Craved (Twisted Book 2) (16 page)

‘I tried to love them, and even to be excited for them, but these bastards refuse to talk because I don’t speak Afrikaans! How do you deal with that?’

She smiled, pulled a piece of paper from her backpack and handed it to me. ‘Here, this is my secret weapon.’ I looked at it and back at Natalia with incomprehension.

‘Look, Jul, I don't know much about their history, but it’s obvious that Afrikaans men have issues with their identity and pride. Maybe throughout history they’ve never felt appreciated. Instead of doing something about it, they decided to lock themselves in a box called resentful nationalism. All those suckers need is a little recognition of their stupid language and national identity. So give it to them! Let them feel special!’ She nodded at the paper again. ‘Here are some phrases and words. Memorize them. Then go ahead – hunt them down one by one. Sometimes I even read from the paper, if I forget. They still buy it. All they want to see is your effort.’

That night, each time I heard, ‘Why don’t you speak Afrikaans? You live here, you have to know the language of the natives,’ instead of my regular, ‘How many foreign languages do you know yourself?’ and other nasty stuff, I replied in my broken Afrikaans – with an innocent but flirty smile: ‘I don’t speak it but I am learning. Would you like to teach me a few words?’

I didn’t hear the word ‘no’ that night. It was heady!

Natalia unrolls a long piece of paper, wipes, and flushes the toilet.

I stay in front of her, patiently waiting for her to speak, hoping her usual motivational strategy speech will work this time too and wondering when she is going to get tired of me running after her every night and tell me to fuck off.

She bends down, checking her pussy for toilet paper. One-ply always gets stuck and often we get to dance on tables lit with neon lamps, which ensure that clients wouldn't miss it and would start pointing at a piece of tissue. Natalia checks her working purse and finally speaks.

‘Do you have the wet wipes? I finished mine.’

I pinch my lips together and hand her a small plastic bag.

‘I have another one with me, you can keep it.’

Natalia finishes up, washes her hands and, finally: ‘So what’s the problem, Jul?’

‘You know the type. It looks like he’s got money, he is not here by accident, but talking to him is almost as hard as unloading an entire cargo train.’

‘I know.’ My sister refreshes her make-up in front of the dressing room mirror.

‘First of all, take it easy. You don’t have to have all the questions and all the answers ready. Sometimes staying quiet for a while is also good. Not quiet-petrified, but quiet-agreeable: when you know that, no matter what, you are going to have a great night, and it’s up to him to decide to be a part of it or not.

‘Second, NLP explains that the right questions can give you power. They can help you to make a client answer them, under social pressure, and thus to bond with you. Rapport. Get him to feel that you are somehow related, that you have things in common. Try to find what interests him.

‘Third, clients are often quiet because they are afraid. Most of them find it difficult to communicate, especially with the beautiful women. Give him that warm smile right away. Don’t wait: he’ll read your straight face as aggressive.

‘And lastly, also a trick from NLP. After answering a few questions with ‘yes’, a person is more likely to say ‘yes’ to your main question. For example: “The weather is great today, isn’t it?” – “Yes.” “Are you enjoying your beer?” – “Yes.” “Have you considered having a dance tonight?” – “Yes.” “Would you like to see what my pussy looks like?” Get it?’ She heads for the door.

I look at her blankly. She rolls her eyes.

‘Just try. You’ll see, it works. I need to go. See you later.’ She walks out the door.

When the night is over and we are waiting for the DJ to play his last five tracks, Natalia finds me having my final cup of tea in one of the booths.

‘How was your night?’ She takes her shoes off and lifts her feet onto the couch.

‘It was incredible. The stuff you told me worked. I went back to that client and, word for word, asked him those questions. It helped to break the ice. He turned out to be not bad at all. Spent a fortune on me and said he had the best time in his life.’ I lean back, enjoying the tiredness of my body.

‘You see?’ Natalia smiles, pleased. ‘As soon as those bastards walk through that door, they are ours. They don’t stand a chance if we play smart.’

‘I don’t know who this dude is you told me about, but God bless him!’

‘Who are you talking about?’

‘The one with the questions strategy, the NLP dude. God bless his smart ass!’

Natalia looks at me, then chuckles. Still laughing she also leans back, resting her head on my shoulder.

