Captain Jack looked at Mary with startled eyes. "What am I doing here? Mary, I could certainly ask you the same thing, don't you think?"
"Well, Captain – er, I mean, Jack – I kind of, um, work here now."
"You what?!" Captain Jack shook his head in disbelief and disappointment. "Gosh, Mary, I'd heard that the airline had let you go, but I had no idea you'd ended up in a place like this. If I had known…"
Not wanting any sympathy, Mary interrupted. "Listen, I don't have time to talk. I'm working right now, okay? The noon hour is important here. My lunch break will come in another hour and a half. Can I talk to you then?"
Belinda, having overheard the last part of the conversation, walked up behind Mary and said, "Actually, he's the only customer here right now. You might as well go to lunch with him now and come back later."
Captain Jack nodded. "Yes, Mary. Come to lunch with me. We need to talk."
Mary rolled her eyes. About the last thing she wanted to do right now was to spend time with this man, whose relationship to her was as unclear as ever. Friend? Ex-boyfriend? Mentor? Father figure? Not seeing any other option, however, she conceded. "Oh, alright. Let me go slip into my street clothes and I'll meet you in the lobby."
***
A half-hour later Mary sat across from Jack at an anonymously trendy restaurant, picking at her Cobb salad.
"Are you okay, dear? You've hardly said two words since we left the club, and you've barely touched your food."
Mary looked up at Jack and tried to smile. "I'm fine. I just didn't expect to see anyone I knew at the club. Ever." She picked at her salad for another second and then blurted, "I mean, what on earth would prompt a guy like you to go to a place like that?"
Jack flushed and waved a hand as if hoping to wipe away his embarrassment. "I don't usually go into places like that, but my old military buddy Harold told me there was some incredible new girl working there that I just had to see. Said her name was 'Virgin Mary' or something like that."
Mary dropped her fork and covered her mouth. "Oh my God. You know Harold?"
Surprised, Jack lifted his eyes to meet Mary's. "Wait a minute. You know Harold? Harold Becker?"
Mary closed her eyes and nodded. Swallowing hard, she admitted, "Harold is my neighbor from across the hall. I asked him to tell all his friends that I worked at the Foxxy Laydee, but I had no idea that you would turn out to be one of his friends."
Jack cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Yes, well, he was my mentor in the Air Force. Taught me everything I know. He's long since retired, but we still keep in touch."
"Wow. Small world." Mary fake chuckled and gulped from her water glass, praying that the awkward lunch from hell would just end already.
Concern etched Jack's face, and he reached out to take Mary's other hand – the one that wasn't currently gripping her water glass. "Listen, Mary, if I had had any clue that things had been going the way they have for you, I would have done something about it. I mean, I certainly wouldn't have let you go if I had known you would end up working at a strip club…"
Mary pulled her hand away from his. "'Let me go'? Excuse me, but you did not 'let me go'. I let you go. I wasn't ready for a physical relationship with you, remember?"
Jack nodded. "Yes, I remember, and that's why I let you go. But I'm sorry I did that. It was shallow of me. Obviously you needed someone to take care of you for a while, and I'm in a position to do that right now, so I'd be willing to take you back…"
"Um, what? Look, I am doing perfectly well taking care of myself right now. I do not need you or your condescending, smug attitude, okay?"
Jack sighed. "Mary, there's no need to get angry. I know you don't want to work at that place…"
Angrily, Mary said, "I hate to interrupt again, Jack, but you know no such thing. For your information, I happen to like working there. It took a little while to adjust at first, but I got used to it fast, and I've got news for you: I'm good. I'm earning enough to make a living and I like doing it too. So, Captain Jack, or Jack, or whatever the heck you want to call yourself, you can take your pity and stuff it where the sun doesn't shine." Slightly surprised by her own brazenness, Mary nonetheless stood, grabbed her purse, and walked out the restaurant door without waiting for another word from Jack.
As she reached the sidewalk, she wondered, "Great. Now how do I get back to work?"
***
An hour and a half and several bus transfers later, Mary finally made her way through the black doors into the dark club. She half expected Belinda to be in the lobby, arms crossed, waiting to scold her for taking such a long lunch break, with Sheba behind the counter snapping gum and eagerly anticipating the ensuing butt-chewing. However, upon entering Mary found a rather different scene. All the girls were sitting around tables in the club area, except for a few who seemed to be comparing dance moves on the main stage. There was not a man to be found in the entire club, and the speakers were silent instead of pumping their usual bass-heavy blend of sound.
