3

    Tears blurred her vision as she held her tote bag close to her chest with one hand and her car keys in the other. James had fired her, there was no point begging him. She earned the least and she was only taking up space backstage.

What upset her wasn’t losing her job but the fact that she couldn’t pay her bills and the man at the club had looked at her like she meant nothing.

  She was probably never going to cross paths with him but it still hurt. She wondered if he had looked at the other girls like that or if he was just disappointed in her and her inability.

  She tried to start the car but it won’t budge just when she thought her day couldn’t get any worse. The car was a hand me down from her father for her eighteenth birthday. It was well over six years but she still tried her best to maintain it, it was all she could manage until she could afford a decent one.

She sighed and wiped her tears as she thought of what the problem could be. 

It was a cold night, the flimsy dress she had on was inappropriate. She rolled her eyes and blinked back her tears. She wanted to scream, to pull her hair and bang the stupid car until it roared to life.

  She opened the bonnet and stared at it. She was confused by the mechanics and she hoped she would touch the right thing.

   “Do you need help?”

She turned to the sound of the voice. It was the man from the club, the same man who had looked down on her. He was with his friend who was smiling sheepishly.

    “No, thank you” she answered coldly and resumed staring at the bonnet

She didn’t not need his pity. He probably felt bad for what happened in the club and he was trying to compensate for it. 

    “It’s late, are you going to stay out by yourself?” He asked 

She wondered why he was bothered by what wasn’t his business. She took deep breaths to regain composure, she hated how vulnerable and helpless she was.

    “I’m just fine” she snapped 

    “It’s dangerous” his friend said 

 The clouds were dark, threatening to rain. She knew if she didn’t leave as soon as possible, she’d be drenched in rain.

    “We can give you a ride” he suggested 

She shook her head. If it rained, she would simply wait in her car until it stopped raining. Taking help from a man who made her cry wasn’t an option.

    He sighed in defeat and pulled out a band and placed it on her bonnet.

   “Get yourself a cab home”

He began walking before she could say anything or call him back.

She stared at the money like it was going to hurt her and she stared at his retreating figure. It was more than enough to hire a cab and pay some of her bills. She had to ignore her pride and emotions and take the money. How could she reject the money when she was going to be homeless in a couple of weeks? She wasn’t that stupid.

She wanted to reach out to him, to thank him but he was already gone.

     She placed the money carefully in her bag and began walking back to the club. It was no use trying to fix her car so she made up her mind to check it out the next morning.

It had been a long day, her emotions were all over the place but she was relieved she got money.

   “What are you doing here?” James asked, the corner of his lips turned down

Luckily, he wasn’t in a bad mood because he made money or he’d have thrown her out for what she did.

   “I called a cab but he won’t be here until about ten minutes” she explained

“I also want to apologize about what happened, I was only trying to make money”

 “Well, how did that go for you?” He snorted and walked away

  The cleaners didn’t bother cleaning up the bar until the next morning so she decided to seat at the table the men were at. She was touched by his generosity, no one at the club really cared about her well-being. All that mattered was making money and bringing in more customers.

  She ran her fingers lazily along the rim of the empty bottles of wine they had drank. 

His face looked familiar but she couldn’t place where she had seen him. Most of the men who had come that night were familiar faces she saw on TV or in newspapers.

She wondered what it felt like to have that much money, to do whatever she felt like doing without worrying about pending bills.

    She sighed and relaxed her shoulders for the first time that week. She didn’t have any class the next day so she could take the day off and even get herself a nice meal with the money she had just got.

  She wondered what could have bothered a man like him, he looked stressed and sad. It was definitely not an issue to do with money. Perhaps, it was a woman?

She had to admit that he was stunning, his jet black hair as dark as midnight were the same color as his eyes. His jaw was well chiseled, he had a face she wasn’t never going to forget even in years to come.

She imagined he had so many women chasing after him. 

   She sighed and stretched her legs, in about three minutes her cab would arrive.

Her eyes caught something on the table, it was a credit card. She sat up immediately and reached for it. The name on it was Aiden Braithwaite.

She quickly shoved the card into her bag, certain it belonged to one of the men she had met at the parking lot.