CHAPTER 5
The club closed a while later, at 3 a.m.
Sonya and Alicia split up their tip jar. They got 92 dollars each.
Sonya got half that much in tips working at the restaurant. Plus, she was paid five bucks an hour in salary at Sultan’s, which was a lot more than the ridiculous two dollars an hour minimum wage in Florida for servers back then.
Halim poked his head through the door and told the two young hostesses to come inside.
Only the staff was still there, except for one obese man slumped against a table in the corner as Johnny tried to lift him up.
The dancers were coming in and out of the dressing room. Some left when they finished changing, while others came out and lined up at the bar for shots.
“Come on,” Alicia said.
Sonya followed her over to the bar. The dancers began to tease her again.
“How’d you do, honey?”
“Did you show any of the guys that freshly shaved pussy of yours?”
“Get any phone numbers? You know those guys have big money. They can take you shopping and get you some clothes of your own.”
“She got a drink from Dmitri,” Alicia said playfully.
“Ohhh shit, look at you. So he likes the youngsters, huh? I should have known, just another perv.”
“And he didn’t take you in back and show you that big Russian sausage of his? He must not like you then.”
“Or maybe he respects her too much,” Kelly said.
They all burst into laughter after that one.
The bartender shook his head and grinned, then handed Sonya a shot of tequila. That was one thing she was used to. She’d been to enough parties.
She slammed it down. But she was thinking so hard about looking cool, she coughed and dribbled tequila onto her chin.
Fortunately, nobody was paying attention. Sonya wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist and set the glass down with relief that no one was laughing at her, at least for the moment.
Johnny finally got the drunk man up from the table, down the stairs, and into a limousine, just as Gilad stomped out of the back room, ready to yell at him if hadn’t taken care of that man, one of their most important guests.
Gilad checked the front door to make sure it was locked, then walked over to the bar. All of the girls were staring at him with a look of anticipation on their faces.
“Whaaat?” he said, pretending not to know what they wanted.
“You have something for us?” one of them asked in a whiny voice.
“Just my pretty smile,” he said, grinning with his teeth bared as though he wanted to chomp something.
“Come on, Gee baby, don’t tease us.”
“Settle down, you horny girls, you know I’m happily married and faithful to my wife… uh, what’s-her-name… so you won’t be getting your hands on my horsecock tonight.”
Some of the girls smirked or tried to laugh, while others just stared at Gilad.
“Oh wait, you mean this stuff?”
He reached into his pants pocket and tossed a small plastic bag on the table.
The girls looked like they were ready to lunge after it, but restrained themselves.
What is that? Sonya thought.
The girls were excited, but at the same time, they seemed disappointed, as if they were expecting more.
Gilad shrugged, then casually put both hands in his pockets and acted like he was surprised to find something there. He tossed another baggie onto the bar, this one much bigger.
The bartender took a mirror down from behind the top shelf of liquor bottles. He dusted it off with a napkin and laid it across the bar. He carefully opened the bag and dumped out white powder onto the mirror.
Cocaine?
Sonya had never seen it before, not in real life.
She began to get scared. She’d heard that some of the older college kids did coke in the back rooms at parties, but none of her friends had even tried it.
Alicia looked at her, raised her thin blond eyebrows and licked her lips.
“Come on, Bryce, rack ‘em up!” a girl said to the bartender.
He was a handsome guy. 28 years old, fun-loving, big biceps, a face like a movie star. Just what a group of strippers wanted to see after a night of grinding on scowling old men who kept trying to put their hands where they weren’t allowed - at least not allowed outside of the VIP rooms.
Bryce rolled his eyes and shrugged, flashing his impish smile. He pulled out a clean knife. It was a paring knife meant to cut limes for drinks, razor sharp. He tossed it in the air, letting it spin three times before he caught it by the handle.
Then he set to work.
It didn’t take him long, even with the curved blade of the knife. He knew what he was doing.
He scraped the white powder across the mirror, measuring and fine-tuning so that no one would complain about not getting their fair share.
In minutes, he had a long row of lines ready.
“You start, Bryce,” Kelly said sweetly.
“Don’t mind if I do.”
He took a 5 dollar bill from his tip jar and rolled it up, snorting a line with one quick movement.
There was enough room for two or three girls at a time to lean over the mirror. Some also used rolled up bills, but others just snorted with plastic straws from the bar.
People think that strippers are drugged up while they work, but that’s not usually true. Maybe they take a bit of something or other to relax beforehand, but the real party comes afterward.
The DJ, Gilad, the bouncer and another guy who worked security inside the club all took turns snorting lines.
When it was her turn, Anna pulled out a 100 dollar bill and fanned her face with it.
“Just a country girl trying to make it in the big city. If only grannie could see me now,” she said in a thick Southern drawl.
The other girls laughed, and one said, “A Benjamin, damn, girl, that’s classy.”
“You know it, and I didn’t do much work for it either. One of those oil boys slipped it in my garter on stage. Maybe next time he’ll bring a diamond ring and make me his sex slave - I mean wife - and take me someplace far away to live in a real palace.”
“That’s the way to do it, never work another day - except working on your tan,” a girl in a pink wig said.
Anna leaned over the mirror, her curly red hair cascading down around her face as she inhaled the cocaine.
Bryce had just finished pouring another round of drinks as the second to last of the lines disappeared up another gleeful nose.
Alicia handed a shot glass to Sonya, who was hanging out behind everyone else and hoping nobody noticed her.
“Did you get a taste?”
“No. But I’m okay.”
“Give the new girl a line,” Alicia shouted.
“You’ve never tried any nose candy, have you?” she said to Sonya.
“Uh, you know…” Sonya answered nervously.
“Don’t lie, sweetie. We’re all experts at lying here. You can’t fool us.”
Anna raised her voice above the others’ to say, “She doesn’t need any. She’s young. Leave her alone.”
“Old enough to work at this joint... But yeah, whatever, if she doesn’t want some, that’s more for us,” a bleached blonde with huge silicone implants said.
“Last one. What’s it gonna be?” Bryce asked with a playful smile.
They all seem to be acting normal. Nobody’s going crazy or overdosing, maybe I should try, Sonya thought.
She squeezed her way up to the bar. Though she appreciated Anna sticking up for her, she didn’t want to feel like a baby any more than she already did.
“Can I borrow one of those things,” she said as calmly as possible, pointing at a rolled-up 20 lying on the mirror.
Just then, Halim came out of the back room.
“Don’t give that shit to the new girl,” he said as if he’d known what was about to happen even before he walked out of his office.
Everyone went quiet until Halim strolled out the front door.
“Well, well, well. I guess you’re his little princess,” the black dancer with the glittery wig said.
Bryce looked at Sonya and smirked. “Sorry, kid. He’s the boss.”
Sonya pouted and walked toward the same door Halim had just gone through. Deep down, she was relieved she hadn’t tried the drug, but she also didn’t want everyone to keep treating her like a kid.
She yanked on the door. It was locked.
Gilad came over and unlocked it with a grunt.
“Next time, park in the back and use the back door, like the other girls.”
As he spoke, he guided Sonya out the door with his greasy hand pressing against the bare skin of her hips, right between the borrowed halter top and skirt, which she had forgotten to change out of and give back to Kelly.
She walked down the stairs. They seemed much steeper after a few drinks.