“No, not dicks. People, politicians.”
“Oh! Well, we’ve never seen the president around him, but a lot of the ones just a little down the ladder.”
He sat there letting that sink in. While he did, Josh left, his bag slung over his shoulder.
Eli dressed quickly and went back out to the club, but it was the early morning, and all the patrons were gone. He let his eyes raise to the VIP area, where there was a balcony that looked out over the rest of the club, but the seating was far back where no one could see them unless they wanted it.
“That’s crazy,” he whispered to himself.
He had the next day off, and he was thankful. Two substitute classes that week and all the club hours had him exhausted. He was making breakfast for himself in the lonely house, as everyone else was either at work or still asleep.
It was early afternoon, and Eli ate in his bed while counting all the money he’d made the previous week. Already he had his loan payments met and rent, even enough left over for food and his gym membership.
Before he finished eating, Rhianna walked in, eyes puffy from sleep, heading to the coffee machine. “Morning,” he said to her as she passed.
“It’s not morning, but I get the drift.”
“True.” After making herself a cup that was half sugar, she sat at the table and her sleepy eyes got instantly wide as she saw his money piled there.
“What the fuck is that?”
“My earnings. And this doesn’t count my paychecks. This is only tips.”
“I’m coming back as a hot man. That’s it.”
“That helps, yeah, but there are these places that women can dance around without clothes and get paid for it.”
She smirked at him while sipping her coffee from her favorite mug that had the wordsGet Fuckedpainted in red. Once she set her mug down, she laughed and looked down at her tiny chest. “I’ll borrow some money to buy me some tits, then I can think about stripping.”
“You don’t need tits to strip.”
“They help.” She reached over and plucked a hundred-dollar bill from the top. “You already cashed the smaller bills in?”
“No, that is actually one of three-hundred-dollar tips I got last night. I worked the VIP.”
As she gaped at him, she set the bill back on top of the others. “Shit. Did you have to…what is it? Rub on them?”
“No. No lap dances. They just wanted me to dance on their table. It was weird and a little creepy but paid well.”
“Weird and creepy usually do pay well,” she sighed, then sipped more of her coffee. “It’s a good gig until you get on at a university you will be happy with.”
“Thanks for saying when and not if.”
She winked at him, then rose from the chair, heading off to her room. “I need to get ready for work. My work only pays me for straight and boring.”
“I’d consider stripping,” he called after her, and he heard her laughter fading as she got to her room.
He got his money together and made it to his bank before they closed for the night, depositing all the money into his account. It was nice, seeing the balance that gave him. He wasn’t sure when he’d see so much in there all at once again.
On the walk back a cool breeze and the fragrance of some flower from one of the planters lining the sidewalk, blew by him. It felt good, not worrying over money for a change. Not that it would last, he was sure, but he’d take the short reprieve from stress and enjoy it. He even treated himself to a rare double burger from the trendy café on the opposite corner from the bank.
It wouldn’t last, sure. He could only take dancing for so long, he knew. It wasn’t like he was above doing it, but he wanted his dreams to come true. He didn’t want to get tempted by money and lose sight of them.
It could happen, he knew. The lure of bills marked as paid, fully stocked cabinets of food, new clothes lining the closet rod. Further from his dreams of sitting on the green lawn of a quad, discussing philosophy with the hungry students that craved to learn from him.
Long, luxurious days of thinking about things, trying to find what he honestly thought of the world, like so many before him had done. One day…
One day…