Who cares about happily-ever-after? I’ve got happy-for-right-now, and that’s good enough for me.
* * *
“I cannot believe you didn’t tell me that stripper pole spins on its own!” I shout at Cindy as I stomp into the dressing room, still out of breath and covered in a thin sheen of sweat from dancing under the hot glare of stage lights.
“It was a minor detail that I left out. And who cares?! You looked amazing out there! Did you hear all the screaming and see all the money that was tossed up on that stage?” Cindy asks as she and Ariel follow quickly behind me while I continue stomping angrily across the room to grab a towel from one of the dressing tables and blot my face.
“Minor detail? MINOR DETAIL?!” I scream. “Stripper poles aren’t supposed to spin. The strippers on them are supposed to spin. All of my practicing revolved around me moving around the poll. Not me going so fast I thought my shoes were going to fly off, not knowing how to stop! I almost spun to death!”
As soon as I grabbed onto the pole in the middle of the stage and took a running leap, my body immediately whipped around that pole a hell of a lot faster than I was expecting. I don’t even know how I managed to make it look sexy or keep a look of panic off my face.
“Oh, quit your bitching,” Ariel mutters, flopping down in the chair next to me. “There were only a few seconds where I thought I might have to jump up on stage and rip your fingers off the pole. You recovered quite well, and no one knew you almost flew out into the audience.”
“Seriously, Belle. You did a Swan Spin, a Matrix, and a fucking Arrow Spin! Even I haven’t been able to get that Arrow Spin down yet!” Cindy states, staring at me in awe and making me lose a little bit of the anger.
“I watched a lot of YouTube videos. Don’t ever try and tell me again that studying doesn’t pay off,” I tell them.
“I think Mrs. Potter almost had a heart attack, she was clapping and whistling so loudly,” Ariel laughs. “And good God, I thought your dad was going to knock over the table when you finished, he jumped up so fast, clapping and shouting for you.”
When she sees the horrified look on my face she quickly reassures me.
“Don’t worry. The blindfold stayed firmly in place the entire time. And he only almost got beat up once when he was turned the wrong way in his chair and started blindly making it rain on some angry biker dude with a shaved head, wearing a leather vest, who was sitting behind him,” she adds.
“It was fine!” Cindy quickly jumps in, giving Ariel a dirty look when the things Ariel says doesn’t make me feel any better. “Luanne turned him around and apologized to the man.”
Tossing the towel on top of the dressing table, I grab Vincent’s shirt from the back of the chair where Ariel is sitting, sliding it up my arms and fastening a few of the buttons in the middle.
“Did you happen to check out Beast during Belle’s performance?” Cindy asks Ariel as I grab my skirt from the floor and shimmy it up my legs.
“Oh, you mean the giant tent in his pants, and how he looked like he was one more tit shake away from disappearing into the bathroom to jerk off?” Ariel responds.
“You’re definitely getting laid tonight,” Cindy states with a wag of her eyebrows.
I look back and forth between my two friends as I get my skirt up to my waist, wondering what the hell they’re talking about. I managed to catch Vincent’s eyes once during my dance and he looked bored. He was leaning against the back wall by the door with his arms crossed and absolutely no emotion on his face.
“You’re both insane,” I mutter, when the dressing room door flies open, banging against the opposite wall.
“You two. Out,” Vincent growls, pointing at Cindy and Ariel.
He looks so imposing and angry as he stands there taking up the entire doorway, shooting a murderous look at both my friends, but maybe they were right. Maybe watching me dance really did light a fire under him and he’s finally going to give me what I want.
Ariel scrambles out of the chair and grabs Cindy’s arm as they both hurry across the room, pausing in front of Vincent.
“Be gentle. If you hurt her, I will slice those tree stumps you call arms into tiny little pieces and make you eat them,” Ariel threatens him.
“What she said,” Cindy agrees with a nod.
Vincent sighs in irritation, moving to the side to let them pass.
When they’re gone and it’s just the two of us alone in the room, the anticipation about what’s going to happen next is so overwhelming that I want to scream. I reach behind me and grab on to the back of the chair that Ariel just vacated, holding my breath as Vincent continues standing by the door, staring at me.