Page 8 of For Your Eyes Only
She’s quiet for a bit before she speaks. “I didn’t just take this on a whim. Franco has been talking to me about it for a while, and I've been talking to the girls who work for him. He has a good reputation. He really will let you perform however you want.”
“So I can performSwan Lakeat his club?” I regret my words as soon as I say them. Bianca has only ever tried to help me.
“Maybe if you spiced it up a little?” She gives me a wink. “Make it modern?”
“Remove one feather at a time?”
“Something like that. I thought you could wear something sexy and move your body. You’re very sensual when you dance. I think men would come from all over to be seduced by you.”
I huff a laugh at her suggestion. “I’ve never even been with a man. I don’t know how to seduce one.”
“That’s what makes you special. You have an innocent quality. I think men would pay to dream of possessing you.”
“I don’t think I want to be dreamed about that way.” It makes me nervous.
She gives me a sly smile. “You’ve never caught a man watching you dance and suspected he had impure thoughts?”
Snorting a laugh, I shake my head. “I was too busy fantasizing about my gay fiancé.”
“Take it from me, if you’re engaged to a man for a year, and he would rather shop and eat and cuddle and dance than try to get in your pants, he’s gay.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious. I know that now. I just thought maybe he was super religious.”
“No man is that religious.” She quickly returns to the subject at hand. “Just think about it Gia. You could sew your own costumes, and we could brainstorm outfits that get close but reveal nothing. All you have to do is dance. Can you imagine making ten thousand dollars a month?”
“No, and I think you’re dreaming if you think I could ever earn that much money simply by dancing.”
“You could try?” Her voice goes thoughtful, and we make the turn, headed back to the Roxy.
“I can’t go back to Aunt Graziella having done something like that. I’d be all the horrible things she always said I was.”
“Your Aunt Graziella is a cunty old bitch. You are kind and generous. You’re a good friend and a beautiful girl.”
“I can't let her be right about me.”
“What if you wore a mask? Franco says they have very strict rules and very tight security. No one is allowed to touch you ever, and you can use a stage name. No one has to know who you are.”
It’s all too strange for me to comprehend. Pulling away, I shake my head. “I’m not ready to think about this, B. I’m tired, I was groped by a married man and nearly arrested, then I lost the job you helped me find. I need to go to sleep. Tomorrow, I’ll try to find a job to replace the one I lost.”
I turn towards the alley leading to Bianca’s small, cinder-block apartment when she catches my wrist. “Promise me you’ll keep an open mind about what I said, okay? This could be the answer to all our problems.”
“I’ll try.”
Our eyes meet, and she shrugs. “Either way, we have to move. Perhaps when you meet the other girls and talk to them, you’ll change your mind.”
I’m not changing my mind.
CHAPTER3
TRIP
Ocean Drive is lit up like Mardi Gras with rainbow-neon lights and music and revelry blasting from every open door. The air is balmy for early spring, and I stroll up the concrete sidewalk with my hands in my pockets as the sea breeze pushes my hair around my ears.
I still need that trim, and I still could use a shave. My insides were just so fucking hot and twisted, I needed to get out of Manhattan as quickly as possible. The moment I got the text that our jet was ready, I threw my necessities into an overnight bag and took off for the airport.
Now I’m in jeans and a short-sleeved linen shirt, and I feel the tension melting away in the heat of pre-spring in the south. I want a drink, preferably straight alcohol.
Franco meets me, sliding through the doors of Salsa Mia, a neon-pink-lit dance and dinner club. The building next to it is neon blue, and the next one down is neon red. The entire row is the colors of the rainbow.