Behind The Scene

CHAPTER 14

As soon as he was gone, I released the breath that I'd been holding in for what felt like the whole day. Securing Charlie's jacket even tighter around my body, I hurried to pick up my clothes that were laying on the floor.
"What were you thinking?" Charlie said, finally breaking the silence, his voice unnervingly quiet.
"I was thinking that I wanted him to leave me alone," I replied curtly, snatching my bra from the floor.
"Then you should have come and found me!" He shouted.
"Because you made a great job of stopping him coming back after the other night," I snapped.
"So you thought you'd put yourself at risk, just to make a point?"
"No! I made a decision to handle the problem and put an end to it on my own terms," I shouted back, "I'm the one that he was going to harass, and even if you did throw him out, how was I supposed to know he wouldn't find me outside of the club?"
Charlie's face paled, clearly, he knew I was right, that it wouldn't be far off the mark for something that his brother would do, simply to get his own way.
"I'd have protected you, Selena, just like I do the others," He argued back, a pleading edge to his tone. "It's my fucking job to look out for all of you, to make sure this shit doesn't happen!"
"You can't protect me at all hours of the day and night, and I don't want you to," I yelled back with exasperation. "I have a life to live, and I wasn't going to start looking over my shoulder just for the price of a single fucking dance!" I folded my arms across my chest, staring back at him determinedly, "I made a choice, on my own terms. And no matter how angry that makes you, you know that it was the right call in the long run."
A deafening silence stretched between us, neither of us willing to back down from our position on the matter. I wasn't sure how long I stood there, just staring at Charlie, waiting for him to accept that the choice was mine to make, it could have been seconds or even minutes that ticked by. It was only when Charlie's phone rang in his jacket pocket that the pair of us both snapped back into the present. I awkwardly tried to shield my chest as I began to slip out of the jacket. Before I could even pull it from my shoulders, his hands had landed on me, pulling it closed again and holding it in place on my body. There was barely an inch between us as I looked up into his deep blue eyes. The phone continued to ring, but Charlie ignored it, his concentration solely on me.
"Your phone," I muttered, not tearing my eyes from his as the loud ring persisted.
"Ignore it," He whispered softly, his breath brushing my cheek, "You were right, and I'm sorry."
My chest began to rise and fall more rapidly as the air grew heavy with tension, and the heat of his touch flowed through the jacket, searing my bare skin beneath. His gaze drifted south and there was a pleasant flutter in my stomach as I saw the darkening of his eyes.
"You should get dressed," He murmured.
I nodded slowly, unable to force myself to move beyond that range.
The phone began to ring again, and Charlie let out a sigh, dipping his hand into the pocket of his jacket and withdrawing his phone.
"I've got to take this," He said, his eyes on the screen. "Change here and then you can head home for the night," He added with a small smile.
"Okay," I replied, my voice coming out a little raspy as I still recovered from the intensity of a moment ago.
Alone in the room, I took a deep breath, struggling to understand just what had come over me back then. Eventually putting it down to the peculiar nature of the incident, I changed back into my uniform and proceeded downstairs to collect my things.
I was almost to the staff room when a voice called out from behind me. I turned around and saw Drake coming closer, a stern look on his otherwise handsome face.
"This was left for you," He said, holding out an envelope.
"Left for me?" I asked, confused, "By who?"
"Charlie's brother."
His dislike for the man was clear from the expression that took over his face as he mentioned Dalton. I looked at the envelope with pure loathing, the very idea that his grubby hands had touched that paper was enough to make me want to burn the damn thing. Drake seemed to know what I was thinking and tipped it toward me.
"It's yours, I'm just passing it along," He added.
I took it from him, and he parted, heading back to the main floor, leaving me to slide open the envelope and gasp as I saw the money that lay inside. I flicked through the crisp notes totting up the amount as I went.
Seven hundred dollars.
I couldn't believe it.
I walked to the staff room on auto-pilot, still struggling to come to terms with it as I sat down by the mini bar, thinking of all the things that kind of money could help me with this month alone. Not least of all among them, chip in a chunk toward getting my car fixed. I barely registered hearing the girls coming in until Aria called over from behind me:
"Where did you head off to?"
I quickly stuffed the envelope underneath Charlie's jacket and turned to face them.
