"MELANCHOLY DREAMS" by Sarah Ryniker

STORY LAST UPDATED ON 01/03/2003

Melancholy Dreams Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

CHAPTER THREE: THE COLD, HARD TRUTH

I hated looking for a job. I was continuously drawn to the advertisements that read, "strippers needed" in big, bold letters. It was the only thing that I was good at and the only thing I'd really had any experience at. I had hated bagging groceries but at one point in time I had enjoyed dancing. That is, until Landon had ruined it for me.
    One day I was looking through the paper in the den and I threw it down in frustration. I had highlighted several ads for dancers. Strippers, most of them. But in all honesty, I didn't want to go back to that. I just wanted to dance, to entertain.
    "What's your problem?" I heard, and looked up to see David leaning against the doorframe.
    "My problem is none of your business," I snapped, and picked the paper back up. I wasn't truly reading it. I was just trying to avoid looking at him. For as much as I couldn't stand him, my body responded to him in every way.
    "I hear you're looking for a job. Don't you want any help?" His voice seemed to hold a bit of information in the air, and, in spite of myself, I looked up at him questioning him with my eyes.
    "I only want help if you know where I can get a job. But if you mean looking through the paper with me, then no, I don't want your help." I glared at him over the paper.
    He shrugged. "That's fine. But I'm not sure you'll exactly want to work next to me." He turned to leave, and I bit my lip. Part of me wanted to stop him; the other part, the stubborn part, wanted to just do it myself.
    When I heard his footsteps fading farther away from the den, I jumped up and ran down the hall. "Wait!" I called out.
    "Yes?" He knew what I wanted, and I hated that. He had his eyebrows raised in expectation.
    "The Aladdin is hiring?" I asked. All I really wanted to do was entertain; I was good at it. And that if that is what the job offering was, I would be more than happy to jump on it, working next to David or not.
    He nodded. "Yes, it is. We need a new entertainer for the front of the casino. I think you'd be perfect for it, considering your past experiences."
    I knew he was taunting me, and I felt like slapping his face. "I'd be good at it with or without my past experience," I snapped back at him, not knowing exactly if it was true or not.
    "Well, why don't you come down to the casino with me and we'll talk to my boss. I can get you on pretty fast." He skipped over what I said, choosing to ignore me. Yet his eyes told me exactly what he thought of me. I was no better than a slut in his eyes. But I should have expected it. Anybody, especially men, who knew about my past, would condemn me with that title.
    I shrugged, and followed him to his car. Neither of us spoke on the way there. I hated being in his presence. I had too many mixed emotions about it. The attraction spoke loudly, and I hated it. I didn't want to be like every other woman. And when I opened my mouth, I felt like doing nothing but insulting him to the best of my ability. Maybe it was my way of keeping myself distanced from him. Or perhaps it was because I really couldn't stand his disgusting arrogance and the way I saw he treated women.
    He parked the car and took me around the casino to a small door in the back. We entered, and I followed him down a long hall to the last door on the right. He knocked and waited for an answer. When he didn't get one, he knocked a bit louder.
    "Enter," I heard a female voice say.
    David did as she bid, and opened the door. He stepped through and I followed after. I saw a pretty brunette sitting behind a large desk. Her nameplate read "Alexandra Binden", but I had no need to read it, for David introduced me right away. "Cry, this is Alex Binden. She does all of the hiring here at the Aladdin." He turned away from me to look at Ms Binden. "Alex, this is your new entertainer."
    She raised her eyebrows at him and crossed her arms over her breasts as she sat back in her chair. "And what makes you so sure?"
    "She's a fantastic dancer and has a friendly disposition, especially towards children. She's also got the physical attributes to be one of the girls." I grimaced as he said "the girls". It reminded me an intense amount of when I had worked at the club. It was also strange hearing him talk about me as if I were somebody wonderful. Not that I didn't appreciate it. I needed the job, and he was helping me.
    "David, you know what happened the last time I hired one of your little girlfriends," she said, pulling out a nail file and beginning to file her nails, seemingly uninterested in even looking at me.
    "Alex, she isn't one of my little girlfriends. In fact, I can hardly stand her and wouldn't try to get her the job if she wasn't living with my daughter's mother." He seemed to plead. I then knew exactly why I was standing there. Kimberly had asked him to get me the job.
    "She lives with Kim?" She looked at him and stopped filing in mid air. She held a whole new interest in me now.
    It shocked me that she knew about Kimberly. It also shocked me that she knew that Kimberly was the mother of his child. I hadn't thought that anybody had known about Kylie being David's.
    "She's her new roommate," he revealed, and she took a look at me again.
    She then sighed and stood up. She circled me and looked me up and down. "Well, you're right. She does have the physical attributes. But can she really dance?"
    "I was a stripper back in my home town in Washington," I told her. Her eyes widened so much it made her forehead wrinkle. I looked away, embarrassed about it.
    "I guess that would make you a good dancer. But can you belly-dance?" she asked.
    I nodded. "My friend Francine taught me when I first got my job over at the club. She said it would be a good thing for me to know."
    She looked to David. "Well, I guess you're right then, David. She is my new entertainer."
    I sat for an hour for a full interview and to give her some of my information, and then we left. It was killing me to know how she knew about Kimberly. I knew Kimberly was secretive unless she truly trusted somebody. So how had Alex known?
    It was the first thing that came spilling from my lips the moment he sat down in the driver's seat next to me. "How does she know about Kylie, Kimberly and you?"
