by Eva Luxe
I hang up. Just the sound of his voice on his recording drives me crazy. Talk about a deadbeat dad. We got together when I was a teenager. I wasn’t making the best decisions then. He was fifteen years older than me, but I didn’t care. He was hot and he had a car, and that’s all that mattered. Next thing I know I was pregnant and he was on his way out the door.
Fifteen years later and I haven’t received one single dime of child support. Every time I ask he makes up some excuse, and every time I try to go through the state I run into a brick wall. He lies about his income, stalls, goes out of town, and fights me every step of the way. And now, when I just need him to watch his kids for a few hours, he’s not answering my calls.
I grab my hair and tug hard. Just as I’m about to lose it, my phone vibrates in my hand. I check it: Colin.
“Oh, hi,” I say, a little too snippy as I answer the phone.
“Sup?” Is his only reply.
“Can you watch Ella and Josh tonight? I need to work.”
“No can do,” he says. What a surprise. My eyes roll so hard they almost fall out of my head.
“I really need to work tonight, Colin. I’m the one supporting our children.”
“Hey, I watch them when it’s my turn,” he says as though he’s doing me some sort of favor spending time with his kids.
“Yeah, when you don’t cancel or go on vacation or just want to hang out with your trashy girlfriend.”
“Is this gonna get nasty, Jenny?” he says in that condescending tone that makes me want to slap him.
“Nasty? Colin, I need to work. You don’t give me any child support, and I need you to watch the kids—your kids, and I’m the one being nasty?”
“Sorry, I’m not even in town tonight. I can ask Tony if he can take them.”
“Tony?” I say, almost laughing at the absurdity. “You think I’m going to let your scumbag friends look after my kids?”
“Our kids,” he corrects me. “What’s wrong with Tony?”
“Aside from his cocaine habit and the fact that he’s on parole? Nothing I guess.”
That shuts him up.
“You seriously are gonna do this?”
“Look, I’m not even in town,” he says, starting to sound annoyed. “I’ll toss you some money when I get back to make it up to you.”
Now he’s trying to pay me off. Unbelievable. What does it take to find a good man in this world?
“Fuck you, Colin,” I say and hang up.
I wind up to hurl my phone across the room, but I manage to stop myself. I can’t believe this. So typical. I don’t know why I’m surprised. If there was an award for being unreliable, Colin would be the clear winner year after year. My blood’s about to boil, and just when I’m about to erupt into a total adult temper tantrum, the door opens.
“Hey,” Ty says, strolling in like he owns the place.
“Hey!?” I say, ready to take my anger out on someone. “Hey? That’s all you have to say when you come into my place?”
Ty just looks at me for a minute, examining me like I’m some scientific specimen.
“What’s up your ass?” he says.
I scoff. “Excuse me?”
“You seem edgy,” he replies, moving past me towards the kitchen. As he passes, I can smell him again, and I feel my body responding.
Not now!
“Relax, would you,” he says, sounding irritated at me. “I’ve had a pretty fucked up day.”
Now he’s about to set me off. I’m two seconds away from snatching the glass of water out of his hand that he’s filling up at the sink, hurling it across the room and screaming for him to get out.
“You’ve had a fucked up day!?”
“That’s what I said,” he replies as he takes a swig of water.
How can any man piss me off and turn me on at the same exact time?
Look at his arms, I think. The same arms I’ve pictured around me, holding me by the waist as he has his way with me. I want to scream at him, but if he took me right now, I wouldn’t even try to stop him. I think part of me wants him to.
“Yeah? Well so have I. My sitter isn’t available, my ex-husband is being his typical douchebag self, and two of my regulars are coming in tonight and I won’t be able to go in. That means losing out on a lot of money and even longer without my car.”
“You need someone to watch the kids,” he says as a matter of fact.
“Yes,” I snap.
“I’ll watch them,” he says casually. I’m so shocked that I just stand there like a dummy for what feels like forever. Ty takes another sip from his glass and grins. “You all right?”
