Chapter 98: Chapter Ninety-Eight

Present Day

Gloria followed the group of girls into the front entrance of Mirrors, gripping her purse with Frankie’s “present” securely inside. She wondered what he may think when his mom showed up without her. Rage. Most likely. Then she wondered what he would think when he got the call from the club’s owner whose eyes just met hers and nearly bugged out of his head. Yep, he remembered that night, alright.

The Irishman rushed forward and shoved his way through the throng of women toward Gloria. At the last moment, Nora stepped into his path.

“Now, now, Malcolm, calm, calm,” Nora soothed.

Malcolm’s eyes went desperately from Gloria to Nora. “She cannot be here!” he whisper-yelled down at her.

“She’s here as a customer, not a dancer.”

Malcolm scoffed hard enough that Gloria felt spit hit her collarbone. “Do you really think Donati will listen to semantics?!”

“Look, Malcolm, I’ve got three of your biggest earners with me tonight. I also got this thick wad of cash here,” Nora said, taking a roll of cash from between her breasts and placing it in his front suit pocket.

“Is that a threat and a bribe?” he asked, though he didn’t make any move to hand back the cash.

“Nah, Malcolm,” Nora said, placing her palms against his chest. “It’s merely a reminder that if you don’t let us into one of your rooms, we may have to find a new club to have fun in, and if you feel like taking the night off?” She shrugged her shoulders. She patted the money in his pocket. “Consider it paid-time off, hm?”

Malcolm narrowed his eyes and looked between the two girls again. He sighed and his shoulders slumped slightly. “I’ll give you two hours and then I’m going to come back. Then I’ll call,” he warned.

“Good man,” Nora said, pushing him lightly away. “We have an appointment in the Green Room, ‘kay?”

“I don’t want to know anything!” Malcolm yelled over his shoulder as he practically jogged away.

“Nora… are you sure about…”

“You tell me,” Nora said, swiveling around to face her and lowering her voice. “You want to go to a strip club and have an anonymous guy grind on you, or would you rather get some revenge on the only girl here who has touched your man?”

Gloria looked over Nora’s shoulder to Polly, who was counting out dollar bills while shimmying her shoulders.

Gloria sighed. “I don’t really want a guy grinding on me, period, but… I could go for a bit of revenge,” she finally answered with a smile.

“Good, I could use some too. Let’s go,” Nora said, bobbing her head. “Alright, ladies, to the Green Room!”

The gaggle of women made their way through the customer side of Mirrors toward one of the private rooms in the back. This room wasn’t like the one she’d once danced in. The mirrors in this room didn’t separate dancer from audience, but rather lined the walls behind a small stage featuring a stripper pole. A waitress came through and took their drink orders while the girls laid out money and placed wagers on the size of the dancer’s dick.

“Nora? Any guesses?” Bea asked, smiling as if she were in on the revenge plan as well.

“I don’t think it’d be fair for me to bet on this one,” Nora said, sitting back after the waitress handed her the drink order.

“Ohhhh an old lover of yours, Nora?” Polly asked. “Poor Bea, want me to run interference?”

Nora and Bea exchanged a look. Bea sat back into Nora’s embrace as the lights dimmed to nothing but a subtle green. A moment later, a curtain opened on the right and a tall, overly muscular man clad in a firefighter’s outfit, complete with a helmet and hose thrown over his shoulder, strode out. Gloria gawked as the man immediately hopped on the pole and did a spin, letting the hose go.

Gloria had never seen a more agile man. She didn’t even notice his six-pack as it was revealed when he stripped off his fireman’s coat. She was more entranced by how he could manage to get his leg above his head on the pole and spin upside down without his helmet coming off. The man continued to move seductively around the pole, gyrating his hips and maneuvering his body in a way that had the other women in the group screaming and throwing money. For Gloria, though, it was more embarrassing than entertaining. She kept comparing the man to her future husband.

While this guy had more bulk, height and flexibility, she found herself yearning for the more subtle, lean muscular capability Frankie had showcased time and time again. Sure, this guy had large muscles, but could those muscles hold a girl against a wall for ten minutes? Did he have the dexterity to dismember his enemies digit by digit? Objectively, the man was hot. Realistically, in her own mind, she kept picturing her future husband with the tapestry of tattoos covering his skin that seemed to develop a life of their own as he exacted revenge against anyone who had ever wronged her.

The stripper eventually hopped down from his pole and pointed his finger from girl to girl.

“Which one of you lucky ladies is the bride to be?”

Suddenly a multitude of fingers were pointing in her direction. Gloria choked on her drink as she shook her head.

“Don’t be shy, honey, I’m here to show you what you’ll be missing,” the man said, stalking toward her.

“I’m afraid you’ll be the one missing if you lay a single finger on me,” Gloria warned him.

The man chuckled behind his helmet. “I don’t need to touch you if you don’t want. But if all you’re worried about is your little fiance getting upset with me, I can take it. I bet I’m bigger,” he said, whipping off the thong he’d been dancing in.

The girls erupted around her and bills flew in every direction as they squealed their delight. Gloria stared down at the man’s appendage and had to admit, it was larger.

“Oh, hell yeah it is!” Polly screamed, throwing more money at the man.

