Mike: Call me.
That was all it said, so she did. First it was late-night advice, now phone calls?
Mike answered on the first ring. “Hi, Sie.”
“Hi, Mike,” she said warily. “What’s up? Everything good?”
“Yeah, it’s all good. I wanted to see how you got along last night after the note. That’s never happened before, and you know I care for you, girl.”
Big Mike is my fairy godmother all of a sudden?
She so desperately needed to talk with someone about Carson, she took him up on his offer to chat. “I’m all right. After getting in the car last night, I texted that guy. Carson, that’s his name. It was a weak moment, but I guess I was curious.”
“I got you, Sie.”
“Well, anyway, we’re going for coffee today. I’m hoping to just get the curiosity out of my system. I know you and Ash want me to settle down with someone, but that’s not going to happen, so I figure an afternoon out with some adult conversation will do the trick. He seemed nice enough.”
Mike sighed heavily over the line. “Sienna, that’s a bad attitude. I told you, girl, you deserve a good life and more.”
Geez, Mike is quite the romantic.
“Maybe you’ll like this guy,” he went on. “I’m no matchmaker, so that’s all I can say. Uh, the real reason behind my call is you. I thought you might take a leap and see this dude. When you do, I’m gonna tail you.”
“What?” She plopped onto her sofa, shocked at what she was hearing.
“That’s right, girl. I always go with you, so you’re not sneaking off to coffee with a strange guy.”
“Mike, we’re meeting over here in Henderson at Canyon Coffee. I was planning on wearing big glasses and a baseball cap,” Sienna said with a giggle.
Who else wears a baseball hat to meet a guy for coffee? A stripper needing anonymity.
“Nope,” Mike said. “I’m going with you. As much as I want you to meet someone, I need to get a feel for the scene.” Sienna didn’t even have a chance to reply before he asked, “What time? You can drive there yourself, if you want, but I’m gonna follow.”
“One o’clock. And I’m only telling you because I can tell there’s no arguing.”
“See you at twelve thirty, Sienna. Still wear the cap and glasses.”
“Okay. ’Bye.”
He disconnected, so Sienna decided to get dressed and clean up her desk. She had to do something to calm her nerves. She hadn’t checked her e-mails yet, so decided to get that task out of the way.
Except when she booted up her computer, Sienna found herself feeling sentimental.
She wished she could keep in touch with a few of her friends from her old life. She wondered if any of them ever thought of her. Lila had turned her back on all of them when she ran, but they didn’t know what she was going through. She knew better than to be honest with them; it would be difficult for them to believe who her husband really was and what he did.
Besides, very few women took a stand against any man where she grew up. Being transparent with her friends would only stand to hurt them, and in the end, would make life worse. She’d never before had someone who had her back, like Mike or Asher did now.
Back then, she was forced to take dramatic measures to survive. Still, she couldn’t help missing and worrying for the women she had known for most of her life.
HER CARRIAGE house was clean and Tunnel e-mails returned. Sienna had killed as much time as she could, so she headed to her bedroom to get dressed to go out for coffee. Coffee with a man. A man she couldn’t risk letting in, but she was pretty sure had already barged in where he didn’t belong, settled where he absolutely shouldn’t and couldn’t be, and would have to be pushed out. Fast.
This was all on her; it was all her own fault.
Sienna walked into her large walk-in closet off her bedroom and decided to go for understated. Chocolate-brown leggings, a big chunky oatmeal-colored sweater, suede boots, light makeup, and a Los Angeles baseball cap that one of the other girls had brought back for everyone after a trip. With her hair in a low ponytail underneath the cap, Sienna looked like a suburban housewife, except for her body.
She knew a stripper’s body when she saw one. The pole dancing and certain dance moves they had to do just did something to women in their line of work. Sienna had come to recognize the unique curves of dancers, like her, who took their clothes off for a living.
She was barely recognizable even to herself, and the feeling wasn’t exclusive to what she saw in the mirror. It had been so long since Sienna had any friends other than Asher, Petal, and Mike, she barely knew what her personality was other than Sienna Flower, adult dancer. She internalized the idea of her body, her stage persona being the entirety of her.