3. Chapter 3
B y the time Alicia returned to the break room, she had realized her folly.
The club closed up for the night. Servers sat down with sighs before cleaning up their stations.
Performers removed their heels and makeup.
Bouncers escorted intoxicated guests out, and the coat check was left with two unclaimed jackets that would go into the lost and found in the back office.
Sid made his final rounds with the staff, although he did not say anything to Alicia as she waited for Susan to show the final procedures. Then she could go home.
I’m such an idiot. Alicia wished she had something to do. It would help take her mind off the big mistake she made in the VIP room. With Ms. Moreau, no less! The hell am I doing, fucking the owner the first night I’m here?
She had been caught up in the moment. How could she say no to Danica Moreau?
It was official. Danica was a woman who could have anyone she wanted.
That had been made clear when she so easily seduced Alicia after one evening of knowing her…
if “knowing” was even the word to use! Carnal knowledge doesn’t count.
“Alicia.” Susan stood beside the table. Her expression was not kind. “We need to talk. Somewhere private.”
Alicia was too consumed with the mistakes she had already made that night to think anything of it. As she followed Susan into a small, vacant office, she realized that her heart should be sinking. All she could think about was Danica and the way she touched a woman.
“It’s come to my attention that you’ve fraternized with a guest.”
“Huh?” Alicia glanced up. The room was too dark to make out any particular features on Susan’s grim face. “Who told you that?”
“Shit.” Susan turned. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone with her. Even so, I have no choice. Sid has asked me to let you go on his behalf. I’m sorry, Alicia, but the rules are rules. You cannot be employed here if you’re that much of a liability.”
While she heard the words, Alicia struggled to understand them .
I’m being fired? Well, it was true. She wasn’t supposed to be fraternizing with the guests, let alone screwing them while on the job.
Shit . More things to regret. Alicia was too tired to be upset…
and a bit too mellowed out from “fraternizing,” too.
“Ugh.” She leaned her elbows against the empty desk, hair sliding between her fingers. “Who told you?” Alicia asked again.
Susan bit her lip. Then, “Ms. Moreau did. Half an hour ago, before she left.”
That’s all she said. No, “How could you, stupid girl?” No, “Really? On the first day of the job?” And no, “Did you think you could get away with it? Did you apply to work here to nab yourself a billionaire?”
Alicia rather wished she had said something along those lines.
“So, let me get this straight,” Alicia mumbled. “The owner of the club told you that she and I fraternized?”
“Yes. She pulled Sid and me aside to inform us that you had failed her test.”
Alicia jerked up. “What?” Yup. That had awoken her hold on reality.
“For fuck’s sake, Alicia.” Susan faced her, fatigue washing out her complexion.
“We’ve been trying to warn you all evening.
Ms. Moreau is not as nice as she seems when you first meet her.
She is cutthroat. It’s her rule that there is to be no fraternizing between hostesses or servers and the guests.
She takes it as seriously as she does the NDAs we sign.
So, because she’s quite frankly a dick, she makes it a mission to seduce every woman working here.
That means I unfortunately know all about you and her tonight.
” Susan looked away again, clearing her throat.
“I’m sorry, Alicia. You should’ve known. ”
There were many things Alicia could have said.
Or screamed. Or cried, if she could get her tear ducts to work.
Yet all she could think was that she had only herself to blame.
Sure, Danica was a fucking jerk for seducing her just to get her fired, but ultimately, Alicia was the one who dropped the guillotine on her own neck.
I didn’t think she would tell anyone. Alicia was under no delusion that they shared anything more than some sexual chemistry.
All along, she had known that she was a hookup for the night.
If she weren’t an employee? Whatever. But now she could kiss the sweetest gig in town goodbye…
“I’m sorry,” Susan said again. “You’ll be paid for today, but I’m afraid you cannot be employed here.”
Alicia managed to keep a straight face and a straighter back as she gathered her things and headed home. There was time to cry between being fired and searching for a worse job.