“Yes,” I say quickly. “Sorry. You’ll watch them?”
“Yeah, sure. How hard could it be? They get rowdy I’ll just put them outside,” he says. My jaw drops. “The dogs, not the kids.”
I’m weighing the pros and cons in my head, and I can’t believe it. Ty shouldn’t even be in my house let alone watching my kids, but I’m considering it. And it’s not just because there’s a lot of money to be made tonight. Something about Ty … I just trust him.
“You’d do that?” I ask.
“You’d let me?” he says, almost daring me to tell him no. He takes a few steps towards me. I can smell him again. I can see the vein running down his strong bicep and the tense muscles of his shoulders. He’s looking down at me with those eyes, and I feel myself shudder.
“I don’t know why, but yes.”
“Okay,” he says. He keeps looking at me, like he’s waiting for me to do something. But I don’t know what to do. I want something to happen. Anything. We’re home alone. I’m home alone with a man. It’s like I’m a teenager again, happy that my parents are gone and my boyfriend is over. Only I’m the mom and Ty is not my boyfriend.
“I should … get ready,” I say softly. I turn away and walk quickly to my room and close the door behind me. My heart is pounding, and as I sit down on my bed, I realize I’m wet between my thighs. This is unbelievable. I’m a stripper for God’s sake! I get hit on by men every time I work, and I’m wearing next to nothing. But that’s just a job, and those guys are mostly dicks. I thought Ty was the same when I met him, but I guess life can throw a curve ball at you when you least expect it.
At the club, all I can think about is Ty. I’m sitting with Fat Guy, aka. Brian, and Kristen is dancing for Momma’s Boy, aka. Jeremy. I’m glad I got Brian, he doesn’t want any dancing or topless nonsense. He just wants someone to talk to. His wife left him five years ago and took him for half of what he had. After all that, he still loves her. Part of me finds it pathetic, but the other part of me finds it sad.
All he really wants is someone to talk to—companionship. That’s why I don’t like working the main room and the stages. Those guys just want some ass and titties in their face and want to feel like ballers when they shower us with one dollar bills. One dollar bills. Do you know how many one dollar bills they would have to throw at me for me to make any money? I can make what most girls make in a night from an hour here in the champagne room.
So far I’m up eight hundred.
“So here they are, these people, telling me to stay away from the woman I’ve loved for nine years,” Brian is saying. “And it’s killing me. Because I love her, ya know?”
“Wow, that is pretty crazy,” I say. I’ve heard this before, but it’s still heart wrenching. I’m doing my best to be commiserative, but Ty keeps invading my thoughts. The weirdest part of it all, is that I’m not worried about my children. Even with Alicia I worry. I trust her, and I’ve used her before in the past, but she’s young and she’s not perfect. I know she can’t handle my neighbors, and she’s not a big girl, so if something were to happen …
But with Ty there, I feel like the Nazis could try to invade my apartment and Ty wouldn’t let them through the front door.
“What do you say we do another bottle?” he says. That’s good news for me. Another bottle means another two hundred bucks. Not for the alcohol
itself, but for my service. We work off tips, and Brian’s a heavy tipper. He doesn’t act like he’s a big shot either, he just likes to. He’s a generous guy and likes to help out.
“That sounds good to me,” I say, getting up and heading downstairs. As I pass the bar, I remember the first time I bumped into Ty and thought he was a rude, cocky asshole. Now he’s back at my apartment watching my kids. I thought I’d gotten good at reading people after all these years. I never expected to run into someone like him.
Chapter 14 – Tyler
“Okay what’s that one?” I ask Josh.
“Acrocanthosaurus!” he shouts proudly, pressing his finger next to me against the picture of a dinosaur that looks like a raptor to me. We’re reading from one of his dinosaur books on the couch while Ella fiddles on her phone.
“And this one?” I say, covering up the name below the picture of some thing with a long ass neck.
“Magyarosaurus,” he exclaims. I move my hand.
“Yup,” I chuckle. “You got it. That’s twenty-two in a row. You’re pretty good at this, huh?”
