Resigned, she faced her friend, and roommate. “I’m more nervous tonight than I have ever been. Even my first night I wasn’t this nervous. But tonight, something feels different, and I don’t know why.” She shrugged. “I’m just feeling unsettled.”
Talya’s face changed from amusement to one of concern. She closed in on Sylvia and wrapped her arm around Sylvia’s shoulder. “You’ve felt like this since that night in Kenza.”
“Don’t be silly,” Sylvia quickly denied, and heard the weakness in her own voice.
So did Talya. “Sylvia, there’s nothing wrong with admitting you’re hung up on Eric.” Talya stepped back and captured her hands. She drew them out and her gaze took in the clothes and the look of worry on Sylvia’s face. “You look good so stop fidgeting, and you need to move on with your life.”
Sylvia was about to deny the fact that she’d put her life on hold because of her mixed feelings about Eric, when one look from her friend stopped her short. She hadn’t put her life on hold really. Had she? She certainly hadn’t looked at another man since the dance in Kenza with Eric, but then he’d up and disappeared without a word to anyone. At least that’s what she’d been told.
“You’re on,” Bea informed her as she came dashing into the dressing room looking flustered.
Sylvia and Talya turned and watched Bea’s panicked movements. Her hands shook, which caused hindrance with removing her shoes that she’d tried to unfasten and kick off.
With a quick glance to Talya, Sylvia moved to Bea and knocked her hands away. “I’ll get it.” She busied herself with removing Bea’s shoes, and looked up at her. “What’s going on, Bea?”
“Nothing.” Bea’s gaze darted everywhere but at Sylvia before she tried to turn away.
Sylvia wouldn’t have any of it. “Bea, something has you worked up. Please talk to me. What happened out there?”
Bea paused in her jerky movements. “He’s out there.”
Not sure who Bea meant, Sylvia glanced to Talya, and then back to Bea. “Who’s out there?”
“My ex-husband. Until I’d finished dancing, I had no idea he was out there. But when I opened my eyes at the end, something felt off and then I saw him at the bar. He looked so angry.” Bea started to shove her things haphazardly into her purse. “Zane’s just arrived as well. He can’t know. I have to get out of here.”
“Wait.” Talya moved to the door. “Let me get Yuri. He won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Talya, don’t. I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of me.”
“Yuri has some friends in the club, he’ll be fin
e.” Talya disappeared, which left Sylvia to try and calm Bea down.
Nothing would work though. Bea had gotten herself really worked up, and Sylvia had no idea how to calm her. Bea, although friendly, never talked about herself and preferred to work and then leave. She hardly ever socialized with them. Not that Sylvia and Talya socialized with the others, but Bea was very private and up until now, she’d only ever been rattled because Zane, a club regular, who Sylvia had yet to meet, kept asking her out.
“You need to go out there, Sylvia.” Bea turned away and walked to the back of the dressing room where she dropped to the sofa that had seen better days. “I’m serious. I’ll be fine until Talya gets back with her guy.”
Sylvia had to smile. Bea had just proved that everyone knew about Yuri’s attraction to Talya, but the woman herself.
“I’ll go, but I’ll be back.”
Turning on her heels, Sylvia raced out of the room and dashed toward the stage where she found Robert pacing back and forth waiting for her. “Sorry. I’m ready,” she said before he could say anything.
As she caught her breath, Sylvia made her way onto the dark stage where the pole was waiting for her to do her routine.
Bea’s panic had set her off, and her stomach flipped with nerves. She hated the feeling and hoped it would pass as soon as the music blared throughout the club.
“I can do this,” she whispered, and lifting her leg up high, curved it around the pole before she dipped backwards, arched her spine, and waited.
She didn’t have long to wait as Mandy Moore’s Candy started to blare through the speakers around the club.
The spotlight came on, and Sylvia slithered like a snake down to the floor while she waited for the beat to kick in, and when it did, she showed the audience what she could do.
Although Sylvia was short, she had a body made for sin with large breasts and the way she could move. She made men crave her, which was why a stillness went through the place as she worked the drooling audience to her advantage.
Her eyes stayed closed throughout the routine, but when she finished, they opened to shouting and whistling.
Her heart pumped with exertion as she gazed around now that the lights weren’t blinding her. She didn’t know what or who she was looking for until her eyes landed on him. The man who she suspected of sending her the notes. The man who’s penetrating glare gave her goose bumps, and not in a good way.