by Day, Desiree
“What do you think about her dancing?” Palmer asked, gesturing toward the dancer in front of them. While attractive, she barely looked old enough to be in the club. She still had the fresh face optimism that said that she loved the money and attention.
Brooke shrugged. “She’s okay. Why?”
“I was going to give you a five to stick in her G-string.”
Brooke blanched. No matter how good of a dancer she thought the stripper was, she wasn’t going to stick any money anywhere on her. She took a sip of her club soda and didn’t say anything. Brooke wanted to break Ebony’s rule about no alcohol, she had a feeling that she’d be needing something stronger than club soda to get her through the night.
Palmer shrugged, got up and walked to the edge of the stage then tossed two one dollar bills at the dancer. He got back to the table just in time to see her scoop them up.
“Look at her,” he sneered. “She really thinks she deserves that money. She’s lucky, I didn’t throw a quarter at her,” he finished meanly.
Horrified, she shot up. “I’ll be right back. I need to go to the ladies’ room.”
She hurried away before he could say anything.
Brooke refreshed her makeup. Yes, he’s an asshole, but a rich asshole, if things go left tonight, then we’re through. I won’t see him again, she decided while reapplying a fresh layer of lipstick.
Feeling better, she sauntered back to her table to find a stripper giving Palmer a lap dance. Brooke stood rooted to the floor, she couldn’t move and when she finally got the urge to, she wasn’t sure if she should sit at the table or stand until they were done, she felt like an intruder. The look on Palmer’s face while the stripper rubbed her bottom across his crotch said it all. He was grinning as though he had won the lottery.
“Hey Brooke, this is Cinnamon Buns she’s going to hang out with us for a while. Come sit down.”
Cinnamon quickly appraised Brooke, she liked what she saw, she winked at her. Brooke’s stomach rolled with revulsion.
Brooke shook her head. “I can’t,” she muttered, her eyes wide with shock.
Palmer took one look at her and gently nudged the dancer on her shoulder, when she didn’t stop he firmly grabbed her by the arms, forcing her still. “Thanks babe, you’ve earned your money, now go.”
“Okay Daddy.” She slid off, kissed Palmer on the lips and sauntered off in her five-inch heels, looking for her next trick.
Palmer immediately got up and wrapped his arms around Brooke’s shoulders. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” he said leading her back to their table.
Brooke wanted to scream, “You’ve been making me uncomfortable from the moment you picked me up.” But she didn’t, instead she returned to her seat.
Four acts later, Brooke’s stomach was growling. She hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, nine hours ago. Brooke turned to him. “Hey, I’m hungry, can we go get something to eat?” she pleaded.
Palmer grinned slyly and his eyes glinted dangerously. “Sure if you can do me a favor.”
“What?” she asked, her hunger forgotten. By the look in his eyes she had the feeling she wasn’t going to like what he wanted her to do.
“Give me ten minutes I’ll be right back.” He raced away and Brooke pulled out her phone to check for messages, anything to keep her from having to look at her surroundings. She tucked it back in her purse when Palmer returned, fifteen minutes later.
He grabbed her hand. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” she asked nervously.
“You’ll see.”
Brooke let herself be led across the floor and down a corridor. They stopped in front of a door with the number four painted on it. Palmer knocked firmly before pushing it open.
The room was even darker than the club. When Brooke’s eyes adjusted, her eyes skated over the olive green shag rug on the floor, a leather couch and a lady standing in the middle of the room. Brooke’s gaze locked on her. Wearing only a G-string and six-inch stilettoes she oddly reminded her of herself during her seduction at Addison’s.
“Hey I’m Velvet,” she drawled.
“Hey pretty lady, this is Brooke.” Palmer pushed her forward. “Here’s your lover.”
“What?” Brooke shrieked.
“Oh, I can work with this,” Velvet practically purred.
Palmer ignored her. He sauntered over to a side table, pulled out his wad of money and fanned out twenty one hundred dollar bills. He turned to Brooke. “All this is yours if you two get it on.”
