Pink Butterfly (18 page)

“Fucking pervert,” Minnie replied. “I’m sixty eight years old and he tries to get in my panties at least once a day. I pretend to be deaf so he stays away.”

“Should I be worried?”

“Tell you what, the last girl he auditioned ended up getting an abortion. He denies it was his kid, but the timing was pretty suspect.”

“Are you telling me he’s going to expect me to fuck him for this job?”

“Why do you act so surprised? This isn’t a daycare. It’s a place where men come to get off on women. He’s in charge, he’s the only one who actually gets what he wants.”

“That’s sexual discrimination!” Alicia snapped back.

“Are you kidding me? Maybe you should’ve done your research before looking for a job where being naked is part of the job description. How old are you? Twenty?”

“Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I can’t take care of myself.”

“Did you get your ideas about how strip clubs work from watching television? Those shows are nothing like real life. Some of the perverts that come in here belong in jail, or on the sex offender’s registry. These guys are not cowboys and fire fighters, they’re guys that can’t get laid and are tired of whacking off to internet porn. There is no glamour to this and if you thought there was, after two weeks you will wish you were bagging groceries for a living. When you get home at five in the morning, you have to shower to get the stink of the men off you.”

“Then why do you still work here?” Alicia asked.

“I push a vacuum cleaner honey, I don’t show my cooter for money.”

“You sound like a hypocrite.”

“In my day, it wasn’t like this. We had style, we danced. Now you girls spin on poles, spread your legs and try to make conversation why some guy’s getting a boner staring at your birth canal.”

“So you think I should leave?” Alicia asked.

“No, not at all, the best way to learn is by doing. Get on that stage, strut your stuff like a circus animal and see if you like it. Maybe you’re cut out for this line of work. Some girls excel and get off on the attention. What do your parents think about this?”

“Never mind what my parents think,” Alicia replied sarcastically. “My mother and I never agree on anything, why should we start now?”

“If I had a daughter your age and you wanted to try this out, I’d be the same way. No mother wants her daughter to be a stripper. Both of my sons went to the university and got degrees.”

“I bet they have nice high paying jobs don’t they?” Alicia asked sarcastically.

“One of them is the bar manager here at the club. He does alright, he has a business degree and a minor in restaurant management. Granted we don’t serve food here, but at least he’s doing something with his education.”

“You do realize that if girls didn’t strip here, he wouldn’t have a job.”

“Yes, there is irony in that. Once again, a man is taking advantage of a woman for her body. But that’s the way it’s always been and probably will always be.”

Mary Campbell stomped her way into the Pink Butterfly expecting to see he daughter up on the stage auditioning for a sick perverted stripper job. Instead she ran into the assistant manager Jeff Delgado standing behind the juice bar with a towel wiping blood off his face.

“Where is my daughter?” Mary asked shouting at Jeff.

“Who’s your daughter?” Jeff asked tossing the towel on the counter.

“Alicia Campbell, she is supposed to be auditioning at your slut club.”

“Oh, I told her to go over to the stage and get ready, I haven’t seen her yet. I was busy in the back.”

Mary looked at the scratches on Jeff’s face and neck and the blood on the towel. “What happened to you?” she asked feigning interest.

“Got in a fight with a vendor,” Jeff lied back. “Tried to rip me off for the last time.”

“Nice,” Mary said. “Where’s the stage?”

Jeff pointed to his left and Mary took off walking at a brisk pace past the tables and chairs. The bar was dark compared to the light from the afternoon outside and it took her a moment to get used to the difference. She approached the elevated stage, took notice of the steps leading up to the dance floor and the brass pole that stood off to one side. She scanned around at the tables, chairs and pornographic decorations on the wall and felt the life drain from her. “Alicia!” she yelled and waited for a response.

In a moment, Alicia stepped out from the doorway of the dressing room and walked over to the stage wearing her bra, panty and high heel outfit. “Mom, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“I came to get you the hell out of here before you throw your life away!” Mary barked back. “Get your clothes back on, I’m taking you home!”

