Page 4 of The Toy Maker (The Pink Cherrie #1)

FOUR

With each passing second, a new Cherry walked past the curtain and disappeared before my eyes.

My mother’s voice plagued me with short, meaningless sayings like “The purpose of life is a life of purpose”.

But nothing could calm the timpani drum threatening to burst out of my chest as each girl in front of me vanished into the veil of the unknown.

“Jade Marie,” Kat announced the Cherry who forced me into the invisible bra.

At some point, she’d changed into a navy bralette. Her boobs hung out in all the most flattering places, and judging by the sounds the audience made, they agreed.

I compared myself to the other girls waiting in line and noticed my boobs were much more on display thanks to Jade.

Cheeks flaming, I tucked them further into whatever spare centimeter of fabric I could gather.

My parents were a lot of things, but they weren’t strippers, and they wouldn’t understand my sudden fall from a salaried 9-5 to this.

Finally, the anticipation came to an end, and my feet were positioned right in front of the curtain. I sucked in a deep breath in a final attempt to calm my nerves.

“Up next we have Satara,” Kitty said my full name, and I figured I should move.

I pushed past the curtain and nearly died at the thought of falling. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the strobe lights as I walked toward the center of the stage. There were loud claps and whistles from the crowd, all managing to somehow build my self-esteem and cheapen it at the same time.

“Satara is wearing a naughty little number that shows off all the curves of her body.”

One wrong move and there would be nothing to hide anymore.

I’d be naked in front of dozens of strangers.

Adrenaline coursed through me, refusing to let me turn back.

I took my cue to walk down the catwalk and did my best impression of a Victoria’s Secret Angel.

The crowd hollered at my ass, and blood rushed to my face.

Before I could take another breath, I dove behind the curtain across the stage. All the other Cherries were waiting with bottles of water and peppy grins.

They cheered for me as I found my way to the backroom.

“Way to go,” the pixie laughed and handed me something to drink.

Jade grinned. “Yeah, you’re one of us now.”

One of them? My shoulders relaxed as I took a sip of water. I’d managed to suppress the fact that I still didn’t entirely know what being one of them meant. But my nerves threatened to return at full force, waiting for me to let my guard down.

“That wasn’t so bad,” I lied, trying to keep my expression neutral.

“The pussywalk never is,” Jade drawled, playing idly with the delicate chain around her neck, the dim neon light catching on the tiny charm dangling between her fingers.

I raised a brow at her. “Pussywalk?”

Jade glanced at the neon pixie.

“I’m Sarah by the way,” the girl interjected quickly, her tone forced, a little too eager to steer the conversation elsewhere.

I wouldn’t give up so easily. “Why’d you call it a pussywalk?” I pressed.

Sarah sighed, her shoulders rising and falling as she cast an expectant look at Jade. “The pussywalk is what we do so the men?—”

“—Or women,” Sarah added.

“—Can decide which one of us they want for the night.” Jade watched several different expressions flash across my face. None of them could be pleasant.

The room suddenly felt smaller. Tighter.

Disgust settled in my chest, weighing heavily on me. Lingerie was one thing: sexy, playful, maybe even empowering in the right setting. But this? This was something else entirely.

The gears in my head ground together until they caught fire. “Like prostitution?”

The girls all burst into laughter.

“We aren’t prostitutes. No one is allowed to have sex with us,” Jade promised, as if that single rule erased all my concerns.

Sarah nodded along. “Exactly. They just pay to play with us.”

I stared at each of them in disbelief. “I’m ninety-nine-point-nine percent sure that’s prostitution.” After stifling their laughter, it was clear they found my confusion amusing, which only made me feel stupid.

Sarah took pity on me, explaining, “We typically have an opening number, but we canceled that tonight, then we do the pussywalk. The hotter you dress, the more likely you are to be chosen by a rich customer with nothing to do except spend their money on renting you for a few hours.”

“We work partially for tips too, so the richer the better.” Jade grinned.

Sarah smirked at Jade. “The person who bought you can play with you for as long as they paid for. Which could be from thirty minutes to closing.” She shrugged, like it was no different from a shift at a coffee shop.

“I’m sorry.” I held my hand up before she could go on. “How do they play with us exactly?” The concept of being paid to act like a glorified sex doll gave me the creeps.

“They use toys.”

“Toys?” I assumed we weren’t talking about Lego building by proxy.

