Exotica

As I Am

I waited to the last minute to do some reading group project for a class so here's an update since ima try to read 145 pages within two days 💀

♤ Quinten Salazar ♤

I place my windbreaker over her small shoulders as I follow the sound of her clicking heels against the cold pavement.

"Thank you." she whispers as I open the door for her. I simply nod then jog over to my side of the car to get in.

"Why is it so cold?" she asks blowing her hot breath on her hands, in hopes of warming them up. "Touch my hand, feel how cold it is." she extends her hand and grabs mine. The coldness from her palm sends a quick chill up my arm which causes me to shiver for a few seconds.

"Yeah, it's really cold out for it to only be August." I mumble, looking out at the neon lights that lit up the city.

"Can you please turn the heater on. I'm freezing and this outfit isn't making it any better." I glance over at her and see that she still had on her work attire which was a red sheer like mini dress and black heels. "Why didn't you change back into your regular clothes before leaving out?" I inquire, starting my car up. She grabs the travel coffee mug out of my cup holder and places it to her tainted red lips; taking a long sip before returning it to it's original spot.

"There was this pervert that wouldn't stop following me around the club and since our manager wasn't there tonight I couldn't go complain. See I thought that changing clubs wouldn't be that big of a difference but Club Envy was not raunchy like these other clubs are." She says sighing, "The pay was better too."

"This club may not be as popular as the one you left but I'm sure that the manger won't let people get away with sexually assaulting his employees." after I say that she glances at me then looks out the window at the businesses we were driving by.

"Amini I'm so-"

"No, it's okay, you have a point. I thought Calvin was a good manger but it turns out he wasn't. Not everyone is as they seem." She says mumbling the last part. I look at her from the corner of eye and see her looking out the window with her chin propped on her palm.

"I'm sorry if what I said hurt you in a way, that wasn't my intention." I say truthfully. I knew that she was still upset about that situation and I don't blame her at all. You're supposed to feel protected in the work place and she was far from protected.

"There's no need to apologize for something you don't have control of Quinten. I don't want sympathy."

I shift gears and quickly glance at her then back at the road. "I wasn't giving you sympathy, it was more like empathy but I understand what you mean so I won't bring it up unless you want to talk about it."

"Okay."

For the remaining of the ride the two of us remain quiet. It wasn't the type of quiet that was caused by a disagreement or anything like that; it was mostly from exhaustion. She was exhausted from work and I was still tired that I had to get up at two in the morning to pick her up from work since her car was currently in the auto shop.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah sure." she grabs my right hand, removing in from the steering wheel and holding it in her now warm hands."You don't have a problem with me working at a strip club while dating you, do you?"