“What was all that about?” I asked.
“It was terrible, they were so rude,” Katie said, and she went to hug Zerbrowski.
“Rude how?” I asked.
“Some of the wives just came in for a quick peek at Nathaniel, and that was all right, but others . . . If it had been men looking at me like that I’d have felt dirty.” She shivered.
Zerbrowski stroked her hair, as he held her. “You should have called me in sooner.”
“We should have had Anita come in and kiss him sooner,” she said.
“You have this effect on women often?” Zerbrowski asked.
Katie raised her head from his chest and said, “Nathaniel was a perfect gentleman. He didn’t do anything to start this.”
“Actually, I did, Katie, just not today,” Nathaniel said.
They looked at him. I just raised my head and looked up at him while still in his arms. “What do you mean?”
“They’ve seen me strip. Most people have trouble treating dancers like real people once they’ve seen them take their clothes off.”
“Seeing you on stage shouldn’t have made them be so rude at our party,” Katie said.
Nathaniel shifted in my arms and I knew there was more. “What is it, Nathaniel?”
“I worked a bachelorette party for one of the wives.” He very carefully didn’t say which wife. He would keep his customers secrets even if they didn’t keep his.
“Why does that matter? It’s still your job and this was my home. It’s disrespectful to us, as well as you.”
Nathaniel looked down and met my eyes. It was a mute appeal. “I take it that it was a very lucrative party for you?” I said.
“It was,” he said.
“They got their money’s worth, I take it?”
He nodded.
“I don’t understand,” Katie said.
I glanced at Zerbrowski. “You ever go to any private bachelor parties that had strippers?”
“Maybe,” he said.
Katie frowned at him. “You always tell me, don’t tease Anita right now.”
He smiled. “Yes.”
“If you’d gotten a lap dance from a stripper and then she showed up as the girlfriend of one of the cops you knew, how would you react?”
“Honestly?”
“That’d be nice,” I said.
“I’d wonder if the cop knew that his girlfriend used to strip.”
“Some cops date strippers,” I said.
“Yeah, but they don’t usually bring them to family-friendly parties.”