Anastasia | ✔︎ published

04: Anastasia

After my shift, I sat in my old vintage car with my eyes gazing down at the business card in my hands. My previous conversation with Liliana kept playing over and over again in my head. Stripping?

I didn't know the first thing about stripping, but then my thoughts traveled over to my sister. Deep down, I knew that if I could make as much money as Liliana said her cousin does, then maybe I could also help my mother as well. All she needs is some help. Maybe with the right amount of extra money, I could do that for her.

Taking a deep breath, I grabbed my phone from my pocket before typing the numbers in. Each number that I dialed seemed to make my heartbeat thump just a little faster. Finally, I pressed the little green button signaling to call.

"How may I help you?" A lady had said over the phone. Her voice wasn't exactly as welcoming as I had expected it would. It seemed as though she were in a rush and the last thing she wanted was to be on the phone with some wannabe stripper.

"Hi, my name's Anastasia. I was curious on employment," I said, immediately wanting to punch myself in the eye. 'I was curious on employment', really? I'm not even one-hundred-percent sure that is grammatically accurate.

"Anastasia, hm? What are you, Australian, Britain?" She asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice. I didn't even need to see her face for nervousness to come flowing out of me. The lady already caused perspiration to begin coating my face and neck.

"Australian, I'm from there," I said quietly. Annoyance and disappointment settled at my gut, I hated how intimidated I was over absolutely nothing. It was very unlike my personality. Maybe the nerves of actually becoming a stripper and also not knowing what to do caused this feeling of nervousness.

"Let me guess, you came here to America thinking that it was the land of opportunity only to find out that it isn't. Now, you have no money and no other choice but to strip or whore, whatever the hell floats your boat, am I close?" She asked.

"Not even. I'm only calling because I need a job, I didn't ask for your assumption of my backstory," I snapped, growing aggravated. I knew that the person I was would come out sooner or later. It just took anger to pull right out of me. All of the nervousness I had previously felt, it went away almost immediately.

"Hmm, so you do have a little fire? I'll tell you, what? I'm only a bartender, but how about I put you down for an interview tomorrow at noon. Since I like you, I'm going to offer you a little piece of advice, wear a sexy lingerie under your clothes. Also, make sure you at least know the basics. See you," the lady said before the phone hang up sharply.

I stared down at the phone in my hands with widened eyes. That went a lot better than I had thought it was heading towards. Thankfully, the card the man had left seemed to have an address on it. Otherwise, I would have literally no clue how to get there at noon.

As I sat there in the parking lot, I turned on a video of the introduction to basic stripping. Just as I was beginning to get settled, a knock echoed through my car from the window. I looked over, my stomach dropping from being startled. Luckily, it was only Liliana who was looking at me as if I had just grown a second head. "Girl, what the hell are you still doing here?"

Finally, her eyes eased down at the playing video that was too busy laying down in my lap as the realization settled on her features. I watched as her shoulders dropped before she walked over to the other side of my car where she climbed into the passenger side.

"Okay, help yourself," I chuckled.

When I looked over at her, she had her lipgloss out and she was applying it to her full lips. When she was finished, she puckered her lips in the rearview mirror with a smile on her face.
I watched with a raised brow as her body turned towards me. "Did you call?"