Not knowing what to think, I find myself too busy worrying about having to walk out onto the stage and strip for a whole mess of perverts. So, as soon as the music starts, and I hear the rhythm and blues of Aretha Franklin, I strut my stuff out and start to do my thing without even thinking about it. It’s scary, but this comes so easy to me.
While hearing “Today I Sing The Blues” In the background, I swing my body around the cold steel pole and straddle it. Then I grind my core against the slick metal up and down, till the man directly to the right of me cries out, “Oh, God baby. Let’s see it all. Please take it off.” By now, I feel numb enough to everything, that I stop thinking and just go on instinct.
Rewarding the man with the jean jacket on and red hair for his attention, I slip down onto my knees and slide across the floor on my hands painstakingly slow. As I inch towards him, the other men start to yell, “Oh fuck no. Your mine and I have more money, baby.” While fanning it for me to see in their hands.
Competing for my attention, I decide to make them want me more. So, I slide closer to the first one and then hump the floor. This seems to get the reaction I was looking for, because the men start throwing money at me before I even lose any of my clothing.
One man, even slides his gold Rolex across the stage to me and then says, “Baby, if you come home with me tonight, I will make you rich.”
I was told by the girls last night, that before I went on stage, I had better watch a few movies with strippers in them, and sure enough it is paying off now. But what I wasn’t planning on, is the minute the man started to climb on the stage, Mr. Knight walked up behind him with a bouncer, and they threw him out quite violently. Matter of fact, I had to stop the act when he said, “Dani, leave the stage right now. We need to have a talk.” Before he yanks the man by his arms and then between the two of them, they throw him through the front doors.
Staring at him, I watch the spectacle happen before I leave the stage and rejoin the others in the back. As soon as I open the dressing room door, Trinity starts on me while she is tying her fancy stiletto shoelaces. “Oh no. What did you do? Girl, you must have been so bad, that he kicked your sorry ass out of here, didn’t he?” She laughs loudly and then continues talking, “I knew you wouldn’t last long. You don’t have what it takes.”
Standing up, she walks out the door ready to go on the stage in my place. Another girl walks in the doorway, just as Trinity strolls out. She is carrying a brown gym bag and wearing a light grey jogging suit.
She stares at me while placing her bag on the floor and taking off her jacket. Then she asks, “So, who are you? I am Macy.” While flinging her long, straight black hair out of her face and smiling at me.
“I’m Dani, but apparently my stage name was Candy Cane.” I say rather flatly, because I doubt that I am a stripper anymore by the sounds of it.
“What do you mean it was Candy Cane?” She asks while cocking her head and staring at me, as she puts an emphasis on “was”.
“Well, apparently, I screwed up. This was my first night stripping, and while I was out there, Mr. Knight yelled at me to get off the stage. He informed me that he will be having a chat shortly with me. I am just assuming it is to tell me I stink and that I am fired.” I say as I finish packing up my things and then sit down to wait for him.
“Oh my. He hasn’t ever just fired anyone before without good cause and certainly not because you stink. If anything, he will just have one of us teach you for a while. I know when I first started here a couple months back, he said I had no rhythm, but we worked on it in his office. If you know what I mean.” She starts laughing after she says the last part and rolls her eyes.
Do all the women here give him blow jobs in his office? Is that what I did wrong? Should I have kneeled and sucked him dry? I mean, I don’t even know how to do that.
She looks me up and down and then says, “You know it would do you some good to get down on your knees for him too. Maybe, he will forgive whatever you did then. What do you think?” She keeps staring at me, but now is playing with her gum by pulling it out of her mouth in thin long strips with her fingers.
“I don’t know, but I really need this job. My mom had a heart attack and if I don’t make at least 50 grand by next week, I am screwed, and my mom will be kicked out of the hospital. We don’t have insurance and a doctor there told me to get a stripping job to make the money quickly.” I feel bad because I am telling her everything, but I need someone desperately to confide in right now.
What I didn’t realize is that Mr. Knight had been standing in the doorway for the last several minutes and then says, “Dani, sugar. You should have let me know about your mom. I would have given you an advance. I know things like this happen.” He walks over to me in long strides and stops within an inch of my body.
The proximity to him starts to do crazy things to my brain and then I can’t stop myself from reaching out to touch his arm lovingly. The surprise in his eyes, tells me that he didn’t think I would dare, but then again, he doesn’t know me well enough to know better. If I want something enough, I will do anything to get it.
He leans forward and I can feel his lips so close to mine that I could swear they are touching, but they are not. From behind me, I hear Macy clear her throat and she says, “Do I need to leave the two of you alone?” Then she flashes a smile and begins to change her outfit for her turn on stage.
