Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 61867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
There’s something familiar about it. Something nostalgic.
Then I feel a hand grasp mine, and a powerful feeling runs through me. It’s as if I’ve been struck by an invisible bolt of lightning.
Now this is a strip club, and while it may be a bit of a grimy strip club, touching the girls too aggressively is strictly off-limits and can get you tossed out by security. So whatever this guy is up to, he’s taking a big risk here.
But then I feel his voice as it gently sweeps into my ear.
“Iris.”
My heart skips a beat. His voice is like warm honey that instantly calms me and makes me feel safe, and without even turning, I know exactly who it is.
Jameson.
It would be impossible to even try and describe the amount of emotions that flood through me at that moment. I’ve already been doing my best to keep my composure while working my first night at Ja-Ja-Ja-Jaguars—dealing with doubt, self-confidence issues from putting my body on display for all these men to see, but now, for some reason, out of the blue, Jameson is back, and he’s holding my hand in his.
Slowly, I turn around, my heart on the verge of exploding out of my chest, and find myself staring face to face with him for the first time since he disappeared three years ago.
He looks the same but somehow different. He’s filled out like he’s been hitting the gym. His hair is longer and slicked back.
He’s not wearing his mechanic’s clothes anymore, either. He’s got on a gray suit with expensive-looking leather loafers, and there’s a fancy watch on his wrist. He looks like a businessman. A very successful one who could buy this whole club if he felt like it—not just tip the girls some fat stacks to show off.
It’s at that moment that the loss I’ve been feeling since his disappearance truly hits me. I guess I’ve been fighting back feeling it—along with many other things—but Jameson vanishing was really the final straw. I just couldn’t take any more pain in my life. But now, looking up at him, it’s like my knight in shining armor has come back to save me from this so-called life I’ve been living.
I must be staring bug-eyed back at him, but I simply can’t control myself. Just the feeling of his hand holding mine is nearly too much. I’d settled on the fact that I would never see him again. Now here he is in front of me, his eyes smiling down at me the way they once used to, like brilliant suns in the darkness of space, making me feel like it’s us against the world.
And suddenly, I’m not scared anymore.
Suddenly, the men in the club aren’t intimidating anymore.
Suddenly, I’m no longer trembling. Well, I am, but not for the same reason as before.
“Jameson?” My voice is a soft breath that’s barely audible over the music of the club. “Is it really you–?”
“Hey, pal!” Josh grunts angrily, strutting up to us. “Hands off the girl, all right? You want a dance? Cough up some cash! Until then, let go of her.”
“Relax, tough guy,” Jameson replies. Josh’s face instantly goes bright red.
“What the hell’d you just say to me?”
“We’re old friends, okay?” Jameson says. “And I’m buying her out for the evening.” Before Josh can react, Jameson pulls a thick stack of bills from his pocket and hands it to him.
“Here’s five hundred. That’s more than you’d make off her tonight. Now you wanna keep complaining or you wanna go away?”
Josh frowns, but at the same time his eyes go wide as he counts the stack of money in his hand.
What is even happening right now? Who is this new Jameson standing beside me?
He still hasn’t let go of me. He’s looking at me like it was just yesterday that I saw him, like nothing has been lost between us, like we completely understand each other, and nothing even needs to be said. Like there’s absolutely no reason for me to mistrust him. And for some reason, right now, I actually believe that.
“Fine,” Josh replies. “But in the future, hands off the girls.”
Josh makes himself scarce, and I’m left standing there with Jameson. I open my mouth, but before I can even speak, he quickly pulls me back through the club toward the locker room door. “Go get your things. I’m getting you out of here.”
I feel like I’m being whisked away by a tornado. “Getting me out of here? Jameson, I have to work tonight. I need money. What do you think I’m doing here?”
I feel him slip something into my hand and look down to see another thick wad of cash—even thicker than the wad he handed to Josh. “That is a thousand bucks. More than you’d make on your first night dancing on a night like this. Now go get your things, Iris. Hurry up, and don’t let anybody see that. Meet me out back.”