Candice wasn’t home when Alicia arrived forty-five minutes later.
Although after three in the morning, Candice also had a myriad of jobs that sometimes kept her out until dawn.
When she wasn’t on the set of the next big erotic film, she was working her share of bars and clubs as a flirty waitress.
Alicia had figured there was about a 50/50 chance she’d see her roommate when she got home.
She didn’t know if she was relieved or upset to be alone.
“Hey, Pete,” she greeted the parrot hanging out in the living room. He was Candice’s, a feathery friend she had claimed as hers for the past ten years . Never thought I’d be sharing a home with a talking animal. Alicia slumped into the couch as Pete cocked his head and chuckled.
“Hey, Alicia! Hey, Alicia!” The bird was sometimes too clever. Kinda freaked Alicia out that he knew everyone’s names. “What’s up, buttercup?”
Normally, his clichéd greetings amused her – and they certainly amused any friends she invited over – but she wasn’t in the mood tonight. So she drew her feet up on the couch and threw herself down to watch the Late Night rebroadcast.
I need to find a new job. The money I made tonight won’t be enough for rent.
It was no joke that she and Candice lived above their means with their two-bedroom apartment overlooking a dingy alley and constantly smelling of the urine drenching the sidewalks outside.
Yet what was there to do? Alicia had been living from paycheck to paycheck ever since she graduated from college.
Her parents couldn’t help even if they wanted to.
The cycle of poverty was too great. Not to mention her little brother’s medical bills.
Terrence had been fighting his own immune system since he was old enough to complain of being constantly tired.
Soon, he would be old enough for college.
Alicia had dreams of helping her parents out of debt – let alone paying hers off – and sending Terrence to the college of his dreams to study anthropology.
Just because her life turned out to be lackluster with nothing but a “useless” English degree to show for it, didn’t mean her sick brother had to suffer from more of the same fate.
First, though, she needed to recover. Danica’s scent still lingered beneath her nose. Every time Alicia inhaled, she recalled those fingers thrusting into her, those kisses hard, hot, and hungry for more.
I’m so stupid.
Her eyes were heavy when Candice finally walked through the door. “Hey, Alicia! Hey Pete!” she called, filled with way too much energy for almost four in the morning.
“Hey, Candiiiicee!” Pete bobbed about on his favorite perch as he greeted Candice the way she had taught him. It was always flair and fun with that girl. Sometimes too much.
Candice tossed her purse onto the couch, her body following suit as she leaned over the back and socked Alicia in the arm.
“How was your first night at the ridiculous sex club?” Long brown hair dangled in Alicia’s face.
At least there was Candice’s spicy perfume to finally overtake Danica’s floral scent. Shit .
Alicia closed her eyes, too tired to deal with anything. Pete still sang his greeting on his perch, bobbing to a beat nobody but him heard.
“I got fired.”
The mood in the room dropped fifty degrees. Pete stopped bobbing. Candice frowned.
“What happened?”
“Don’t wanna talk about it.”
Candice didn’t ask for more details. She knew better than to do such a thing by now…
this wasn’t Alicia’s first time being fired, unfortunately.
Last time she was let go from a restaurant, it was because she accidentally told a Brazilian delegate that he had nice feet for a chimpanzee.
Last time I ever practiced my Portuguese on someone.
Something dinged in the microwave. I never bothered with dinner. Luckily, Candice brought out enough cardboard pizza for them. She also found an episode of Bob’s Burgers recorded on the DVR. Great way to kill the rest of the night before Alicia dragged herself to the shower and then bed.
Halfway through their dinner of cheese pizza, Alicia turned to Candice and asked, “Do you think it’s impressive that I could take three fingers my first time having sex?”
Candice dropped her paper plate into her lap. “Uh…”
“Yeah, by the way,” Alicia continued, watching animated characters get into ridiculous shenanigans on TV. “I lost my virginity tonight.”