Chapter 2

Sebastian didn't reply.

I checked my phone about 10 more times before falling asleep but there was nothing. Just that fucking read receipt glaring at me.

I slept off.

By morning, I'd decided it didn't matter.

So what if my stepbrother saw my bare chest? It wasn't like I had anything impressive up there anyway.

I'd delete his number, pretend like it never happened, and by the time university started, we'd be strangers again.

That was my plan until I remembered I had to take his offer because, obviously, what else would put food in my fridge? My fridge had a half-empty jar of pickles and a yogurt that had already expired.

I took my shower and dressed up, heading to Bar Solace.

* * *

The bar was in the nice part of town. I stood outside for a full minute just looking at the sign. It was in gold letters on black, classy as fuck, and I tried not to think about how Cole once made me clean a vomit puddle with my bare hands because "rags are for pussies." I walked in with one mindset.

Avoid Sebastian, talk to the manager, apply, and leave. Simple.

The inside was worse than I had expected. A long mahogany bar. Lots of pole stands and it just looked majestic.

I approached a woman with a clipboard and a tight bun.

"I'm here to apply for a job," I said.

She looked me up and down before answering. "Grey's office is on the left. And don't touch anything."

I got into Grey's office. He barely glanced at the resume I'd printed on my way here.

"You've got bar experience?"

"Yes, sir."

"Sure you can work here without stealing anything?"

"Yes, sir," I answered without trying to show the disgust on my face.

He was about to ask another annoying question when someone stepped in.

I turned my head to face the person and behold. The man I've always wanted to avoid.

Archer Vaughn. My stepfather.

I'd forgotten how tall he was. Or maybe I'd just never been this close to him without my mother being there. He wore a navy suit with no tie. The top button was undone.

"Well, well." Archer closed the door. Grey excused himself and left. "Sebastian didn't tell me you were coming today."

"I didn't know I needed to let him know whenever I come to apply for a job."

Archer laughed, then said, "That attitude, who did you get it from? Your mother, or your dead father?"

My hands curled into fists at my sides. I ignored the question.

He circled me before stopping close enough that I could see the gray threading through his temples. His eyes dropped to my shoulder, arm, and ribs.

"You're thinner than the last time I met you," he said, then stepped back and sat at the edge of his desk.

"Here's what I know. You're starting university in a few days and you have no money. You won't take help from me because you hate me," he said, tilting his head. "Fair enough. I'd hate me too if I were you. But you're at my bar now." My stomach turned.

"You need something desperately, otherwise you wouldn't be standing in front of me looking like a stray dog that got kicked out."

"Go straight to the point, Archer."

"I'm making you an offer you would love." He pulled out his phone from his jacket, swiped, and turned the screen to me.

The photo showed the club's lower level. Red light and a stage with a pole and men dancing in the background. Most were shirtless.

"Male stripper," Archer said. "We're short-staffed. And I'll pay you five thousand a month.

Minimum. More on good nights in this city." He paused, watching my face, looking for a reaction. "You learn the routines in two weeks. You're young and lean. You'll pick up fast." Five thousand.

I did the math faster than my brain. That meant sixty thousand a year. My rent for a year, Sophie's bag ten times over, and groceries.

But… a pole and a stage.

"Did you plan this with Sebastian?" I asked.

Archer's eyebrow rose. "Sebastian doesn't know. It's between us. He can just think you work in the bar. He won't know if you don't want him to."

I thought about my father, who died in this bar Archer owned on a night Archer never explained, but said the cops were told to forget it.

Then I thought about my bank account and how Sophie would care more if I told her I had a well-paid job now.

"Fine," I said. "I'll do it."

Archer's smile widened. "Good boy. Be here Thursday by 8pm."

* * *

I was walking down the hallway outside the office. It was long and dark, with doors that probably led to dressing rooms and storage closets. I walked fast with my head down, already regretting everything I'd just agreed to.

Archer's voice in my head, "Male stripper," kept playing and annoying me until I heard a familiar voice behind one of the doors I was passing by.

Sophie?

That sounded like Sophie. But no, Sophie wasn't here. She was probably at her dorm or at the cafe. Anywhere except my stepfather's bar in the middle of the afternoon.

Until I heard another laugh. This one was lower, more like a chuckle. Then I heard Sophie's high-pitched laugh again.

I pushed open the door without thinking. Can't be Sophie. Please don't be the only person I have.

The room was small. It was a dressing room, and on the couch right in front of me was Sophie on top of someone.

His shirt was off. His pants were down. She was on top of him, riding him. Her hair had fallen out of its ponytail and her lips were parted and she looked beautiful but fuck.

I couldn't move for a second. They didn't see me, but I saw everything, until a phone dropped against a lamp on the side table.

I looked at it and it was my photo in a group chat. With dozens of messages replying to it.

Laughing emojis reacting.

"Send more Sophie, when he takes his pants off lol."

The caption above my photo: "Look what my desperate second-hand boyfriend sent me. Embarrassing, right? He must think I'm a joke." My hands started shaking.

"Sophie?"

She turned. Her eyes went wide for a second. And then her face changed.

She stood up slowly and unbothered, as I had interrupted her.

The guy on the couch, I recognized now, was Sebastian's best friend. He was the one laughing at the counter last night on the phone.

"Oh for fuck's sake, what are you doing here?"

I tried to ignore whatever sin they were committing, but the public humiliation got me.

"You asked for my picture for this?" I said, my voice cracking while I pointed at the phone.

Sophie crossed her arms. She was wearing a blue top. "You think so, baby?" she said in that soft voice, and the sight of it made something crack in my chest.

"You sent it to me," she said. "What was I supposed to do? Keep it a secret? You're so fucking dramatic." She turned to the guy on the couch. "See what I deal with?" Jason snorted.

My throat closed up and I couldn't breathe or think. I'd been working my ass off to get her the bag, but I never knew my body was offered up like a sacrifice and a meme for students to laugh at.

I didn't run. I didn't want to, in front of them. I turned slowly, walking down the remaining hallway through the bar. Past the drinkers. My hands are shaking.

Then I hit the door. I started running from there.

I didn't care if I fell. Tears streaming down my face.

I thought of that caption.

Look what my desperate boyfriend sent me.

I didn't look where I was running and my vision was blurry as fuck.

A car horn blared and the tires screeched. I saw the headlights coming at me and I didn't even have time to think.

Then something yanked me backwards and I hit the pavement hard. The car sped past so close that I felt the wind of it.

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!" I heard someone breathing hard above me. "You almost died." Sebastian.

He stood over me, chest heaving, his expensive coat splattered with gutter water. His hair had fallen across his forehead and his jaw was tight. "Why the fuck do you care if I had died?" He held out a hand for me to take.

"I expected a thank you." I didn't take his hand.

I pushed myself up from the pavement on my own, my palms bleeding.

Sebastian's hand hung in the air for another second before he let it drop.

"Jae." It was the first time he'd ever called me anything other than stepbrother. "Your lip's bleeding again."

I touched my mouth. My fingers came away red.

I looked at him properly for the first time.

"Thank you, Sebastian," I said. "Thank you so fucking much," I said as I walked past him.