My mouth ran away from me. “This is my first time… other than the audition and three days earlier in the week - but that was a light afternoon crowd.”
He scoffed. “Fuck. I hope you know what you’re doin’.”
Inside the club, Prime led me down a dim hallway and toward the office. Halfway there, Punc came out and stormed past us. Before I could say anything, he’d passed us at a rapid clip.
Prime called after him. “Hey! Have you met Ava? She’s new.”
He didn’t even look over his shoulder to spare me a glance. “We’ve met. I got kegs to switch out.”
In seconds, he rounded the corner toward the main floor.
We entered the office, and Yak gave me a deep nod. “I gotta hand it to you. I don’t know of any other dancers who use social media to bring in a crowd. Lucy says she’s made more in the last hour than any other Sunday evening. And our man at the door hasn’t been able to catch a break… so way to go, new girl.”
“I had no idea it would—”
Yak shook his head. “Don’t sweat it. Just enjoy the ride tonight and sorry, but no private dances for you. It’ll work better that way.”
“It will?” I asked. After Wednesday, I knew those cost more and they were a big reason that I was able to get Frank his payment in such short order.
Yak nodded. “We’re nearly at capacity. I don’t have the security I’d want for you to give a private dance. Not to alarm you, but the comments are getting wild on your post.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I haven’t looked at it in an hour.”
“That’s for the best. Go get ready, Ava, before these men get rowdy.”
In the dressing room, I pulled out my makeup and started putting on my face.
I put my eyeliner back in my makeup case, feeling eyes on me. My nerves were getting the best of me and I did my level best to ignore whoever was staring at me.
“Do you know Punc?” Heaven asked, then she added, “I saw him with you Wednesday afternoon when I pulled in for my shift.”
“Not exactly,” I hedged.
She chuckled and Lucy and Monique twisted toward us.
“How can you ‘not exactly’ know someone? Sure sounds like you know Puncture if he was standing at your car with you,” Lucy said.
“I haven’t seen him in seven years,” I lied. “Plenty of things have changed with him, and he was concerned about why I’m dancing.”
Another stripper bustled into the dressing room. “FNG, you’re on deck. Move out.”
“Fuckin’ new girl,” I murmured.
Lucy grinned. “Yep. You learn fast. That’s a good sign around here.”
My excitement could barely be contained. Yak told me that I made so much money, it would be easier to direct deposit it into my bank.
“Five grand in singles weighs more than you think it does,” he’d muttered.
Five thousand dollars!If I could earn that for eight days straight, I could quit, pay off Frank Darren and go back to my normal life.
“For a first timer, you damn sure made an impression,” Prime said, leading the way to the exit.
I supposed that was true. There was a certain ‘ick’ factor to being on stage, but I’d managed to power past it when the song really got going. “Yeah. Here’s hoping Friday’s just as good.”
His chuckle sounded hollow. Maybe he thought I’d had beginner’s luck.
We walked out to the parking lot. The humid, May air beat the smokiness inside Platinum’s, but it was still oppressive.
