“You’ve got pretty eyes. Look up for me.” She drew a line under my eye, and then pulled my lid to draw a line above. “No boyfriend?”
“No.” I looked at myself in the mirror. The shadow she applied on my eyelids defined my almond-shaped eyes. “You’re good at makeup. I always make a mess of it.”
“I trained as a beautician.” She stepped away to study me in the mirror.
“Oh. And you work here now?”
She selected a lip pencil from a box. “I’ve been here for eight years. I came from Bosnia and started working here. The conditions are good. The money’s excellent. Especially if a client likes you.”
I frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
She shrugged. “You’ll see.” Looking into the mirror at my freshly painted red lips, she nodded. “Good. You’re very, very pretty. And with this figure, you can become a very rich woman.”
I rose sharply, as if something had bitten me on the bottom. “I’m not going to whore myself.”
She smiled like a mother might at a child threatening to starve themselves rather than eat veggies. “Relax. You won’t need to do that. It will be fine. Take a drink. When you’re counting your money at the end of the night, you’ll be very happy.” Tania removed my hair tie. “Mm… lovely long hair too. Let’s leave it out. Yes?”
I shrugged. “Sure. Maybe clip it back because it falls in my face when I’m waitressing.”
“Mm… no. Loose, I think.”
I finished my drink in almost two gulps as Tania brushed my hair, and for a moment I was lulled back to a state of calm.
She put down the brush. “Okay. All done. Stand up and practice walking again.”
I stood up and she pulled down my corset. “Let’s show a little more of these. My god, I wish I had your tits. I’d be a millionaire.” She said that under her breath.
I stared at her tall, svelte frame. “You’re beautiful. You could be a runway model with those legs.”
“Maybe if life had been different.” She shrugged. “I was smuggled into London and forced to work.”
I frowned. “Oh, really? Like that? I mean, you were prostituted?”
She nodded slowly. Her blues eyes distant. “But Jack has been good to me.”
“Jack’s your boyfriend?”
“No. He’s more like a father to me. Tough but fair. I’ll take you to him now. Okay?” She opened the door for me to pass.
My chest tightened, and my pulse raced. What was going to happen? The drink had made me light-headed. More so than usual after only one drink, but it wasn’t enough to numb fear.