[This series started with Entertaining at Home, but this story includes references to previous events if you don't want to start there. Thanks for all comments, particularly anonymous's plot suggestions. I had planned some of them, honest; the others may be taken up. Hope you enjoy this. Comments always appreciated.]
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When you're going into the stripping business there are a number of things you should consider. My problem was I had no idea what they were.
I was sitting at my kitchen table drinking my first cup of coffee of the day staring absently at a note a drinker in the pub I had stripped in the night before had slipped into the tips jar.
'Hi Suzette,
'I'm Matt. I was at the table where we helped you out of your dress. I'm best man for Trev -- the boy with the nervous fingers. It's his stag night in a couple of weeks. We'd like to hire you and your friend as entertainment. Please call if you're interested. PS you were incredible. Thanks.'
Straightforward enough. A polite note offering work to an entertainer. Trouble was, I wasn't, I told myself, a stripper. Just a woman who likes to take her clothes off in public for the entertainment of men. Different thing entirely. I puffed out a long breath. I was getting nowhere.
I had started my day with a long bike ride. I had hoped it would help me sort things out in my head. Over the months since my husband and I split up cycling had become something of a passion. That and football. I had been buzzing still with the excitement of the night before; my appearance as a last-minute substitute performer at the Crown and Anchor's regular Friday night striptease session.
OK, so I had thrown up because of the nerves before going on, but the thrill of turning on all those men had been immense. I giggled to myself as I puffed up a steep hill remembering the climax to my act. I had dragged a friend up and had him spank me. I squirted my orgasm all over the stage; proof of my enjoyment for all to see. The invitation to do it all again at the stag do was the icing on the cake; that and the quick shag with my elderly neighbour when I got home.
So why was I stopping myself just phoning Matt and booking the gig?
I had worked out that part of it was my reluctance to admit to myself exactly how much of an exhibitionist I really was. My first strip had been in front of a group of men I sort-of knew. They were friends of Dave's, my ex. I had progressed to giving my peeping Tom neighbour a nightly show near my bedroom window which culminated in a live act in my living room when he had come round for tea one night. The Crown and Anchor striptease in front of a cheering crowd of well over a hundred blokes had been sprung on me at the last moment. I had no time to think it through.
Taking on a paying job was definitely a step up. I suppose I was telling myself that it was not the sort of thing women like me did. So why didn't I just toss the note and forget the whole thing? I poured myself a second cup of coffee and tried frowning. It didn't help. I cleaned the kitchen. Mostly that consisted of gathering up my earnings from the night before. Mr J, my neighbour, had counted out the contents of the bag of notes and loose change I had earned as tips and set it all out in neat piles for me. It came to two hundred and thirty two pounds and fifty seven pence. His work had been undone when we had fucked furiously against and on the table. When I reassembled the piles cash there was ten pence missing. I guessed I could live with the loss.
Would the potential earnings tip the balance and get me up again in front of a bunch of strangers?
I had decided on my ride that the money was going into a separate account. I was going to put it towards my next bike. But whilst a couple of hundred quid is not to be sniffed at, it wasn't a deciding factor. I earned a decent wage as a manager in a medium-sized company; more than enough to cover my expenses and pay for a couple of holidays a year.
My friends were offering nothing but encouragement. My phone had been pinging all morning with text messages from the lads. They are the four outfield players in my footie team. They had each let me know how much they had enjoyed my show. Steve, marginally the most sensible of the group, had forwarded a link to a YouTube video. It had clearly been taken by someone near the back of the crowd. It was wobbly and barely in focus, the sound was appalling and the action cut off once I had my bra off.
'Only a matter of time before the full thing appears on a porn site :)
He messaged. I sent back a non-committal reply: "which of you bastards was it?". I opened DuckDuckGo, my search engine of choice, and put in "Suzette Strip". It brought up a number of entries for Suzettes. None of them appeared to be me. I decided that on the whole I was not disappointed. But the thought of thousands of people world-wide seeing me do my stuff over the internet raised a tingle between my legs even at that time in the morning. I changed to get ready for the weekly shop.
In the days I was a sensible married woman shopping was conducted in whatever I had put on that morning. Now, I changed into black stockings held up by a suspender belt, a short, A-line skirt and a tight blouse. When I was just taking my clothes off to titillate Mr J, giving my fellow shoppers a flash of stocking top or a glimpse of cleavage had been a weekly thrill. There had been times when, on reaching home, groceries had been dumped on the kitchen table as I rushed upstairs for an assignation with my vibrator. In the car on the way down I wondered whether I would get the same buzz today after the excesses of the night before.
I did. By the time my trolley was full I had an entourage of adolescent assistants, single dads with fractious children and at least one pensioner. I knew it was naughty to keep changing direction in the aisles or lingering long in contemplation of the various cans of beans on offer. But their looks as they tried to fake similar indecision would give any girl a lift. I felt like giving them a curtsy as they queued behind me at the checkout, but restricted myself to a coy smile and the slightest of swirls as I headed for the exit.
Traffic jams of last-minute Xmas shoppers provided ample time for contemplating Matt's offer. It was unusually sunny for a British December and I found myself whistling The Stripper between my teeth as I waited at yet another snarl up. Mr J was pottering in his front garden when I eventually pulled up outside the house. I smiled across at him.
'Looking chipper, Mr J.'
'Thanks to you. Mentally I feel twenty years younger; physically about ten years older.'
'Hang over?'
'That and the other.'
He blushed at his inadvertent double-entendre and hurried over to help me with my bags. I put on the coffee machine and gestured him into a seat when the unpacking was done. I started to move the piles of notes and coins which still littered the table. Mr J started fumbling in the pocket of his gardening trousers.
'I brought you these.'
'But Xmas is still a couple of weeks away.'
He laughed and deposited a handful of small plastic bank bags on the table.
'You've got to deposit the exact amounts in coins when you take them to the bank. I'll do it for you.'
He started to fill them and line them up neatly in separate denominations. He was finally left with only Matt's beer mate note which he picked up and fanned in front of his face grinning.
'Had any more thoughts about this?'
'One or two.'
He waited for me to continue. I busied myself with the drinks and left him hanging. I caught myself starting to hum The Stripper again and swallowed the notes. I gave him an innocent smile as I passed the cup.
'Care to share them?'
'I'm not sure it's really me, you know?'
'You should have seen yourself last night. You looked like you were having the time of your life.'
I brought up my YouTube debut on my phone and handed it to him.
'I have.'
He stared at the screen fascinated.
'You got someone to video it? Why didn't you ask me, I was nearer the front?'
There then followed a few minutes discussion on the development of mobile technology and the internet. Mr J looked like a kid being introduced to chocolate for the first time. His eyes shone and he began speaking excitedly as the full implications of the access to smut the new technology might give him sank in.
'So?'
'What?'
'Are you going to take the opportunity to perform at this young man's bachelor party?'
He tapped the beer mat on the table in emphasis. I shuffled the pros and cons in my head again as I struggled to reply.
'It's just that... Well, I've no idea what to expect. It's all a bit sudden.'