“You always show up late.”
He had a point, and I wasn’t sure that I could say anything to try and save my job. “I’m willing to dance,” I told him. It was the only card that I had left to play, and I sent up a silently prayer that it would work.
Johnny raised a brow. “Oh, really?” he asked. He leaned forward, folding his hands together. “Why the sudden change?”
I shrugged slightly. I didn’t want to remind him that he was just threatening to fire me. It was best not to remind him of that fact.
Johnny looked me up and down, and it took everything in me to squirm under his gaze. I knew that he was undressing me, and if I wanted to keep my job, I would let him.
“Fine,” he said after a few minutes.
I released a heavy sigh of relief.
“Thank you.” I was truly grateful despite my nerves.
“Don’t thank me yet,” he told me. “Consider this an audition. You’ve got tonight to show me what you are made of.”
I gulped. “And if I fail the audition?” I asked, slightly scared of the answer.
He leveled me with an intense look. “You shouldn’t come back.”
* * *
“You look incredible,” Nikki said.
After I left Johnny’s office, I’d gone straight to Nikki to ask her about borrowing an outfit. I wasn’t prepared to go on stage tonight, but luckily, my friend was excited to have my back. She’d traded places with another dancer, so that she could go on before me.
“I’m not sure if this is a good idea,” I commented as I looked at myself in the mirror. Nikki hadn’t just loaned me an outfit, she had also taken care of my hair and makeup. My normally wavy hair was pin straight, and my green eyes were rimmed with black eyeshadow.
It made me look like some sort of vixen, which I definitely wasn’t.
“It’s a great idea.” Nikki fluffed my hair slightly. “I’ve been telling you for the last year that you needed to dance if you want to make real money.
She moved away from me walking back towards her bag. “Sorry, I don’t have any shoes you can borrow.”
I shrugged. “I don’t think I would be able to walk in them anyway.”
The club normally enforced a strict code for their dancers and waitresses, and while I had a pair of heels that went with my waitress uniform, they wouldn’t match my current outfit.
I sat in the chair looking at the mirror and doing my best to regulate my breathing.
“Here.” Nikki handed me a small baggie, and my eyes widened.
I snatched it from her quickly. “Are you serious?” I asked in a hushed voice.
Nikki chuckled and shook her head. “I have no idea how you became so straight laced considering we grew up in the same neighborhood.”
I rolled the baggie between my fingers. Nikki had only given me one joint. I was surprised that she had that. Considering how Nikki was about control, I couldn’t see her smoking pot regularly enough that she kept a stash on her.
“I’m good.” I held the bag out gingerly, my eyes looking around at the other girls. No one was paying us any attention. They were all too busy getting ready for their own set or counting their tips. “I thought we couldn’t do drugs.” It was a policy at the club. Rich men didn’t like track marks on their eye candy.
“It’s pot.” Nikki rolled her eyes. “It’ll help you relax.”
I rolled the joint in between my fingers. I couldn’t argue that I needed to relax, and though I hadn’t smoked in years, I knew that it would just take the edge off without affecting me too much.
“Just go out into the alleyway, and don’t let Johnny find you.” Nikki raised a brow as if to remind me of how Johnny had put me on notice.
I jumped off the chair. “Fine,” I said. “But I’ll just have a puff or two to help with my nerves.”
Nikki chuckled. “You don’t have to justify it to me.”
I didn’t say anything else. I simply grabbed my jacket and walked towards the alleyway.
“Don’t forget,” one of the girls yelled out behind me. “You go on in thirty minutes.”
“Fantastic,” I muttered under my breath.
Smoking a joint was starting to sound better and better by the minute, I thought as I pushed up the door to the alley.