Page 15 of Truth Be Told
“That makes sense.”
“Well, what about you?” She takes another lick.
“What about me?”
“Is this not late for you?”
“I don’t sleep much these days. This is totally normal for me.”
“So you’re a night owl, too.”
“I’m a night owl, too.”
I may be a night owl the same as her, but I do have to be at work tomorrow. Or, I guess that would be today, considering the time. My work days aren’t usually like that; I run the show, so I can get there whenever I want, or at least whenever is most convenient for me. But tomorrow is different because we have a meeting about a possible company merger, and it’s important. I brush that thought aside, though. I’m enjoying my time with her too much to care about work. I haven’t had a simple night out like this in the longest time. People surround me all day at work, and many of them are even what I’d consider friends… yet I still feel lonely.
“You were hungry,” she says as un-judgmentally as she can.
I didn’t realize that I’m practically shoving the food in my mouth. “I haven’t eaten all day.”
“You shouldn’t do that to yourself.”
I reach over, toward her side of the console. She tenses as my hand comes close to brushing her knee. Then I start toying with the button that controls the seat warmer, and she watches me closely, realizing that I didn’t mean it like that. She visibly relaxes. I finish the last bite of my burger, then clean everything up and adjust my back in my seat.
I say, “I shouldn’t, but I could say the same thing about you.”
She seems taken aback. “What do you mean?”
“What you do back there,” I gesture in the direction we came from, back at the club. “It’s not good for you.”
“I know stripping’s not good for me,” she says defensively. “But it’s a necessity right now. I have to do it.”
“Money?”
She pauses for a moment before nodding her head. “Yes, money.”
My heart all but breaks for her. Why should it though? Isn’t that how life has always been, almost since the beginning of time? Since the beginning of civilization, at least, we humans have been forced to do things we don’t want to do, all for the sake of money. But just because that’s how it’s been, and how it has to be for some people, doesn’t mean that’s how itshouldbe.
I reach up and turn her face toward me. Her jaw falls open lightly, exposing a pair of perfectly straight, white teeth. “Hey,” I say to get her attention, as if I don’t already have it. “You don’t have to do anything for money.”
She shifts her eyes, confused. “Yes, I do.”
“What if I told you that you didn’t?”
“What do you mean?” Her cheek flushes against my hand.
I haven’t admitted it to myself until this point, but she really is gorgeous. Her dark hair is perfectly done, even after a night of hot, physical work. Her high cheekbones frame her face and draw attention to her almond-shaped brown eyes, leading down her to perfect lips. I tuck a lock of hair behind one of her ears.
Then I pull my eyes away from those lips and lower my hand, breaking the transfixion. “I hope I haven’t offended you.”
She shakes her head, her hair slipping back out of place. “You haven’t offended me. I just don’t know what you mean.”
I take a breath. I have to be sure I want to say what I’m about to say. I have to be positive about it. Abouther.“What if I told you I wanted you to quit? And that I could help you do that?”
She tucks her hands away into her lap. She lifts her head toward the window and licks her lips. “I’m really, not…”
Shit. That came out wrong. She thinks I want something for it. Now she thinks I’m the same kind of creep that came on to her the other day, in the back of an alley and offered her cash. Yeah, I saw the whole thing. I was watching from the moment she disappeared while looking so distressed.
“No, not like that,” I say, laughing to re-lighten the mood between us once more.
