Page 27 of Redemption
“Hell, Red. This girl is too damn good for you,” Prophet said in disgust. “Don’t be asking her what she has had or not. Show her what you can give to her.” He stood up from his chair and dropped his napkin onto his plate. “Start over here. Talk to her right. Be decent.” He then walked away.
We both kept staring after him.
“Shit, I didn’t realize he could hear everything.” Redemption chuckled then took a drink of his iced tea.
I felt my face flush. “I didn’t act so sweet and innocent either.”
He set his cup down. “You are just fine the way you are. I love it when a woman says what she thinks and doesn’t play games. They are hard to find.”
“How hard have you been looking?” I asked him and took another bite.
He smiled. “You are funny. No, like I said before…I don’t have to. But...something about you...”
“Well, I’m no one special, believe me.” I took another bite.
“I disagree,” he replied. “But I do have to agree with Prophet. You are too good for me.”
I halted in mid-drink of my tea and coughed.
“Hey, now. Are you okay?” Redemption patted my back.
I was and I wasn’t.Too good? No.Nothing about me was even close to that. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” he asked.
I took a few bites of my food so I could finish and leave while I still had a small tether on my dignity.
“Cinnamon,” he spoke softly. “If I offended you in any way, I’m sorry. He was totally right. I was hitting on you hard. I need to slow down and talk to you right.”
“No, you were doing fine,” I said. “But you are both wrong. I am not too good for you.” I stood from my chair and rushed away.
I didn’t even think about where I was going. I just needed to get outside and clear my head. What was I thinking? I kept trying to avoid this man and then there I went, flirting with him. If that was flirting? I had no experience with that either. In reality, for a woman who’d had enough sex to last a lifetime, I was so inexperienced with the real thing. Who would ever believe that? I thought I knew it all, because I’d done it all. Most of what they asked for, I did it. I shook memories of that away. After I got away from that life, I would look back and could not believe I’d actually put up with it.
I now had dreams. I had goals. I wanted to succeed in something as far away from that as I could. Wedding dresses. Making them for that special day most women dreamt of. Such a lofty ideal, but I immediately embraced it. I had no dreams up until that day. I went along in a dazed fear most of the time. Fear of what danger could be waiting for me in the next dark alley. Fear of the strange men who could even beat me up. That had happened to me a few times. The fear of diseases had been the worst part which I was adamant about preventing. No condom? No Cinnamon. Period. I also supplied them myself, every single time. Good quality as I sure as hell took enough chances as it was already.
I had always been good at sketching but I tended to sketch clothes. I never really thought about designing them for real. Then I stopped on a sidewalk one afternoon to stare at this exquisite wedding dress in a boutique window. It had been odd, as I had been on all the sidewalks in town almost and never noticed this shop before. I looked in through the window on the shop door. I could see a young excited looking girl and the shop owner as they looked through a large album book at pictures of dresses. I paused and thought…I could be doing that.
Suddenly, a man’s voice broke into my thoughts, “Bout time you showed up.”
I looked up at him and actually flinched. Oswald. A regular. He resembled his name too. Ugly as sin and he smelled as well. I’d asked him several times to shower before we got together and he had done it a few times, but not today. My stomach actually lurched. That same dread came to the surface again. I just couldn’t do it this time. “I’m not working tonight, Oswald.”
He stared at me. “What? It’s the first of the month when I get paid. You know that.”
I shrugged. “I’m…I don’t want to.”
“Don’t want to?” he repeated as he looked confused.
“I don’t.” When I said those two words, I realized then and there that I wouldn’t want to ever again. Well, I never did, but now I refused to. I turned and headed away from him.
He stood there on the sidewalk and called after me, “You’re a slut. You want more money?”
I kept on walking. Yes, I was a slut but I wouldn’t be that anymore, not for any pay, not for anything. When I got back to my shabby one room studio, I started packing. I didn’t have much, but a few sketchbooks, my pencils and clothes. A few pairs of shoes and I left all my slinky, skimpy clothes there. I didn’t even care if I got no sleep tonight. I had a friend who was a stripper. I could stay with her for a little while.
I left that life and O. My friend got me the job at the Cotton Candy Club. I would show my body but not share it. I avoided men touching me as much as I could while I danced. I knew it was still the wrong profession, but I needed the cash. I saved quite a bit. Then Liv came, only at that time she was Cherry. After the club went wild one night when she and Ace tore it up along with several others…I found out O owned that club. I got out fast. O had been looking for me. To make me pay for leaving her employ. Imagine the shock I felt when I found out I was still working for her and I didn’t even know it.
I moved again from the small place I had and got a job as a bartender. I almost had enough funds for the Fashion College tuition. Before I earned the last five hundred I needed…Rip and Talon came in and pulled me out of the Top Hat.
There went my chance. Now, I could possibly earn the rest of it here. I knew how to sew already as I’d done it for the strippers at Cotton Candy. Made all their outfits and that fattened my fund a lot.Almost there.I could still achieve it. Unless they set O free. Then I wouldn’t achieve breathing for long after that.
