The Red Lounge

Chapter 27

"What was your mom's name?" I asked.

A light chuckle escaped his lips and he shook his head. "You're not going to believe it."

My eyes widened and I placed my hand over my chest. "Its not my name, right?"

"No, but close. Her name was Carissa."

"My stripper name," I gasped. "Oh my God." I ran my hands over my face, feeling the embarrassment running its course through my body.

"That's why I never called you by your stripper name. Plus, I wanted actually know the real you. The real Morena."

I lifted a finger up. "I want to let you know that I didn't choose that name. Ronny did."

"It's fine. It's still a beautiful name."

"Is that why you didn't want me to work at the lounge anymore? Too many associations?"

"Its one of the reasons why, but there are many more that power that one."

"What other reasons?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.

"Reasons I can't disclose. If I could tell you, I would but I can't. I'm sorry."

"I don't see why not but I won't push."

"I would appreciate that."

Elijah shifted his body more to face me. "Tell me about you, Morena."

"I'm pretty boring," I sighed.

He took my hand and looked at me with his blue disapproving eyes. "Don't do that."

"But its true!"

He rolled eyes and smirked. "You worked at a strip club, baby. You're not boring."

"Touché." I took a long, deep breath. I wasn't transparent by any means and talking about myself made me feel exposed. I hadn't felt comfortable to talk about myself or my life up until a few months ago when I met Pia and Xavier. Now, I had to expose myself to the man I loved which logically, seemed to be easy but was emotionally difficult.

"My biological dad left my mom and I when I was about three years old. At the age of five, my mom met my step dad Hal who is truly a piece of shit. He would verbally and physically abuse my mom, but she never did anything about it. He verbally abused me but never laid a hand on me until the last day I lived with them."

I took another deep breath and noticed Elijah's eyes darken. His facial expression morphed from interest to almost the desire to kill.

"My dad would send money every month for me. He was rich guy so a good amount of money came in. She would use half for necessities and half in a savings for college. Well, I thought my college money would be safe until Hal discovered that my mom had all that money. Hal has a big gambling problem and apparently, he used my whole tuition money to gamble. He thought he'd be able to double it, but ended up losing it all. That was about 4 semesters worth of money down the drain. I confronted him about it, but it turned sour and he choked me, almost kicked me and tossed me out of the house. My mom didn't say a word and just handed me some money and told me to go before things got worse."

Elijah's furrowed his eyebrows and ran his hand across my cheek. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "I'm okay, now. It was rough the first two weeks. Slept in an Airbnb, didnt really eat, found a babysitting job but the dad ended up being a pervert and asked for sex in exchange for attendance at GWU. Then I met Ronny and he offered me a job. I was a cleaner at first but then got sucked into stripping. Then things picked up, Ronny gave me some money to find a place and I met Pia. I got enough money from stripping to go to college and now I'm here!" I smiled and spread my arms wide open, feeling the autumn breeze slip through my fingers.

I could tell that Elijah didn't want to smile, he seemed fixated on the negative aspects of my life but once I leaned over to kiss him, he became calmer. "Thank you for sharing. I didn't know that you had gone through so much. You're inspirational."

"Oh stop," I sighed. "You're just saying that."

"Morena, I'm serious. You've turned your life around completely within weeks. There are people that spend years to even change 10% of their lives. You've had that drive to succeed and that is very inspirational and attractive."

"What can I say? I'm a hustler," I joked.

"You are," he said. "Tell me more." He was intrigued by my character and genuinely seemed like he wanted to know more about it. I've rarely met people who wanted to know about me. Most people I met had a motive and wanted something from me and once they got it, they left. Not Elijah. He was here to stay, I was sure of it.

I scratched my head and began to think, but ended up hitting a road block. "Like what?"

"Where do you see yourself in the next five years?" He asked. I remember my English teacher from senior year of high school asked me this question. He told me that it's the type of question that says a lot about you. It brings light to your drive, your dreams, and your dedications. Elijah would ask me this type of question.

"That would put me at 23. I would be working on my Master's as I worked a full-time job. I'm not sure in what, something in the sciences. I would like to work in a lab, that would be awesome. I would hope to be in a serious relationship because I do plan on marrying young. It's something I dreamt of as a little kid, but then again I might've just wanted to escape my life. I would want to have a place of my own and at least traveled to two other countries."

"What countries?" He asked.

"Greece and Italy. There's something about the language, the food, the people, that I love so much."

"I'd love to take you to either one, or both."

"Really? That would be fun and romantic." I raised my eyebrows up and down in a sexy manner. "So, how about you? Where do you see yourself in five years?"

He smiled awkwardly and sighed. "I like asking others that question but not answering it myself because I truly don't know. I have a gist, but nothing concrete. I would still like to work as a private investigator, and perhaps have my own PI firm. I'd like to move out of my apartment and get a house. I would want a wife and possibly a child. I'd like to visit Japan. I would want to learn another language, Spanish preferably since it's so common."

"I can help with that," I interjected. "With many of those things, actually."

It took him a little longer than usual to process what I said and what I meant by it. "You'd like to my business partner?" He joked.

"Sure! Why not? We could create a PI firm, mixed with a law firm and a private laboratory."

He thought about it. "My dad already has a law firm with a PI branch, but it could definetly expand especially with the addition of a lab."

"You see! Plus, wouldn't it be great to work with your girlfriend?"

He grinned ear to ear, showing off his perfect white straight teeth. "So, you still see yourself as my girlfriend in five years?"

"I mean, I hope you'd at least put some type of ring on it. Five years and no ring is a bit worrisome."

Elijah leaned back and laughed. "Okay, noted. I'm glad we can see each other in our future. I'm very optimistic about this relationship."

"Me too, and thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?"

"For this," I said, pointing to the view. "I think I needed this. I needed an open area to open up. I want to get closer to you, Elijah. It's hard for me though."

Elijah jumped off the boulder and offered his hand. I took it and slid off the boulder. He brought me into a warm embrace and placed a loving kiss on my forehead.

"Take your time. It seems like we will have all the time in the world to get to know eachother."