Read Objectify Me: A Fireworks Novella (The Fireworks Novellas) for Free Online

might have been okay. “He didn’t take kindly to my reprimand about inviting Felicity into the bathroom to suck his cock because, and I quote, ‘that cream pie girl in the tutu finished off the college kid. Why is that okay?’”
    I open my mouth to protest, but he stops me. “Fat Texas apparently saw Frat Boy coming out of the ladies’ room with a big dumb grin on his face just after you came out. So what’s the story there?”
    Jack is really mad and I don’t blame him, even though I’m innocent. If word got out that more than tame lap dances were going on here, he would lose everything. Nicer clubs than this have been closed down for less. And people have gone to jail. Girls have even ended up on the sex offenders list. But like I said, I’m innocent.
    “I didn’t do anything! I found him in the ladies room when I went on my break.”
    “Just because you’re on your break doesn’t mean you can hook up with patrons.”
    “I didn’t hook up with him! Jeez, we just talked.”
    “In the ladies room?”
    Now I’m getting mad. Jack should trust me after all this time. I’ve been making money for him for nearly a year, and I have never done anything even a little bit across the line. “He went in there because someone was playing handball in the men’s.”
    Jack closes his eyes and sighs. “Charlotte, we’ve talked about this before. You girls need to be conscious of what things look like, as well as what actually happens.”
    “Well, how would it look if I had just left him there to cut his wrists or choke on his own vomit?”
    “Was that a danger? We let him just walk out of here!”
    I cross my arms. Being hauled up by Jack makes me feel like I’m in high school again. Not even college. High school. What is even the point of college if it doesn’t make you forget that high school ever happened? And normally, for obvious reasons I’m not self-conscious about being practically naked around him. But now I feel exposed and vulnerable. I wish I’d brought my kimono. If I’d known I was going to get bitched at, I would have.
    “I’m sure he’s fine. He had sobered up and cheered up by that time.”
    “And what cheered him up?” The son of a bitch doesn’t believe me. Now I’m getting mad.
    “Jack, what the hell do you think I am, anyway? If I wanted to be a prostitute, I guess I’d be a prostitute.”
    “We have an image to maintain here, Lottie.”
    “Don’t call me that. You’re not my dad.”
    Standing in my underwear getting grilled by a seedy strip club owner is not the moment to be thinking about my dad. He’s the reason I’m stuck in this situation. Also the only reason I don’t jump off the Crescent City Bridge. And now I’m crying. Crying because I’m afraid that Jack is going to fire me, and even though that would probably be the best thing that ever happened to me, it would also be the end of the world. There’s no way I could find another job that lets me take home nine hundred a week. My rent. Dad’s rent. Student loan. Bills. Medication. Food. I will have to start sucking cocks if I lose this gig.
    “Please don’t fire me, Jack.”
    Jack reaches over his desk and pulls a Kleenex from a box. He hands it to me and waits while I dab my eyes, leaving two imprints of my lashes on the white tissue. “I’m not going to fire you. But this Texan and his buddies are in town for a week, and I expect them to come here almost every night.”
    “So?”
    “So, he thinks he saw what he saw. If you’re here, it’s just going to raise problems.”
    “So, what, I’m like suspended ?” Fucking high school all over again. High school in high-class underwear. “I can’t take a week off, Jack. I barely make ends meet as it is.”
    “I’m sorry, kid. These oil industry fuckers spend like crazy in here. I’ve got to put them first.” He takes me by the shoulders, which I hate. But what can I do? Shove him away? Truth is, if he wanted to bend me over his desk right now, I’d