“I like dinosaurs,” he says happily.
“I can tell,” I say. “What else do you like? I think you’ve got these down.”
“How about this one?” he says, handing me a book with a bright picture of stars on the front.
“Ah, a space fan too, huh?”
“That is the Andromeda galaxy,” he points. “It’s a spiral galaxy that is two and a half million light years away, two hundred and twenty light years across. It’s going to collide with the Milky Way galaxy in three point five billion years!”
“Wow,” I say, genuinely impressed by the kid. “That won’t be good. Hope I’m not around when that happens!”
My phone buzzes from my pocket.
“Hang on a sec, bud,” I say, pulling it out. It’s Barry. I answer.
“Sup, Barry?”
“Dude, where the hell are you?” he says. He sounds either upset or excited, I can’t tell which.
“Why, what’s up?” I ask.
“I’m with Moore. We need to talk to you, man. Where you at?”
“I’m at a … friends house.”
“Friend? What friend? We’re your only friends,” he chuckles.
“I got other friends, dick,” I say softly, trying not to let Josh hear.
“Uh huh,” he says knowingly. “He’s at a babe’s house,” he says to Moore. I can hear Moore laugh beside him.
“Okay, well where,” he continues. “We need to talk.”
“I can’t, man. I’m … babysitting.”
There’s a long pause, then Barry cracks up. “What!? Babysitting!?”
Moore joins in on the laughter.
“Man, this babe’s got you wrapped around her finger already, huh? Listen, just give us the address, we have to talk. Take five minutes.”
I sigh and turn my head to Josh. “You be all right for a few minutes here Josh if I go outside?”
He nods, “Yup!”
“All right. Maple street,” I tell him.
“We’re downtown,” Barry says. “Be there in less than five.”
“Hey, I’m going over to Jason’s house for a bit,” Ella says, coming out of her room with a sweatshirt on.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I say, holding my arm out. “What are you talking about?”
“Jason,” she says like I’m stupid. “This guy I’m seeing. I’m going to his house for a bit.”
“Your mom didn’t say anything about Jason or going over to his house.”
“Well she probably just forgot to mention it. She’s forgetful.”
“Yeah. Right,” I say. She’s bullshitting, and it’s obvious, but she’s hoping I’m a pushover. Either that or she wants me to be the cool guy and be her partner in crime.
“No seriously—” She starts, but I cut her off.
“No, seriously, Ella. You’re full of shit,” I say. She looks taken aback at my language, but I don’t care. “I was a teenager once too, okay? Don’t try and pull one over on me or I’ll let your mom know you were a pain in the ass. Is that what you want?”
If looks could kill, I would be dead. Ella twists her lips in annoyance, looks at me like she wants to say something, then stamps her foot and storms back to her room. Her bedroom door slams so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t come off its hinges.
Less than five minutes later Barry texts me saying he’s outside.
“Be right back, buddy,” I tell Josh.
“Okay!” he says, happily reading from his astronomy book. How this kid is an expert on all this stuff is beyond me. I can barely remember phone numbers, let alone how far away a galaxy is or how big it is.
I tug open Jenny’s front door and step outside. Barry’s car is idling a block down the street. When he sees me, he shuts it off and he and Moore step outside.
“So this is it, huh? Where’s the babe?”
“Give it a rest,” I tell him. “So what’s so important?”
“We’re gonna hit a place, and we need your help.”
“Hit a place?” I say. “The fuck does that mean, hit a place. You killing somebody?”
“Robbing a place,” Moore chimes in, lighting a cigarette. “Pawn shop over in Stone Hill.”
“A pawn shop,” I say, wondering what the hell it is I’m hearing. “You two idiots want to rob a pawn shop? What do you want, some used laptops or something?”
“The place is a front,” Moore says, confidently blowing smoke. “Owned by some fake gangster from Boston.”
“And you know this how?” I ask skeptically.
“Come on, Ty,” Barry says with a laugh. “Don’t you know we know everything?”
