Private Dancer (16 page)

        
"I still think you're wrong. She'll come around. She can only stay away for so long." Cori perked up a bit more as she added, "She has to pay us tonight anyway."

        
The bar became crowded again and Cori let the bartender work in peace.
What if Faith is right? Maybe I'm misreading all of this? C'mon, Reece, don't let me down. Don't let her down.

        
The tall brunette paced back and forth outside the club gathering up enough bravado to saunter in like nothing was wrong. Meanwhile, she hadn't felt so bad in years. Her stomach was in a knot, she was strung as tight as can be, and she was practically living on Jack Daniels and coffee.
This is my club,
she thought.
I have to be sick about going to my own club? This is crazy.
She plastered on a stoic expression, and casually walked up the stairs into her club.

        
Wow,
she thought.
It's not bad tonight.
She actually felt better about coming here. Making her way towards her office, she looked the other way when crossing by the bar.
Pussy,
she chided herself. After she made it safely to her office, she put on a pot of java and opened her desk drawer to finish doing the payroll. Halfway through, she got to the penciled in name of Faith Ashford and picked up the line to the dressing room.

        
"Hello? Boss, that you?"

        
"Yeah, Cor, bring me a Jack, will ya." Click.

        
"I'm fine and you?" Cori slammed the phone down, muttered something about being her slave, and left.

        
"Hey, Faith, she's here, and she's thirsty."

        
"What does she want?"

        
"Gimme the bottle of Jack. I have a plan."

        
"Luucy...I dun like this...."

        
"Really, hon, trust me, I'll get to the bottom of this."

        
Faith had no room to argue as Cori was gone in a flash.
Trust her? Ah shit.

        
"Hey, gorgeous, you should be dancin' up there with those girls, not cramped up behind here."

        
Great, him again.
"I told you last time, I like it back here."

        
"Yeah, that's right, you're shy." He winked at her. "You should come over to the Playhouse. It's not nude, only topless, and honey, I like your top." He leered.

        
"Heh, thank you. Now, are you ready for a refill, handsome?" This wasn't the first man to approach her about dancing topless, and she'd heard about the Playhouse. The only problem is, they serve alcohol, and she's more likely to get pawed or groped by a drunken idiot than if she danced here. But naked? She couldn't do it. She'll stay happily behind the bar, making great money and awesome tips. Now if only Reece would come out of her funk and be civil again.

        
"Come in."

        
"You look like shit." Cori slammed the bottle on the desk, making the woman behind it jump.

        
"What's your fucking problem?"

        
"You first." The dancer made herself a cup of coffee. "Expecting company?"

        
"No, I forgot I made it."

        
"What? Oh no, you really are fucked."

        
"Ha." Reece took a drink straight from the bottle and winced. "You can go now."

        
"I can...."

        
"So go."

        
"No. Not until you tell me why you look like the walking dead."

        
"As if it were your goddamned business."

        
"It is my goddamned business. You and Faith are my business, it happens when you care. Now spill it. She's miserable, you're miserable...God, just go out there and talk to her."

        
"About what?"

        
Cori was losing patience. "About that night, about the weather, about your fucking shoes, just break the ice!"

        
"She has shoes, too, you know."

        
"Don't tell me you're afraid of her." Cory smirked slyly.

        
"Don't be an asshole. Here's your check, give this to her."

        
Cori moved her hand and Faith's check fell on the floor. "Do it yourself, chicken."

        
"Cori!"

        
"Yeesss?" Cori stuck her head back in the door.

        
"Look, I'm not myself...give this to her.

        
"Bottom line, Reece, she's lookin' to dance. She goes up on that stage, other people,
men
, are going to see her; you're as good as gone. Now, you have a choice, claim your woman or lose her."

        
Reece stared at the door for a moment before letting it sink in. She picked herself up, swigged a good one, and marched towards the bar. Faith felt her before she saw her. Looking up into dangerous blue eyes, she stifled the urge to back up. "Yes, Reece?"

        
"I forbid you from dancing in this club." Cori's heart might have stopped.

        
"Excuse me?" The bartender looked confused.

        
"I said
you
are
not
dancing in this club."

        
"See, I thought I heard you forbidding me from dancing in this club. That would mean that you have a say in my life, which you don't. Now, do you care to repeat that?" Now Faith's jaw was set and she was leaning over the bar.

        
Reece was shocked and slightly embarrassed.

        
"You can dance for me anytime, sweetheart." It was that guy again.

