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well as the prostitution. Eventually, Alaina saw the big bucks were made on the stage. At nineteen, Alaina began working the pole.
    At first she had been terrified, but after a few nights, it seemed natural to her. And she didn ’t mind the money either.
    And now at twenty-nine, here she was. When she began stripping, she promised herself that one day she would do something different—something that involved her using her brain instead of her body.
    She felt as though her life were passing her by, and her chance to do something else was fading. But she didn’t know what she wanted to do; she just knew it was something . . . different.
    Shaking her head to clear her memories, she went to her kitchen and put away the cleaning supplies, humming to the smooth jazz the wafted from the speakers. After grinding to hip-hop all night long, she preferred more mellow music while in her private space.
    Checking the microwave oven’s clock, she saw that she had about two hours before her yoga class. Looking around the apartment, she was glad she had the day off and was able to get to the mundane things in life like dusting, scrubbing the toilet, and laundry. Maybe she should take a nap before yoga.
    There was a light tap at her door, startling her. She wasn’t expecting anyone. Checking through the peephole, she was surprised to see Peggy, her supervisor from work.
    She opened the door. “Hi, Peggy. What’s up?”
    Peggy smiled. Her face showed the twelve years that had passed since she rescued Alaina from the streets, putting Peggy above forty now. “Can I come in?”
    Alaina nodded and opened the door wider. Peggy stepped in, and Alaina closed and locked the door. “Go ahead and have a seat, Peggy.”
    Peggy got comfortable on the couch. “I smell cleaning products. I thought you were supposed to enjoy your days off, not spend them flopping the mop.”
    Alaina chuckled and pushed her hair behind her ear. “The place was a mess, and it needed to be done. It wasn’t too horrible.”
    There was a beat of silence as Peggy looked around the small space as if she’d never seen it before. It had been about a year since Peggy had been over, before Alaina’s dark thoughts became more frequent and she started to distance herself from others.
    “What’s up, Peggy?” Alaina finally asked, a knot forming in her stomach. Peggy definitely looked uncomfortable.
    She sighed and met Alaina’s eyes. “As you know, I’m in charge of all you girls,” she began.
    Alaina nodded.
    “I don’t know how to say this, Alaina, so I’m just going to say it the way it was said to me. They’re taking you off the pole.”
    Alaina’s heart beat triple time as she tried to think of what she did to deserve this. She hadn’t been rude to any customers recently and she was always on time. She’d even picked up extra shifts when needed. “Why?”
    “Look, Alaina. Obviously, you’re in fantastic shape, but the owners like to keep the girls young and fresh. You’ll be turning thirty soon, and that’s pretty much the age they like to put us out to pasture.”
    Alaina sat back on the couch, not believing what she was hearing. At twenty-nine, she was being let go for being too old. How was that for a smack in the face? What would she do? Where would she go? She’d never known anything different than the Missio n .
    “They did it to me too, Alaina. That’s why I was able to give you a job that day I found you on the street. The woman who was in charge of managing the girls left, and they took me off the pole and put me in her position just a few days before I saw you. I had just turned thirty.”
    At thirty years old, she was a dried-up old hag. Alaina’s mind spun, thinking of her other options for survival. Maybe she should try to secure a position at one of the other strip clubs in town, but the thought turned her stomach. She’d started in the best club, and she didn’t want to step down.
    And frankly, she was tired of stripping.
    She’d