“Sex toys. The ones that Jason makes.” She said it as if it were so obvious.

If we were in a cartoon, a giant question mark would have been hovering above my head. “Who’s Jason?”

Jade’s lips curled in amusement. “The owner of the store.” I pieced together the information they were giving me. The owner of the store made the sex toys. Cherries were human dolls for strangers to use the toys on.

My mother’s laughter rang in my ears. She’d love to see my “stubbornness” come back to bite me in the ass. Especially after I packed my bags and high-tailed it out of town, only to return for limited holidays.

I pried as much information from them as I could before Kitty finally bounced into the room.

“Good job, girls, we’re already doing better than last month,” she announced.

“Kitty, you need to explain the ropes to the new girl or else she’s going to scare customers away,” Sarah whined, tugging at her bra straps.

Confusion aside, I was more concerned about legality. I thought I was interviewing for a boring, department store sales job. But by the end of the night, I’d be paraded around half-naked for strangers?

My horoscope didn’t mention anything about this.

Kitty focused her attention on me. “What do you want to know, honey?”

“What do the people who… buy us get to do?”

“They own you, within reason. If they tell you to crawl by their side, then crawl. If they rent a collar, then wear the collar. But most of the time they just decide what toy to watch you on,” she responded.

I didn’t want to play Naughty Simon Says with complete strangers. Swallowing, I said, “I still don’t understand the concept of the toys.”

This time, all three of them exchanged a look. “You’ll have to see them to understand.”

The thing is, I didn’t want to understand.

I wanted to sprint home as fast as my on-sale Michael Kors heels would carry me through the night.

At least that was what I told myself. But if I didn’t go through with this, I’d always wonder what Pink Cherrie really was and how I managed to stick around for so long.

Kitty draped her fingers over my bare shoulder. “Don’t worry, I made sure you were assigned as a watcher tonight.” She beamed.

I forced a smile and held back the rampant screaming in my head.

By the time all the Cherries had settled down, the final numbers for the night were held in Kitty’s hand. The girls pushed me to the back of the crowd to get the name of their assigned customer. They were so eager to bend over backward, literally and figuratively, for complete strangers.

I wanted to be disgusted, to cling to a familiar feeling, but something inside me was curious, intrigued even.

Sarah and Jade never left my side, and when Kitty gave them their assignments, one of them seemed to hit the jackpot. Jade’s smile stretched across her face, but Sarah stared down at the slip of paper as if it ordered her immediate death. She still hadn’t recovered.

I couldn’t wrap my head around how comfortable all the Cherries appeared to be. I would be nervous, panicky, maybe pacing back and forth with the ultimate desire to cower under a rock.

“Hey,” Jade’s voice derailed my train of thought. “It’s going to be okay,” she assured me. It took me a moment to process Jade’s comforting words and realize they weren’t meant for me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, brows furrowing.

Sarah looked up with a grim expression. “I got Lucas,” she said sullenly.

“Who’s Lucas?” I could already tell that being an employee of Pink Cherrie included a steady flow of gossip.

During the brief wait, both of them told me all about Brittany’s nose job, Amy’s not-so-secret pregnancy, and how Kat’s nickname is Kitty because of how picky she is about who gets to pet her.

“Sarah’s ex-boyfriend,” Jade answered before pulling her into a hug, giving her a sympathetic look.

“Why would her ex pay for her?” I asked, and they both turned to look at me. “Not that you’re not worth it, of course.” I made a plan to go to the nearest cemetery and dig myself a place where I couldn’t put my foot in my mouth anymore.

Sarah fidgeted, twisting the ring on her finger. “I’ve hung up on him a few times. We dated for a few years, but last month he told me that it was either my job or him and?—”

“You chose the job,” I guessed, the words slipping out before I could stop them.

“No.” She bit the inside of her lip. “I chose him.”

I blinked, my gaze snapping to Jade for an explanation. “And?”

Jade scowled. “He decided that having someone committed to him was too strenuous and dumped her for another girl.”

Sarah’s eyes sparkled with tears she tried forcing away.

“Then why is he here?” I gaped at them, the gears in my head unable to turn and process this information.

She shrugged. “He wants to get back together, but I’ve been ignoring his calls.”

“What about his side chick?” The question left my mouth before I fully thought it through.

Jade’s eyes flashed with warning, but it was too late.