Dance Tonight (ON HOLD)

Chapter One-Stormy

Zaria

I took a deep breath. The owner of the club announced me.

"Now, get ready for Chocolate Kiss!"

I didn't pick my stripper name. The owner did. He's a white man in his early forties who names the strippers by their skin tones. For example, there is a stripper name Sun Kissed. I wish that I was lying.

I heard the applause before I stepped on the stage. My six-inch gold stilettos clicked on the hard stage floor as I made my appearance in front of the audience of men and some women. Some of them whistled at me.

I sat on the chair that was placed in the center and waited for the music to start. When Needed Me by Rihanna blasted through the club, I started my routine.

My routine for tonight, like every other night, was to sit in this chair and be seductive as possible without taking this moss green trench coat off. So far, I'm successful. Everyone is ogling me, and there is so much money in front of me.

Yeah, I'm a stripper that does not take her clothes off. The owner is so successful, he can manipulate his customers like that.

There were a lot of old men in the audience. But, there were some younger ones who were sitting on my left. They were right in front of the stage.

It was a group of them. My guess was that they were friends. They looked at me with gentle smiles on their faces. It was weird. Usually, they would look at me like I was a piece of meat. That's to be expected.

There was some familiar faces in the group. I'm so glad that they can't see my body. It would be awkward for me if they did. It would've been awkward if they threw money at me, too.

Anyway, one of them was staring at me harder than his friends. He looked mesmerized. That confused me.

I couldn't stop staring at him, even while I danced. It was like we were the only two people in here. And, when I did my final move, he looked sad.

Well, if he wants more, he's gonna have to wait until another night. I don't do private shows. I mean, I get paid to keep my clothes on while I'm on stage. Why would I do a private show?

After I collected my money, I took one last glance at the guy. His eyes were still on me. I turned away and walked off the stage.

I was the final act for the night. I made $1000 from that show.

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The upside of being a stripper is that I get to sleep all day. I work at Gavin's Paradise on Monday-Thursday from nine at night to two in the morning. I do two to three dances a night and I can make up to at least $3,000 a night.

Gavin's Paradise is one of the most popular strip clubs in the state of Maryland. Gavin, the owner, started the club ten years ago. Back then, he only had five dancers. Now, he has over one hundred, and he is forever stacking up money from us.

I couldn't stay in bed any longer so I decided to get up. It was two in the afternoon on a Wednesday. I went to my closet and picked out some gray joggers and a gray tank top. I placed my gray converses on my feet.