I have known Rose longer than Billy, but she is still a mystery. I have always had a soft spot for her. She is pretty. One of those people that never ages. She looks the same at twenty-nine as she did at nineteen. She is working at Colosseum but the strip clubs in the city are not the same anymore. The city is cracking down on the clubs. The city shutdown the Penthouse Club and dancers at Colosseum need to maintain a six inch distance from customers at all times. "Six inches?" I comment to her. "I might as well just watch porn."
Rose suggested we could meet up outside the club. She is coming over tonight. I pulled this from my achieves in honor of the occasion.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
A Rose By Any Other Name
I am sitting in a corner deep in the back
of the club, away from the stage, and away from dancers. I came to talk with my
favorite Eastern European Waitress Milla. New at her job she lacks the jaded
veneer the club gives a person. She is unsure she has what it takes to make it.
She looks the part, like a young Katie Holmes, but still has that deer trapped in
the headlights look to her-- of course we were instant friends.
Milla is sitting with me when a school of shot girl piranhas swarm us. Shot girls are the worst money leeches in any strip club. This bar's are exceptionally bad. They can pull $50 out of you before you know where their watered down liquor went. I am trying to politely dismiss them when I see Rose walk down stairs onto the stage. She caught my eye and I wagged a finger at her.
I extract myself from the grip of the shot girls and go to talk to Rose. "You know how many Amish communities I went to looking for you? It's not like I could call them either, because they don't have phones."
"Oh, whatever!" She replies, crouching down beside.
"Not to mention the Armenian mob, I still got bullet holes healing from that and you didn't even send flowers."
She plays along. "I did send flowers your dead neighbor's ghost probably stole them."
She get a smirk out of me. "Seriously, what happened to you?"
She shrugs, her big doe-eyes looking at me straight on. "I don't know."
"Come see me when you get off stage."
She avoided me at first. It did not make sense. Milla, my waitress, keeps stopping by. I tolt her the whole story between Rose and I earlier. "Don't let it bother you," she said.
I could not help it. "It does. It doesn't make sense. I only know of two girls that really hate me, my ex and that tall dark haired shot girl."
Later I catch Milla and Rose talking by the stairs. I don't know what was said. I wrap my arms around Rose's waist before she can get away. "I was just going that way, " she assures me.
"Sure you were."
We quibble good-natured all the way back to my table in the corner. We talk for a while than I ask her again what happened to her.
"I just freaked out, I got scared. It is not that I didn't want to go, I just freaked. Don't you remember what it was like to be my age?" Her eyes glisten as if on the verge of tears and I fell the sincerity in her words.
I say, "Look I like our whole dancer, customer relationship thing we got going here. You don't have to make false promises to keep me around."
She assures me that is not it. The rest of the night continued very un-dancer like. We go upstairs and continue talking. She asks if I have seem Clash of the Titans yet. I say no, we should go see it. If someone calls me and asks to be taken to the movies, I will make it happen. She says she will, except that she would pay.
As we head back downstairs, she gets called onstage. I hand her some money and say wait I still owe you $20. I did not expect to get dances that night so only had a few dollars in my front pocket. The rest was in my wallet which was buttoned down in my back pocket.
"Forget it." She says.
"No. That's not right."
"I'll come by your table."
She came back to the table but was reluctant to take the money. She said she would text me later and she did. We are supposed to go to the movies this Thursday. So we will see. Those eyes are hard to resist.
Milla is sitting with me when a school of shot girl piranhas swarm us. Shot girls are the worst money leeches in any strip club. This bar's are exceptionally bad. They can pull $50 out of you before you know where their watered down liquor went. I am trying to politely dismiss them when I see Rose walk down stairs onto the stage. She caught my eye and I wagged a finger at her.
I extract myself from the grip of the shot girls and go to talk to Rose. "You know how many Amish communities I went to looking for you? It's not like I could call them either, because they don't have phones."
"Oh, whatever!" She replies, crouching down beside.
"Not to mention the Armenian mob, I still got bullet holes healing from that and you didn't even send flowers."
She plays along. "I did send flowers your dead neighbor's ghost probably stole them."
She get a smirk out of me. "Seriously, what happened to you?"
She shrugs, her big doe-eyes looking at me straight on. "I don't know."
"Come see me when you get off stage."
She avoided me at first. It did not make sense. Milla, my waitress, keeps stopping by. I tolt her the whole story between Rose and I earlier. "Don't let it bother you," she said.
I could not help it. "It does. It doesn't make sense. I only know of two girls that really hate me, my ex and that tall dark haired shot girl."
Later I catch Milla and Rose talking by the stairs. I don't know what was said. I wrap my arms around Rose's waist before she can get away. "I was just going that way, " she assures me.
"Sure you were."
We quibble good-natured all the way back to my table in the corner. We talk for a while than I ask her again what happened to her.
"I just freaked out, I got scared. It is not that I didn't want to go, I just freaked. Don't you remember what it was like to be my age?" Her eyes glisten as if on the verge of tears and I fell the sincerity in her words.
I say, "Look I like our whole dancer, customer relationship thing we got going here. You don't have to make false promises to keep me around."
She assures me that is not it. The rest of the night continued very un-dancer like. We go upstairs and continue talking. She asks if I have seem Clash of the Titans yet. I say no, we should go see it. If someone calls me and asks to be taken to the movies, I will make it happen. She says she will, except that she would pay.
As we head back downstairs, she gets called onstage. I hand her some money and say wait I still owe you $20. I did not expect to get dances that night so only had a few dollars in my front pocket. The rest was in my wallet which was buttoned down in my back pocket.
"Forget it." She says.
"No. That's not right."
"I'll come by your table."
She came back to the table but was reluctant to take the money. She said she would text me later and she did. We are supposed to go to the movies this Thursday. So we will see. Those eyes are hard to resist.
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