Chapter One – Jack #2
Thea gave me a relieved smile, red lips stretched wide. “Then a Jack and Coke, please.”
“Sure thing.”
I left and returned with her drink, likely all Diet Coke since the bartenders were on the girls’ side, and my drink, definitely straight Coke—I’d already had enough to drink tonight.
She was mirage-like enough, I didn’t want alcohol to make the memories fade.
She was still standing, although there were a few empty tables, then I realized the problem.
Strippers weren’t allowed to actually sit with customers—only sit on them.
As I tried to figure out how to navigate that, Bruce returned with my hundred and gave us both a once-over.
“Do I give this to you or do I give it to her?” he asked with a sly grin.
Thea answered before I could. “Him. I might want the chance to earn it out of him later.”
“So be it,” he said, sliding the bill in-between my fingers and the sweating glass. “I’m old and poor and going to bed—unless you’ve got a sister?”
“Fresh out, I’m afraid,” Thea said with her slight Texan drawl.
“Damn,” Bruce cursed, and then gave me a ‘Don’t screw this up’ clap on the shoulder before walking toward the door, leaving me alone with her.
“Is there somewhere…real we can go?” I asked.
Her red lips twisted, acknowledging how hard it was to get to reality from here. “Yeah. But I’m afraid I’m gonna need that hundred.”
I gave it to her without thinking and let her lead me into the back.
Thea pulled me in, sauntering—I wondered if it was possible not to saunter in those heels—until we walked past a very large Samoan man and into a private room.
It held a smaller central stage, but you could tuck into any of ten different booths along the walls here for private shows, each separated from the rest by glittering curtains providing the illusion of privacy.
She drew me into one of these and ran back out, leaving me looking at an empty brass pole before darting back in.
“Sorry—the cash—it was to bribe him not to bust us,” she said with a head tilt toward the muscle and then she sat beside me.
“Then it was well spent.” I offered her her drink and she took it. “Soooo…” I began, drawing the word out.
“Soooo…” she said, mimicking me. “Are you okay? I—I always wanted to ask, but the longer I waited the harder it was and so I guess I just gave up.” Her shoulders slumped.
“You knew what happened?” I’d always wondered if she had—and if she was somehow on Duncan’s side.
She caught one of my hands with both her own. “I told him not to. I even broke up with him. But that just made him angrier and I didn’t know what to do.”
I looked down at the hand she held, the oddity of her unmarked flesh so close to mine. “I don’t think you could’ve changed anything, Thea. Besides, by then I was pretty used to getting beat up.”
She winced. “I’m so sorry, Jack. If I’d known—"
“It’s fine.” I lifted my hand, breaking the contact between us. True, I’d been angry for a long time afterwards—but in the scope of things, it was just one more thing to add to my list. I’d been an angry kid. “How was LA?”
Thea brought her hands demurely back to one knee.
“Hard. Harder than this, if you can believe that.” She recrossed her legs and I tried to ignore the way her coat rode up.
“High school was such a breeze, I just thought I’d be able to go out there and conquer the world, you know?
Waitress some, audition some, and then eventually someone would pick me. ”
“How could they not?”
“Jack,” she said. “Shush.”
I inhaled to remind her of how locally famous she’d been, back in the day—and then realized it wasn’t likely to help anything, and actually might hurt her feelings. My defense mechanism had always been not to have dreams, all the better to never have them crushed—but she had, and they had been.
She took a sip of her drink. “The only guys who wanted to take me seriously were the ones who wanted to sleep with me. At least out here I get paid if they think like that.”
“Yeah,” I said softly, agreeing, because I didn’t know what else to do.
“What about you? What brings you here?” Her voice was perky again. I could feel her putting her sexy armor back on and would do just about anything for her not to.
“The usual. After high school my folks kicked me out and I made some bad decisions, until I wound up in Dallas and started working at Bruce’s shop.”
“Doing?”
“Tattoos.” I was wearing a long sleeved button down shirt and went for my throat, undoing the first few buttons quickly, revealing the head of the dragon that curled up from my chest and over my shoulder.
Thea looked amused. “That’s a change.”
“What is?”
“A guy taking off his clothes for me.”
