by Nikki Ash
“Kaden?” She stops trying to break free when she realizes it’s me carrying her.
“Yeah.”
I’m not even sure where I’m going at this point, but I know I need somewhere quiet to calm down. I find a door open at the end of the hall and walk into it, slamming the door behind us. There’s a couch up against the wall and a mini stage in front of it. I drop her onto the couch then back up, needing to take a minute to breathe.
“Kaden…”
I turn around and Ashley is no longer sitting on the couch. She’s standing up and walking over to me. She places a hand on my arm. “I don’t want to argue about this.”
“Argue about what? About the fact that you aren’t really a fucking cocktail waitress at Double D’s? About the fact that you are a goddamned stripper! Or how about we don’t argue about the fact that you would rather take your fucking clothes off for money instead of just letting me help you! What the hell, Ash! How the fuck did I not know that you were stripping at Caleb’s club?”
Her hand goes to her hip and her head tilts to the side slightly—her telltale sign of her defenses going up.
“You didn’t need to know! It’s my business. I needed the job and Caleb gave it to me. It has nothing to do with you.”
“When the fuck did you start working for Caleb anyway? How long have you been lying every time you leave for work while I watch Tristan for you?”
Chapter Eight
Ashley
Three Weeks Ago
I walk into Caleb’s recently acquired restaurant and strip club Assets for the first time and it’s gorgeous! What he’s done to this place is nothing short of amazing. It’s only four in the afternoon so the place is deserted and quiet. I’m assuming someone is here or the door wouldn’t be open.
“Hey, Ashley! What are you doing here?” Liz walks down the steps to greet me, giving me a hug.
“Do you guys just let anybody walk in?” I ask, stepping back to check out the place.
“No, there’s a silent bell that rings in our offices. I unlocked the door because Caleb has a couple interviews today.”
“That’s actually why I’m here.”
“You have an interview?”
“Umm… No, I don’t, but I was hoping I could apply for the dancing position.”
Her eyebrows raise slightly. “Ashley, you know if you need any help with money…”
“Liz, I love you for offering, but you know I won’t accept any money from you or from anyone for that matter.”
Liz gives me another hug, holding me tightly. “I know, but I had to try.”
“And I appreciate it.”
She releases me from her embrace. “I’ll let Caleb know you’re here to see him.”
“Thank you… and Liz…”
“Yeah?”
“Can you please not tell anybody I’m here?”
“My lips are sealed… but if you need anything….”
“I know. You got my back. Thank you.”
I follow her up the stairs and down the hallway, until we get to the last door on the left.
“Why don’t you give me a minute to let him know you’re here?”
“Okay.”
A few minutes later she comes out, giving me a small smile.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
She nods. “Just knock before you go in.”
I walk over to his door and give it a small knock.
“Come in.”
Caleb is looking down at something on his desk, but once I enter, he looks up. Then he stands and tells me to have a seat.
“Is everything okay?”
I close my eyes and swallow thickly, trying to work up the courage I need. When I open my eyes, I take a deep breath and say, “I need your help, Caleb. Please. I am begging you.”
“What’s going on?”
“You said you were hiring a dancer. I would like to apply for the position. I have taken pole dancing lessons for several years and I’m good. Actually, I’m more than good. I worked at Double D’s for close to six years so I know how this business works. I can work the bar when needed, waitress, work private parties, whatever you need.”
He stares at me in shock but quickly snaps out of it. “Why do you need this job so badly?”
“I was let go from my teaching job and Double D’s doesn’t have the availability to give me the hours I need. Plus, dancing means getting the lap dances and private parties, which means bringing in more money. And I need the money. Waitressing isn’t enough.”
“If you need money, I can…”
“No, stop, please. Liz already offered. Kaden has offered over a dozen times. I am not taking a dime of anybody else’s money. I just need a job, please.”
“Does Kaden know you’re here?”
“Kaden has nothing to do with this and I need you to promise not to say anything. He can’t know. He would be so pissed I chose to strip instead of taking money from him. Nobody can know I work here, please.”
He scrubs his hands over his face. “Ashley, Kaden is going to be pissed if he finds out.”
“That’s between me and him. I need this job. I’m begging you. If you need to tell Hayley, I understand. I wouldn’t ask you to hide it from her.”
“How about this? I’m looking for a manager. I could train you to take over. You said you know the business.”
“I don’t want preferential treatment. I’m just asking to dance here. You wouldn’t hire anyone else who came in here for the dancer position, to be a manager.”
Caleb takes a deep breath. I can tell he’s torn as to what to do, and I know I’m making this hard on him, but this is my last chance.
“How about you start as a dancer and slowly I’ll show you the ropes so you can eventually take over as manager? You would be helping me out. I’d like to have someone managing this place before the baby comes, so I only have to be here a couple days a week.”
“Okay, I can agree to that. Thank you.”
“No problem. But if anything changes I can help…”
I shake my head to stop him. “No, this is perfect, thank you!”
“When can you start?”
“Would tonight work?”
“That will work.”
“Thank you so much, Caleb!”
* * *
Present Day
“You’ve been working for him ever since we all met for breakfast? That was weeks ago! Why didn’t you say something?”
