The Daughter Of Love & Mischief

3/4

Ali pulls a few pillows out of her wardrobe and heads back into the main part of her apartment as her guest settles back on the couch. He'd let her treat him and then he'd taken an offered bathe, he can't shower just yet with his wounds but he can wipe himself down.

"Do you have a name?" Ali asks setting the pillows on the couch, he watches her carefully before shrugging. "You don't have one, or you don't know?" she teases a little.

"I don't know" he admits quietly.

"That's okay" she assures him. "We can pick one" she offers moving to her bookcase, she runs her fingers over the spines of a few books before pulling the Great Gatsby out of place, she moves back to him and holds it out to him. "See if anything jumps off the pages....if not....I have plenty more" he takes the book and looks down at the cover.

"What is this?" He asks her.

"It's a book" she teases, he shoots her a look. "It's about a millionaire....Gatsby, it's set in 1922, on Long Island..." she offers him a smile. "You can read it" he nods a little and lays down on the couch, getting comfy, pulling the blanket around his waist. "Do you need anything else?" she asks him, he glances to her.

"No" he answers. "Thank you, Ali" he offers. "You could....you could have left me there"

"What sort of person would that make me?" she asks him back as she heads around the couch to her bed. He watches as she pulls her cardigan down her arms and turns off the bedside lamp. The only light now coming from the light stick on the wall by the couch.

"Do you need me to turn this light off?" he asks her, she hums a little.

"No" she assures him. "It's okay" she answers curling into her covers, he watches her a moment, until he is sure she is asleep before he opens the Great Gatsby.

...................

Ali wakes when her cell phone pings away from the coffee table, it also wakes her guest who grunts awake, alarmed.

"It's just my cell phone" she tells him sitting up. "It's probably Brian making sure you didn't kill me in my sleep" she stands and yawns moving to pick up her phone.

"That's not funny" he grunts at her. "I could have" she looks to him and raises an eyebrow as she looks to her phone.

"Not Brian" she tells him. "Tessa" she looks to her guest. "My other boss" she informs him, he raises an eyebrow at her. "I urm....work two jobs....forgot actually that today is Friday" she mumbles and sets the phone down. "Tessa was just texting me the theme" she turns back to her bedroom section. "I'mma get dressed and fix breakfast" she mumbles and walks towards her wardrobe.

"Theme?" he asks.

"I dance" she answers from the wardrobe as she changes. "And the club has a different theme each night...." he frowns a little.

"You're a....Chorus girl?" he asks, Ali pokes her head out from the wardrobe.

"Chorus girl?" she asks with a smile. "I wish it was something that safe" she pokes her head back in. "I dance burlesque"

"Burlesque..." he tests the word, Ali leaves the wardrobe dressed in a cute baby pink summer dress and white platform sandals.

"Striptease" she offers in way of explanation.

"You..." He looks up at her. "Take off your clothes"

"To music....yes" he frowns at her. "What?" she asks him. "It's fun...and tasteful and no one sees anything they're not supposed to. I'm not a stripper, I'm a burlesque dancer" he shrugs a little. She sighs and shakes her head. She gets a little defensive talking about what she does, because most people do think that she is just a stripper....but she's not. She's an artist. "Did the book help?" Ali asks pulling a white lace cardigan over her shoulders, he sits up from where he'd been laying on the couch to watch her walk across to the kitchen.