Chapter 26
- Gulnara is here!
When I came out of the shower, I found Mikky all excited on Skype with her old friend from her Russian strip club times. Gulnara and Mikky were doing a lot of things together, they were “dance partners”, they both “got married” almost at the same time and even rented apartments in the same building, Mikky on the 7th floor, Gulnara on the 4th. The only thing they didn’t have in common was the country of choice. Just like me, Mikky was in love with New York City, she was the biggest American patriot that you could possibly find (well, maybe, except me); Gulnara, on the other hand, was always longing more towards Russia, and as soon as she got her temporary bride’s visa after her “marriage”, she went back home for almost two month and came back to New York just two days before her interview for a temporary Green Card.
- Oh great! Say hi from me. – I was getting ready to see R. after almost a week. The gas shortage didn’t stop him from coming to Brooklyn, even though it came to such ridiculousness as people driving to Connecticut to fill up their tanks, or closing of the Verrazano Bridge to prevent all the incoming traffic to the city to keep what was left of the city gas from the Jersey “smarty pants”.
- I’m going to see her right now! I’m so excited! Yay!
- I’m glad you are. – I smiled at her. – R. is picking me up to get some food for us, so I’ll call you when I’m outside the building, you’ll drop the keys for me, ok?
- Ok, baby, say hi to R. from me and have fun, you guys!
I was very excited to see my R. because I missed him like crazy, but I wasn’t too sure about the fun: the heat still wasn’t on and I had a feeling that I was getting sick. The stressing out over my apartment in Oceana, the situation with which was still unresolved as because of Sandy they postponed the court hearings for three more weeks and I didn’t want to move in until I was one hundred percent sure that everything was fine. The Sandy nightmares, Coconut’s stupidity and lack of vitamins really took a toll on me; I just didn’t feel right.
However, as soon as I saw R., smiling at me from his car parked outside, I forgot all about it. We were hugging and kissing for about ten minutes before we drove off and I kept telling him that he can’t leave me alone for so long anymore. But we had to face another problem now: finding the food in the area. It turned out that all the stores around us suffered greatly from the storm and now all we saw next to Wallbaums and Stop & Shop were garbage trucks taking all the food gone bad, and sanitation trucks pumping the water out.
- I can’t believe they are all closed! It’s been more than a week now! How is it in Staten Island?
- Well, in my area it’s all fine, we are up there. – R. explained to me. – And don’t forget the gas problem, now they probably can’t bring the food in because of it too.
- God! It looks like one of those movies about the end of the world, like “The Day After Tomorrow”!
We didn’t die of course, but for the first time people of New York found out that they weren’t so safe anymore. And it was a very scary realization.
The first working food store we only found was on Kings Highway, and it was packed like an ant farm. As soon as we entered, I had a major flashback to the early 90’s in Russia, when I was a little girl, whom her mommy was dragging around in those huge malls with almost no food, but lines coming out to the streets. And money wouldn’t do anything if you didn’t have special food stamps. I still have a social phobia thanks to those “happy” memories of my childhood, I completely freak out if I have to wait for a train in one of those tiny stations in Manhattan during the rush hour. But it was all new to R., and for the first time I saw an Italian mobster, who would give the toughest guys beatings of their lives, trying to get away from the crazy Russian women “hunting” for food. It is a scary sight, and you don’t want to be in their way: they have years of experience of elbow-pushing people out of their way and insulting nice and polite Americans in their native Russian language. There you go, the real concrete jungle!
We finally got all we needed and I took shocked R. back to the car. He joked that the last person who he would want to deal with from now on, was a “crazy Russian babushka”. But the tough “post-apocalyptic” shopping was the last straw, and I started to feel really bad.
- I think you have a fever, baby. – R. looked concerned touching my hot forehead. – Let me take you to the pharmacy so you can get some medicine.
