“Good performance, Honey.”
Honey smiled when she saw James, the bouncer at the club. He was tall enough that he dwarfed her five-seven frame and wide enough that she couldn’t see past him, and that was what all their male customers often thought when they tried to getpast him into the club. He was like an invincible wall, and yet, despite his menacing look, he was the kindest man here.
“Thank you, Jay,” she said, calling him by his nickname. He was one of the handful of people here that she genuinely enjoyed talking to because he was a genuine guy. He wasn’t like the men here who said suggestive things to her when they thought Antonis wasn’t paying attention. He was kind, and he cared for all the girls here, making sure none of the men hurt them.
“I got this for you,” he told her as he passed her an ice pack. “I hope it helps.”
“Thank you,” she said again as she tenderly placed the ice pack on her shoulder. She breathed a sigh of relief, feeling some of the tension relieved. “It’s definitely helping. I don’t know how to thank you for this.”
“It’s fine,” James said. “Just don’t put too much stress on yourself.”
Honey nodded gratefully as she left out the exit and headed up to the second floor where Antonis’s office was. She walked slower than usual, using the icepack as much as she could before she dumped it when she got into the hall. She didn’t want any of the girls to see her with it.
Working at this club was like working with vultures. Everyone was trying to pick at one another to get a bigger spot, and it made it hard for true friendships to form. To this day, Honey was still surprised that she had even managed to make a few friends, considering how she was on the chop and block the moment she stepped through those doors because of Antonis’s favoritism.
When she got to Antonis’s door, she knocked on it twice and waited for his reply. She usually made sure to come here with other girls, not liking being alone with Antonis in a private areawhere no one could see them. First, she didn’t trust him, and second, the girls got jealous, always letting their imaginations run wild, though Honey hadn’t so much as hugged Antonis. The only thing he had ever touched on her body was her hand, and she planned on keeping it that way.
But because she had a question to ask him today, she came by herself. When she heard his voice, she opened the door and stepped inside the lion’s den. Antonis sat by himself. Immediately, his eyes drank her in as they always did whenever he saw her, and at times like this, Honey was struck with the idea that if it had been any other woman in front of him, they would have fallen head over heels already.
She hated to admit it, but her sister and Amber were right. Antonis wasn’t ugly, and for someone older than her by twenty plus years, he looked good, and yet still, she didn’t like him. When Antonis had first made his interest in her clear, she didn’t think much of it and had declined his advances, thinking that it would be that, similar to how it had been with Diamond. But it hadn’t just been that because Antonis wasn’t a man who understood no. He treated her like a personal doll, not allowing anyone else to touch her or have her, even making it hard for her to have personal relationships outside of work.
Whenever she had gone on a date, the men who talked to her had mysteriously disappeared or ghosted her entirely. She had thought it was strange at the time up until a year ago when the last man she had dated told her honestly that a group of men had come to see him and the bruises on his face had been enough to let her know that it had been more than a talk.
That was all she needed to know to see that Antonis was a man she would never be with. He might have been attractive with everything in the world to offer her, but his heart was dark, and that was something she couldn’t ignore.
“I’m here to pick up my pay,” she said as she walked to his desk. Antonis opened his desk as he glanced at her shoulder.
“Is your shoulder okay?” he asked. Honey frowned.
“Did you give James the ice pack to give to me?” Honey asked immediately, thinking to herself that if she had known that all those other times, she would never have taken them from James. Antonis smirked, seeming to know where her mind was straying to.
“No,” he said as he pulled out her pay. “I know about James’s nice deeds because he’s a good man who helpsallof the dancers here.”
Honey nearly rolled her eyes, hearing what wasn’t said, as if if James hadonlybeen treating her kindly, it would have been a problem. What was even more annoying was that it seemed to be a reminder to herself not to take James’s acts of kindness as anything more, which was ridiculous. James wasn’t even her type. He was Black like herself, and she often found comfort in that, considering that they were a part of the handful of Black people here, which was herself, James, and Roland, who was also a guard. But she saw him in the same way she would see an older brother.
Honey took the thick envelope filled with the money she had earned tonight, making sure their hands didn’t brush. Usually, she would have already made a beeline for the door, but she had something to ask him, hoping that this time around she would get a different response even if it were futile.
“Can I start working in the back?” Honey asked. “It would help me out a lot, and I could make more money like all the other girls here.”
Antonis eyed her as he leaned back in his seat. “No.”
Honey gritted her teeth, irritated by the fact that he hadn’t even thought about it.
“But,” he said, his green eyes sparkling with amusement. “I have another way for you to make more money than all of the women here combined if you would be my companion.”
Honey eyed him as she folded her arms together. “No.”
The answer had been the same as the first time she told him four years ago when she first started working here, just as his answer had been the same. They had been in a four-year-long stale mate, and Honey was getting tired of it, but she knew there wasn’t much she could do. Antonis owned half of the clubs in this area, and the ones he didn’t own didn’t make nearly as much money as his clubs did, especially the Gentlemen’s Club which had a richer clientele.
“I’m not dating anyone right now, and I won’t date my boss,” she said, and though both things were true, to be honest, it really all came down to one thing— she was scared of Antonis. She was scared of how he felt about her, scared that his chains around her would grow tighter and she wouldn’t be able to escape, scared of what that would mean for her son.
Antonis was offering her something that would instantly make all of her problems disappear— her student debt, the loans, her grandmother’s hospital bills, and more— it would all just cease to exist. She wouldn’t have to go behind those double doors and sell herself to different men. But it spoke volumes that she would rather shoulder her debt than simply be Antonis’s companion.
He just terrified her.
“You can only perform on the main stage here, Honey,” Antonis told her. “If you want to make more money, my offer still stands.”
Annoyed, Honey turned and left, no longer being able to stand being in his presence. This conversation always ended the same way, and yet she hoped for something different every time. At this rate, nothing would change.