Brooke’s eyes grew as wide as dishes. “I can’t, I’ve never been with another lady before,” she stuttered. She began fearfully backing toward the door.
Palmer beat her to it, blocking her exit, Velvet smirked and made no effort to help her. “You’re not going anywhere. You two are going to enjoy each other. And you might be surprised, you might like it. I’ve seen many bitches convert after Velvet finished with them.”
Brooke shook her head. “I can’t.”
“You will! You’re not going anywhere until you do. Now do it!” He lifted his shirt to show a gun holstered to his side. He patted it. “Now do it!”
Brooke backed away, not taking her eyes off the weapon. Tears streamed down her face as she stepped out of her shoes. Her hands were shaking so bad that she could barely unzip her dress. She shot Palmer an imploring look, hoping that he’ll change his mind. He didn’t. She stood naked in the middle of the floor.
Palmer dropped his pants then kicked them in the corner, his underwear quickly followed. He sat on the couch, grabbed his dick and began stroking it. “Ready. Set. Go!”
Velvet tried to kiss Brooke but Brooke frowned and twisted her head away. Velvet shrugged. She cupped Brooke’s breasts and began squeezing them. Brooke cried harder.
Velvet ignored her as she bent down and swiped her tongue over Brooke’s nipples, when they didn’t harden, she brought them to her mouth and sucked them. Brooke continued to sob. Velvet stopped and frowned at Palmer.
“Keep going,” he gasped, he was close to exploding.
Velvet shrugged then dropped to her knees. She began kissing her way south, down to Brooke’s mound. When her lips touched Brooke’s pussy, Brooke doubled over, gasping, her tears coming down in torrents.
“Oh hell,” Velvet spat, disgusted. “I can’t do this. I feel like I’m raping her. Do I still get paid?”
“Come over here and finish me,” he said in a strangled voice, ignoring her question.
She hurried over, dropped down in front of him and began sucking his dick. Palmer closed his eyes, his head lolled back, he groaned. A minute later he exploded in her mouth. She happily swallowed, got up, and wiped a hand across her mouth.
“Pick up that money,” Palmer said, a lot calmer now since he had gotten his release.
She picked it up and pranced over to Palmer and jiggled her titties in his face. “Thanks Daddy.” Without a backward glance she strutted out of the room.
When they were alone, Palmer grabbed five twenties from his roll and tossed them at Brooke’s feet. “You don’t deserve this, but I’m feeling generous.”
He got dressed. “Look for me when you’re done,” he ordered. As soon as the door closed, Brooke vomited on the horrible shag rug.
After she dressed, she stumbled into the bathroom where she cleaned her face the best she could and rinsed out her mouth. Even though the incident happened fifteen minutes ago, she was still trembling with rage when she found Palmer. “I’m ready to go!”
“Well go,” Palmer said dismissingly. “I’m not keeping you here.”
“You drove.”
Palmer looked her up and down. “So?”
“So! You’re going to drive me back to my car.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Yes you will.”
“There is no law that I have to take you back to your car. Find another way to get back to it. Now leave me alone. I want to enjoy the show.” He picked up a boiled shrimp a
nd began skinning it, dismissing her.
“Palmer!” She grabbed his shoulder to get his attention, without even looking at her he shrugged her off, while keeping his gaze fixed on the dancers. “Don’t you ignore me!” she screamed. “I’ll call the police.”
Palmer threw down a shrimp, stood up and glared at her. “Get the fuck away from me or you’re gonna be sorry,” he said his voice deadly.
Brooke stumbled back with fear. Palmer glared at her one last time before he returned to his seat and resumed eating his shrimp.
Brooke turned to go, suddenly she felt somebody take her hand and relief washed over her. Palmer had changed his mind. She looked up and her relief turned to horror, it wasn’t Palmer holding her hand it was a stranger, she snatched her hand away. “What’s wrong baby, I thought you needed a ride, I’ll take you home.”
