‘Got a bit of a problem,’ Steve said as he stepped into the room. ‘There’s a bloke out there insisting on the “extra” from you Libby. High roller, willing to pay over the odds – but …’ Steve trailed off and scratched the side of his face, ‘can’t put my finger on it but the guy seems off.Realspecific that it had to be you. His table’s been pretty rowdy all night.’
The ‘extra’ was the kind of thing Libby had done for the groom on the stag party Jamie had been with. Not a lapdance or anything; just a minute or two of attention for a specific man, and it came at a steep price.
She sat down heavily and her face paled, her embarrassed smile from before a thing of the past. ‘Blonde guy?’ she asked. ‘Heavy set?’
‘Yeah – how did you … ?’
‘I know him, Steve.’ She turned towards the mirror and stared at her reflection. Of course tonight would have to be the night they trialled their new angel theme. Libby was the dark angel with black underwear, smoky makeup and black wings. She would be exposed from the beginning of the routine to the end. Her chest felt almost too tight to breathe. Somehow this part of her life had been kept separate from university. It looked like that was about to change. She blinked once and her mouth set into a thin stubborn line.
Fuck him.
Fuck all of them.
‘I’ll do it,’ she said in a hollow voice.
‘Libby, if this guy is – ’
‘He’s harmless, Steve. It’s not a problem. I’ll do it. Don’t worry about it.’
She brushed off Tara and Claire’s questions until it was time to go out again. It was like she was on some sort of automatic pilot. She noticed Tara and Claire muttering to each other but ignored the concerned looks they were shooting her way as she made it from the corner of the dressing room. Strapping her black wings into place, she took a deep breath as the girls formed a circle. They each put a hand into the centre and muttered their mantra: ‘Wecontrol the crowd,weare the ones in charge.’ It was something Claire had come up with two years ago and it was now a ritual.
The throngs of men could seem intimidating and it was impossible not to feel vulnerable wearing so little; control was important. Remembering that the men could not touch them and that essentially the women controlled the interaction helped them all face the performance.
They broke apart and walked to their separate entrances. Libby waited for her cue, taking deep breaths and muttering the mantra under her breath. When the doors opened she burst through, performing her first handspring of the evening and leaping up onto the table in front of her. Steve had given her the table number for the ‘high roller’ but she didn’t need it; she knew where he was, it was burned into her brain.
She flipped from table to bench to table until finally she was in front of him. Steve was right: the men on his table were rowdy. Her heart sank that little bit more when she realised that most of them were guys from her year at medical school. Catcalls and wolf whistles sounded all around her. Boys who had worked with her on physiology projects, discussed problems with her in tutorials, sat next to her in the library, suddenly saw her only as a sex object. Fair game to be jeered at. Yes, okay, they all looked nearly too drunk to stay on their seats, but she could still feel the respect she’d had from them previously slipping away.
Well, fuck them.
She crouched in front of Toby and pulled his shirt collar so that he was standing. Using his shoulders as a lever, she flipped over his head to land on the bench behind him, then fell backwards so that her hair brushed his shoulder as her body arched over his left shoulder. He reached up, but before he could touch her or the bouncers could move to stop him, she flipped her legs so that she was once again crouching in front of him and could drag him back to sitting. The full pint of beer on the edge of the table was just too tempting. She leaned in until her face was inches from his, her tongue came out to lick her bottom lip and his eyes went wide. His pupils dilated as he held his breath. The smallest movement of her little finger pushed the beer off the edge of the table and right into his lap. She heard ‘Bitch!’ and ‘Fucking whore!’ shouted in Toby’s ugly voice as she back-flipped off the table and onto the stage, then caught sight of Barry’s shocked face, but still managed to execute another perfect handspring. In fact she gritted her teeth and put in the performance of her life.
*****
‘Get that fucking guy out of here,’ Barry heard Steve’s voice sound through his earpiece. He tore his eyes away from Libby on stage, whose face was unnaturally pale and whose jaw was clenched tight, and focused on the arsehole she’d covered in beer.
‘That bitch!’ the guy yelled as he grabbed napkins from the table to wipe at his crotch. His buddies were all laughing at him now rather than concentrating on Libby. Barry had seen the recognition on Libby’s face when she’d reached this table full of little snots; she knew those men and they’d come here to humiliate her. He marched forward and laid his big meaty paw on Wet Crotch Guy’s shoulder.
‘You – out,’ Barry barked as he turned the guy to face him. The outrage on this idiot’s face was priceless.
‘What?’ Wet Crotch Guy shrieked, a full octave above what a normal self-respecting dude would go for. ‘I’m the injured goddamn party. One of your sluts poured beer on me. I demand …’
Barry felt his jaw clench as the anger shot through him, but he controlled himself … just. Killing this little piece of shit would not be easy to explain. ‘You’re leaving.’ Barry pulled him away from his seat by the scruff of his neck and hauled him away from the table.
‘Bloody hell,’ Wet Crotch Shithead screamed, way too close to Barry’s ear – even Barry’s missus couldn’t screech as high as that. ‘You, listen to me you retarded – ’
‘No,’ Barry said, drawing to a halt by the exit and pulling Little Shit up so that his eyes were nearly level with his. ‘Youlisten tome,you spineless twat. This place is nice and fancy for a strip club, expensive – yeah? That does not change the fact that I am abouncerat a fuckingstrip club. You get me? We’re not in one of your wine bars now, you little snot. I could crush you like a fly in that alley right out there with no fucking CCTV, and have a dozen witnesses swear I was right here in the club the whole time. Now,’ he opened the doors and re-established his hold on the back of the guy’s neck, ‘get,’ he drew back with his arm, bringing the bastard with him, ‘the fuck,’ his arm flew forward, propelling the guy through the air, ‘out,’ he said as the guy landed heavily on the pavement. ‘You’re barred.’
Chapter 21
I’ll do it all with a smile on my face
Libby knew something was wrong as soon as she walked into the mess. It was partly the tense expectation in the atmosphere, and partly the fact that most of the guys were smirking and avoiding eye contact with her. Kira had been like a Rottweiler on guard duty all day, which had initially confused Libby but then it occurred to her thatshe knew; somehow the grapevine had gone into overdrive and Kira knew those blokes had seen her at the club. By now it was likely that her entire year knew – if not the entire medical school, in fact probably the entire hospital. But there was only so long you could burn with humiliation, and after the first couple of hours of knowing looks, whispers and smirks Libby had felt herself go numb.
Beg, borrow or steal, she repeated over and over to herself in her head as she marched over to the kettle in the kitchenette area off the main lounge. But something caught her eye on the noticeboard as she passed, and she stumbled to a halt.
‘You disgusting bastards!’ Kira yelled, pushing past Libby to get to the A4-size picture tacked up to the board. It was a grainy image of Libby on stage, she was guessing taken by one of their camera phones on Saturday night. ‘Haven’t you and your tiny dicks got anything better to do?’ She reached up to yank down the paper, but Libby caught her hand to stop her.
‘Leave it, Ki-Ki,’ she said to her friend, then turned to face the packed mess, which had fallen silent. It was obvious that most hadn’t actually noticed the picture until then. One pathologist was so shocked he dropped his cheese sandwich. But there were a good few of them there that knew, and one in particular who looked very pleased with himself.