    "Alex knows because she is Kimberly's older sister," he revealed as he started the car.
    My mouth dropped. "She's Kimberly's sister?" It was so hard for me to believe. But as I thought about it, Alex did seem to resemble her.
    David nodded. "Alex misses Kim, but if her family ever knew that she talked or even got information about her, she would be disowned, too. Alex can't afford that, not until she establishes herself to the extent she wants to."
    "It's kind of selfish of her to want money over seeing her sister," I said.
    David instantly defended her. "It's a tough world out there, as you know, but even tougher when you've been rich and pampered your whole life. Alex will have nothing if she is disowned, she'd be out on the streets. Someday she'll talk to Kim again, but not until she can afford to."
    "Gee, sorry I said anything about her. I just have my own opinion." I crossed my leg over the other and my arms over my breasts. My foot shook with anger, and I stared out the window.
    "You really should think before opening your mouth. Kim may have told you about a lot of things, but you've only known us for so long. You have no idea about what you're talking about, so shut up unless you know exactly what you're saying and who you're talking about." He was truly angry, something I hadn't yet seen from him.
    "I'll make sure not to speak around you again, David. Especially not about Kimberly, Alex or Kylie." I felt his words sting, and I knew that I really had been in the wrong. But that only made me fume more.
    "Good. After Kimberly told me what kind of girl was moving in with her, I didn't want you to come. I knew it would be trouble. And you are. You're rude and you jump to conclusions about people too damn fast without giving them a chance. I don't like you. I never have and I never will." His promise hurt more than I thought it would. I sat quietly the rest of the way home.
    After I got into the house and sat down in the recliner in the den, I thought about his words. Was he right? Did I really jump to conclusions about people too fast? He had pointed out a flaw that nobody else ever had. But then again, I hadn't known very many people in my lifetime, especially since I had just recently started living it. I hadn't yet run into somebody that would be honest about the many flaws I had. So far, I hadn't thought I'd truly had many that would make people hate me.
    How conceited of me to think that I was different from everyone else. How full of myself I was, to think that I had no flaws that would make someone hate me. Everyone had something about them that somebody wasn't going to like. I had just got lucky, and the majority of people had liked me. Now, here was someone who couldn't stand me, and was only helping me get a job because of the simple fact that I was his daughter's mother's roommate. It felt odd to be hated.
    I heard the front door shut, and heard Francine and Kimberly's voices coming from the front parlour. I heard footsteps down the hall, and both of them appeared in the doorway with bags in their hands. They had been at the mall, shopping. Both seemed excited to show me the things that they had bought, and began to immediately pull things out and show me.
    When I lacked in response, however, both finally took notice to my mood. "What's wrong?" Francine asked.
    I shook my head. "Nothing of importance. I love everything you guys bought. Next time I'll go to the mall with you. I'll be getting a paycheque really soon. David got me the job at the Aladdin," I tried to change the track of the conversation.
    "I knew Alex would give it to you," Kimberly said softly. "But if you got the job, why are you so miserable?"
    "Nothing is really bothering me. I'm just homesick," I lied.
    "Oh, don't give me that, Cry," Francine snapped in aggravation. "What is wrong with you?"
    "How can you guys stand me? I judge people so quickly and I am so rude," I finally burst out.
    "What makes you think something stupid like that?" Francine snapped.
    "I know what - no, who, rather," Kimberly said, sitting down beside me. "He actually told you that?"
    I nodded. "Yes, very cruelly. He also told me that girls like me are nothing but trouble, and I knew it was his way of calling me a slut."
    Sympathy was shining in Kimberly's eyes, but when I looked to Francine, pure anger was the only thing in the foreground. I thought she just might blow her top then and there. Kimberly noticed it, too, and she bit her lip.
    "That son of a bitch!" Francine finally yelled. "Oh, he better just wait until I get a hold of him. I'll wrong his damn neck."
    "No, Francine. He is right. I do judge too quickly. And the things that I have done in my past do make me a slut," I insisted.
    "Don't tell me you believe that! You are far from a slut, Cry. And you only go with instinct when you're rude with people. You can't help judging an ass for an ass," Francine declared. Once her temper blew, that was it. And she usually had good reign on her temper.
    She left the room, and I looked down. "I hope she doesn't go off on him. I didn't mean to start trouble for you, Kim."
    "You didn't. He had no right to say that to you. I have begged him and begged him not to say what he really thinks of you. I know how sensitive you are."
    My head shot up instantly. "You mean you've known how he's felt? Oh, Kim, you should have just let him say it. I could have handled it. But sometimes I have respect for him. He works hard and he helps provide for Kylie. He's a wonderful father, just not a wonderful man. That's only the way I see things and if he would only prove me wrong, then I wouldn't be so mean to him," I told her.
    She raised her eyebrows. "How is he supposed to prove you wrong, Cry? You don't give him a chance, really. Honestly, I think you just really like him and it angers you after what you've been through."
    "You're wrong, Kim," I insisted, but it wasn't too far from the truth. Francine and Kim both peered at me with an all-knowing gaze.
    I left the room, frustrated. My own friends were taking his side. Well, not completely. But they had, to a point, sided with him. And it upset me to have Kim hit so close to the truth. I was attracted to David. And I hated every bit of it. The only problem was getting rid of it.

Melancholy Dreams Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

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