Brooke raced out of the club. She gulped in the fresh air, she didn’t realize how hot it was inside. She stood aside, it was late and the parking lot was just as busy as inside. People were milling around, the pungent smell of weed wafted to her, and she almost retched at the scent.
She fished around in her purse for her phone. She didn’t bother to try Ebony, lately she’s been unreliable, she certainly couldn’t call Addison. A police car cruised by and her heart lurched, Officer Ferguson. But it wasn’t him.
“I guess I’d better call a cab.” She eased as close as she could to the entrance without blocking it. The last thing she needed to happen was for anybody to notice that she was alone. She quickly Googled a cab company. After ordering one, she scanned the faces of the bouncers and walked up to the most pleasant looking one of the crew. “Mind if I sit inside until my cab come.”
Her hunch had paid off, because not only had he agreed, but when her cab came, he pitched in twenty dollars toward her fare, either he was super nice, or he knew what an asshole Palmer really was.
All the way home, Palmer texted her nonstop. By the time she paid the one hundred dollar fare and stepped into her house, she had over thirty texts from him. They alternated between calling her beautiful and how sorry he was to the other extreme, that she was a stupid bitch.
“Psycho asshole,” she murmured before deleting them all.
Chapter 10
Brooke threw on her coat and stepped outside, she locked the door behind her. It was Christmas Eve and normally she and Jaden would walk through the neighborhood to ooh and aah over the decorations, but he was still in Buffalo. Even though it wasn’t fun to go without him, she felt worse by staying in the empty house.
It was cold, but not Buffalo cold, her mother had told her the high for the day was fifteen degrees and they already had ten inches of snow. “At least my baby will have a white Christmas,” she whispered, trying to see the bright side.
She had thought about flying there and surprising him, but by the time she looked at fares they were almost six hundred dollars. She immediately nixed the idea. Thanksgiving was extra quiet. She had spent it by herself doing some projects around the house she had been putting off.
She trudged along the sidewalk barely acknowledging the decorations. There was a group of carolers up ahead. In years past, if she was in the mood, she’d joined them, but not tonight. She had made a batch of oatmeal cranberry raisin cookies, just for guests stopping by. Not that she got any of those now. Ever since she had lost her job, most of her friends had stopped calling. At first she called them and scheduled lunch, but when she figured that she was the one doing all the calling and inviting, she had stopped. She wasn’t sure if it was because they thought her joblessness was contagious, or they didn’t know what to say, or they really weren’t her friends in the first place. Whatever it was, their absence in her life left a hole.
She waved to the carolers when she passed them, they all waved back without missing a beat. Brooke focused on the houses, they were all so festive, although a lot of her neighbors wouldn’t admit it, but they were really competitive with their holiday decorations. They really tried to outdo one another and the result was a spectacular light show that lasted from Thanksgiving until the first week in January.
After a half hour she retraced her steps back to her house where she pulled off her coat then went into the kitchen for her cookies. She put them on a covered dish then placed them on a small stool right next to the front door. The carolers would enjoy these when they stop by.
She was resting on the couch, watching TV, when she heard the doorbell, she ignored it. She really wasn’t in the mood to listen to the carolers sing and she wasn’t expecting anybody. Even though they knew she was home, they’d probably think she was on the phone or soaking in a bubble bath and after taking some cookies, they’d move onto the next house.
Ebony had finally resurfaced after being MIA, she didn’t offer an explanation nor an apology. Ebony had already dropped off her Christmas gift, a five hundred dollar gift card to Publix grocery store and another five hundred dollar Macy’s gift card. Her generosity had made her cry.
The doorbell pealed again, insistent enough to force her up. She looked through the peephole and she gasped with surprise. She pulled open the door and jumped into his arms. She covered his face with kisses.
“What are you doing here?” she finally asked, when she finished kissing him.