        
Reece turned to take care of the loudmouth, but Cori had probably saved his life by getting him out of there. She looked back at the bartender. "I think you heard me properly."

        
"Really. Okay then, I quit."

        
Cori was upset. "No! Faith, don't...wait up!" She turned to her boss angrily. "You are the biggest asshole I ever met."

        
Reece was left standing there with a hundred eyes staring at her. In a display of sheer frustration, she picked up a stool and wiped it across the top of the bar, then threw it on stage. The crashing barely satisfied her anger. "What are you
looking
at?" she yelled out, then stamped her way back to her office to finish up the Jack and the checks.

        
"Faith! Stop!" The dancer chased after her into the dressing room. aith was crying as she threw herself into a chair.

        
"Cori, who does she think she is? Forbidding me?" She snorted and rolled her eyes." My father forbid me from doing something at least once a week. Well, he said that phrase on time too many." She went to her locker and started to shove her belongings into a duffel bag.

        
"And that's when you left, huh?"
Well, no wonder she reacted like that.
She went over and started to rub Faith's shoulders. "Hey, Reece isn't exactly your father..."

        
"She actually said it, though! And if she says it now, imagine what a future with her will hold!"

        
"Hon, look, she was drinking tonight. She really hasn't been herself and you know it. I think she has too much going on inside her to know what she was doing. I bet she regrets that right now."

        
"I bet she's on top of some whore right now."

        
"Faith, she needs someone." Faith scowled at her. "Geez, that's not what I mean...she needs
you
."

        
"Yeah right, see you at home." The bartender fixed her face in the mirror and stuck out her chin pugnaciously to walk through the club for the last time.

        
Frustrated, Cori just watched her, and waved at her retreating form. "Fuck. Now what do I do." She blew out a breath and went out into the club to help close up.

        
The club owner was pretty wasted right now. She finished payroll and was lying on her couch muttering about not needing anyone, turning the half empty bottle around on her stomach. If she were half aware of her surroundings, she would have realized she left her office door open. But she was too interested in the amber liquid rolling around in the bottle.

        
That was what Cori saw when she peeked her head into the office. She had seen the light coming out from the room and was concerned that Reece left her office open and unattended. She was startled when she saw her normally stoic friend pouting and muttering.
I really have to do something. But what?

        
"I know you're there, freak. Enter at your own risk." Then Reece giggled.

        
Did she just giggle?
"Um, boss, Faith is really upset..."

        
"Too fucking bad on her." Reece's eyes were full of anger.

        
Here we go.
Cori braced herself. She knew she'd have to get Reece's emotions out on the table and it wouldn't be easy. "Reece, first of all, you do not own her...she is not yours to order around. Second of all, if she is going to dance, she's going to do so with or without
your
permission. Third of all..."

        
"Third of all, go away."

        
"Third of all," Cori snatched the bottle away and held it in Reece's face. "
This
is not making your judgment any better. Faith is a grown woman and she is capable of making her own decisions."

        
"I don't think so, Cori. She's naive. Especially when it comes to this stuff."

        
"No, that's where you're wrong." She lifted the long legs, sat down, and put them on her lap, receiving an eyebrow at the actions. She knows what she's doing. She's not stupid - stubborn maybe - but definitely not stupid."

        
"Gimme the Jack. I'm thirsty."

        
"No, have coffee. Drinking isn't going to make anything go away."

        
"Yeah, Cori, it will. I don't feel anything."

        
"But boss lady, feeling is good. It means you're alive."

        
"I'd rather be dead."

        
"You lie! Listen to me without talking for a minute?"

        
The tall woman shrugged. "Whatever."

        
"I know it's not easy...feeling I mean. I want nothing than to feel good things and happy things the rest of my life. That's not going to happen. I get sad, I cry, I curse the world and everyone in it, and then it passes. What am I going to do? Kill myself because people are assholes? Why? To prove what? So I kick something, yell at it, and move on. Tomorrow is another day. 'll tell you a little secret; I was infatuated with you. I wanted you in the worst way...I would have done anything you asked. But you're not a god, you're human and I found that out. If I would have let my hurt feelings fester and grow, I would never have known that you can care, that I can care about you. I worry about you now, drinking and not sleeping. Faith is a real person, too. I know how you feel about her, cuz that's how she feels about you. The way she hurt you that night, that's how you hurt her today. If you and her just talk like people, you'll both find out how humans make mistakes. And feel bad about them afterwards."