"I had something I needed to do," I replied briefly.
"Well, you missed quite the entertaining scene earlier," She continued, approaching the bar and taking a seat beside me, "This guy got drunk and tried to jump up on stage, immediately fell flat on his face, ended up being half carried out with a broken nose."
They all laughed at the story, each rushing to add commentary on the incident whilst Asa and Crystal began pouring drinks. I took the shot that they offered me, and eyed up the jacket where the envelope was hidden.
"You okay there?" Crystal asked.
"Yeah, just tired," I lied, "I'm heading home in a minute though."
"It can take a little while to get used to the late hours in this place," She shrugged, seemingly satisfied with my excuse.
I zoned out, thinking of the money that Dalton had left, and curiosity got the better of me.
"I was wondering," I began awkwardly, hoping they wouldn't react badly to my question, "What sort of money do you guys make?"
The girls exchanged looks, each of them appearing to suspect a reason for me suddenly asking such a thing, thankfully though, they didn't ask any questions.
"It depends," Crystal shrugged, "It varies night to night, shift to shift even."
"Then there's the stage, if you're on the main stage, you tend to make more than the others, mostly because you have a bigger audience, you're the first attraction people see," Asa added thoughtfully.
The other two nodded in agreement.
"Exactly, and if you want to give private dances you can really boost that number if you get a good patron that is," Aria chimed in.
"But roughly?" I asked, considering all of the things that they'd just mentioned.
They each thought about it for a second before making their estimates.
"On a good night, maybe a bit over a grand, sometimes nearer to a couple," Crystal explained.
The others all made similar numbers, explaining how it differed between shifts, covering the reasons why they worked the ones that they did, in order to make as much as they could out of their time working.
When they all headed back out to work, I scooped up Charlie's jacket and the envelope of money and headed for his office.
"Come in," Charlie called back after I'd knocked.
I stepped inside walking up to his desk and holding up his jacket.
"Thanks," He said gesturing to the chair, maintaining his distance this time as he remained in his chair.
I dipped my head in response, then held up the envelope.
"Your brother left this for me," I said clearly, watching his expression darken with anger as he looked at the envelope, "Seven hundred dollars."
"Son of a bitch," He muttered angrily under his breath.
"I really need this money, for more things than I care to admit," I threw the envelope down on the table and straightened up, "But I don't want this."
Charlie's brows rose in pleasant surprise or relief, I wasn't sure which. He leant back in his chair, surveying me through slightly narrowed eyes.
"Okay?" He said with intrigue.
"I did that dance earlier out of necessity, but it was my decision, and I refuse to allow your brother to take back that power by turning the most degrading moment of my life, into a transaction," I explained.
There was a flicker of sorrow that passed over his face, gone a second later as he allowed me to continue:
"I want to earn the money a different way," I said firmly, my mind made up about this, "I want to be a dancer here."
"A dancer?" He asked with mild surprise, "But if you felt like that before, then..." He trailed off as I shook my head.
"The dancing didn't make me feel degraded. To be honest neither did taking my top off. It was about feeling like I had to do it that made me feel that way," I corrected him, "And as much as I need the money, I need to take my power back even more. I think being able to do something like that in a way that I can control will be the best way to do it."
I was relieved that he didn't look at me with sympathy. After all, I wasn't damaged, and I wasn't delicate. I was determined.
After a brief pause, he leant forward, resting his elbows on his desk.
"Okay, you can be a dancer," He said simply, "But on one condition."
I wasn't in the mood to bargain anymore, but with something I wanted being dangled in front of me, I shrugged, allowing him to elaborate.
"You come to me if you want to stop at any time," He said sternly, "I don't care if you're halfway up the pole, or have a customer upstairs, you come to me."
I smiled softly, unable to stop myself from being grateful for his protective nature.
"Deal," I said, nodding in agreement.
"Then I'll speak to Crystal later, and arrange for her to complete some training with you. I'll text you to tell you when."
"Thanks," I replied, satisfied that I'd successfully negotiated my way through this.
Making my way to the door, I paused as I opened it, looking back at the money on the desk.
"You can decide what to do with that, by the way," I said, "Spend it, bin it, give it to charity. Hell, you can burn it for all I care."
Closing the door behind me, I leant back against it and exhaled a long breath.