This seems like a bit much even for these guys. Robbing a pawn shop? I mean, we’ve never exactly been on the loving side of the law, but everything about this is sounding like a bad idea. Fake gangster in Boston? What if that fake gangster turns out to be a real gangster and wants payback?
“This sounds like a bad idea, guys. How much money are we talking anyway?”
“Two hundred thousand,” Moore says, dropping the bomb. Is he serious? Split three ways that’s still not bad. That would cover my mother’s treatment and then some.
“Listen, guys,” I say. “I’ve got enough to deal with already. Nicky’s two seconds from killing my ass, and my mom’s sick—”
“Yeah, exactly,” Barry says, taking a step towards me. “Your mom is sick. Think about it. You do this job with us and you’ve got money out the ass. You can help her out.
I mean, he isn’t wrong. But still, I’m hesitant.
“So what’s your plan? You just go in guns blazing and ask for the cash?”
“Something like that,” Moore chuckles. “But with ski masks. Don’t need any positive identifications.”
Ski masks. This is starting to sound like something out of a mob movie or something. The problem with things like this, is that they always seem good until they don’t, and it’s when things go tits up that you find yourself in trouble.
“I’m gonna have to pass, guys,” I say. “But hey, that’s more for you, right?”
“Told you he’d pussy out,” Moore says to Barry. “Getting soft in his old age.”
Barry grins. They’re trying to goad me into it. “Yeah, I hear ya. I was holding out some hope though. Thought our boy was still there for us.”
“Guys, gimmie a fucking break,” I scoff. “You know I’m there for you—”
“Just not when we need you.”
“This isn’t me coming through for you in a pinch,” I growl. “This is you asking me to rob a fucking pawn shop owned by a potentially connected gangster!”
“He’s not connected,” Moore says, rolling his eyes. “Stop being such a pussy!”
“How many times have we come through for you?” Barry asks, raising his eyebrows. “That time you were in deep with Charlie? The tough guys from up North?”
Again, he’s got a point. You couldn’t ask for
more loyal friends than Barry and Moore, and they have come through for me consistently time and time again. Of course, I never asked them to hold up a store either.
I look at Barry and realize that I owe them. I owe them both, and like it or not, I have to do this for them.
“Fine,” I say, sighing as I give in. “What’s the plan?”
They both smile at each other. Moore takes the last big drag from his cigarette and flicks it.
“We’re gonna go talk to Motorcycle Mike,” Barry says.
“Who the fuck is Motorcycle Mike?” I ask.
“Real crazy fucker,” Moore laughs.
“He’s the getaway driver,” Barry explains.
“Getaway driver,” I say, almost laughing. “Motorcycle Mike is the getaway driver? What are we doing, taking off on scooters?”
“He’s a hell of a driver too,” Barry says emphatically. “Got into BMX or some shit though and that’s where he got the name.”
“So now it’s a four way split?” This job is getting worse with every second.
“Nah,” Moore says with a smile. “We didn’t tell him what the job was. We’re giving him five grand, no questions asked. Guy’s crazy, I told you.”
“Okay,” I sigh, needing a moment to take this all in. I’ve just agreed to an armed robbery of a pawn shop owned by a potentially connected “fake gangster,” and being driven away by a getaway driver named Motorcycle Mike.
What could go wrong?
Chapter 15 – Jenny
Sixteen hundred dollars.
I could just about jump up and down and scream as I count my money in the locker room. What a night!
Brian and Jeremy had been feeling generous when they showed up, and after they got a few drinks in them, that generosity went into overdrive. Brian had a lot to talk about, and I sat with him all night. Kristen danced for Jeremy and then spent the rest of the night curled up under his arm telling him how handsome he was.
This is great. Now I can pay for the rest of my car and have some money left over. I’ve been slowly saving up to move into a new place that’s more suitable for my kids. A lot of girls in this “profession” don’t manage their money well. Every big night means throwing a big party or blowing it all on a new television or designer purse or something. I learned pretty quick from them what not to do if you want to make any money.
