Honey seemed to ponder on it before she nodded. “Okay. But I won’t be here all night. I still will leave at my normal time because I need to get home to my son.”
“How has Kai been?” Nikos asked.
“He’s been fine,” Honey said as she took a seat in the chair in front of his desk. “He has been…asking about you lately.”
“Of course he has,” Nikos said, winking. “Once you meet me, you can’t help but like me.”
“I guess it’s something wrong with me then,” Honey said as she started sorting through the paperwork on his desk with ease.
“You know you like me, Hope. One of these days, you’ll admit it.”
Honey gave him a stern look. “What have I told you? Only the people who love me can call me that.”
“Sorry, I keep forgetting,” Nikos apologized. “Whenever I see you like this, you don’t look like Honey to me anymore. You look like Hope.”
She must have changed before coming to pick up her pay because she was dressed in regular clothing, and her blond wig was gone. Her curls were pulled back into a ponytail, and she wore no make-up.
“And what’s the difference between me as Hope and as Honey? The blond hair?” Honey asked sarcastically.
“That’s one difference.”
Nikos chuckled when Honey tossed him a sharp glare, but then he thought about why he felt there was a difference between the woman in front of him now and the woman on the stage despite them still being in the club at this moment.
“When you’re here, I mean when you’re out there,” Nikos said, referring to the club in general. “You’re untouchable, like a diamond behind a glass case. Besides Amber and Rachel, you don’t even speak to the other girls here. And most of the girls here have favorite customers, but I bet you’ve never spoken more than two words to any of the men out there.”
“I can’t do floor performances. Thank your uncle for that,” Honey said, shrugging.
Nikos shook his head. “But I don’t think it’s just that. I bet even at Diamond’s club you rarely spoke to your customers there. Am I right?”
Honey didn’t say anything, but her silence was already a good enough answer.
“But when you’re outside of here, you’re more relaxed, like your guard is down, and you’re finally outside the battle. You don’t look unapproachable. You look like Hope,” Nikos said. Even with the glare in her eyes, there was a softness to her face that he only saw when Honey wasn’t inside the club, or in this case, not out on the club floor.
There was a whole different side to Honey, and the crazy thing was that he probably hadn’t even scratched the surface of who she truly was, and he never would. It was disappointing, like missing out on something that you didn’t know you had. Exploring Honey to unravel who she really was sounded like a challenge under different circumstances that he would want to take. But then he remembered his uncle’s words, and he thought about how much Honey didn’t want him, and then he thought about the fact that even if Honey did want him, it would only change their relationship in a way that he didn’t want. He liked the fact that he could casually talk to her like this and receive her help on this matter. He couldn’t really have this kind of relationship with the rest of the girls at the club because either he had fucked them already, or they didn’t necessarily mesh.
He wouldn’t say Honey was his friend, but he did feel at ease in her presence, whether she was Honey or Hope, and he didn’t feel that way with any of the other girls here.
“It sounds like we need to set some boundaries, so you don’t get too used to Hope,” Honey said, shooting him a pinched glare that amused him. Yep. He was certain now that he would never have a chance with her.
For the next hour, Honey helped him with the girls’ schedule, showing him how it was usually done while helping him organize the mess on his desk. Tomorrow, he would give the girls the new schedule while being firm and handing out punishments when necessary. He wanted to be nothing like Georgios, but Nikos also understood now that being too chill and nice had led him to be taken advantage of, and that didn’t only apply to this club. It applied to his new role in his uncle’s place.
“Candy and Autumn are supposed to go on last. Don’t listen to Candy about her grandmother because she’s dead. She’s justplaying on your sympathy because she wants to go clubbing,” Honey told him as she shuffled papers together.
“You don’t mind snitching on people?” Nikos asked.
“Not when it’s messing up my bag,” Honey said nonchalantly. “Besides, I don’t like Candy.”
“Okay,” Nikos said as he sighed deeply. He couldn’t blame Candy or any of the girls. He probably would have done the same if it could get him out of doing his own duty, but all eyes were on him, and there was no turning back.
“You know, I didn’t even want to do this. If it weren’t for my father…” Nikos wiped his face, frustrated by the entire situation before he started again. “If it weren’t for my father, I wouldn’t even be here right now.”
There was a pregnant pause in the room, and Nikos was going to apologize for piling onto Honey. She was only here for work, and she had made that clear, but then she spoke.
“I know I can’t necessarily relate to the weight on your shoulders, but I get it,” Honey said, and Nikos was surprised. He had expected her to ignore him or to tell him to stop complaining. That was what most people did because they couldn’t understand why he had an empire at his feet and wanted nothing to do with it.
“When I had Kai, all I wanted to do was run. I had been so young then, and I wasn’t ready for the responsibility of raising another human being, and no one besides my sister would help me, not even my parents. Exotic dancing was the last thing I would have ever imagined myself doing, but when I thought about Kai, putting food in his belly, clothes on his back, a roof over his head, and making him happy by giving him everything he could ever want, I threw all of my morals away for him.Because nothing matters to me more than my son. I could do anything for him.”
Nikos stared into Honey’s eyes, feeling a sense of deja vu as he thought about the similar words he had heard before until he thought ofher. And now, he could finally understand what Raelyn had meant back then and also why Aris did the things he did. Unlike Pierce, Aris never took glee in his work. He didn’t seem to abhor it in the way he did, but Aris also didn’t like it either, and Nikos realized his brother did what he did, carrying such heavy demons on his back, for their family. They mattered to him so much that he was willing to do anything, just like Kai mattered enough to Honey that she was willing to dance for men for him, and Nikos felt like shit to have ever passed judgment on Honey or any of the girls, for that matter.
