Chapter 9 #3
“Where should we eat after this?” Allison asked. “I want some Chick-Fil-A.”
Rachel shook her head. “I like to keep my food and religion separate.”
“But their food is so good,” Allison argued. “What about you, Nikos?”
The last thing he wanted was to eat at a fast-food restaurant.
He wanted real food, and these were the times he craved Ira’s cooking.
Ira was the maid who had worked at his house ever since he was a young child.
His mother made good food too, but Ira’s cooking had always reminded him of home.
He would love some Stifado and Moussaka right now.
Before Nikos could tell the women that it was up to them, rising voices in the near distance caught his attention.
All of them turned their attention to the front of the store, where Rita stood conversing with another man.
Nikos wouldn’t have thought much of it if it weren’t for the fact that the Latina woman looked uncomfortable, and the smile that had been on her face all day was now lopsided.
The man was showing her something on his phone, and from where Nikos stood, he couldn’t see it.
“Isn’t this you?” the man asked Rita. “You’re from the Gentlemen’s Club, right? Right?”
“Ugh,” Sweetie said, rolling her eyes. “Not another one of these assholes.”
“Excuse me,” Rita said as she tried to step away, but the man grabbed her arm, and Nikos tensed, not liking what was taking place.
“Come on. It’s definitely you. I saw you there last week. There’s no need to be shy,” the man said. “Let me take you out to dinner.”
“No, thank you,” Rita said, trying to free her arm, and a deep frown settled on the man’s face, mirroring Rita’s disgruntled expression.
“I’m trying to be cordial with you, but you don’t have to treat me like a stalker. I know it’ll take much less than a date for you to take your clothes off.”
Rita’s eyes widened, and all the girls were rattled as they went over to help Rita. Nikos placed the bags on the bench, hoping no one would take them, but he needed his arms free just in case this turned physical.
Nikos approached the man, who was drawing attention to himself now that the other ladies surrounded him. Nikos could see people pulling their phones out, and he sighed. He didn’t need this to turn into a bigger deal than it was, despite this guy being a complete asshole.
“Hey, man,” Nikos said to the man, shoving him away from Rita. “Just walk away. She doesn’t want to go to dinner with you.”
“You’re her boyfriend?” the man asked, disgruntled. “Do you know what she does for a living? What are you, a cuck?”
“Ugh, you’re a disgusting asshole,” Sweetie said as she tried to get to the man, but Honey and Rachel held her back. Rita looked embarrassed as she glanced at the crowd that was forming around them.
“I’m disgusting? But you all are the ones showing your bodies for a few bucks—”
Nikos jabbed the man in his neck, causing him to choke on the rest of his words. The man grabbed his neck in shock, and Nikos grabbed him and pushed him against the wall, knowing it would take some time for him to catch his breath again.
“Be a gentleman, man,” Nikos said, disgusted by the words he just heard. “If she doesn’t want your number, you have to accept that. The next time I see you around any of the girls at the club, I won’t be so nice. Understood?”
The man’s eyes were wide and red as he stared at Nikos before he nodded. Nikos stood back and watched as the man fell to the ground. Sweetie squealed with excitement as she grabbed his arm and glared at the man.
“It serves you right for being an asshole,” Sweetie said before she snapped a picture of him. “I’ll make sure James and Roland never let you into the club again.”
The crowd dispersed as they walked back over to the bench where their bags were still untouched.
Nikos glanced back to see the man had slithered away, probably embarrassed that that happened in front of so many people, but if he hadn’t been an asshole that wouldn’t have happened to him.
He was lucky that he hadn’t done more, but there had been too many eyes on him, and he was pretty sure his uncle wouldn’t have been happy having to bail him out of jail over something like this.
“Nikos, you were so cool,” Sweetie gushed. “You really know how to fight.”
“Thank you, Nikos,” Rita said, blushing.
“No problem,” Nikos said as he winked at Rita. “Every princess needs their calvary.”
“What a jackass,” Amber said. “Are you okay, Rita?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “He saw me come out of the store, and he wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“Let’s go talk about this over food,” Allison whined. “I’m so hungry.”
Allison, Sweetie, Amber, and Rita walked arm in arm, leading them, while Rachel fell back a step to talk to someone over the phone. That left himself in the back with Honey, who walked quietly. She wasn’t nearly as talkative or as social as the other girls.
“Were you impressed?” Nikos asked coyly, knowing what the result would be, and when Honey looked at him, her face screwed in disgust, Nikos laughed. She was so easy to annoy.
Nikos sighed as he absentmindedly spoke. “That guy was an asshole, but I guess stuff like this happens when you have a job like this, and you have to accept it and not let it weigh you down.”
“A job like what?”
“You know, a job like this that lacks mora—”
Abruptly, Honey paused in her steps, and Nikos froze in his place.
“That lacks morals?” Honey repeated, frowning, and when Nikos realized what he said, he would have palmed his face if he could. He shouldn’t have said that in front of her. He had almost forgotten that Honey had the same job. For some odd reason, it had slipped his mind.
“I didn’t mean—”
“Rita is doing a job that lacks morals because she lives in a country that doesn’t have universal health care, and her father has lung cancer.
She’s in that club every night trying to pay the bills off just so she can keep her father alive,” Honey said, and immediately, Nikos felt like an asshole, even worse than the guy back there.
“Every exotic dancer doesn’t have a sob story, but our job is a way to make money like any other job. Women should get the right to choose to do what they want with their bodies without being judged and harassed for it.”
“Honey, I’m so—”
But she clearly didn’t want to hear any apology from him as she cut his words off again.
“It’s probably easy for someone like you to judge someone else when you’ve probably never had to do something morally questionable in your life because you desperately needed to since you’re the son of a rich man.
You’re a trust fund baby judging women like me who don’t even know what wealth is,” Honey said, shaking her head.
“That’s why I don’t like you. You’re a rich, pretty boy who thinks this is a game.
Playing around with the girls at the club like they are toys and causing trouble for them like this isn’t their livelihood, like they aren’t doing everything to survive.
“Just as that asshole’s comments weren’t necessary, yours aren’t either. Next time, I’ll be even more impressed when you stop pretending to be a good guy.”
With that, Honey walked away, and Nikos was left speechless, standing in the same spot like an idiot because he was one.
A feeling of deja vu had taken over him as some of those words brought him back to the past when Raelyn had said similar things to him before.
The things he had tried to forget when he came here.
Raelyn had called him out for judging her morals, and now Honey was doing the same. He kept making the same mistake.
He had throat-punched that guy for being disrespectful, but it seemed he needed to hit himself because he was probably worse.
Knowing that he needed to make this right, Nikos caught up to the girls at the food court.
Honey stood in line with her arms folded together, and if he had thought she didn’t like him before, it was clearer now.
He could feel waves of cold air coming from her as she iced him out and refused to look at him.
“Honey, I apologize for what I said earlier. I didn’t mean…
” But could he honestly say he hadn’t meant it?
Because he had. Though he had hooked up with a lot of the girls at the club, in the back of his mind, he had been judging them for their actions, thinking they lacked the morals that other women had, just as he had judged Raelyn for being a part of his father’s lifestyle.
“Look, Honey. I—”
Honey ignored him as she went forward to place her order, and she continued to ignore him all throughout lunch and as everyone went their separate ways. She wouldn’t accept his apology, and Nikos couldn’t blame her for that. The only guy who deserved to get punched today was him.