Striptease

Intentions

[Charlie]

"Are you sure that is even a good idea, Charls? I mean, I hate to break it to ya but you don't always have the greatest track record with women."

Ryan commented as he wearily eyed the amount of cash that I was stashing inside my wallet, my eyes rolling as I glanced over my shoulder at my best friend.

"What exactly is the difference between what I'm doing now and when we first went into the club and you convinced me to get a private session time block with Everleigh?"

I asked him as I slid my wallet into the back pocket of my fitted navy blue jeans, jeans that I haven't worn in many years since they felt too casual to put on for the evening.

I preferred nicer clothes, clothes that I could disguise myself in and produce the aura of a business-like gentleman but on the inside, all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch in a pair of sweatpants.

But after the accident, I threw myself into work, consumed it for my every meal and every waking breath and I've been expected to dress a certain way.

Act a certain way.

Be a certain way ever since I was a young boy.

But I was slowly beginning to change those habits.

I was slowly beginning to rediscover myself after all the misery passed.

I was curious about my heritage, wanting to learn more about my ancestors that once roamed these lands freely but were thrown out by the invaders long ago.

I was curiously wanting to dive deeper into my work, the renewed energy for wanting to make this world a better place than it was before sparking an ambition and drive so deep and so powerful inside of me that I couldn't hold it back any longer.

And most of all, I was curious to get to know Everleigh Peyton.

I wanted to know about her life, what she did day-to-day after and before her work, what she did in her free time and how she managed her own life, not to mention taking care of her little sister as well.

Some might call me obsessed even but I wanted to know Everleigh, about who she was and who she wanted to become later on in life.

And even though I didn't exactly know her that well, I could already tell that she was an incredible person, my parents used to say that I had a keen eye when it came to understanding those around me.

I only wish I could just understand her a bit better, maybe then I wouldn't be driving myself crazy wondering why she wasn't answering my texts.

My calls.

It didn't matter how many times I tried to contact her, the messages would go ignored and the calls would be declined more often than not.

After the first few days or so, I simply assumed that she was busy and she just didn't have much time to be answering meaningless conversational texts but after that, I knew it simply couldn't be so.

Everleigh was ignoring me for a reason and had I been back in my youthful prime time, I probably would've been pissed and not wanted to pursue her further.

I probably would've called her a bitch and moved onto the next warm body that was readily available.

But I wasn't like that anymore.

I learned from my mistakes, I learned how to be a better man not just for the next woman I was with but for myself as well.

And I wanted to know why Everleigh was ignoring me.