I was feeling nauseous and just wanted to go home and lay down, but R. insisted on stopping at the CVS. After he got me some Dayquil, cough drops and nasal spray, we headed back home. I was resting my head on R.’s shoulder when my phone rang. It was Mikky.
- Hi, baby, - she had her “I-have-an-offer-for-you” voice on. – How is shopping doing?
- Oh, don’t even ask, baby! Everything around us is still closed and we had to drive to Kings Highway to get some food. It looks like the frigging stamp system of the 90’s in Russia!
- Are you serious? Oh my God!
- Yep. You wanted something, sweetie?
- Yes, I have a great offer for you. – I could almost hear her smiling on the other side.
- What kind of an offer?
- Gulnara doesn’t want to stay here, she decided that she wants to come back to Russia for good. But she has no one to give her apartment to. So…would you be interested in taking it?
- It’s a very strong possibility I would. – I started smiling too. An apartment right in Mikky’s building that I got so used to, the area I already knew so well, it would be just a perfect deal. – How many bedrooms does she have in there?
- It’s a one bedroom apartment, she’ll give it to you with the new furniture and the TV. And she just did the new floors as soon as she moved in.
- How much is she paying for it?
- Twelve hundred.
- I’ll take it!
- I knew you would! – Mikky started laughing. – So get your butt back home and she’ll show you everything, ok?
- Great! I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.
R. was very happy to hear the good news too. We will finally have our own apartment, just the two of us and our puppy.
- But what about that landlady and her apartment? – that was R.’s only concern.
- Oh, she’ll be dragging ass for two more months with her court, and I don’t want to be a burden for Mikky. Besides, she told me that if I want to cancel the lease, she’ll just give me my money back, so I think I’ll just take Gulnara’s apartment and forget all about her.
- Ok, baby, whatever you feel is best for you.
- I’m so excited! We’ll finally have our own place!
- Ok, excited, let me take those bags upstairs and go rest, you don’t look right and I don’t like it.
After R. helped me with the bags and I kissed him goodbye, I came down to the 4th floor to take a look at Gulnara’s apartment. Gulnara and Mikky were sitting at the little dining table drinking tea.
- Can you imagine, Gulnara’s leaving tomorrow! – Mikky was all upset.
I gave Gulnara a hug and sat down with them.
- You’re leaving? I thought you had your interview in a couple of days.
- Yes, but I won’t go. As soon as I landed, I realized that I don’t belong here. I love Russia and I want to live in Russia. So I already booked the flight and I’m leaving tomorrow morning.
- Tell her that she has to stay at least three more days, get her Green Card and then go! – Mikky was trying to persuade Gulnara, but I could see by the look on Gulnara’s face, she already made up her mind.
- I don’t need a Green Card. I don’t want to live here, I’m one hundred percent sure. So don’t even waste your time trying to talk me out of it. – She smiled at Mikky. – So, Mila, do you want to take my apartment?
- Sure, I’ll take it!
- Look around then, - Gulnara escorted me to the bedroom and showed me the room. – Everything’s new, I just bought all this furniture. The bed, the mattress, the d
ressing table… Here’s the closet, it’s pretty big as you can see. Here is the bathroom, the paint is peeling though, I didn’t have time to paint it, I’m sorry.
- That’s fine, I’ll paint it all myself, no problem.
- Here is the kitchen, it’s not brand new, but still very pretty. And here’s the living room, here is the TV, I didn’t have time to get the cable though, but it’s a smart TV and works as the computer with WiFi, so you can watch movies via internet. I’m sorry, I understand, it’s maybe not by your taste…
- Oh, what are you talking about? I love it! I love everything white too, I would probably do all the same!
I wasn’t lying. I loved her white leather couches, her white glass coffee table, her white dining set, white cabinets in the kitchen, white bed with white dressing table… Bacteria-phobic as I was, I found my perfect apartment: I could wipe off the dust as soon as it would land on my new white furniture.