Gloria’s mood soured and she glared over at Nora as the man turned and rocked his hips dangerously close to her knees. “When is this revenge going to happen, anyway?”

Nora pouted, enjoying herself far too much to want it to end.

“You may want to go ahead and touch while you can, Gloria, cause we both know he’s probably better than anything Frankie is giving you. Am I right, Eskimo sister?!” Polly goaded.

Gloria reached into her purse. Nora noticed the movement. Nora’s drink fell to the floor as she reached one hand out to stall Gloria’s intentions and the other flew to the stripper’s helmet. One slight tug at the back of the helmet sent it forward. The stripper tried his best to stop it. Instead, he fell with the helmet, and before anyone knew what happened, both were lying on the floor.

“Jesus, Nora, what the… Danny?” Polly asked as the stripper turned to face them.

“Oh, uh, hi Pol,” Danny said, standing up and using his helmet to cover his private parts.

“Oh my gosh, do you guys know each other?” Bea asked, looking absolutely amused. Even Tina seemed to perk up at this change of events.

“Yes.” “No.”

Polly crossed her arms. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I, well, you know, I hear you talking about this place all the time and how much money you make and…” Danny said, scooting back toward the stage to retrieve his costume.

“Is this your lover?” Nora prompted, nudging Gloria in the side until she loosened her grip on the handgun in her purse.

“What?!” Polly screamed. “No! He’s my… my…” Polly shut her eyes and gulped.

“I’m Danny, Polly’s brother,” Danny said with a shy wave.

The group of girls was dead quiet. Then Tina started to laugh.

“Oh my God,” Tina said, giggling beyond control. “You stuffed dollar bills into your brother’s thong!”

“You said he had a good dick!” Bea reminded her.

“Ugh! I hate you guys!” Polly screeched, then turned on her brother. “Does Mom know you’re here?”

For whatever reason, that statement sent the girls even further over the edge, and even Gloria started to laugh.

“No! And you aren’t going to tell her!”

“Like hell I’m not!” Polly yelled, snatching her purse from the bench and walking furiously toward the door. Her brother followed after with his helmet covering his junk and his coat covering his ass while somehow still managing to scoop up dollar bills from the floor as he walked.

“See?” Nora asked, picking up what was left of her drink from the floor and clinking her glass against Gloria’s. “Told you I brought her for a reason.”

“I have to admit, that wasn’t what I was expecting,” Gloria said with a shake of her head as she took a sip of her own drink.

“What, did you think it was one of her lovers or something?” Bea asked while the other girls in the group tried to catch up on this interaction being planned.

“Yeah, kinda. I was thinking it was a tit for tat situation.”

Bea barked out a laugh while Nora tsked. “Please, too many men in this city have seen that girl’s tits. Finding out her lover was a stripper might have made her join him,” Nora said with a shiver.

“They probably would have gone into business together,” Tina added.

“And made loads of cash,” Rita guessed with a laugh.

“Seeing her brother’s dick…” Nora began.

“And complimenting it,” Tina reminded them.

“Fucked that girl up for a while. No more casual sex for her,” Nora said.

“Tonight,” Rita said, her chin tucked as if it was the first dirty joke she’d ever made.

The girls stayed in the Green Room for another hour. No entertainment, just booze and conversation. Gloria was so glad she’d met this group of girls. She was disappointed that the triplets couldn’t attend, and also a little bummed Genevieve wasn’t waiting somewhere inside the limo. Gloria got a sneaking suspicion that Frankie hadn’t told the Don of his impending nuptials, which would be odd seeing as how they supposedly spoke every night. She shook the thoughts aside, though, as Nora glanced down at her phone and noticed the time.

“Fuck, we gotta go,” Nora said, scrambling to her feet.

“What?” “What’s going on?” the girls all asked.

“Malcolm is going to call Frankie if we aren’t out of here in the next five minutes.”

Suddenly the girls bolted to their feet and Gloria laughed at the comical image of the women terrified of her husband. Polly’s brother had nothing on her man. Nora had to help Gloria up out of her chair, as the numerous drinks they’d plied her with seemed to disconnect her brain from her muscles. They sauntered out of the club, singing the words to Mambo Italiano… for some reason.

“Limo’s down the street,” Nora informed them as they walked down the sidewalk, arms linked so they wouldn’t fall down.

“Why don’t you sound drunk?” Gloria asked, squinting her eyes to better see the woman holding her up.

Nora scoffed. “Cause your psycho father wants us both dead.”

“Oh, yeah. You need my gun?” Gloria asked, pulling the gun from her purse. The arm chain developed a chink as Nora brought them to a halt and seized the gun from Gloria’s hand.

“Don’t wave that thing around!” Nora hissed.

“Why not?” Rita asked. “We all got one.”

Rita pulled a handgun from her purse and Tina followed suit.

“Put those away, you idiots!” Nora chastised, chasing each of them around until she had confiscated each of the weapons from the overly drunk females. “Let’s go.” Nora snapped her fingers. “Gloria, now!”

But Gloria wasn’t listening anymore. She was staring through a window into a tattoo parlor at the impressively tattooed women within all looking bored as hell.

“I’m not ready to go just yet,” Gloria slurred, pushing open the door to the shop.