Why is that funny? Did I say something wrong?

29

‘Touch me one more time and I’ll smash this bottle over your head,’ I hiss, feeling I am about to lose it for real.

Natalia and I are doing a double table dance for a bachelor party. Mostly, the guys are decent, except for one. He’s drunk as a skunk and has decided that he can do whatever he wishes because the world belongs to him.

In other words, a total dick.

He keeps ignoring my warnings and leans over the table, reaching with his greedy palms, trying to touch my ass or boobs. When I get angrier, Natalia grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet. Usually when a client gets out of control, like this one, the dancer stops her regular routine (rolling over on the table, assuming all sorts of positions, keeping the main attractions like pussies, asses and boobs relatively close to the spectators) and starts the ‘safe routine’, by simply dancing on her feet, making sure she can respond quickly to any attempt to touch her.

‘What’s wrong? Ignore the idiot. You don’t want to receive a fine. If he doesn’t get it, you get away from him,’ Natalia whispers, ‘even if it means spoiling the dance for the rest of the clients.’

As I am about to say, ‘You’re right, I will try my best,’ I feel a hand on my inner thigh, brushing my pussy.

Seriously?

I turn to see this dick standing in front of his friends, boasting about his ‘heroic’ move with a stupid grin. I swing and slap him sharply in the face. He looks at me, stunned. He turns, goes back to his seat and quietly drops into it.

The rest of the guys, after getting over the light shock, start clapping and laughing, showing the thumbs up for me, and tapping the dick on the shoulder. Natalia and I resume our dance.

‘Is everything all right?’ Natalia asks without taking her eyes off the road as we drive home after work.

‘Yes, why?’ I try to hide the anger that presses my chest.

‘Why? You almost killed the guy! What’s happening with you?’

‘He touched my pussy, Nata. It was a reflex! Self-defense, okay?’ I fly off the handle, then look away, even angrier for not being able to restrain myself and stay calm.

‘There is no doubt he is a prick.’ Natalia ignores my tone and keeps hers balmy. ‘But you could get a fine. Five grand! You know he isn’t worth it. Luckily no one found out, and his friends found it rather entertaining.’

‘I know, I just lost it.’

‘That’s why I am asking you. What’s going on? What’s on your mind?’

I sigh, wondering how to explain it. ‘You know, no matter how hard I try...’ I sigh again, and start over. ‘I do everything you taught me, but I can’t change the fact that I work in a strip club where the clients pay thousands to touch boobs. Boobs, Nata!’

‘I get it. But you must stop worrying. You are making huge progress already. All you need is a bit more confidence. Most of those clients don’t know what they want, or what’s good for them. They say they like blondes with big boobs – next thing I see, they’re splashing out on a flat-chested brunette, with their delirious eyes!’

‘It’s the boobie dance. The whole thing is about them paying money to touch tits, not to iron my already flat chest! Hey, would you like to pay a grand to touch my boobs – only, oops! I don’t have any. Yeah?’ I yell, and then fall silent. I feel guilty. It’s not Natalia’s fault anyway; she is only trying to help.

‘Well… either you sell what you’ve got by convincing them that your hard nipples on your flat but fit and gorgeous chest are the best thing they’ll ever spend a grand on, or you find another way to deal with it.’ She stops the car. I hadn’t even noticed that we are at our gates already. Natalia parks. As we walk into the room, she switches the lights on and heads straight to her night table. She pulls a magazine out of the drawer, turns a few pages and gives it to me. ‘Here.’

I look down at the advert for a plastic surgery clinic, at a smiling blond girl in a beautiful red dress.

‘You want tits? Buy them! You are making good money now. I’ll cover you with father’s bills for a week or two. We’ll come up with something.’

I glance at Natalia, then back at the advert, reading the sign next to the blonde’s big breasts: ‘Change the way you look – change your life!’

30

I can’t sleep all night. I’m so excited.

How come I never thought about it myself
?

As soon as the clock shows eight, I dial the number in the magazine. No one picks up. I try again at nine. The energetic voice tells me that the first available consultation is not until next week. Then she hesitates and announces that there’s been a cancelation and I could come today. I go back to bed, thinking to try for a few more hours’ sleep. Half an hour later, dropping the idea, I dress and sit with my laptop, waiting for Natalia to wake up.