- Use the treadmill too, I didn’t really have time to run on it. And I’ll leave you all the information for my electric bills and the internet, so you can pay for it. When the lease expires, you can change it all to your name.
- Ok, no problem. So how much do you want for all the furniture?
- Together with the floors, I was thinking five thousand, but if you don’t want the furniture, I’ll sell it to somebody.
- No, no, I love it!
- And this month rent is paid, so don’t worry about it.
- Great! My landlady is supposed to come back in ten days, so can I send you the money by Western Union?
- Sure you can.
- So it’s a deal.
- It’s a deal.
And just like that, after a hug and a handshake, I got the perfect new apartment without even expecting it. Also, the same day, I got a really bad flu that kept me in bed for almost two weeks.
Chapter 27
After fourteen days of sitting home and taking care of myself, I didn’t feel like going back to work at all. I finally unpacked all my stuff and had enough time to decide what I wanted to do with my new apartment. Whoever painted it before had no taste whatsoever, because I could not imagine how a normal person could possibly paint the bedroom dirty gray, living room greenish-dirty-grey and the hall bricky-maroon-“dogshit”-brown. I decided my bedroom will be powder pink with white, my living room creamy white and my hall will be happy Christmas red. I even went to Marshall’s that just opened nearby that didn’t suffer from Sandy at all, and got some new bed sheets and accessories for my new apartment. After so much time of moving from place to place I could finally call it my home, I could finally settle down and enjoy the life with my man who I loved so much and our puppy Eliana. R. domesticated me to the point where I was actually enjoying cooking (and I always hated the kitchen!), he treated me like a princess, and all his friends became our friends, so the profession of a stripper didn’t quite fit in our new lifestyle anymore. But I still owed Gulnara five thousand, and my landlady all of a sudden didn’t bother to return my calls anymore. I went through her mail that I picked up for her right after Sandy and after reading several bank statements I realized that she owed the banks several thousand as well, so I figured till I somehow get my money back, I’ll have to go back to work.
December is normally one of the best months of the year for strip clubs: happy customers in a festive mood spend all kinds of money like there’s no tomorrow and girls get Christmas presents from their regulars. This year’s December, however, was dead as dead can be. Some people lost their houses, some were still fighting with their insurance companies to get their money to cover damage and repair costs. Sandy messed up a lot of businesses and “Velvet” was one of them. It was like as if everything all of a sudden was against me working there; even Coconut started complaining that he was spending too much money on the rooms. “My sister saw my bank statement and she was wondering how come I went through $10K last month… I didn’t realize I was spending so much”, - he texted me one day. “Ten grand?! It was good if I got $3K out of it”, I thought, because of how stupid he was, Coconut didn’t think of how the club was getting the third of the price of a room; how he was paying for drinks and $8 shots and massages from his credit card; he somehow assumed that I was getting all that money, and after his offer to start “real dating” outside the club, I told him to go fuck himself and to never text me again.
After a very painful break-up with Tony, Mikky couldn’t make herself go back to “Velvet” and see him and Stina together, so she decided to go dance in one of the most popular clubs in Manhattan. Without my best friend there, it got really boring at work, even though Emily was keeping me company and cheering me up. R. stopped coming to the club a long time ago, as he couldn’t see me sitting and talking to other guys, let alone doing rooms and giving lap dances, so that December stayed in my mind as a very quiet month of pole dancing with Emily (we had to somehow entertain ourselves, so we kept learning new tricks every night); very happy but also very rare contractors as customers (they were the only ones who were making money at the time) and very miserable income.
_______________
When everything gets so bad at once in some aspect of your life, the whole universe pushes you to understand that this is the finished chapter of your life and you have to move on. However, my “career” came to an end very unexpectedly even for me.
