She smiled sadly. “I like to look after the girls. I also work the floor. That’s why I dress like this.”
She was a very beautiful woman, and despite being older than the others, I imagined Tania being popular.
“So, what exactly were you told about tonight?”
“That I’d get five hundred pounds for waitressing in costume.”
“You knocked back a client. He wasn’t too happy.”
“I didn’t think I had to drink with them.” I flinched. Was she reprimanding me?
“You do.” She dropped the soft act and gave me a stony stare. “You could make a fortune tonight. It’s an opportunity I wish I’d had.”
“You mean me fucking someone?”
“I mean you auctioning yourself to the highest bidder.”
“I can’t do that.” My eyes burned with a threat of tears, more out of frustration than fear.
Studying me for a moment, she tipped her head. “You’re twenty-four? Yes?”
I nodded.
“Two men have already asked if you have a reserve.”
“A reserve?” My face scrunched in horror, like I’d been asked to sacrifice an arm. “I’m not a commodity. I’m a human.”
“Yes, a girl who is broke. Has nowhere to live and is still a virgin.”
My veins tightened. “How do you know that?”
“Travis told us about you.”
“But he wouldn’t have known I was a virgin.” I wanted to vomit. I wanted to scream from sheer frustration with myself. Because I should have known agreeing to anything with Travis would turn nasty.
“He did.” Her mouth curled at one end.
His sister, my former flatmate, must have blabbed.
“I’m not going to sell myself.” I stared her square in the face with defiance. I became that wilful teenager telling my mother to go fuck herself after she told me to stop wearing tight jeans. All because her sleazy new husband couldn’t stop perving at my arse.
“One of the clients. He’s handsome. Distinguished. Late forties, early fifties at the most. Filthy rich.” She nodded as though that was something rare to be celebrated.
My sleazy stepfather was around that age when he tried to rape me.
No fucking way.
Wearing a sympathetic smile, Tania must have noticed my shaking hands as I bit into a fingernail. “I accept it’s not an easy decision. But he’s offered a hundred and fifty thousand pounds. You won’t even have to parade like the others.”
“Parade? Like the others?”
She lifted a finger for me to wait. Just as I was debating whether to run away, she returned.
Tania passed me a glass of champagne. “Here. The girls are all enjoying one.”
Reminding myself I had one hour to go and then five hundred pounds would be mine, I accepted the glass and took a sip. “You got me here on false pretences.”
“No. The money’s yours. Just collect glasses and sit with the clients. But you can walk out of here and become an independent woman. No one will know.”