‘I called the clinic already.’ I jump off the bed as soon as I notice Natalia opening her eyes. I sit down on the edge of her bed, making sure she doesn’t go back to sleep. ‘They have a client who canceled today. They agreed to give me the appointment! They’ll be waiting for us in one hour! We must leave now! Will you drive me, please?’

Natalia rolls onto her back and blinks at the ceiling. ‘Good morning to you too, Julia.’ She smiles. ‘Can I have a cup of coffee first?’

‘You get dressed. I will make you one to go!’ I rush out of the room.

The waiting area has been done exquisitely. Grey and silver couches and chairs; unusually designed coffee tables stuffed with fashion magazines; sculptures on the stands and windowsills, featuring oddly shaped human figures. One of them is particularly weird – the shape of a fat woman made of wire, posing like a ballerina.

Aside from Natalia and me, only one other woman is waiting. She is wearing huge sunglasses, although the shutters on the windows are half down, making the room pleasantly dim.

Natalia nudges me with her elbow, and nods towards the woman, ‘She’s probably had a facelift. Get ready, Jul. This is what’s waiting for us in the future.’

The doctor walks up to us and, after a short introduction, asks us to follow him.

‘Tell me, Julia, what can I do for you?’ he announces, as he sits down in his high-back leather chair.

‘I would like to enlarge my breasts,’ I say, trying to ignore the racing heartbeat that hammers in my ears.

‘Take off your top and let’s look at you.’ He gets up and shows me to the examination table that is hidden at the back of the room behind a stylish folding screen.

After a quick examination, he opens a cupboard in the corner of the room and takes out a box.

‘You are a diminutive woman. I suggest we don’t do more than 250 cc, medium profile.’ He opens the box, puts it next to me, and pulls out a soft, round bag. ‘These are testing pads. Each has a printed size on it. Put them inside your bra, try some different sizes. It will give you an idea of what to expect.’

I hook my bra back on and push in the one he hands me. While I’m busy with the second one, Natalia walks up to the box and picks up the bigger pad.

‘Doctor, are you sure she couldn’t go bigger if she wanted to?’ Natalia frowns, trying to read the size on the pad she’s picked. ‘Try this one. It’s a 350.’ She pulls the pad out of one of the cups of my bra and pushes the new one in.

The doctor glances at Natalia. He’s definitely amused. ‘Initially I thought to make an incision around the nipple. If Julia chooses to go bigger than 250, I’ll have to cut under her breasts. That aside, I always encourage my clients to strive for a more natural look.’

‘We are strippers, doctor,’ Natalia doesn’t falter. ‘Where we work, no one cares about natural, as long as the clients have something to put their hands on.’

I look at myself in the mirror, comparing the two cups. I definitely prefer the 350’s look.

‘I like bigger,’ I say, getting closer to the mirror and studying myself. I lift my eyes and meet Natalia's smiling face in the mirror. She nods.

‘Okay, Julia, I have no problems with that.’ The doctor walks back to his chair. I take out the pads, put my T-shirt back on, and join him back at his desk.

‘The surgery costs R30 000, including 24 hours’ supervised recovery in our clinic’s hotel after the procedure. As soon as you’ve paid the full amount, we set the surgery date, usually no sooner than three weeks from the date of payment.’

‘I have R15 000 I can pay today,’ I say, and hear my voice trembling. ‘Could we please book my surgery today, and I will pay the balance in the next two weeks? Please, doctor, I would like to have the surgery as soon as possible.’ I give him my puppy-dog look. Realizing he is not convinced, I quickly exclaim, ‘If I don't pay you the second half in time, you can cancel the surgery and keep the money I’ve already paid.’

He shakes his head.

‘I am sorry, but I have these rules for a reason. I can’t make exceptions. I’m afraid you’ll have to pay the whole amount, then we’ll gladly book you in.’ He gives us a smile of regret and gets up, indicating that the conversation is over.

‘I understand.’ I also get up. ‘I’ll call you as soon as I have the money.’

But right now, I’m going to get out of this office and cry. I will cry for three days – it’s so disappointing.

Natalia catches my hand. ‘Hold on a minute.’ She turns to the doctor, gently waving her hand for him to return to his seat.