He knew. That guy knew. He would have known I was coming in here. I was worried about being late, but I’ll admit shame filled me the moment I saw him realize I could only be parked where I was if I was going into the club. I couldn’t get away fast enough.
It doesn’t matter. This job is my chance. A chance I have to seize with both hands to get my life back on track and pay off that fucking debt to Lev. A damn debt I wish I never had to get. It was literally jumping from the frying pan and into the flames of hell, making my situation so much worse than it already was.
It’s not just me I have to think of now. I have a three-year-old daughter who depends on me and I have to be her mom. My little Rosie deserves all the good things this world has to offer. A home where she can feel safe and a mother who can take care of her. The way my mother took care of me.
Nothing else matters right now, and even if it were just me, I owe it to myself to get back to who I’m supposed to be.
It’s just the unknown that worries me.
I go up the steps leading to the dressing room and see Tatiana talking with Louise.
Tatiana is the choreographer who was hired for this project. Louise is the assistant manager here. She alternates her shifts with the manager, Mimi Giordano.
Mimi did my interview along with Tatiana. Both were nice to me, although I suspect Mimi probably saw how desperate I was. Tatiana was too impressed with my resume to see the other side to the job that would worry me.
She and Louise smile at me when I enter the room.
“Fantastic, you’re here,” Tatiana beams. She rubs her hands together excitedly.
I smile and try to act calm and cool. “Hi there. I made it,” I say tucking a lock of hair behind my ear.
“We’re so excited about tonight,” Louise says.
Both women frequent the club as patrons so they wouldn’t know how nervous I am. I’ve known them for a little over three weeks and I’ve heard enough stories to make a nun blush and have me in confessionals for a week, just from listening to them.
The way I figure it is this, it’s fine if you come here and meet a guy to hook up. If this is not your thing and you’re working, you become something else entirely.
In my case I’d be little better than a prostitute. They can sugar coat it all they want and make me feel like I’m being daring, but that is what it is.
That’s the part that gets me.
Tonight, could be the start of anything.
I’m the dancer, the angel representing heaven in the exhibition. I’ll be dancing in the hour-long performance and while I dance the men below who watch me will place their bids on who will have me for the night. Who will get to break my wings.
I try not to think about it, other than the fact it will pay me serious money if I can hack it.
“Are you ready?” Tatiana takes both my hands into hers.
“I am. It’s gonna be nice dancing again,” I try to sound enthusiastic.
“My girl, I can just imagine,” Tatiana sympathizes. “I was so sad when I stopped dancing. Imagine dancing for over twenty-five years, show after show, touring the world, then stopping. But it was time for me. Chorography is great, but there’s nothing like being on that stage. Or, in your case, the crystal ball.”
I laugh and genuinely smile.
The ideas she’s come up with are ingenious and I can see why the club owners hired her. I’m supposed to dance in a massive crystal ball that moves around the ceiling on a mechanical device creating an illusion I’m dancing in the air.
The ball is big enough for me to glide around and leap through the air as if I am on stage doing a show. A show I’ll be the star of.
All that while I’m surrounded by sex. It’s called the Heaven and Hell exhibition for a reason.
During my time here I’ve only seen people having sex once. That was when I was leaving late after rehearsals. I wondered if people would seriously have actual sex. Then I saw it. A threesome at that, and right by the bar where I went to grab a glass of water.
“I’m excited,” I say.
“That’s what we like to hear,” Louise chimes in.
“I’ll go get the makeup ready and the stylists.” Tatiana is once again rubbing her hands together.
“We’ll do paperwork and join you in a few minutes,” Louise answers and Tatiana saunters away.
Louise gives me a cautious look and bites the inside of her lip. “How are you really feeling?”
“I’m okay.”
“As it’s your first night, Mimi asked me to take special care of you. She sensed you were a little nervous,” she states.
“I am. I guess it’s because I’m new and this … is new,” I confess.
I put on a good act over the time I’ve come here. I tried to make them think I’m this wild adventurous woman who’s in touch with her body and wants to explore sex in every way. Of course, they would think that when I ticked the box on the contract that said I’d be willing to do anything.
That’s what I did. Opening the floor for anything.
Louise and Tatiana were so thrilled, Mimi though? I knew she could see straight through the shit of a façade.
“I’m going to be real with you, and please don’t take this the wrong way at all. For a start, I saw you dancing, and I can see you’re better than this, but that’s the same reason why we want you. The Dark Odyssey is more than just a sex club. It’s about fantasy, so we want the best. But not if you find yourself in a situation where you’re uncomfortable or feeling forced to do something you don’t want to do.”
I nod my understanding. “I know and I get it.”
“Lilly, I know the money is seriously good. Mimi and I are both moms, so we know the value of good money. At least she has a good guy to take care of her. I on the other hand know it can be hard when you don’t have that, and I get why you’re doing this, but think about what you’re doing. You said you’d do anything on your contract, and I have to let you know that anything means anything.”
“I understand,” I assure her, but she still looks concerned.
The job is only for three months. Dancing alone will pay a base of seven grand per month. That’s just for one hour’s work a night to dance virtually naked. I don’t know anywhere else that would pay me that much. I definitely wouldn’t make it dancing in the shows I’m used to. What I’m pushing my neck out for is the predicted hundred grand I stand to make for being booked to spend the night with a man I don’t know, or men. It could be more. After all I said I’d do anything. The minimum bid anyone can place is two grand. I was told it would likely be more than that, however. And that’s why I’m selling my soul to the devil.
“I just want to make sure you’re a hundred percent okay with that. The men who come here have all sorts of tastes.”
“I know, and I promise you, I’ll be okay.”
She’s a single mom like me, but I don’t think she’s been through the hell I had to go through with my baby and the man who was supposed to take care of us.
In the end there was no one to keep us safe from him. I’m here now and this is the home stretch out of hell.
“Great. We’re all extremely excited. Well, this is it. You get ready and you dance. I’ll have someone there waiting to tend to you at the end of the performance. The ball’s flight will end at Christian lounge tonight.”