I laughed. “What should I charge you?” I asked, flipping my collar back and forth dramatically.
She giggled as I buttoned my shirt back up.
“This is Bruce’s—kind of an initiation. He won’t let you tattoo anywhere on someone else that you don’t have one first. But I’ve done tons of them now—I’ve got pictures on my phone if you want to see. ” Anything to keep talking to her.
“Sure,” she said, leaning in.
I pulled my phone out and thumbed through them, telling her each one’s story—why the person had gotten it, what’d made it memorable or hard—tattoos I hadn’t quite talked people out of, the ones I actually had.
“So you didn’t just take their money?”
“I did a few times. But if I’m not good at something—or if their urge to have all of their children’s faces inside a kaleidoscope on their navel is incurable—I send them elsewhere.”
“That’s good,” she said. “You’re a gentleman.”
“Heh.” With the thoughts I was having about her now, I wasn’t sure that I qualified. But I smiled down at her—now that we were seated, she was the height that I remembered—and she smiled back until she saw something that I didn’t see and leapt into my lap, startling me.
The golden curtain parted and a beautiful dark-skinned woman leaned in. “Ruby?”
“Yes, Miss Rosalie?” Thea asked, twisting back toward her, while grinding against me. Her arms were in a tangle around my neck, and I could smell her so clearly, soap and a floral shampoo mixed with healthy sweat from dancing.
The dark woman gave me a piercing look and spoke with a French accent. “Are you a satisfied customer?” she asked. Her words practically compelled an answer.
“Yes. Of course,” I answered honestly, then glanced at Thea. All her wriggling was making me hard—I hoped to hell she didn’t notice. An uncontrollable dick in high school was one thing, but now I was a grown man. “With her, who wouldn’t be?”
Her lips pursed and she gave Thea a look. “Don’t take your job here for granted, just because of your connections.”
“I wouldn’t dare,” Thea said.
“You’d best not,” she said and pulled back, leaving the shimmering curtain shaking behind. I exhaled a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
“How can someone so pretty be so frightening?” Thea wondered aloud.
I had so many answers for that right now, but she turned towards me before I could say anything. “Sorry, that was my boss,” she said, bouncing off of me to stand.
As for me, it was too late. Despite all my best intentions and thinking of anything but her butt, she’d given me a raging hard on—and she knew it. She probably had a telepathic sense for them, a kind of professional ESP.
“Sorry. Not always such a gentleman,” I apologized.
The corners of her sparkling lips pulled up into a conquering smile. “A gentleman doesn’t have to be a saint.”
Before I could ask her what that meant—if anything—she took a step away. “Rosalie’s right—I’ve got to get back out there, you know how it is.”
“Yeah, totally.” I stood and nodded eagerly, taking my out. “It was good seeing you, Thea.”
“You too, Jack.” Her accent had been crawling back all evening, as if brought out by my own. “I miss Texas out here.”
“Hell, I’ve only been here for three days, and I miss it.”
“You won’t say, uh…” she said with a shrug, to indicate the rest of everything.
“Not a word.” The few friends I’d stayed in touch with after high school, either they wouldn’t believe me or they didn’t deserve to know. I reached out and pulled the curtain aside, and she seemed surprised.
“Ladies first,” I explained.
“Thanks,” she said, giving me a genuine smile, then walked out back into the bar.
I inhaled deeply and followed her at a respectful distance.
Who would’ve thought I’d have a more meaningful conversation with the object of my teenaged lust at a strip club than I’d managed through-out all of high school?
And gotten a kind of closure for one of the worst periods in my life?
That’d been a hundred dollars well spent.
With the money I hadn’t given other strippers while talking to Thea, I had plenty left for a ride.
As I neared the door I cast back one last look, hoping to see Thea there somewhere, even if it was with another guy—when a different girl teetered up.
“I’m sorry, I’m leaving.” I held up my hands like she was a mugger.
“I know—take this,” she said, handing me a slip of paper. I took it from her and walked out into the night, unfolding it under a sign with the club’s name: Vermillion. And just when I thought the night couldn’t get any more unbelievable, it did.
3346 Brandlin Way, Apt D, 5 AM—T