Stripped

Chapter 5

    I woke up cold and alone, Kara always had been an early riser. I sat up and scrubbed the sleep from my eyes, at that moment Kara poked her head inside my room. "Oh good! You're awake!" She said cheerfully. I grumbled in response definitely not sharing her optimistic attitude for the day. "Come on, I made breakfast."

The last thing I felt like doing was going to sit at the table with Kara and explain what exactly happened last night. She knew who Jake was, but I kept our deepest secrets to myself. It felt wrong to share the things that Jake and I shared with Kara. But now she was the only person I had. I shuffled in my bare feet to the kitchen where Kara was waiting wearing an apron and holding a spatula, placing huge stacks of pancakes onto the plates on the table. I stared in disbelief, "You cooked? Kara, you're an awful cook." Not even slightly phased by my insult she bustled over to me and practically shoved me into a chair.

"Relax it's a mix," she explained before placing an enormous dollop of butter on to the stack in front of me. "I know you had a bad night last night and I thought I would make comfort food and we can talk all about it."

I smiled, only Kara would go through this much trouble for me. I loved it. Kara plopped into the seat across from me and began cutting into her pancakes then stared at me expectantly. "Alright," I caved easily. She listened intently as I explained everything to her for the first time. Worried that she might be angry that I hadn't told her this before. But if she was angry she said nothing until I finished telling my tale.

For the first time since I've known the girl in front of me, she was silent. After a lengthy pause Kara finally said something, "Wow, I can't believe that little piece of shit did that." Kara slammed her fork onto the table. "What a prick. You should find him and rip him a new ass hole," and she was off, ranting about Jake and how could he treat me that way.

After a while, I had to stop her. "Kara, I was upset. But I'm going to be okay. Now that I know how he feels, I can move on." Yes, I can let him go now. No more thinking about what he was doing, if he was searching for me. I can close that chapter of my life and be done. But no matter what I said to Kara or to myself, I couldn't convince myself that I was right. But it didn't matter anyway. Jake saw me for the first time in ten years and shoved me away from him because he was worried what his friends would say about his friendship with a stripper. Clearly he wanted nothing to do with me.

That night at work, I couldn't bring myself to try very hard. I went through the motions and made some money but all I wanted to do was curl up in my bed. At midnight I was near the bar and saw the bartender motioning for me to come over to her. "What's up?" I shouted over the music.

"There's a guy asking for you. Says he's too shy to ask for a dance himself. You should totally do it, he's cute!" She winked at me and pointed over to the other side of the bar where none other than Jake sat in a stool looking at me hopefully. What the hell does he want? I thought to myself. I debated having a bouncer remove him from the building, but I was worried he wouldn't leave quietly and Brad would get involved. "Fuck," I muttered as I weaved my way over to him. His face lit up as I approached.

"I wasn't sure if you would give me a chance if I came up to you directly. I hope you don't mind." Jake said.

I smiled weakly and demanded to know what he wanted, "What are you doing here Jake?"

"I came to apologize for last night. I am so incredibly sorry for what I did. Can you please forgive me?" His eyes were pleading with me to accept what he was saying. He patted the stool next to his, "Will you sit with me and talk? Please?"

I wanted desperately to sit with him but... was it safe? Nervously, I scanned the room for Brad but saw no signs of his greasy hair anywhere. It wasn't uncommon for him to leave early or disappear into his office with his flavor of the week. Deciding that it was safe to chat with Jake, I nodded. "Fine, but we'll have to make it look good. If my boss sees us he will get suspicious." I eased myself onto his lap, perching there nervously. Feeling his heat so close to me was wreaking havoc on my insides. Try as I might, I couldn't relax in his arms. After only a few seconds of being in Jake's lap, it was clear that there was no way this was going to work, I couldn't be so close to him. Not now anyway. Giving up on my idea to keep Brad convinced Jake was just another customer I sat down in the stool next to him. "What do you need Jake?" I asked already feeling exhausted and the conversation hadn't even begun.