He looked so handsome, his cheeks were red from the cold, his blond hair, tousled by the wind, sexily flopped across his forehead and his green eyes were bright with excitement. “To wish you a Merry Christmas, you didn’t think that I would ignore you did you?”
Willow shrugged, she wasn’t sure what to expect in their pseudo relationship. And she was too busy missing Jaden than to worry about seeing him. “I didn’t know.” She tugged at his arm. “Come on in.”
He stood still, not budging. “Give me a minute, I need to get some things out of the car.”
She peeked around him, in place of his usual Corvette was a conservative black Mercedes.
“Okay sure.”
She stepped back in and quickly surveyed the living room. Fortunately, she had cleaned it up a couple of days ago. With Jaden gone, she only had to clean up once a week if even that often, as opposed to every day when he was home. A pang of loneliness hit her at the memory of her son. She paused and tamped it down.
Addison returned several minutes later, just as she was feeling normal again.
He had several bags. “What’s all this?” she asked excitedly.
“Your Christmas gifts.” He slipped off his shoes and followed her into the living room. She took his coat and tossed it across the arm of a chair. “You don’t even have a tree,” he observed.
“Yeah, and you’d better not have one in your bags,” she answered jokingly.
“What happened to your tree?”
Brooke cast her eyes downward. “I didn’t see the point, since my son isn’t here. I didn’t feel like celebrating.”
“Hey, I’m sorry. I’m glad that I came over.” He reached into a bag and pulled out a gaily wrapped gift. “Here open this one first.”
Brooke slowly pulled off the paper, savoring the experience, she opened the top of the box, inside was an orange string bikini. “This is hot, did you want me to model it for you now?” she asked, her voice teasing.
“Nope, you can model it for me in Belize, because that’s where we’re going for New Year’s.”
Brooke squealed and jumped into his lap. “Belize, for real? OMG, that is so awesome. But how can you get away? Your wife…” she said awkwardly, she rarely mentioned her.
Addison waved her concerns away. “I told her that I had a conference in L.A. she never checks, so she never suspects a thing.”
“Oh, okay,” she answered and pushed her guilty feelings away.
Addison gently nudged her off him. “Here open this.” He handed her a long jewelry box.
Brooke eagerly opened it. Diamonds glittered at her. She pulled out the thin rope of diamonds. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed.
“Let me put it on
,” Addison offered. Brooke proffered her arm and he secured the dainty bracelet around her wrist.
He handed her a small bag. “Let me give you this now before it gets lost in the crowd.”
Brooke’s eyes were shiny with tears. “You’ve already given me so much, a diamond bracelet, the trip to Belize, you don’t have to give me whatever this is.”
Addison grinned. “Open it!”
Brooke pulled out gold tissue paper and left it in a pile in front of her. Nestled on top of another cloud of tissue paper was a red envelope. She reached for it. Inside was a card, she opened it and a check fell out and fluttered to the floor.
“You dropped something.”
“I got it, I wanted to read the card.” She took a moment to read the card. “This is nice thank you.” She picked up the check then choked back a sob. “Addison you’re being too generous.”
“It’s because I care about you and I want to make sure you’re taken care of. It’s not that much,” he said modestly.
“Yes it is.” He had written her a check for twenty-five thousand dollars. She had more than enough money to bring Jaden back home. Her hands began shaking and she leaned back.
“Hey, are you okay?” Addison asked concerned.
Brooke nodded. “Yeah, just shocked that’s all. You shocked me,” she said, her voice wobbly.
Addison pulled Brooke into his lap, she nestled her head against his chest. “Feel better?”
Brooke nodded. “I do, thanks. You just overwhelm me sometimes. I love you.” She shot up, narrowly clipping Addison on the chin, and hopped off his lap. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that. I guess it’s that time of the year,” she offered lamely. She knew that she didn’t love him, she liked him a lot. She knew those three little words were a reaction to all his phenomenal gifts and the money.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not offended,” he grinned easily at her, letting her know that everything was cool. “Let’s go upstairs where you can really show me how sorry you are.” He winked at her.