Mary spotted Cynthia painting her nails at one of the tables. She walked up to her and asked, "What's going on? How come no one's dancing?"
Cynthia giggled and waved a hand at the empty showroom. "Who are we supposed to be dancing for, silly? Each other?"
"Huh. Good point."
"Yeah, Belinda said Monday afternoons are slow like this sometimes. She told us to just save our energy until some paying customers actually show up."
Mary chuckled. "That does sound like something she would say."
Cynthia changed the subject and inquired, "So, who was the geezer you went to lunch with?"
"Ugh. Ex-boyfriend trying to get back together."
"Really? Have a seat and do tell more," Cynthia motioned to an empty seat across the table.
"Thanks, but there's really nothing more to tell. It's over between me and him." Mary sat down and turned her attention to the activity occurring on the stage. Lady Dee was in an almost horizontal position six feet in the air, supporting herself by clenching a pole with only her inner thighs. She somehow managed to slide her way down gracefully, bounce up and land on her feet. "Wow," Mary commented, "Lady Dee is really talented."
"She knows how to work the pole, that's for sure," Cynthia commented while painting a pinkie. "And she's the best at shaking her tits."
"Well, she's got a little more to work with in that department than most people do," Mary joked.
"Ugh, don't remind me. Although I'm thinking about having mine done. I mean, most of the other girls here have had theirs done and they look spectacular. Jobs like theirs pay for themselves in a couple months."
Mary turned away from the stage to look at Cynthia. "What are you talking about? I think your boobs are really pretty."
Cynthia rolled her eyes as she blew on her right hand. "Pretty, maybe. Big? Not exactly."
"So what?" Mary asked, ignoring the increasingly vocal game of gin between Babs, Belinda, and one of the other girls at the table to her left. "Big isn't everything."
"Oh, that's easy for you to say. You're naturally blessed."
Mary sighed. "I just think it would be a mistake for you to change what God gave you when you're just fine the way you are."
Cynthia looked up from painting her left thumb and smirked. "You sound like a preacher's daughter or something."
Mary tried not to blush.
***
By the time Mary had changed back into her dancing costume around 3 o'clock, some customers had finally showed up. Belinda approached her backstage and said, "Fun time's over. Get ready to go on the main stage, slot number one."
Taken aback, Mary asked, "What about Lady Dee? Doesn't she get the first slot?"
"Well, if she hadn't left five minutes ago to pick up her kid from school, then yeah, she would. But since she's not here, I'm giving her slot to you instead. Don't screw it up."
Mary felt her stomach flutter a bit. It was only her second week on the job, her mentor was gone, and she was already being asked to take the lead slot.
"Don't freak out. You can do this. Maybe if you tried the pole…"
After the DJ called her name, Mary sashayed onto the stage in her devil costume and grabbed onto the pole, whirling around it with wild abandon.
"Yeah! Work the pole, baby!" she heard a male voice in the audience exclaim.
Mary responded by placing her legs around the pole and rocking back and forth like she had seen Jewell and Lady Dee do several times before. She then turned around and proceeded to slide her ass up and down it as far as possible, much to the delight of the three or four men in the club. One of them got up and slipped a five-dollar bill into her garter, and she removed her top and shook her breasts in his face.
"Oh, I love it! How about a table dance?" he asked as he procured a twenty for her.
"You got it," Mary said with a wink and a smile.
***
Despite having started out as a slow Monday, and despite the club's top dancer leaving early, by the time Mary clocked out Belinda said it was the best Monday afternoon they'd had in quite a while. Mary had stepped right into the lead spot onstage and carried the workload. She had been so pleased with her afternoon's work that she barely noticed when Babs spat on her locker.
Driving home from work that evening, she swelled with pride. "I can't believe it. For the first time ever, I'm really good at a job. And I keep improving too. I bet in another few months they'll put me on night shift and then I'll make all kinds of money. And who knows where it could go from there…"
Lost in reverie as she climbed the stairs to her apartment, she stopped paying attention to her surroundings and failed to notice two male voices in the hallway. She pulled out her door key and turned the corner, but when she saw the two men standing there she stopped and put her hands on her hips.
"Oh great. What do you want now?"
***
A/N: I wish to apologize for making you all wait for over two months with that nasty cliffhanger. The holiday season was busy, of course, but I finally had time to get this chapter ready. I still have a lot going on and can't guarantee when the next chapter will be ready to post, but I'll keep plugging away.
Cheers!