𝕁𝔼𝕎𝔼𝕃𝕊

𝟡

- 𝐽𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒'𝑠 𝑃𝑂𝑉-

It was an odd balance that I maintained. I had to hide Mr. Volkovas's command over me from Naomi, and Mr. Volkovas never really paid me much attention at work unless we were in a private dance. When he'd walk by in passing he'd nod towards me, maybe he allowed his gaze to linger longer than necessary, but that was it. We did a lot of speaking when we were alone, and I didn't mind it, Mr. Volkovas genuinely seemed like he was interested in what I had to say, but I still hadn't figured out why. Apart from being a criminal, he was established, he was a thirty-year-old man, and I was just a high school dropout, I was barely eighteen, and I didn't have a damn thing to offer the world.

I despised how easy such an evil person could be to talk to. Like everyone else who had met this man, I would admit he was charming.

I puffed on a cigarette as I went through the e-mails on my phone from bill collectors, and I went through the ten new voicemails left on my phone from insurance agencies, I wanted to burst out crying but I decided against it, I knew it wouldn't change anything but instead make me feel like an incapable adult.  

I reminded myself things would get better, they were already starting to pick up at work, but somehow I figured I'd never be able to dig myself out of this hole.

"Jewels, that regular of yours is here again, looking for you, he won't take "no" for an answer," Ajax peeked his head in the door of the dressing room, his voice was all sing-song like because he knew I didn't like this man.

He told me his name was Matt, but many of our clients lied about their names. He was a 32-year-old accountant, awfully quiet but pretty handsy, a big tipper, but when he did say something it was usually creepy and unwarranted as hell, I had my eye on this customer at all times.

I sucked it up considering this would most likely be my last dance of the night, but I could feel something was off. After the dance was over, Matt didn't want me to leave tonight.

"I could offer you some private work, you know back at my place, Jewels," Matt offered as I dismounted from his lap, my patience was wearing thin now it was almost two in the morning, and that meant my aloof flirtatious personality of "Jewels" was disappearing and Juliette was beginning to show through as I caught myself rolling my eyes at the customer.

"I don't do that, but if you're looking for company, I can direct you to some of Mr. Volkova's other ventures," I suggested his prostitution ring and waved goodbye to him.

"Well, really, I'd like to just see you outside of this place, Jewels, you still won't even tell me your name," Matt chased after me towards the dressing room.

I looked around for Vlad or any of the other bouncers but I assumed they were all in the office getting the filing done for the night.

"Hey, employees only in the dressing room, get lost, creep, closing time!" Ajax whipped the dressing room door open kicking Matt to the curb, I gave him a fake apologetic smile even though I wasn't sorry at all, I was just relieved.

I changed into a form-fitting white midriff tank top paired with gray sweatpants rolled up at the top and a pair of fuzzy boots to stay warm on my mile walk to Naomi's apartment because it wasn't her night to work. I grabbed my pink zip-up hoodie out of my locker and slid my arms tirelessly through them.

"You should really invest in some type of protection, Juliette," Emily suggested to me, Emily worked the only shift that I didn't have in common with Naomi so we became pretty close fast being two new hires and around the same age. Emily was only 21 and I was eighteen going to be nineteen in the next few months.