Page 9 of Rum & Coke
“What does he look like?” she questioned.
“Tall, bald, and handsome.”
“Whoever he’s marrying is a lucky lady. Can you imagine the moves he knows?” Ginger fanned herself as though she was hot just thinking about it.
My brain instantly went back to Vinny and the fact that he must know some moves too. Moves I hadn’t thought about since I was twenty-one. Maybe I was only having those thoughts about Vinny because I was sex deprived and he had sex for a living?
“I bet they all have moves,” Sommer stated.
“Who was your favorite?” Ginger asked.
Before I could respond, the door opened and Honey walked in. “Sommer, Sebastian wants to see you in his office.”
In the time I’d worked at Red Diamond, I’d never been called up to his office. Maybe Sommer wasn’t cutting it? All of the dancers were independent contractors, which meant we had to pay him to dance, but that didn’t mean he’d hire anyone off the street. I’d seen him turn plenty of women away. Most of them were pretty, but you had to be strong to work in this field, and have a thick skin, because not every man or woman would like who you were on the outside. I was lucky I suppose. I was medium height, had decent boobs, long, dark brown hair, and blue eyes.
My gaze met Sommer’s, and she gave me a small smile. “Hope I’m not fired,” she jested. At least I assumed she was joking. I’d never known her to be anything except one of the top dancers. She was the one who taught me how to use the pole, and she was amazing at it.
She left, and I finished getting ready for my first set of the night. When it was time, I stood backstage, dressed in my signature sparkling red bikini and sky-high black heels, and waited for the DJ to introduce me.
“Ladies and gentleman, please welcome to the stage, Scarlett.” I’d chosen the name because I only wore red when I danced. It was my color.
There were no cheers after he announced my name. The only thing I heard when I took the first step up onto the stage was the beat of the drums of “West Coast” by Lana Del Rey. I strutted out from behind the black curtain and into the lion’s den. It was early enough in the day that the place wasn’t packed, but there were enough people that I knew I'd make enough for gas money with my two dances for the one set.
I made my way down the stage, the lights dimmed, and swayed my hips to the beat as I walked. When I got to the end, my gaze moved up to Sebastian’s office, and I almost stumbled backward, not believing what I was seeing. Sommer was on her knees in front of him as he sat in a red high-back chair that was angled to the side. Her mouth was working his cock.
His gaze locked with mine, and then he winked.
After my ten or so minutes were up, I collected the money that had been thrown onto the stage and turned to leave, glancing one more time over my shoulder to see that Sommer was gone. In the year I’d worked at Red Diamond, I hadn’t known any of the girls to hook up with Sebastian. Hook up with the bouncers? Yes. The DJ? Yes. Customers? Yes. But never the boss.
Until now.
When I finally made it to the dressing room, where I’d change and freshen up for my next set, I expected Sommer to be in there, but she wasn’t. Ginger was out on the stage, and Nicole was the only other person in the dressing room who I had some sort of friendship with, but we weren’t close. Melony was my best friend, the only one I trusted, and she wasn’t coming in for another hour, so I couldn’t tell her what I saw just yet. I wanted to ask Nicole if she knew about Sommer, but I thought better of it. The girls talked shit about each other, but that wasn’t me. Of course, I’d listen to all the drama, but I would never get involved. I needed the money too much to risk an altercation that would get me fired.
So, I kept my mouth shut again.
When Sommer came back into the dressing room, she looked as though she was the cat that ate the canary. I didn’t question her. If she wanted to tell me, she would.
By the time I got home, I was bursting at the seams, wanting to tell someone what I’d seen during my first set. I wasn’t able to talk to Melony when she arrived at work, and while I wasn’t one to spread gossip, I was one to tell my best friend everything. Before I left, I told Mel to come to my apartment when she got home because I needed to tell her something. She was intrigued and said she would.
To my surprise, when I walked in through the front door, Colton wasn’t watching the same cartoon he had for the past month. It was stillPAW Patrol, of course, but not the same episode. “A new one?” I asked Sophia.
“His idea,” she responded as I closed and locked the door behind me.
Change was good. Change was growth.
After Sophia left, I spent time with Colton, playing cars with him—well, it was more that we were both doing the same activity and playing side by side, not together. While I drove the cars around on the table or the floor, he lined them up in a row. We ate dinner, and I put him to bed, watching the clock for when I knew Melony would get off.
Finally, there was a quiet knock on my door. I stood, and after checking the peephole, I opened it.
“What do you need to tell me? Everything okay?”
“Yes, come in.”
She did, and we both sat on the couch, facing each other. “Don’t repeat this.”
She snorted and rolled her green eyes. “You know me better than that.”
“But this is huge.”
