SIX
When my alarm went off,I groaned and rolled onto my side where the sun couldn’t hit my eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was spend my day in that stupid cubicle and fight off advances from sex-deprived Brandon.
A moment passed before I remembered I didn’t have to anymore, and my body flooded with relief.
Two weeks had gone by, and I was deep in the throes of Cherry training. The memory of my time in unemployed hell faded more each day, except for when I first woke up. The wooden bedroom floor froze my feet, and I fought the urge to dive back under the covers. I made a mental note to invest in rugs. My last roommate stole them all when she moved to California.
Dedicated to ignoring how tired I still felt, I went straight to the bathroom to get clean before another day of exercise, assigned by Kitty.
Despite appearances, Pink Cherrie required a lot more dedication than I anticipated. A mandatory two hours in the work gym kept all the Cherries in their best physical condition, although it felt like death. All the Cherries assured me I would get accustomed to it, but for someone who considered walkingup one flight of stairs to be extreme fitness, I had a hard time believing that.
Before I stripped out of my pajamas, I adjusted the shower temperature and hoped it wouldn’t take too long to warm up. Glancing down at my abdomen, I still saw no sign of muscle, but I figured that took a lot more than a few weeks of half-assed sit-ups. Frizzy bunches of my hair fell over my chest and made my skin appear lighter.
I crinkled my nose. When was the last time I was really outside?
Two more weeks and I would be the equivalent to a Vitamin D-deficient doll for a stranger. Since I still needed the money to pay for upcoming bills, I needed the most generous stranger I could snag. There wasn’t a choice to it.
Yet my desperation had evolved to a sense of peace. It was hard to hate your decisions when you refused to acknowledge there was another option.
When I finished brushing my teeth to get rid of the morning taste in my mouth, I took a steamy shower. The hot water soothed some of the aches in my shoulders, and I released my stress for a few moments.
I examined the bruises on my hips; there were so many from falling on stage, but they had started to fade. After a lifetime of avoiding sports like the plague, I learned how deeply uncoordinated I was. My brother, the shining child that every mother prays for, must have sucked up all the natural talent allotted to our family before I could be born. And he had a life, a nice one, tucked away in the suburbs. I would just ruin it.
After a much longer shower than I intended, I had no choice but to throw on whatever clean clothes I could find in my disorganized closet and grab a granola bar for later.
The training, while torture, proved its worth as I sprinted down to Pink Cherrie.
Kitty waited for me behind the front desk with two cups of coffee and grinned as soon as I rushed through the door. She glanced up at the clock on the wall, one of the only non-erotic pieces of wall décor. “You’re late.”
In broad daylight, Pink Cherriealmostlooked like a normal sex store. Or as normal as a sex store could look. The rows of merchandise and BDSM gear were on display toward the back of the building, leaving the front to look like a perverted jewelry store with gold chains dangling on the walls and jeweled butt plugs in the display case we used as a front counter.
I grimaced. “I know, I’m so sorry.”
Kitty scanned my appearance, taking special note of my wet hair.
“You’re fine. We’ve all been there.” She winked and slid a cup of coffee my way. I could still see the steam coming off the top. “Showers have a way of stealing time.”
My cheeks flushed, and I avoided eye contact. Somehow, she always knew what I was thinking. My running theory included her installing cameras in my apartment and a microchip in my brain while I slept from a post-cardio coma; I filed away the unsettling idea.
“So, are you excited?” she asked while taking a sip of her equally hot coffee. How could that not burn her tongue off?
My brows scrunched. “For what?”
She pushed a strand of hair out of her face and gave me a peculiar look. “Today is the end of your training.”
The vague memory of her mentioning it from the night before came back to me. I could only take in so much after finishing seventy-five push-ups; she should have known that already.
Still, I sighed in relief, “I don’t think I could take one more test on the names of toys that we carry.” Over five hundred and more being added to the collection each month. Thanks,Jason.
“I know the feeling,” Jade jumped into the conversation.
She had just come out of the back room with a sexy black garment in hand. Her thick hair was pulled up, revealing her heavily pierced ears, glimmering with gold jewelry.
On my second day of training, I learned Jade did a lot of the sewing and design work for events. The theme nights were the most elaborate, and she spent most of her time preparing for them.
Her eye for colors and attention-grabbing designs made every show more incredible than the last. When she wasn’t in the room, Kitty told me she would be doomed without her.
“When I started here there were only, like, a hundred toys and my brain nearly imploded in on itself.” Jade poked her tongue out.
