Chapter 2
Harlow
TheGlass Roomwas dark, but the music made it feel even darker. The thick scent of alcohol and body oil permeated the air. One of the men on stage turned on his heel and strode back towards the wall, gyrating his hips as he moved. I turned my head to the side, my lips quirking in amusement as Lizzie shrieked in my ear.
When his hands went to his pants, her shrieks grew louder. "Yes!" she screamed. "Take it off! Take it all off!"
My eyes widened when he took her suggestion and ripped the pants clean off his body, tossing the silky fabric to the side so he could spin back around and go to his knees. Women at the front of the stage screamed just as Lizzie was. They panted and threw money at him as he smiled and winked their way.
"You could go up there," Delilah said, looking at me with a smile. It'd been a while since she and I talked, but apparently, she had kept in touch with the guys—and had become good friends with Marv's sister since I'd met her at Ms. Enders' Etiquette Camp. Delilah was nice and she’d grown a lot since the last time we’d seen each other. Apparently, she was now in a New York fashion design school, though she’d rented a country estate to visit for the summer. I guess being the only bridesmaid/maid of honor kind of left Lizzie feeling a little pressured, so when Delilah offered to help host my bachelorette party—or rather, a girls night out—Lizzie being Lizzie, of course, was more than happy to let her help.
And that's how we'd ended up here. At theGlass Room. A strip club. A male strip club. I shook my head. If the guysonly knew…
Lizzie looked down at her phone as it lit up. It was hard to tell if she was smiling because of what she saw on stage or what she saw on her screen because the wicked grin never left her face. She put the phone away and looked at me.
"I think Delilah's right," she said.
"Huh?" I stared at the two of them in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"You should be on stage. You're the woman of the hour," Lizzie said. "You're getting married tomorrow!"
"Uh...yeah, I know that. But how does that have anything to do with getting on stage?" I flicked a glance at the pantless man in the gold g-string as he whipped around on the stage, leaving a trail of drooling women after him.
"We think it'd be a great idea," Delilah grinned. "Don't you remember that questionnaire they asked us to fill out when we signed up for the tickets to this show?"
"This is a strip show," I pointed out. "They didn't have any questionnaires."
Lizzie shook her head, touching my arm. "They did. Delilah bought the tickets and filled it out for us."
"Oh." I blinked. I hadn't necessarily expected a male strip club to give its audience members questionnaires, but as I looked around it was a rather nice club. There were two bars along the sides of the room and the stage that the man in the g-string was dancing on. Then several rows of chairs and a back lounge area with circular couches, where we were. "Okay. What about the questionnaire?"
"One of the questions they asked was why we were coming to the show," Delilah said. "And I put down a bachelorette party."
"Okay..." I still wasn't getting it.
Before Delilah could say anything more, the short woman with a headset that had taken our names down at the front door appeared as if out of nowhere. I jumped, startled.
"Hey there!" she said brightly. "Are you Harlow Hampton?"
"Um..." I looked between Delilah and Lizzie who merely smiled at me. "Yes?"
"Great, please follow me and I'll show you backstage." She turned and headed off.
"Wait, what? Backstage? Why would I go backstage?"
"Just go!" Lizzie hissed, shoving me forward.
I gave her an odd look but followed behind the shorter woman out of curiosity. Maybe they were going to do a meet and greet thing? I mean, I didn't necessarily care to meet the strippers...erm...dancers...entertainers?—whatever they wanted to be called. I was just here to have a good time. This seemed much safer than going to Vegas, which had been Lizzie's initial suggestion.
"Excuse me." I stopped when the woman stopped. "Can you tell me what—"
Before I could finish my question, she turned abruptly and I had to stop myself from colliding with her. She lifted the clipboard in her hand I hadn't noticed her carrying and marked something off before she pulled the side curtain of the stage to the side and marked something off before the lights outside dimmed and new music began to play. "Okay, we're going to ask you to have a seat, now," she said quickly. "Don't you worry about anything. Let the guy do all the work and enjoy."
"Wait, what?" I jumped as a tall, buff man appeared out of nowhere at my side. Jesus, were they all secret ninjas or what?
"Hello," he said in heavily accented English, though for the life of me I couldn't place his accent. "My name's James."
"Hello," I responded weakly, trying not to let it show that my heart had nearly leapt out of my chest.