Black Orchid (Student/Teacher)

Chapter 12

“Baby, I think you need to stay home from school.” I groaned and turned away from Dominic as he touched my forehead to check for fever.

“Get away or you’ll be sick too.” He sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed.  

“I’ll leave as soon as I finish checking on you.” I rolled back around grudgingly and allowed Dominic to fuss over me for a little bit. He had been sleeping over and staying on the couch just to make sure that I was okay. Today he’d driven home to shower and change, then came here to make sure I was okay before going to work.

“You better leave before you’re late.” He leaned down and kissed my sweaty forehead, which I found disgusting.

“Okay, I’ll be back after work. Love you.” He walked out and left me speechless on my bed. By the way he nonchalantly left after dropping the L- bomb tells me it wasn’t on purpose, but was it true?

Did I love him back?

Dominic cared for me, treated me like a queen. Of course I loved him back.

He’d even been patient with me as I still continued to work at the club. I’d been working there for so long, I felt like I owed Henry something for treating me so good, so I basically gave a 2 weeks’ notice, much to Dominic’s displeasure.

To compromise, I only had to dance once each week and the rest of the time I spent on the floor. And thankfully, nobody ever asked for a private dance. Today was supposed to be my last day, but since I was sick, I was just going to drop by and clean up my station.

I rolled out of bed and moaned at all the pains in my body. I was almost positive that I had the flu because I kept throwing up everything I ate, and my body just hurt. I didn’t even bother to change out of my pajama pants, luckily they were just a plain black.

I threw on Dominic’s sweatshirt and slipped on my converse before grabbing my keys and leaving. I had to remember to thank Dominic for dropping Orlando off at school for me. He was becoming my saving grace with my brother and I could tell that Orlando really looked up to Dominic.

Sometimes I felt like crying when I saw that admiration spark in Orlando’s eyes when Dominic did something or said something. Nandy needed a role model.

I drove over to the club and paused to just admire the building that had become a second home to me. Some people thought that stripping was a horrible experience where all the strippers hated it, but not here. I loved the club, but I didn’t mind leaving behind stripping for pervy men. Now that I had Dominic, I really didn’t want anybody else to see me.

I got out of my car and walked into the club for the last time. Henry was talking to one of the other body guards about something, but nicely excused him as I walked up. “Hey hunny bun. You look sick.” Henry was always the father figure that I never had.

“I am. I’m sorry I can’t work tonight. I’m here to clean out my locker and head over to the doctor’s office.” Henry didn’t look happy, but he understood. I’m sure my baggy and watery eyes, along with my constant sniffling, told him that I was actually too sick.