“I knew you wouldn’t understand why I’m dancing instead of waitressing. I need the money.”
“Damn right I don’t understand and you’re not dancing! You’re stripping! There’s a big fucking difference. You should have told me. If money is that bad, I can lend it to you.”
“I was embarrassed.”
“Well, now that I know, you can quit.” Kaden closes the distance between us, putting his hands on my hips and tugging me close to him. Then he pulls me into a hug, nuzzling his face into my hair.
“Whatever money you need, I will give it to you.”
“I know you will, but I don’t want you to. I need to handle this on my own. I can’t depend on anybody but myself.”
He backs up and raises a brow. “Ashley, you are quitting,” he says slowly.
I make it a point to say it back the same way. “No, I’m not.”
“Are you fucking serious right now? I’m not letting you strip at a club for other men.”
“You aren’t the boss of me, Kaden. You are my friend. You don’t control my choices.”
He nods his head slowly. “Okay, we’ll see about that. You’re my best friend and it’s my job to look out for you.” He takes me by my hand and heads to the door.
“Where are we going?”
“To speak to Caleb about this.”
“No! You can’t do that. He might be your friend, but he’s my boss. Can we please just go to my house? I’ve been embarrassed enough. Just be my friend tonig
ht and take me home, please?”
He stops in his tracks, his eyes running down my body. I can see when he gives in temporarily. His jaw goes slack and shoulders slouch a little, telling me he’s finally calming down. “Okay, do you have clothes so you don’t have to walk out like this?”
“Yeah, in the dressing room. It’s right over there.”
We go to the dressing room and I change back into the clothes I came to work in. Then we head outside through the back, so Kaden can’t accidently run into Caleb. Since he didn’t come in his car, we take my car back to my house.
“I’m going to wash this makeup off and change into pajamas. Want to order a pizza and watch a movie?”
“Sure.”
Kaden follows me into my room, grabbing a pair of sweats and a shirt from the drawer of clothes he keeps here for the nights he ends up staying over.
After he orders the pizza, we plop onto the couch. Kaden goes to grab the remote, but I remember I don’t have working cable. “Want to watch a DVD?”
“What’s wrong with your cable?”
“I’m not sure,” I lie. I’m not about to tell him I’m three months behind so they canceled my service until I get caught up with the overdue balance. That will just lead to another fight over money.
He scrutinizes me for a moment but lets it go. We decide on one of the Fast and Furious movies and after popping it in, we snuggle up like we always do.
“I’m assuming you didn’t know who was in the room you were working in tonight,” Kaden says after a few minutes.
“No, I didn’t. Caleb didn’t mark it down on the sheet in the back that the bachelor party got moved up a week. I wasn’t even supposed to work tonight. One of the girls called out and I agreed to cover her shift. I didn’t have time to ask who was there.”
Kaden doesn’t say anything else. He just pulls me into his side and gives me a kiss on my forehead. We watch the movie in silence… not necessarily uncomfortable, but not exactly comfortable either. I know Kaden isn’t going to let this all go, but living in denial can be a great thing.
Chapter Nine
Kaden
I wake up and roll over only to find Ashley’s side of the bed is empty and the shower running. I roll back over onto my back and stare at the ceiling remembering everything that happened last night: The bachelor party. Ashley being the stripper. Hearing the guys say they wanted to fuck her. Me, throwing her over my shoulder and then demanding she quit stripping. Her, refusing to quit stripping. Me, realizing that I’m falling for my best friend.
Yep, you heard me right. I’m falling for Ashley, and I know what you’re thinking, how the fuck did I not realize this sooner? It’s called denial. Don’t act like you’ve never experienced it. The problem is, I have absolutely no intention of acting on my newfound feelings. She deserves better than what I’m capable of giving her and Tristan. My heart split in half and was taken with my wife and son eleven years ago. Ashley deserves more than the broken man that’s left of me.
I rub my hands repeatedly up and down my face hoping last night was a bad dream, but knowing it wasn’t. I don’t know how to handle this whole situation with Ashley. She is stubborn as hell and is refusing to quit stripping. Thinking about this is just pissing me off, so I get up and throw on my workout gear. I need to head to the gym to train with Alex and Caleb today. Fucking Caleb! I can’t believe he hired Ashley as a goddamned stripper. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking.
I go into the kitchen and open the cabinet to find something to eat and notice every cabinet is about empty. I open the fridge and it’s empty as well. What the hell are she and Tristan eating? I scour through the drawers hoping to find a K cup to make myself a cup of coffee at least but only find a stack of papers. They’re similar to the bills I found a few months ago which Ashley insisted were being handled. The only difference is those were first notices and these are final notices. I flip through the papers and find one that says notice of foreclosure. The date is scheduled for July twenty-second, which is a week away.
I hear her footsteps coming down the hall, so I quickly throw all the papers back in the drawer and walk out to the living room.
“Morning.”
“Morning, were you looking for coffee in there? Sorry, I haven’t had time to go grocery shopping.”
“No problem, why don’t we grab coffee and breakfast out?”
“Okay, cool. I need to go to the gym anyway to get Tristan. Hayley is meeting me there with him.”