From the doorway Minnie stood with a smile on her face almost cheering Mary for doing what she thought was the right thing.

“Sorry mother,” Alicia stated. “Not until my audition is over.”

“Fine, if that’s how you want it, I’ll sit right here in the front row and watch my daughter stick her ass up in the air. Maybe having your mother watch will change your mind.”

“Get out mother,” Alicia said with a droll.

Mary crossed her arms and sat down in the front row not saying a word. She fished through her purse and found two one dollar bills and decided she would see how good her daughter was at taking tips from mom. “I’m waiting!” Mary barked out loud waving the dollars in her hand.

“I have to wait for the assistant manager.”

Mary looked back towards the front door and smiled. “Here he comes honey, do a good job, I wouldn’t want to see you screw this up. I have such high hopes for you,” she said dripping with sarcasm.

Jeff stepped up to the stage and took notice of Alicia, Mary at the stage and Minnie who was still standing in the doorway of the dressing room with a shit eating grin on her face.

“Hi, I’m Jeff, the assistant manager, you must be Alicia?” he asked looking at the girl in her underwear.

“Yes,” she replied coyly.

“And this is your mother?” he asked looking at Mary.

“Yes.”

“Never had a mother come to an audition before,” Jeff said with a quirky smile. “Let’s get this going, I only have a few minutes.” Jeff stepped over to the DJ booth and turned on some dance music and the stage lights. “You have two songs, make it good!” he shouted over the speakers.

Alicia took hold of the rail and stepped up the stairs onto the stage and immediately took off her top exposing her firm smooth breasts. She awkwardly tried to sway her hips and make some dance moves trying not to fall on her face with the heels and blinking stage lights. She kept her eyes away from her mother who she could see out of the corner of her eye starting at her like a hawk.

“What’s you stage name?” Jeff asked over the microphone.

Alicia shrugged her shoulders indicating she hadn’t thought of one yet. She continued to try to dance and made her way to the brass pole. The metal was cold and she was afraid to get to close but realized that the pole was an intricate part of the stage show so she bellied up to the stage prop and grabbed onto it like it was a fire hose. The frigid metal gave her goose bumps but she tried her best not to let her discomfort show. She wanted to be a professional, and as a professional, she had to put on the best show she could.

Halfway into the first song she heard her mother yell something and wave a dollar in the air.

“Go on!” Jeff said over the speakers. “I gotta see how you handle a tip.”

Reluctantly, Alicia stepped over to where her mother was sitting and bent over to pick up the dollar. Her mother pulled back and said, “Not so fast honey, you have to work for it!”

Alicia put on her best face and pulled out her panty so her mother could put the dollar in the waist band. She then leaned over and pulled her mother’s face in between her breasts and shook back and forth trying her best to pretend it was a man. As soon as she was done, she stood back up and almost ran back to the pole.

“Very good!” Jeff said. “You get two songs and the panties have to be off when the second song starts.” With that said, Jeff clicked the mouse on the laptop and the song changed.

Alicia walked around the pole once keeping a firm hand to keep her balance and stopped to slide her panties down to her feet. She stepped out of the leg holes one at a time and started dancing again. Jeff was surprised at how confident Alicia was for a first time dancer, especially since her mother was sitting twenty feet away waving her last dollar.

“You got another tip!” Jeff said pointed at Mary.

Taking a deep breath and ready to get this over, Alicia walked back over to her mother, squatted down and spread her legs so her mother could have a nice close up view of her pussy. Mary tossed the dollar on the stage and tried to grab Alicia by the crotch. Shocked, Alicia bolted back and yelled, “What the hell are you doing!”

“I’m doing what any self-absorbed, horny man would do! You have to expect this to happen!”

“That’s why they have bouncers!” Alicia snapped back.

“By the time the bouncer got here you’d be screwed!”

“This is bullshit! I know how to handle myself with men. If you were a man, I’d kick the shit out of you before the bouncer ever got near the stage.”

