The Space In Between(32)

“Andrea, you got a person in a VIP room requesting you.” He turned to leave as I shot up from my seat.
“Wait! Is it true I have the finale tonight?”
“If you keep bringing in people who pay hundreds for fifteen minutes with you in the VIP rooms, you can have anything you damn want.” Roger’s eyes sparkled like he’d won the lottery as he dragged his feet out of the room.
“Who the hell is requesting you for a lap dance?” Maria asked.
Ladasha smiled brightly—a genuine smile. She was coming back around to her normal, cheerful self. “Cooper Davidson.”
My eyes lit up at the idea of Coop being in the other room. Just hearing his name from my best friend’s lips made me want to go deliver the best lap dance ever. “Well, who the hell is Cooper Davidson?” Shelly hissed as she overdosed on hairspray.





“HE’S MY HUSBAND and you’re sleeping with him!” she hollered at me. My heart was in my throat and it seemed like all of the air had been sucked from the filthy VIP room. Sweat started spewing from my forehead as my knees began to shake. I opened my mouth to speak yet nothing came out. So she continued to talk. Something about me being a home-wrecking, smutty, vomit-worthy slut.
My eyes shifted to her stomach. Oh god…Cooper didn’t tell me she was pregnant.
Wait.
Cooper didn’t tell me anything about Iris. “I don’t know what to say.”
She laughed in a mocking tone. “Don’t say a word. Just stay the hell away from my husband.” I turned to leave and she glided herself in front of the door, blocking me in. “Seriously. I can ruin your pathetic life in an instant. You understand me? In. An. Instant. I can take whatever you have and destroy it. Don’t test me.”
“Go to hell!” I yelled. I hated her. I didn’t have much knowledge of who she was, but what I’d discovered in the last five minutes was that she seriously lacked people skills. And I also hated that she was so damn gorgeous. More beautiful than anyone I’d ever seen. Her face was flawless, her stance was ballerina worthy. For a moment I paused to think why Cooper would come to me when he had her waiting for him at home.
Oh my god. I was a slut. A home-wrecking, smutty, vomit-worthy slut.
“Is there a problem?” Frank opened the door when he heard me holler, and his eyes narrowed in on me, checking if I was all right.
“Yes, there actually is a problem.” Iris stood up tall in her high heels and held her Michael Kors purse close to her chest. “I want her fired.”
My eyes bugged out as I looked at the crazy psycho. I searched for a glimpse of sarcasm, but it wasn’t there. Whatever. There was no way I would be fired because of this woman. Roger just told me I was a money maker. Dollar bills flashed in his eyes back in the dressing room. It wouldn’t be good business to get rid of me. Before I knew it, I was having a yelling contest with Iris as Frank tried to control the noise. But he should’ve known, once women attack each other, it’s pretty much useless to do anything about it.
“What the hell is going on?!” Roger screamed, storming into the heated fight, panting. He was out of breath from the short jog over to the VIP room.
Iris crossed her arms and looked to him. “Are you the owner of this place?” she asked.
He was. She continued. “I want her fired.” She pointed at me as Ladasha walked up behind Roger to see what all the commotion was about.
Roger arched an eyebrow at Iris as if she were crazy. “There’s no way in hell I’m firing my best employee. I’m sorry you two had a dilemma, but let me get you another girl…” He put on his charm to try to get Iris to calm down. I knew Roger wouldn’t get rid of me. He may have been an *, but he wasn’t a heartless *.
“I’ll pay you ten thousand dollars,” Iris insisted.
Oh no. This time Roger raised both eyebrows. Ladasha’s mouth dropped as she jumped into the conversation. “Roger I swear if you get rid of Andrea, I will walk out with her.” He lowered the brows. He couldn’t lose us both. I could have kissed Ladasha for standing up for me the way she did.
“Twenty-five thousand to fire both,” Iris sang.
She must have sung the right tune because the next thing I knew, Ladasha and I were walking home, jobless, boxes filled with bras and costumes, with no form of income to support us.
“So, we have a few choices for tonight,” Ladasha said as we walked in the snow to our apartment. “We can track down Cooper and kick his ass, we can go cry in a corner and realize we won’t have a place to live soon, or…we can watch Pretty Woman and get wasted.”
I smirked at Ladasha. Her whole life was about taking it one step at a time, never knowing where she would be the next day. I somewhat envied that. So the idea of finding a new place to live didn’t come off as a life or death situation to her. At least she didn’t show it as one. I linked my arm with hers, we walked in our ridiculous heels and rested my head on her shoulder.
Although the idea of kicking Cooper’s ass did sound promising, I secretly knew if I were to see him again, a part of me would want to melt into his arms. And by this point, crying seemed to be useless. I’d cried so much these past few months that I wasn’t certain I even knew what the point of it was anymore.
So that made the choice quite easy. We were getting wasted and watching the hell out of Pretty Woman.





WALKING TO OUR apartment, there appeared to be a strange man sleeping next to a suitcase. Ladasha’s eyes shifted towards me. “Do you…?”