After stopping at a small diner for coffee and a bagel, we head straight to the gym. As we’re walking up to the door, Hayley, Marco, and Tristan are walking up at the same time.
“I’m going to go catch up with her,” Ashley says.
I walk to the locker room and throw my gym bag and phone into a locker. Then I head to the octagon to go find Alex. Before I can make it out of the locker room, I hear Stephen and a couple of other fighters talking.
“Bro, you should have seen her! She looked smoking fucking hot. I would sink my dick into her in a damn heartbeat.”
“Fuck yeah, man! And that outfit… Goddamn! That shit ended too quickly when Kaden threw her over his shoulder and…”
I walk up to the group of them, and grabbing the kid who just commented on her outfit, throw him up against the wall. “Say another fucking word about Ashley and I will knock your teeth out. That goes for all of you. Got it?”
They all start apologizing, but I don’t even stop to listen. There’s one person responsible for this shit and he and I are about to have some words. I stalk out to the main floor and look for Caleb. I spot him laughing with Cooper on the mat next to the octagon… and I snap.
Without even thinking, I grab him by his shoulder to spin him toward me and deck him in the face, sending him flying backward. Yeah, it was a sucker punch at its finest, but I don’t give a fuck.
“What the fuck!” he shouts at me, his fingers touching his bloody lip.
“What the fuck were you thinking hiring Ashley to work at your fucking strip club! And on top of that not telling me!”
“Kaden, it wasn’t my place to say anything.” He shakes his head.
“Caleb!” Hayley comes running over and gets in his face, and judging by the tone in her voice, I have a feeling I wasn’t the only one he kept this secret from.
“Is it true? Is what Kaden saying true? Did you hire Ashley as a dancer?”
“Hayles…”
“Oh no! Don’t you ‘Hayles’ me! What were you thinking?”
Caleb glares at me, pissed I just got him in the doghouse. Well, good! He deserves it.
“Hayles, can we not do this here, please?”
“Fine, we’ll talk about this at home.” She pokes him in the chest with her finger and then stomps off.
I turn my attention back to Caleb. “You’re firing her.”
Caleb doesn’t even think about it before he says, “No, I’m not.”
I see red and go to deck him again. But before I can, Cooper and Alex jump in front of me to hold me back.
“Kaden, you need to walk away right now. Go for a walk, bro. Cool the fuck down. You aren’t doing this shit here. Not in my gym.” Cooper signals to the front door.
I shrug their hands off me and walk out the door, slamming it behind me. Once I get outside, I keep walking. I have no idea where I am going, but Cooper was right, I need to calm down before I do something I’ll regret.
“Kaden!” I hear someone calling my name, so I look behind me to see who it is and spot Tristan running after me to catch up. I slow down to wait for him.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I saw you punch Caleb and yell at him. I heard what you said. You told him to fire my mom.”
Oh fuck!
“You can’t have my mom fired. If you have her fired then she’ll have no job at all.”
“Listen buddy, I shouldn’t have said all that in front of you. It’s not your job to worry about grownup problems. Plus, your mom does h
ave a job. She’s a teacher, remember?”
He shakes his head. “No, she’s not. I heard her tell Nana she was fired from work. And she packed up all her stuff from her classroom. She never packs it all up because every summer she teaches, but this summer she isn’t teaching.”
What the hell is going on? Why was Ashley fired from the school she works at? So much isn’t adding up. She’s been making ends meet for years. Something has changed, and whatever it is, she doesn’t want me to know about it. And I have a sneaking suspicion that guy Giovanni is somehow tied to all this as well.
“It’s okay, bud. She’s not going to get fired from her job.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah, I promise. Does your mom know you followed me out here?”
He gives me a sheepish look, which tells me she has no idea.
“Let’s head back before your mom freaks out.”
Chapter Ten
Ashley
It’s been a week since Kaden found out I’m a stripper and walked out of the gym pissed when Caleb refused to fire me. To say I was shocked Kaden actually punched Caleb in the face is putting it mildly. I felt so bad, I offered to quit, but Caleb wasn’t having it. He said he and Kaden would work it out. I just wish I wouldn’t have placed him in the middle of my cluster-fuck.
The day after the fight, Kaden texted me several times asking if he could bring dinner over. When I didn’t respond, he showed up with a pizza in his hand asking why I was ignoring him. I realized then my cell phone had gotten shut off because I couldn’t pay the bill, but there was no way I was telling him that. Instead, I told him it was broken.
As a result, the next day he showed up after work with a new iPhone. He added it to his plan and told me he got a good deal on it. It’s probably the most expensive phone I’ve ever touched so I seriously doubt he got a deal on it. I tried to refuse it, but he totally played the mom card on me, insisting Tristan might need to get ahold of me while at camp.
He, again, showed up with food, this time Chinese. The three of us watched a movie, and after Tristan went to bed, we caught up on more episodes of House. Every morning this week, he has insisted we all go to breakfast before he and Tristan head to the gym. And when he walked into the kitchen as I was packing Tristan a peanut butter and jelly for lunch, he told me the program was buying them all lunch. I didn’t remember reading anything about them buying lunch, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
