Page 148 of Boyfriend of the Hour

And I didn’t want to lie to Nathan. Maybe I even felt like I needed to tell the truth.

Or as much as I could handle telling.

I sighed. Might as well get it over with.

“I…I have to tell you something,” I said. “I wasn’t at Opal last night.”

“I didn’t think you were,” Nathan said, to my surprise. “You only work Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I’ve heard Tom refuse to give you more shifts at least ten times.”

I should have known he would remember that. Nathan noticedeverything.

“I was working somewhere else,” I said.

Nathan perked up, obviously curious. “You got another job? That’s great. Where?”

“I don’t know if I would call it great,” I muttered as I sank down to the ground. I pulled my knees close to my chest and swallowed hard. Why was this so hard to say? “I was working for this guy named Kyle. He’s the, um, manager at Diamonds.”

“The strip club?” Confusion colored Nathan’s face, but not, I was grateful to see, anger.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “He took me on for a couple of shifts there a few weeks ago, serving drinks, but it was a trial for these…parties he runs.”

Nathan was quiet for a long moment. “I didn’t know you had decided to do that after all,” he said finally.

“I’m not actually stripping…but I was topless. And had to give lap dances and things like that.”

Every bit of the description that, in my mind, hadn’t been that big of a deal felt dirtier the more I recounted it. The windowless walls. The cluttered green tables. The harsh laughter of the men with oily stains on their teeth as I worked their bulging pants.

If I’d liked it, it would be one thing. If I was even apathetic about it, that would be another.

But I hated it. I hated every bit of it.

“It was shady,” I said. “Shady enough that I’d rather get on the pole than do it again, if only because it’s legal. I’m pretty sure this place wasn’t, and I won’t be going back. But I needed to tellyou, partly because I just don’t want to mislead you, and partly because Shawn was there, and also…Carrick.”

Immediately, Nathan’s whole body tensed. “What did he do?”

I sighed. “Nothing. He did nothing. But he saw me…you know, and then we rode the subway back to this neighborhood together.”

“Well, that explains why he texted me last night,” Nathan said wryly as he removed his glasses and rubbed the spot between his brows. “He knew where you were coming from.”

Curious. Carrick certainly hadn’t given off the “walk a gal home safe” kind of vibes. He had, however, given off the “I don’t want my brother to kick my ass” ones.

“He also met Shawn. Who I did not know was going to be there, Nathan, I swear it. He just showed up with these gangster dudes, but I didnotask him to come. And I told Shawn…and he told Carrick that…well, I sort of said we’re engaged.”

Surprise colored Nathan’s face. “You did?”

I bit my lip. “Was I not supposed to?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I only…I suppose I thought it was primarily for my parents’ benefit.” He shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d want your friends to find out about that too.”

I gave a half-hearted shrug. Honestly, that hadn’t even occurred to me, even with Rochelle there. All I’d known was that I wanted Shawn to leave me alone. That I wanted him to know once and for all I was not available for him anymore.

“It didn’t work, though,” I said as I lay my cheek on my knee.

Nathan’s face hardened with the recollection. “Because he followed you home.”

I gulped. “Er, yeah. Apparently. But I didn’t want him to do anything?—”

“Of course, you didn’t want him, Joni. I heard you yelling before I was even outside.”