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Chapter 2-2: Dinner and a Movie
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At 12:30 am, Gina was finished for the evening. She returned to her dressing room and collapsed in the chair.
“What are you looking at, bitch?” she snapped at her sweat and ink smeared reflection, unable to stand herself any longer.
She took a long shower, put on a robe, and then sat back down. Her thoughts kept returning to Tony, which just made her angry.
Gina had struggled to complete the final two performances. Fortunately, no one seemed to care as long as they got to see the goods.
“So fucking what,” she said. “I’m sick of this shit anyway!”
Gina stared at the money on the dresser. She’d earned $1,500 this evening—$500 per performance. It was great money for her three shows, but it just wasn’t enough. She needed to get out of this business and make a better life for herself… something respectable. Gina needed a hundred-thousand dollars to make it happen. Her goal was to have enough money to go anywhere in the world she chose… and start over. With forty-five thousand in savings, she still had a long way to go.
Not even half-way there yet, she thought with a heavy sigh.
To make matters worse, Tony had avoided her the rest of the evening.
Tony Fucking Marcuchi.
“Where does he get off judging me?” she yelled at her reflection. “Who does he think he is, my fucking father? Hell, he’s not even my lover!”
“Ahem.” The voice of the devil, himself. Tony was standing in the doorway.
“Ever heard of knocking, asshole?”
“Uh… your door was wide open.”
“Well, close it next time and then fucking knock!” She refused to turn and look at him. She focused on brushing her wet, red hair, shooting her fierce green eyes at him through the mirror.
Tony said nothing, unwilling to trust words.
“Well, what do you want? I’ve got to get cleaned up and go home. I’m filling in for Sally tomorrow night and my legs are killing me. Don’t you have some perverts to toss out, or something?”
“There’s a guy at the bar who wants to meet you. Very insistent type. I told him to come back tomorrow for a lap dance-”
“Fuck you!” Gina spun her chair around to face him. “So you think I’m working the booths now, turning tricks on the side, too? I dance and get paid well to do just that… nothing else.”
“Dancing? Is that what you call what you did tonight? Looked like you were enjoying it.”
“Fuck you. I’m not a whore.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“Yes, you did.”
“No, I didn’t!”
“I saw the dirty looks you gave me. What’s the deal? You know what I do here. It’s a little late to get all self-righteous about it.”
Tony shook his head and held up his hands. “Look, I can’t talk to you when you’re like this. I just wanted to tell you that the guy said he wasn’t looking for a lap dance. Then he handed me a hundred-dollar bill just to have me talk to you.”
“I guess that makes you my pimp.”
Tony was upset now. “Now look, I never called you a whore. I just don’t like what you do up there sometimes… especially tonight. I don’t like to think of you like-”
“Like what, Tony? A whore?”
Tony took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “You’re not like the other girls. You’re smart and could do anything you want to do and you’re meant for far better things than this hell-hole. I only agreed to give you the man’s message because I know you’re trying to save money and get out of here.”
Gina was silent.
“He wants to offer you a job. Just dancing, so he claims. But it sounds shady to me. Anyway, he’s offering a lot of money, enough that I needed to tell you about it.”
Gina rolled her eyes and sighed. “Give me a minute to clean the whore off me and I’ll be out.”
Tony shook his head. “I’ll stick around… you know… just to make sure he’s not a nut or something.”
“How sweet,” she said sarcastically.
“I know you’re not a whore,” Tony stated firmly. “I said what I said because… well… I care about you.”
Gina was caught off-guard. She turned in her chair to look at him.
Tony looked at his feet, feeling like the world’s biggest idiot. “So… I’ll go tell the guy you’re coming.”
“You do that,” she said, lowering her tone.
Tony nodded and started to leave.
“So… hey… we’ll have to talk more about this whole, ‘you care about me’ thing later… okay?” She finished with a smile.
Tony turned and smiled back.
Damn, that smile.
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(Continued in the next reply...)
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