Page 60 of Duty and Desire

“I do not let men objectify me, Mo. I don’t drag them to the club to watch me dance. They come on their own. And you can look at it two ways, just as you could look at a woman watching men dance while taking their clothes off. I make a damn good living off a man who’s totally down with appreciating the female body and he’s at one with the fact he enjoys it, or it turns him on, and it ends right there. Or I make a damn good living off weak men who are weak because they’re not strong enough to respect strong women, even if those women are strong women taking their clothes off. And I’m okay with both.”

“You’re you,” he grunted.

“And what does that mean?” I asked.

“You’re beautiful and together and confident and I hear you’re talented. Most women who do what you do don’t do it because they’re proud of it. They do it because they’re in a life where they don’t want to. But they have to.”

There was a lot there.

Primarily the fact he thought I was beautiful, together and confident.

Good job I didn’t trip when pivoting to show him the living room.

But also, he had a point.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

His expression registered surprise.

“I don’t have an argument for that,” I told him. “Though I will note that I didn’t ask about how you felt regarding the career of stripping as a whole. Just me doing it.”

For a second, his face blanked.

Then he let out a roar of laughter.

I was relatively sure my toss pillows wobbled.

And I was transfixed.

Totally transfixed.

I’d heard one thing that was more beautiful.

The laughter of my nephews.

But this was a close second.

I stayed transfixed for only a beat.

And then I dedicated my life to making him laugh as often as I could.

Thus I was smiling at him when he quit.

He didn’t look in my eyes then.

He stared at my mouth.

Now we were getting somewhere.

“Are you hungry?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“Are you going to tell me about your military service?” I went on.

He shook his head.

“Are you going to tell me how your dad’s a dick?” I kept at him.