Page 59 of Trip Through Your Wires

As soon as she asks the question, I know my answer. No. I don’t want to give it a try. The money here is tainted and taking it from the Devil to save for the future he’s trying to destroy, was a karma I just didn’t need.

“I’ll stick to cigarettes for now,” I say simply. “Besides, I would probably make an ass out of myself.”

“Tell you what,” she pats my hand. “How about we watch Cherry’s routine together and I give you some pointers?”

“I don’t know,” I shake my head.

“Boss told me to get you ready.” She adjusts her skirt and pats the back of her head. “You can consider watching Cherry dance my first lesson.”

I’ll do anything to get out of carrying that fucking tray and who knows, maybe watching with Mamma will encourage some of the other girls to talk with me. “All right,” I agree.

“That’s the spirit!” She grips my chin between her thumb and forefinger, giving it a squeeze. “I knew I could turn that frown upside down.”

I don’t know what it is about this woman that makes me like her, but I do. It makes me wish we could have met under different circumstances.

Mamma and I make our way back inside and when we reach the dressing room, Cherry is standing in front of her vanity, adjusting her wig.

“Okay, y’all!” She claps when done. “Let’s go bring the roof down, huh?”

The girls cheer and whistle, following behind her as she makes her way out of the dressing room and down the walkway to the stairs that connect to the stage.

Mamma and I follow, and when she slides into a viewing area behind the curtain, I do the same. There has to be at least two hundred men gathered around the stage—nearly double the amount that was there before I headed outside for my break—and clearly they are all here for one reason, her.

She makes her way up the stairs and walks to the center of the stage, silence falling over the audience as her heels click across the smooth surface. Turning her back toward the curtain, she strikes a pose, and when the lights dim and Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” starts to blast out of the speakers, a round of applause breaks out as the curtain comes up and she starts her routine.

Like a filly breaking out of a stall, she leaps over to the perimeter, blowing kisses at the crowd, stopping to grab the tie of one man, letting it slide through her fingers seductively, before returning to the center again and doing her first real dance move.

Moving her hips and torso in a circular motion, she moves with the grace of a belly dancer, displaying a kind of flexibility and control that is both captivating and hypnotizing. It’s a powerful move that when paired with the ending of the song’s first verse, ends with the discarding of her first item of clothing.

Tossing it behind her, men pump their first in the air and holler, as she shakes her now bikini clad boobs, while wiggling her curvy bottom. As the chorus hits, shereaches for the buttons to her cut-offs, which is met with wild applause. Turning around slowly, she drops them slightly so the audience can see the line of her G-string, before turning back around, and sliding the shorts down slowly, until they are around her feet.

Stepping on heeled foot out of them, then the other, she turns around, and bends over slowly, looking between her legs, giving the audience a wink, before straightening and kicking the shorts to the back of the stage with flourish.

Pausing for a moment to show off the miniscule red bikini she now wears, Cherry twists one way and then the other, before dropping into the splits. Bringing her hands up, she pretends to smooth down her blue wig, before rolling onto her back, opening her legs in a side scissor kick, before doing a somersault and crawling on her knees toward the perimeter of the stage.

The song builds with intensity, as does the cheers of the men watching, and when she returns to the center of the stage and reaches for the tie behind her neck, she pulls it loose and her tits spring free. The men go crazy, some grabbing their heads with both hands, as she reaches for a pie on a table that seems to magically appear, dips her finger into the crust, and pulls out a plumb of filling. Striding over to the side of the stage she wiggles her finger in front of their faces, before bending down to feed it to a man who waits with his mouth open like a baby bird waiting to be fed.

With a small waist, round bottom, and boobs much too big for her frame, she is every guy’s dream, and it is easy to see how she rakes in as much as she does. But it’s not just her skin that draws them in. Dancing full throttle in nothing more than pasties and a G-string, she is sexy and confident and worth every dollar being thrown at her.

When the song ends, she nears the edge of the stage, dipping low so the men can get an eye full, then turns, wiggles, and makes her way to the back of the stage in time for the curtain to drop. As she bounds down the stairs a staff member walks along the edge of the stage, collecting cash from men waving it wildly, then meets Mamma backstage.

Once Mamma has counted the take, she gives a wad of bills to Cherry, who kisses her on the cheek and strides toward the dressing room happily, then stashes the rest in her bra.

“And that’s how it’s done,” Mamma says with a smile. “Lesson one in the books. Empty their wallets and make them beg for more.”

She winks and turns for the dressing room and I stare after her, open mouthed. Yeah, no. I can’t do what Cherry just did. Not for all the money in the world. That means I need to double down and get something on Richardson before he expects me to.

When the night is over I practically run out of the dressing room and race home in record time. I can’t wait to wash this place off me, crawl into bed with a pint of ice cream, and spend a couple of days pretending like the past week never happened.

But no matter how hard I try to make believe that it didn’t, I know it did, and I hate Richardson for it. For all of it. The job he made me do. The bikini I was forced to wear. And the dancing that I was supposed to learn. I may have told myself I was fine with everything that went on at the club, but now that it was behind me I couldn’t pretend anymore. I hated it. I hate everything about it.

I couldn’t do it. No matter how much money I could make, I could not get up on that stage. Something told me if I did, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

Chapter 13

Jake

Since the stormy weather passed, it’s been nothing but blue skies and mild temperatures. The team is back to practicing on the field and it feels great to be out in the fresh air again. It’s helped me to clear my head and focus.

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