Chapter 1
Angelica
A s I watched the girl dancing on stage, I couldn’t help but tremble with fear, my shoulders slumping in defeat. With the school year over, I needed to figure out what I was going to do about the train wreck my life had become. If anyone had told me a few short years ago that I’d be standing here in a strip club contemplating my future, I would have laughed my ass off.
I’d always been a daddy’s girl, so when he’d taken off during my sophomore year of high school, it had come as an enormous shock to me. I’d already been struggling with the knowledge that my mom wasn’t going to last much longer. She had been diagnosed with cancer the year before and had begun losing the battle. The doctors had told us to prepare for the worst and had advised that she’d probably only have another six to twelve months.
My parents had gotten married straight out of high school when my mom had gotten pregnant with me. I’d always sensed some distance between them since they never acted all lovey-dovey around me, but I’d never expected for my dad to run off like a coward the way he had. He’d always said I was the best thing that had ever happened to him, yet he had no problem walking away when the going got tough.
Mom had taken it in stride, though. She’d refused to move even though we didn’t have any family in town. My mom had insisted that we stay in our house because it had been important to her for me to have as much of a sense of normalcy in my life as I could with everything that had gone on. Her parents had died several years before, and she was an only child, so there hadn’t been anyone on her side of the family to turn to anyway. And my dad’s family had always been dysfunctional enough that we rarely traveled to see them. His leaving meant we only had each other to lean on.
She had been a trooper and held on far longer than anyone expected, finally letting go a week before graduation. She had done it secure in the knowledge that I’d only have the summer to fend for myself before heading off to college. What she hadn’t known was that I’d wiped out my college savings while keeping us afloat that last year. Even though it left me up a creek without much of a paddle, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’d never regret my decision either. So it meant that I found myself standing in a strip club, trying to figure out if I should give it a whirl.
I had to move out of our rental house at the end of the month because the landlord was only willing to give me until then to sell or get rid of whatever furniture I wasn’t going to take with me. We’d lived there for seven years, but that didn’t seem to matter now that it was just me. Not that I wanted to waste what little money remained on rent for the rest of the summer anyway. The life insurance policy didn’t leave me much after paying off my mom’s medical bills.
I knew I needed to get a job, and I figured I might as well get one closer to school on the off chance that I managed to figure out how to pay my tuition before the semester began. Luckily, my mom had already transferred the title of her car over to me, so I didn’t have to worry about transportation. As I drove around the city, trying to figure out who would be willing to hire a nineteen-year-old girl with no work history, the sign for Morgan’s Gentleman’s Club and Steakhouse practically jumped out at me. They proclaimed themselves to be “world-class” and I’d never heard of a strip club offering high-end food. Not that I knew much about strip clubs but the ones I’d driven past in my hometown looked nothing like this place.
I pounded the pavement for a few days trying to find a job that would pay my living expenses and leave enough money for school before I finally gave up hope. I needed to come up with a better plan, and as I did some research online, I found myself typing that strip club’s name into the search engine. I was surprised to see it had
Angelica
A s I watched the girl dancing on stage, I couldn’t help but tremble with fear, my shoulders slumping in defeat. With the school year over, I needed to figure out what I was going to do about the train wreck my life had become. If anyone had told me a few short years ago that I’d be standing here in a strip club contemplating my future, I would have laughed my ass off.
I’d always been a daddy’s girl, so when he’d taken off during my sophomore year of high school, it had come as an enormous shock to me. I’d already been struggling with the knowledge that my mom wasn’t going to last much longer. She had been diagnosed with cancer the year before and had begun losing the battle. The doctors had told us to prepare for the worst and had advised that she’d probably only have another six to twelve months.
My parents had gotten married straight out of high school when my mom had gotten pregnant with me. I’d always sensed some distance between them since they never acted all lovey-dovey around me, but I’d never expected for my dad to run off like a coward the way he had. He’d always said I was the best thing that had ever happened to him, yet he had no problem walking away when the going got tough.
Mom had taken it in stride, though. She’d refused to move even though we didn’t have any family in town. My mom had insisted that we stay in our house because it had been important to her for me to have as much of a sense of normalcy in my life as I could with everything that had gone on. Her parents had died several years before, and she was an only child, so there hadn’t been anyone on her side of the family to turn to anyway. And my dad’s family had always been dysfunctional enough that we rarely traveled to see them. His leaving meant we only had each other to lean on.
She had been a trooper and held on far longer than anyone expected, finally letting go a week before graduation. She had done it secure in the knowledge that I’d only have the summer to fend for myself before heading off to college. What she hadn’t known was that I’d wiped out my college savings while keeping us afloat that last year. Even though it left me up a creek without much of a paddle, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’d never regret my decision either. So it meant that I found myself standing in a strip club, trying to figure out if I should give it a whirl.
I had to move out of our rental house at the end of the month because the landlord was only willing to give me until then to sell or get rid of whatever furniture I wasn’t going to take with me. We’d lived there for seven years, but that didn’t seem to matter now that it was just me. Not that I wanted to waste what little money remained on rent for the rest of the summer anyway. The life insurance policy didn’t leave me much after paying off my mom’s medical bills.
I knew I needed to get a job, and I figured I might as well get one closer to school on the off chance that I managed to figure out how to pay my tuition before the semester began. Luckily, my mom had already transferred the title of her car over to me, so I didn’t have to worry about transportation. As I drove around the city, trying to figure out who would be willing to hire a nineteen-year-old girl with no work history, the sign for Morgan’s Gentleman’s Club and Steakhouse practically jumped out at me. They proclaimed themselves to be “world-class” and I’d never heard of a strip club offering high-end food. Not that I knew much about strip clubs but the ones I’d driven past in my hometown looked nothing like this place.
I pounded the pavement for a few days trying to find a job that would pay my living expenses and leave enough money for school before I finally gave up hope. I needed to come up with a better plan, and as I did some research online, I found myself typing that strip club’s name into the search engine. I was surprised to see it had
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