Page 49 of Liquids

I smile over the table at him. “You should take up stripping, like in that movie The Full Monty.”

He’s taking a sip from his bottle when I say this, and he snorts and beer comes out of his nose.

I grin at him. “Women’d pay a lot of money to see you strip. Well, anyone who hasn’t seen it already, of course.” I wink at him.

He pats his chest as he coughs and his eyes water. “I haven’t slept with every woman in this town, babe.”

“Just the awful ones.”

He rolls his eyes at me, but he’s laughing and part of me hates how easy this is. How it’s always been so easy to talk to him.

“It’d be full of little old ladies,” I snicker. “Marge and her posse would be delighted.”

He leans forward, hazel eyes intense. “You know I’ll strip for you anytime you want a private show.”

And a shiver runs down my spine, and the temptation of another night sets my gut on fire. I’m resisting him, but he’s way too charming. I have a feeling he’s going to chip away at this friends thing one easy conversation at a time.

The following morning, I’m puttering around the kitchen when there’s another knock at the door, and I peer out of the kitchen window. Angelo is standing on my doorstep, chewing a toothpick and wearing a leather bomber jacket and dark pants, hair all slicked back. When I open the door, I think my face must show all my astonishment because I’m just about to say Marni’s not here, when he says, “Rig asked me to check in on you.” He sucks his teeth. “Well, more like he towered over me and told me he’d be seriously unhappy if you got threatened again.”

I want to laugh at his brute-force honesty. “He said it was all fixed,” I say.

“Yeah, well, can’t be too careful in this town. It’s my job to fix things and see that they stay that way. You haven’t had any more visits?”

I shake my head.

He nods. Then his gaze scans down me in an assessing way, and his eyes drift over my shoulder as he peers at the apartment behind me.

He beckons with his fingers. “Give me your phone. I’ll put my details in, and you can contact me if you get any more trouble. Save me coming out again.”

Do I want to give Angelo my number? I presume Rig didn’t give it to him for a reason. But he must have Marni’s, right?

“Okay,” I squeak.

Once he’s transferred his number across, he looks down the iron staircase at the parking lot and says, “Not a great part of town this.”

I snort. “Tell me something new.”

“Luis owns this, right?”

I nod, and he makes a face, then he jerks his chin up. “What you do for work?”

“I look after some of the old folks in town.”

His eyes track down to my chest and back up to my face.

“Not great pay, jobs like that. You want to earn some more money?” He waves a hand around. “Get out of here?”

I gape at him. What is he? My fairy godmother? And yes. Yes, I fucking do.

“Doing what?”

He switches his toothpick to the other side of his mouth. “Stripping, if you’re down for that. The girls make a lot of cash: $300 a night on average. We can teach you to dance. But if that’s not your bag, you could waitress in one of our clubs. It’s still good money with tips. Girls usually start there and then move on to the stripping.”

$300 a night! Is he fucking kidding me? Oh my God, that …

“Think about it,” he says. “Message me if you’re interested.”

And he turns and trots down the steps.