Page 18 of Ruining Hattie

BASTION

T his is the moment of truth.

I savor the moment the recognition hits her—that when I said I work in the entertainment industry, I meant that I own a strip club.

The entire time I’ve been planning this, I knew that this moment was pivotal.

If she’s going to scare easily and run, it’ll be right now.

She’s not invested, hasn’t seen her first paycheck and what it can do for her, and I haven’t grown any closer to her or gotten her to act on her attraction to me.

“Come on in and I’ll show you around.” I gesture with my hand for her to go ahead of me.

“Do… do you own a strip club?” She glances back up at the marquee as if she didn’t read it right the first time.

“Many actually.” I smile at her, relaxed as if it’s not a big deal even though my heart is pounding and I’m worried this will all go south before we get to the good part.

“I… I didn’t realize…” She glances down the sidewalk, back the way we came.

Shit. I’m losing her.

“I’m sorry if you didn’t realize, Hattie. It’s a force of habit at this point when people ask what I do.” I sigh and really play it up by looking away from her, pulling on those easy heartstrings of hers. “I’ve been judged so many times for what I do that I guess I just got used to being vague.”

She places her hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t judging you. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way. I’m just surprised, that’s all. Let’s go in, and you can show me around.”

Way too fucking easy.

I meet her gaze and smile. “Thank you. You have no idea what it means to me that you’ll give this a chance.”

She nods and steps inside.

When the door shuts behind us, I fight the feeling of being a predator who’s cornered his prey. I tell myself that I’m not like Russell back in Wisconsin.

“The place is empty right now. The dancers won’t come in for a couple of hours. I wanted to be able to show you around before you’re bombarded with having to meet everyone else. When the lights are all on and the music is pumping, it can get a little intense.”

Hattie stops and looks around, turning in place. “I’ve never been to a strip club before.”

“That’s okay, you don’t have to be an expert in them to help me out day to day.”

“Where will I be working?”

The way she says it makes me think she’s afraid I’ll plop a desk down in the middle of the stage and make her work naked.

“Follow me.”

I lead her to the door beside the stage and down the hallway that passes the room where the dancers get ready, the employee kitchen, the stockroom, and finally to my office at the very end.

“You and I will be working in here.” I unlock the door and push it open, waiting for her to walk in first.

My desk is where it always is, and I’ve set up a desk for her on the far wall. Coincidentally, my desk looks onto hers.

She looks around the space, not saying anything.

“I took the liberty of setting you up here and bought you a laptop, but if there’s anything else you need, you just have to say the word.”

When she still doesn’t say anything, I take her hand. It’s only now that I notice the scent of her perfume—a light floral scent with a trace of vanilla. It’s… fuck… it’s her. If I paid someone a shit ton of money to come up with a fragrance that would define Hattie, that would be it.

“Are you going to be able to do this job? Again, I’m sorry. I probably should have mentioned the working environment, given that your faith is such a strong part of your life. I just thought with what this job pays and the situation you’re in…” I allow her to fill in the blanks.

“It’s fine. It will take some… adjusting, I’m sure, but you’re right. This job allows me to help my parents out significantly more than I could at my old job. I’m sorry if I’m coming off ungrateful. I just wasn’t expecting this.”

“I understand.” I drop her hand and walk over to sit at my desk. “Shall we get started? I can walk you through where everything is in the cloud and what you can start with.”

She nods. “Yes, of course.”

After she grabs a pen and notebook from her desk, she brings them and her computer and sits on the other side of my desk. Damn, we’re way too far away from one another.

“On second thought, why don’t I come sit beside you so we can both look at the screen on your computer?

” I stand and drag my chair closer to hers so that when I sit down, our legs are almost touching.

In fact, I intentionally brush my leg against hers under the guise of stretching several times as I show her what she needs to know.

Hattie picks everything up quickly, asking intelligent questions. The one truthful thing I did tell her was I knew she was smart and could do this job efficiently.

I’m not sure how long we’ve been at it when there’s a knock on the door. My office door is open, but no one would dare walk in without announcing themselves.

The two of us shift in our seats to see who it is, her leg bumping mine this time. Ray stands in the doorway, his hulking body almost filling up the space.

“Hey, boss.” He glances at Hattie.

“Hattie, this is Ray. Ray, Hattie. She’s the one I told you about who’s going to make my life a whole lot easier, right?”

She gives me a shy smile and stands, walking across the room and extending her hand toward Ray. “Nice to meet you, Ray.”

He looks a little taken aback by the gesture, as he should. It’s not often that people are shaking hands around here. But he steps forward and takes her hand. “Good to meet you too. Whereabouts you from?”

“Is it that obvious I’m not from around here?” She cringes, glancing over her shoulder at me.

Ray’s smile grows, and the beast inside me growls.

Ray lets out a big laugh. “Don’t stress about it, it’s not a bad thing.”

But I can tell by the way her shoulders sag that she’s self-conscious. “I’m from Wisconsin by way of Tennessee.”

Ray smiles wide. “I have some family in Tennessee. Whereabouts?”

The two of them discuss the different areas of Tennessee for a few minutes, and I find myself growing more and more irritated as I watch Hattie become more comfortable with him.

I don’t know why, but the idea of her giving her attention to another man is riling me up.

Her sole focus needs to be on me so that I can move my plan along.

Growing impatient, I finally interrupt them. “I’m assuming there’s a reason you wanted to see me, Ray?”

He realizes his error and sheepishly looks away from Hattie. “I just wanted you to know that Sean showed up here after we closed last night. You’d already left, but I told him I would let you know he’s looking for you.”

My jaw clenches. I haven’t heard from Sean since our little showdown, but it’s not as if I didn’t expect to have another conversation on the same topic.

I nod at Ray. “If he shows back up and I’m not here, text me. If I’m close, I’ll come by.”

“Yes, sir.” He starts to make his way out of the room, then turns at the last second. “Good to meet you, Hattie. You ever have any problems while you’re here, come find me or one of my guys, okay?” He winks and walks off.

What the fuck was that wink about? I’ve never seen Ray wink at anyone. Actually, he makes little conversation with anyone. Even the dancers sometimes complain about his broody attitude.

“He seems nice,” Hattie says as though she’s surprised. I’m not sure how many outwardly different types of people she’s been around in her life.

“People aren’t innately bad people just because they work at a strip club.” I say it with more bite than I intend, given the mood Ray put me in.

“I didn’t mean?—”

“Let’s just get back to work. I have a lot to catch you up on.”

Looking chastised, Hattie tucks her skirt and sits back down, and we get back to it.

If only I could decipher who I’m more irritated with—her or me.