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wanted to do something else with her life for the past couple of years, but she never had made any move to do so. It was easy to stay in the rut she’d dug herself—the rut of complacency.
    “Is there any other position open for me?” Alaina asked, not meeting Peggy’s gaze.
    “We may be able to get you a part-time bar position, but you’d need to go to bartending school.”
    Alaina nodded. Peggy had informed her many years ago that the full-time bartenders made half of what the girls on stage made, if they were lucky. Peggy was talking about working part-time. Alaina couldn’t live on the wages she would make. “When do I have to go?”
    “They’re giving you three weeks. You can probably get some unemployment as well.”
    Fabulous. Three weeks to figure out what she was going to do with the rest of her life. Three weeks to come up with life-altering changes and plans.
    “Are you okay, Alaina?”
    Alaina nodded and put on a brave face. She met Peggy’s gaze. “Yes. I’ll be okay. Thanks for giving me so much notice.”
    Peggy nodded and stood. “I’m so sorry, honey.”
    Alaina walked her over to the door, and they hugged briefly.
    “I’ll see you for your shift tomorrow, okay?” Peggy said, giving her a sad smile.
    Alaina nodded and shut the door. Tears welled in her eyes. On some level she knew this would happen at some point. She thought of the other girls at the club; none of them were a day over twenty-five. Her mind wandered back over the past ten years, and she thought of women who were there one day, but gone the next. Some had met the owner’s definition of “old” and were probably let go.
    She went into the kitchen and opened the freezer. A pint of Ben & Jerry’s “Chocolate Therapy” sat there. She allowed herself two spoonfuls a week. She grabbed the container and decided she was going to skip yoga and eat the ice cream instead.
    She opened the fridge, grabbed the bottle of Chardonnay she had been saving for a rainy day, pulled a glass from the cupboard, and brought her bounty over to the small kitchen table and dug in. Whether she put on a pound or two just didn’t matter anymore.
    The card Mr. Ash had given her caught her eye under the stacked mail. She slid it out and took a long sip of wine.
    Why could she see the ashy stuff around him when no one else could? He had said she was special and promised her a new beginning.
    Maybe it was time to see exactly what that entailed.
    She opened her laptop and typed in the address on Google Maps.
    A church?
    She double-checked the address. Yes, she had entered it correctly. She clicked the street view button, and sure enough, the address belonged to the old, brick church with the large, ornate doors.
    “Huh,” she said, and shoveled a scoop of chocolate decadence into her mouth, then followed it with a big slug of wine.
    Sitting back in her chair, she finished off the pint of ice cream and half the bottle of wine as she stared at the picture of the church on the screen.
    It had been a long time since she’d stepped foot in a church, the last time being with the foster mother who dragged her there every night. Church was a soothing, calm place from what she remembered. What she didn’t like about it back then was her foster mother insisted Alaina was a sinner and needed to repent. At that time, the worst thing she had done was steal fifty cents off the desk of a social worker.
    Feeling better about meeting Mr. Ash, she shut her laptop and put the wine away in the refrigerator. She stretched out on the couch, turned on the TV, and decided on Top Chef . She couldn’t cook worth a damn, but she really admired those who could.
    As she watched the contestants chop, mix, and dice, her thoughts wandered back to Mr. Ash’s proposed meeting. Really, what could possibly go wrong inside a church?
    It was definitely something to consider.

Chapter 10
    Annis and Cohen ’s mating ceremony was in two hours, so Nico went down to the gym for a quick run