CHAPTER ELEVEN
Cleo
Two weeks later …
I miss my Daddy. I’m a star dancer here at the Donkey Club, but I still think back to Drake sometimes … that incredible build, the Crest-white smile, the massive shaft. We’d only had two weeks together before my mom whisked me off to the club, but the memories of that time haunted me still.
I’d wanted to come home after one week.
“Mom,” I said patiently into the phone. “I’ve learned all the basics of dancing, in fact management lets me get up on center stage now, even when the place is packed.” I didn’t add that Robert and Lester had made multiple passes at me, all of which I’d rebuffed.
“Honey,” my mom’s voice trailed. “That’s not the elite level. You know the best girls at the Donkey Club don’t just dance … they fuck,” she said conspiratorially. “The fees are astronomical baby, try to be selected for the Donkey Service.”
My head was whirling. My mom wanted me to become a whore? It was enough that she’d already put me in this strip club, where I took off my clothes each night for money. I mean, it’s not what most women encourage their eighteen year-old daughters to do, but I get it, this was Lorena’s line of work, and mothers sometimes want their daughters to follow in their footsteps.
But whoring? That was different. That was prostitution, hands down.
“Ma,” I said slowly. “That’s not reasonable. I appreciate that you’ve paid for a nice apartment for me, but I shouldn’t have to put out for the Donkey overlords as well.”
But my mom completely missed the point. Instead of acknowledging that prostitution was illegal, not to mention the long-term damage to my emotional and mental well-being, she focused on the money.
“Honey, you’re not really working for the Donkey Club if you join their escort service. They take a small set-up fee, but the commission is yours to keep. When I was doing it,” she confided. “I made about five hundred per hook-up, but I hear the fee now is two to three thousand. Plus, there are so many handsome, rich men … you know, your cousin Liliane met her patron this way.”
That was the other shocking revelation in all of this. Evidently, almost all the women of the Jones clan had taken a turn at the Donkey Club, including my mom, my three aunts, and my five female cousins. I’d thought my cousin Lili had met her rich boyfriend at some bar, but actually the Donkey had been the connection. It was shocking because Preston, Lili’s boyfriend, was a waspy dude, someone descended from Thomas Jefferson who wore madras shorts and liked yachting in his free time. I would never have guessed that he’d been to the Donkey Club, much less hooked up with one of its strippers for a long-term relationship.
I sighed. Against this backdrop of sheer insanity my mom would never be convinced that stripping and escorting weren’t right for me. But then she said something that stung my heart.
“Drake’s moved on, baby,” she said softly. “I know you miss him, but Drake has someone else.”
I sputtered. I’d only been gone two weeks! How could my stepdad have met someone so quickly?
“You mean you?” I asked sarcastically.
But my mom didn’t take offense.
“No baby,” she said slowly. “We were never his only ones. Sure, we were handy because we lived in his house, but he’s a male slut and has been his whole life. You know Marie? The girl who walks his dogs?”
Of course I knew Marie. We’d been somewhat friendly, Marie coming by twice a day to make sure Otis and Marlo, our German Shepherds, got their exercise. The girl was cute but not stunning. A blonde, petite, maybe twenty five with nice tits.
“Cleo,” said my mom slowly. “Marie is pregnant with Drake’s child. She’s due in a few months.”
My hand flew to my mouth. My daddy had been fucking another girl the whole time? And she’d been pregnant with his baby? My mind spun furiously. Sure, Marie was athletic looking, but I didn’t recall seeing a curve to her stomach or the glow of pregnancy. She just looked normal, the same as always.
But I realized how naïve I’d been. I gasped, my heart hurting, my chin trembling despite my best efforts to look impassive.
“Honey,” said Lorena slowly. “Drake wanted you to move out. He’s had his fun with you and wants to fuck another woman but didn’t know how to tell you. So he asked me to let you know, bring you to the Donkey to see if you could get a job. Of course,” she said hastily, “he’s a generous man and isn’t tossing you out on your ass with nothing. He’s asked me to make sure you find a nice apartment, get some decent clothes. But honey, this is not the time to come home. Marie’s moved in, big as a beachball, and Drake’s doting like a new dad already. He’s always wanted a child, and with Marie that baby’s a reality.”