don’t act like you’ve never experienced it. The problem is, I have absolutely no intention of acting on my newfound feelings. She deserves better than what I am capable of giving her and Tristan. My heart split in half and was taken with my wife and son eleven years ago. Ashley deserves more than the broken man that’s left of me.
I rub my hands repeatedly up and down my face hoping last night was a bad dream but knowing it wasn’t. I don’t know how to handle this whole situation with Ashley. She is stubborn as hell and is refusing to quit stripping. Thinking about this is just pissing me off, so I get up and throw on my workout gear. I need to head to the gym to train with Alex and Caleb today. Fucking Caleb! I can’t believe he fucking hired Ashley as a goddamned stripper. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking.
I go into the kitchen and open the cabinet to find something to eat and notice every cabinet is about empty. I open the fridge and it’s empty as well. What the hell are her and Tristan eating? I scour through the drawers hoping to find a K cup to make myself a cup of coffee at least but only find a stack of papers. They are similar to the bills I found a few months ago which Ashley insisted were being handled. The only difference is those were first notices and these are final notices. I flip through the papers and find one that says notice of foreclosure. The date is scheduled for July twenty-second, which is a week away.
I hear her footsteps coming down the hall so I quickly throw all the papers back in the drawer and walk out to the living room.
“Morning.”
“Morning, were you looking for coffee in there? Sorry, I haven’t had time to go grocery shopping.”
“No problem, why don’t we grab coffee and breakfast out?”
“Ok, cool. I need to go to the gym anyway to get Tristan. Hayley is meeting me there with him.”
After stopping at a small diner for coffee and a bagel, we head straight to the gym. As we are walking up to the door I see Hayley, Marco, and Tristan walking up at the same time.
“I’m going to go catch up with her,” Ashley says.
I walk to the locker room and throw my gym bag and phone into a locker. Then I head to the octagon to go find Alex. Before I can make it out of the locker room I hear Stephen and a couple of other fighters talking.
“Bro, you should have seen her! She looked smoking fucking hot. I would sink my dick into her in a damn heartbeat.”
“Fuck yeah, man! And that outfit… Goddamn! That shit ended too quickly when Kaden threw her over his shoulder and…�
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I walk up to the group of them and grab the kid who just commented on her outfit, throwing him up against the wall. “Say another fucking word about Ashley and I will knock your teeth out. That goes for all of you. Got it?”
They all start apologizing but I don’t even stop to listen. There’s one person responsible for this shit and him and I are about to have some words. I stalk out to the main floor and look for Caleb. I spot him laughing with Cooper on the mat next to the octagon… and I snap.
Without even thinking, I grab him by his shoulder to spin him toward me and deck him in the face sending him flying backwards. Yeah, it was a sucker punch at its finest but I don’t give a fuck.
“What the fuck!” he shouts at me, his fingers touching his bloody lip.
“What the fuck were you thinking hiring Ashley to work at your fucking strip club! And on top of that not telling me!”
“Kaden, it wasn’t my place to say anything.” He shakes his head.
“Caleb!” Hayley comes running over and gets up in his face and judging by the tone in her voice, I have a feeling I wasn’t the only one he kept this secret from.
“Is it true? Is what Kaden saying true? Did you hire Ashley as a dancer?”
“Hayles…”
“Oh no! Don’t you ‘Hayles’ me! What were you thinking?”
Caleb glares at me pissed I just got him in the doghouse. Well good! He deserves it.
“Hayles, can we not do this here, please?”
“Fine, we will talk about this at home.” She pokes him in the chest with her finger and then stomps off.
I turn my attention back to Caleb. “You’re firing her.”
Caleb doesn’t even think about it before he says, “No, I’m not.”
I see red and go to deck him again. But before I can, Cooper and Alex jump in front of me to hold me back.
“Kaden, you need to walk away right now. Go for a walk, bro. Cool the fuck down. You aren’t doing this shit here. Not in my gym.” Cooper signals to the front door.
I shrug their hands off me and walk out the door slamming it closed behind me. Once I get outside, I keep walking. I have no idea where I am going but Cooper was right, I need to calm down before I do something I will regret.
“Kaden!” I hear someone calling my name so I look behind me to see who it is and spot Tristan running after me to catch up. I slow down to wait for him.
“Everything ok?”
“Yeah, I saw you punch Caleb and yell at him. I heard what you said. You told him to fire my mom.”
Oh fuck!
“You can’t have my mom fired. If you have her fired then she will have no job at all.”
“Listen buddy, I shouldn’t have said all that in front of you. It’s not your job to worry about grownup problems. Plus, your mom does have a job. She’s a teacher, remember?”
He shakes his head. “No, she’s not. I heard her tell Nana she was fired from work. And she packed up all her stuff from her classroom. She never packs it all up because every summer she teaches but this summer she isn’t teaching.”
What the hell is going on? Why was Ashley fired from the school she works at? So much is not adding up. She has been making ends meet for years. Something has changed and whatever it is, she doesn’t want me to know about it. And I have a sneaking suspicion that guy Giovanni is somehow tied to all this as well.
“It’s ok, bud. She’s not going to get fired from her job.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah, I promise. Does your mom know you followed me out here?”
He gives me a sheepish look, which tells me she has no idea.
“Let’s head back before your mom freaks out.”
