and existed in shades of gray. “If he judges you for that, then he’s a piece of shit. You needed to pay for the surgery and you didn’t know what else to do. He had no right to make you feel bad about that.”
“I guess…”
“Don’t let him bring you down. It’s a good thing he left anyway because you’re too good for him.”
“Yeah?” She looked to me for assurance. “You don’t think I’m a whore…for doing that?”
“No. Absolutely not. I think he’s a pig for walking into that strip club to watch girls get naked then turning around and calling you names for being on the stage. That’s low.”
“I guess I should have told him the truth but…I was afraid of how he would react. And I had almost made all the money I needed. If I just had another weekend, he wouldn’t have known.”
I shook my head. “You should love people no matter what they do, the good and the ugly. You should stand by their side and support them, not desert them. You aren’t the one who should feel ashamed. He should.”
She took a deep breath and released it. “It’s nice to hear that for once…”
I put my arm around her and pulled her close to me without thinking. “I think more highly of you now that you told me that.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
She rested her head on my shoulder. “Thank you…”
“Of course.” I ran my hand up and down her back to comfort her. The dress she wore was thin, and I could feel all the small muscles in her back. She was thin enough that I could feel her spine. “Don’t let him make you feel bad. You did nothing wrong.”
“He would hate me even more if he knew what I was doing now.”
“What’s wrong with it? You’re helping people. You’re definitely making my life easier.”
“When I tell people what I do, they still assume I’m a prostitute.”
“Then correct them. Because you aren’t.”
She leaned against me and fell silent. Her hand rested near my thigh, and her fingers grazed my jeans. Her deep breathing slowly decreased until she was calm.
I knew better than anyone what it was like to be ridiculed for doing something society didn’t tolerate. It was a pain in the ass, and people needed to get off their high horses and mind their own business. We lived in a sexist world and it wasn’t fair.
She finally sat up and left my shoulder. “Thanks…I needed that.”
“Anytime.” It was pretty lame to make her feel bad about something she had little control over. What else was she supposed to do? Be poor for the rest of her life and have bad credit like I did? She made the right decision.
“Well, it’s midnight. I guess I should go…”
I didn’t want her to go. It was nice hanging out with her. I felt like I had a new friend—a really hot one. “Let me walk you home.”
“You can walk me to the office.”
“But then you’re just going to walk home when I leave.”
“Exactly,” she said. “Which is why you should just leave me on my own.”
I wasn’t the nicest guy in the world but I knew better than to let a beautiful woman walk home alone in New York City at midnight. “That doesn’t sit right with me. I can’t let you go dressed like that. There are murderers and rapists out there. No one will look at you twice if I’m next to you.”
“Thanks for offering, but I’ll really be fine.”
The stubborn man inside me was coming out. “Look, I swear I’m not a stalker. I’m going to walk you home, right up to your door and watch your beautiful ass walk inside, and then I’m going to go.”
Her eyes burned in fire. “Excuse me?”
“If I really was some kind of weirdo, keep in mind that you’ve been in my apartment alone with me…” I looked at my watch. “For three hours now. If I were going to do something creepy, I would have done it by now. And have you seen me? A guy this good-looking doesn’t need to resort to weird shit to get laid. So, just chill out and let me walk you.”
“Why are you being so stubborn about this?”
For a lot of reasons. “I’ve seen shit. Just leave it at that.”
“What kind of shit?”
“Stuff that will make you afraid of the dark.” I’d invaded cities and villages during my tour, and the things I’d seen there made me proud to be an American. Women were