This Love

Chapter 57

SCARLETT PARKER

"So here's the break room," Mandy shows me a dull room that honestly appears to be an oversized closet with a couch that looks like it was pulled straight out of a dump, or a hazardous crime scene. "The mini fridge is broken, so don't bother bringing your lunch and shit. And speaking of shit, our bathroom doesn't work so you'll have to use the one out on the main floor."

"Mm," I back out of the room in my platform heels. "Lovely."

"Uh-huh," she keeps smacking her gum and doesn't say a goddamn word about the world's largest cockroach that just scurried across the hallway in front of both of us. "We take turns with our breaks, usually around the middle of our shifts, and you're owed three smoke breaks–four if it's really dead."

"Yeah, how busy would you say that it gets on a weekend night?"

"Well, Saturday is our busiest day for sure, both day and evening, and there's usually a line out the door by 9:00 so we fill up quickly."

"But today? A Friday?"

"We'll probably reach max cap at around 10:00," she nods.

"Alright," I run my fingers through my hair and look down the hall at all the doors. "Is anyone gonna tell me what these are for? Or do we just have a shit ton of cleaning supplies?"

She blinks at me with big brown doe eyes. "Stan didn't tell you?"

I shake my head.

Her otherwise plush glossy lips form a line as she walks halfway down the hall and stops in front of the middle door on the righthand side. In her tall heels, she reaches up to get a key from the top of the door frame and opens it up to reveal a bed and not much else. My stomach drops.

"There's no fucking way," I scoff a weak laugh. "That's a joke, right?"

"I'm surprised he didn't tell you," she mutters, inspecting the room as we go inside. "My guess is that he really wanted you to work here without scaring you away."

My face starts to contort into both disgust and fear. "Listen, I don't shame and I know I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a fucking prostitute."

"That's what I said too," she laughs. "Then I decided I liked making 5K in one night more than I like working six thousand jobs. Someone's gotta feed my kid, and it's not gonna be her daddy while he's in prison."

Jesus Christ.

"Well, I'm not doing this," I walk out of the room when I can no longer stand the negative energy that's seeping through the walls.

"I mean, you're not required to do it," she says, closing the door behind her and setting the key back in place. "But it's an option for our customers. A hushed option."

In perfect timing, the door to the main part of the club swings open, and in comes the same girl I saw on Monday. She's holding hands with who I'm assuming is a customer, and she uses her own key to unlock one of the doors. Once he's in the room, she gives us a fed-up look before she turns with that same smirk from before and shuts them in the room together. Something about it all makes me want to run, specifically right to Harry.

"So I don't have to?"

"You don't have to," Mandy confirms. "If one of your customers requests you in the bedroom, you can just tell him no and that he'll have to pick another girl. If he has a problem with that, one of the bouncers will get him out."

"Wait, so what am I supposed to do here, exactly? All Stan said was that I'd be serving in my lingerie, so...am I supposed to be giving lap dances or what?"