Page 13 of Dancing With Doubt

7

Roxie

“Iwas a terrible kid, an even worse wife, and I had a lot to make up for, but Logan is a good man, and my sister is really incredible. She’ll be coming out in a couple of weeks to visit me.” Keily changed the subject for a second, before she picked the thread back up. “It’s the Logan part that I want to really work on. He loves adventures, and I’m always eager to please him, especially if it pleases me at the same time.”

Roxie smiled, understanding that Keily was a kindred spirit almost instantly. One day Keily might actually go into detail about the previous part of her story, but Roxie wouldn’t push. People told their stories best when they were allowed to do it in their own time.

“So, what about you? Have you always lived out here?” Keily asked her, making Roxie tense, but she knew it was only curiosity.

“No, I’m a transplant, like so many others. A refugee from the cold winters in the north. I grew up living in places like New York. There’s a lot of snow there.” Roxie was taken aback by how Keily’s eyes went wide with surprise. People always reacted like that, but it still confused Roxie, every time.

“You left New York to come here?” Keily looked even more confused, but Roxie understood. Most people thought that Myrtle Beach was some Podunk beach resort town for hooligans, but it was so much more than that. It was a place where dreams came true for many, a shining beacon on the coast that lit up the dreams of kids in the mountains, far from the ocean, and so many other places.

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I? New York was cold, dirty, full of hateful people. Here I have the beach, the sun, and all the salty air I can stand. And it’s so much warmer in the winter than it is up there.” Roxie laughed at herself a little as Keily shook her head.

“I understand. You have the southern accent down so you must have lived here for a while.” Keily’s face maintained the curiosity and open friendliness.

“A while, yeah.” Roxie hedged, trying to think of an answer other than ‘that’s part of my disguise’. “It’s infectious, that slow, drawling accent.”

“I guess.” Keily’s answer wasn’t judgmental, just doubtful. “I’ve grown up hearing it every day of my life but apparently people like how we talk in the south.”

“It’s much nicer than what I grew up hearing, believe me,” Roxie assured her. Even with a private school education and rich friends, the northern accent she’d grown up hearing was harsh and grating compared to the slow and easy accent she’d fallen in love with instantly.

“So why are you teaching pole dancing classes and not working?” Keily asked, changing the subject to something Roxie was much more comfortable with.

“Well, I used to work at the best club you could find in town, but that was before it burned down. I can take you to the second-best club one day, if you’d like?”

“Wait, the best one burned down? What happened?” Keily leaned forward, eager to be filled in.

“You know that guy at the studio today? He’s the reason it burned down. While I was working there, actually.”

“Whoa. You’ve got to tell me all about it.” Keily was nearly bursting with excitement and Roxie smiled at the eager display.

“Well, it turns out he had a gambling problem and decided that I’d get a lot of money out of an insurance policy if he set it on fire. The problem was, it was obvious it was arson and because of that, the insurance company is balking at paying out the policy. Roxie explained what had happened, surprised at how wrapped up in the story Keily became. “I was planning on starting a new club somewhere else, when the insurance company started dragging their feet, putting the kibosh on my plans.”

“Wait, are we just talking about an exotic dancing club, or something more? I’m not judging, I just want to be sure I understand you.” Keily asked, her gray eyes alight with delight.

“Well, it would be a mixture of things. We’d have the dancers, of course, but there’d be rooms for people to use to fulfill their fantasies, either together or with other members of the club. If they wanted to make arrangements with one of our dancers there’d have to be a contract and the dancer has to give their approval. That part is very important.”

“Ah, I see.” Keily didn’t look as if she’d changed her mind about wanting to know more about what she had in mind, so Roxie went on.

“I’d like to hold competitions with dancers from all over the world coming to take part in the contests. That would be something new that we didn’t do at Elmo’s. I want to expand on what we had there and move into other areas of that world.” Roxie revealed, wondering if she was talking too much but unable to stop.

“That sounds like it would be fun!” Keily said, still full of eager delight. “And there’d be private rooms that people could rent out, you said?”

“Yes, so we’d need staff to keep those clean. Everything has to be sterilized, so staff would have to be trained to do that. But the rooms would be for members and employees only. Men or women, anybody. I don’t want this place to be for the male gaze only, I want everybody to get what they want out of the place. I’d even like to find some male dancers.”

“Oh, you mean like Magic Mike style dancers? Yes please!” Keily nodded her head vigorously. “I love watching women dance, but men can be just as hot.”

“Yeah, just like Magic Mike, but I doubt I’d ever get Channing Tatum to dance there. It would be nice, though.” Roxie winked at Keily who laughed with pure delight.

“I don’t know, but I’d pay good money to see him dance live,” Keily said, her eyebrows wiggling over her eyes.

“I would too.”

“Hmm. I have an idea.” Keily had a huge grin on her face as she looked at Roxie.

“What’s that?” Roxie asked, suspecting a plan for the club might be on the way. She wasn’t sure that was what was happening and warned herself not to get too excited yet. Keily might just be about to tell her about some club she knew about, for all Roxie knew.