Christmas party at “Velvet” I spent not as a dancer, but as R.’s date; a lot of his friends showed up, and it was strictly prohibited to all the dancers in the club to mention that I was one of them. R. and I had a lot of fun, unlike Zed, who was staring at us all night from his DJ booth, trying to kill us both with the power of his mind. R. was making fun of him, saying that this year wasn’t good for Zed at all: first his girl dumped him, then he lost his house during the hurricane and now he had to live at his friends’… “So sad”, - R. was saying with a Spanish accent, imitating our favorite comedian George Lopez, - “Such a loss…so young…” I couldn’t stop laughing.
The New Year’s Eve we decided to spend at our friends’ restaurant in the Italian Bronx, and a couple of days prior to that R. and I decided to take a little break from work and just lock away in our new apartment and cuddle, watch TV and order delivery food. I called the house mom to cancel my shift that I was supposed to do in a couple of days, blaming it on the fact that R. and I had to pick up my friend from the airport. I never had a problem with her before, but that particular time something got into her head and she texted me the night before my shift saying that she couldn’t find a replacement for me and if she doesn’t have a certain amount of girls, the manager will be very unhappy. I texted her back that I couldn’t do it. R. and I were on our way to our dinner with R.’s business partner and his wife, when the manager of “Velvet” Shawn called R.’s cell asking about the whole situation with me. R. explained to him that I had to pick somebody up from the airport and I gave the house mom a two days’ notice, so it was all cool. For some reason something got into Shawn’s head too, as he started threatening R. that he would fire me if I don’t show up. The whole threatening idea wasn’t too good to begin with, as R. couldn’t stand anybody getting fresh with him, so after quickly putting the guy in his place and finished yelling, R. turned to me and said:
- I’m sorry, baby, I don’t want you to see me angry like that. But he started the whole thing, and you know that you can’t threaten me.
I laughed.
- Am I in trouble? Can I still go back to work or am I fired?
- You’re not fired, baby, but you’re not going back there anymore. I don’t want other guys touching you or talking to you, it makes me sick just thinking about it. From now on, you’re staying home and I’ll take care of you.
And with these words R. finished my old life and gave me a new one, he gave me the best present of that New Year – the possibility to start everything from a blank sheet, a chance to start all over again, with him by my side, hand in hand, through good and bad, always together forever.
Epilogue.
R. and I painted our bedroom pink, even though he was making faces at me at the Home Depot when I was choosing the paint, and bought a new pink bed for our puppy. My new job is to dress up and look beautiful for the only man in my life and drive around with him to his sign business appointments. He keeps saying that I am “so annoying” when I ask him to stop for a bite or for a bathroom break, but we always have the best time goofing around in our second home – R.’s car. R. quit smoking and I started doing yoga on a regular basis. We honestly tried on cutting out the alcohol, but it didn’t work out too well, since our busy schedule includes going out three to four times a week.
After I quit my job, Emily became good friends with Megan, who lost her best friend Alana, when the last one got pregnant from her customer and now current boyfriend. She now lives alone, raising a son and drives a new BMW convertible. Emily and Megan rented an apartment in Bay Ridge and now go to parties, basketball games and night clubs. Megan got fired for her constant drinking and calling the manager Shawn an asshole. She currently works at “The Stable”. Emily is looking for an apartment to live alone with her kitty cat and trying to quit her job as well. I’ve always been saying that she was too good for it. We are still great friends and I wish everything works out for my little doll.
Lexi was suffering for quite a long time because of her moving to New Jersey from her beloved Manhattan, but she got quite used to it, and now she and Kevin are expecting their first baby together. She finally accepted her lifestyle as a Jersey housewife, found several girlfriends in her area and sometimes calls me and R. to get together for a double date.
Coconut didn’t come back to “Velvet” for over six months, but on the first night he came back, he ran into me and R. having a party with our friends. He was smart (or cowardly) enough not to come up to me to say hello, but Margarita, the massage girl, had to listen all night to him saying how his “girlfriend of six months” Milana dumped him for her boss and how hurt and heartbroken he was. I don’t know if he ever came back to “Velvet” after that and what happened to that restaurant he was going to buy.
The New York Doll Page 15