The music stopped and Jeff stepped down from the DJ booth over to the mother and daughter caught up in a cat fight. “I will say this, some of the girls do let the men go pretty far when it comes to private dances, but as far as the stage goes, we have a strict no touch policy. I rarely see anyone cross the line here. But if you go upstairs, or in the back, they might expect a little more for the price of the private dance.”

“Like how much more?” Mary asked.

“For twenty five bucks, most of the guys expect a little wet finger action.”

“You’re kidding me!” Mary barked back. ‘That’s no less than prostitution!”

“Only the regulars do it, if the girls don’t know the guy, he doesn’t get anything. And the girls never initiate, if the cops tried to bust us undercover, they would have to make the first move, and they never would.”

“What happened to your friend Jenny you were supposed to meet here?” Mary asked. “Did she tell you about any of this?”

“I don’t know where she is, she was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago,” Alicia replied. “Did you see her?” she asked Jeff.

“No, she hasn’t been in today,” Jeff lied back.

“So when will you know if I get the job?” Alicia asked.

“As far as I’m concerned, you’re on the schedule for tonight, that is if your mother doesn’t stop you.”

Mary looked at Alicia with disgust. “No, I won’t try to stop her, she’s a big girl and she can learn her own lessons. Don’t come crying to me when the shit hits the fan young lady, me and your father have warned you.”

“What time do the dancers go on?” Alicia asked.

“The dancing starts at five and runs till midnight on Thursday, five to four in the morning on Friday and Saturday.”

“Good, I’ll be back at four to get ready,” Alicia said and walked back to the dressing room past Minnie who was listening to the conversation.

“Your daughter will be fine,” Jeff said to Mary who sat in her chair pissed.

“Who are you to reassure me of anything? When my daughter is leaving to go to her car are you going to be there to make sure she doesn’t get abducted, raped and killed?”

Jeff felt the irony since he had done the same thing to a woman three years prior. At least he thought he did, his life as Jeff and Melvin were still a blur to him.

“We have a spotless record here, none of our girls have ever been harmed.”

“You’re girls aren’t my daughter,” Mary snapped back leaving Jeff standing by himself leaning against the stage. He watched her walk past the tables and chairs, past the juice bar and out the front door. On the ground was one of the dollars Mary gave to Alicia that slipped and fell. He leaned over and picked it up and gave it a good long smell. He shoved it in his pants pocket and rubbed it against his erection and went back to the task of thinking of what to do with Jenny who was still locked up in his office.

“What are you going to do with the girl locked in your office,” Laurie Delgado said scaring the shit out of Jeff.

“Where the fuck did you come from?” Jeff asked catching his breath.

“I’m always around, you know that.”

“Yeah, I’m still not used to a freaking zombie/ghost that walks the halls of the Pink Butterfly. You should wear a bell.”

“Don’t avoid my question, what are you going to do with her?”

Jeff looked at the dressing room door to see if anyone was listening in on the conversation. “I haven’t decided yet,” he answered, I need to get back there before she starts screaming.

“I’ll go with you,” Laurie said and followed Jeff back to his office. Once inside, Jeff took notice of Jenny lying on the floor still unconscious from the blow to the head. “I don’t have much choice now I suppose.”

“You going to finish her off? Or leave her in a trunk to suffocate like you did to me?”

“Fuck I don’t know, people knew she was coming here so there’s no real way to end this without getting caught.”

“I thought you had asylum here?” Laurie asked.

“I do, but any crime I commit at the embassy falls under Labiastan law.”

“Interesting, what’s the law say about murder in Labiastan?”

“Good question, maybe I should ask someone. Then I can make a more informed decision. All we have around here are strippers and office personnel.”

“This is an embassy, it’s crawling with lawyers. When’s the last time you went downstairs?”

“They don’t like me downstairs, they say I creep them out.”

“Pick up the phone and call someone douchebag,” Laurie said looking at Jeff like he was stupid.

Jeff picked up the phone off his desk and dialed the embassy operator. “Yes, hello, can you put me in touch with a lawyer?”

A moment went by and a voice came across the phone. “Legal department, what can I do for you?” the voice asked in a friendly female voice.

“I need to speak to a lawyer, I have a question.”

“What is your question?”