The cab pulled up in front of my apartment building with a few minutes to spare. I walked up the few flights and pushed through Vinnie’s already open door. I was exhausted. “Good morning Sunshine.” Vinnie said looking me up and down. “These long nights seem to be affecting you more than they used to.”
I tugged open the cupboards and pulled out a mug. “Tell me about it.” I poured myself a mug of Vinnie’s poorly made coffee.
“Well it’s almost the weekend.” He said hopefully.
“You say that like it means something.” I take a swig of the bitter beverage. “Maybe if I had a nine to five, Thursdays would excite me. But with my hours it’s just a never ending barrage of show after show.”
Vinnie grinned. “Now that’s not true. You have off Sundays.”
I balked. “That’s because the club is slow. Apparently even perverts respect the Sabbath.”
Vinnie grinned. “You know you could come to church with Tori and I.”
Vinnie and Tori go to St. Matthew’s. Not necessarily religiously, pun intended, but more often than not. When Julia died Vinnie stopped going, he lost everything and he blamed God for that. But eventually he found his way back. “I’m pretty sure that place would burn to the ground if I went with you.” It was my go to reply whenever he asked. I know it wasn’t true. My parents were spiritual but not necessarily church going folks. I can’t say I too hadn’t had my own knock down drag out yell fests with the maker himself about my own situation a few times too. I remember one time it came down to me just asking why he couldn’t have left me one. Why he had to take them both from me. But when I thought about having to pick which one would live and which would die, I couldn’t do it. I remember thinking that they were able to passover together. They had loved each other so much and it wouldn’t have been fair for me to have made one of them live without the other just because I was too selfish to survive here on my own.
“I know for a fact there are bigger sinners in there than a stripper.” Vinnie’s eyes lit up. “I hear that Father Jeffrey’s 19 year old son got a seventeen year old girl pregnant.” Vinnie and Father Jeffrey hadn’t seen eye to eye since the Father almost refused to allow Julia’s funeral to be at the church because they hadn’t been married in a church. They had an outdoor ceremony. “And from what I hear the girl isn’t even Catholic.”
“Vinnie that’s awful. Those poor children.” I shook my head. “You shouldn’t find joy in other people’s misery.”
“I feel bad for the kids but Father Jeffrey is so pompous and self righteous. And it serves him right for the way he treated my Julia. She had converted and everything. We raised Tori in that church.” Vinnie clearly was still not over it.
I put my hands up in defeat. “Alright. You’re right. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve everything he gets.” I knew there wasn’t any point in dragging out this conversation, Vinnie felt so passionately about it and in the end I didn’t even know the kids. “I hope they have twins.”
YOU ARE READING
The Stripper Equation
General FictionLennie is not your typical stripper. She graduated from Harvard Law. She hates to party and she prefers t-shirts and flip flops to g-strings and stilettos. Nothing with her quite adds up and that's the way she likes it. Lennie's been on her own...