Ashley
It’s been a week since Kaden found out I am a stripper and walked out of the gym pissed when Caleb refused to fire me. To say I was shocked Kaden actually punched Caleb in the face is putting it mildly. I felt so bad I offered to quit, but Caleb wasn’t having it. He said him and Kaden would work it out. I just wish I wouldn’t have placed him in the middle of my cluster-fuck.
The day after the fight, Kaden apparently texted me several times asking if he could bring dinner over. When I didn’t respond, he showed up with a pizza in his hand asking why I was ignoring him. I realized then my cell phone had gotten shut off because I couldn’t pay the bill, but there was no way I was telling him that. Instead, I told him it was broken.
As a result, the next day he showed up after work with a new iPhone. He added it to his plan and told me he got a good deal on it. It’s probably the most expensive phone I have ever touched so I seriously doubt he got a deal on it. I tried to refuse it but he totally played the mom card on me insisting Tristan might need to get ahold of me while at camp.
He, again, showed up with food, this time Chinese. The three of us watched a movie and after Tristan went to bed, we caught up on more episodes of House. Every morning this week, he has insisted we all go to breakfast before him and Tristan head to the gym. And when he walked into the kitchen as I was packing Tristan a peanut butter and jelly for lunch, he told me the program was buying them all lunch. I didn’t remember reading anything about them buying lunch, but I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
The fact is, Kaden has been a godsend this past week. I don’t even know how I would have fed Tristan and me. And just like he promised he would, every night he has watched Tristan on the nights I have had to work. I am kind of surprised he hasn’t once asked me to quit my job but I am hoping he has realized my money issues are my problem and it’s not his place to tell me where to work.
While Tristan has been at camp all week, I have spent every day in search of another job. I have filled out hundreds of applications, but I haven’t gotten a single bite. When I run out of places to apply to each day, I head over to Assets to learn more about the club and restaurant business. Caleb has been walking me through all the specifics of running a club, getting me acquainted with the ins and outs of the business, such as scheduling, hiring, and ordering. Liz covers all the payroll, Daniel, the chef, covers the menu items, and Jevon, the bar manager covers the bar ordering, but he wants me to learn it all so I when I take over, I will be able to know what it is I am supervising.
Now it’s July twenty-first and I have less than twenty-four hours to move all mine and Tristan’s stuff out but instead I am at work. I am well aware my being in denial is completely irresponsible and stupid, but I don’t really know what else to do at this point. This is the first time in my life I feel completely out of control and helpless. Even when Tyler walked out the door, I handled my shit.
Since I am not sure what is going to happen with the house and when they will be showing up to lock me out, I told Kaden I needed to bomb the house for bugs and asked if he could please watch Tristan at his place. He agreed without giving me an issue.
Before going into work, I moved our clothes and photo albums into my car the best I could until I figure it all out but I am at a complete loss as to what choice I should make. If I move to my parents’ house, I am too far to commute to work. If I don’t move there we will be homeless. I have already told my mom Tristan will be going back to her house for the rest of the summer. She clearly knows something is going on but has learned I need to handle it myself. Thankfully she always agrees to take Tristan without asking questions.
I have considered asking Caleb if I can sleep on his office couch on the nights I work but decided against it. I have put the poor guy through enough.
What I do know is if all my shit isn’t out of the house soon, the doors will be locked and I won’t be able to get any of it. Unfortunately, I can’t deal with it right now because I am at work and need to focus on making money.
“Hey boss.” I knock once and enter Caleb’s office. He is rolling his neck from side to side in a circular motion.
“Everything ok?”
“Oh yeah, it’s just great. My very hormonal pregnant wife has decided she is going to hold a grudge for n
ot forcing you to become my manager and has stuck my ass out on the couch for the last week. I think my neck has a permanent kink in it.”
“I am so sorry, Caleb. I can talk to Hayley. She didn’t mention it when we were hanging out the other day.”
Caleb waves me off. “Don’t worry about it. It’s all good.”
“Ok, well I was just checking in before I go on the floor. I checked on Daniel’s order and realized he forgot to place it. I added it to the calendar so it will alert him every week. He always seems to forget so hopefully that will help him to remember. I also moved some of the girls around because Kora is running late, and Annalise’s daughter has the stomach bug, so she might be out for a couple days.”
“Thank you, Ashley. Any more thoughts on hanging up your dancing heels and taking over fulltime?”
“Not yet, but I appreciate your confidence in me.”
“This might be a personal question but I have to ask. Are you going back to teaching in August?”
“No, my teaching career is over.”
“Ok, well I am sorry about that, but let’s keep working on you managing this place. Hayley is due in November so that only gives me four months to train you fully.”
“Ok, sounds good.”
“Hey Ashley!” Bianca pokes her head into the office.
I turn around to give her my attention “Yeah?”
“Your shift technically doesn’t start for five more minutes but you have a private dance request.”
“Ok, thanks. I’ll be out in a minute.”
I turn back to Caleb. “Duty calls.”
After quickly changing into my dancing costume since I will be dancing tonight and not waitressing, I head to find Bianca. She is the hostess and sets up all the private rooms as well as handles all the restaurant’s reservations.
“What room number?”
She glances at the sheet. “Room A.”
“Thanks, chica. Any requests?”
“Actually, yes. He requested a pole dance and a lap dance.”