Play the Leader

Introduction

I love meeting new people.

Everyone of them, they're like a breath of fresh air. Who doesn't love a fresh breath of air?

They meet you. They like you, you can tell they like you. They're nice. They treat you with respect.

Then comes the dreaded question.

Every fucking time.

"What do you do for a living?"

That's when my heart, it picks up. Blood runs icy. My eyes close and I just want them to stay closed. A hole to open up in the ground, to swallow me there and then because I'd rather not exist than answer and tell them what I do for a living.

It's not embarrassing.

It's not wrong.

It's not illegal.

It's just... not ideal.

So I take a deep breath, palms sweaty. And answer.

"I strip."

"You strip?"

"Yeah," fuck. "strip."

"Oh."

Then the date continues. Awkwardly, quietly.

Until it's over and he meets me outside. In his suit. I'm in my dress, the only one I have, the one I never wear unless I really, really have to.

"Before I go," he speaks, scratching the back of his head. I can tell he's nervous. Maybe he'll apologise for the awkwardness. Maybe ask me on a second date. Maybe this is something special. Maybe he just needs time to proces-

Twenty-five one dollar bills.

In my hand.

He took my hand and turned my palm, placing the money into my hand. I bunched it up, on autopilot.

"Here's your money. I know you probably expected this."

"I didn't want this."

"You get paid for this sort of thing, don't you?"

"No. I'm a stripper. I'm not... I'm not some... street walker."

"Keep it anyway," he turned and walked away.

That was the last I saw of him.

And the last relationships saw of me.

A/N: Welcome to mine and my coauthor's new story. Neither of us were ready to say goodbye to stripper Clem so we're working together to make it a book. As of now my coauthor wants to stay anonymous, but they wrote the introduction and I couldn't be more excited for this. Thanks for reading!