The smell of the club and last night's sex still filled her nostrils when Katherine awoke just after noon. She took a long shower then found her husband watching TV.
"Hi honey. Since this is your only day off, I thought we should do something," he said with enthusiasm.
"Sound great," she responded. She knew Jeff wasn't getting much attention and she wanted to try and make it up to him.
They had a late lunch and then spent the afternoon at the zoo. It was an amazing time and the throng of young children with their parents helped clear her head from the whirlwind of events that had occurred in the past week. Later, they split a bottle of wine then made slow love, thankfully without any talk of the club.
By mid-afternoon Monday, Katherine was filled with trepidation wondering what was going to happen that evening. She had left early Sunday morning without speaking to Sam and didn't know exactly what to expect. Fortunately, when she entered the club everything seemed to be relaxed, and she went directly to the dressing room and changed into her waitress attire. It was only when she finished and had approached Roland at the bar that he announced that Little Sam wanted to talk to her.
With deep concern, she moved the short distance to Sam's office and cleared her throat before addressing the club owner, "Uh, Sam. Roland said you wanted to talk to me."
"Sit down," he replied, without looking at her.
Katherine sat on the couch with her legs squeezed closely together and waited for the black man to reply. Several minutes ticked by before he looked up and asked, "How was the other night?"
"It wasn't what I wanted to do," she replied, with some defiance in her voice.
"I know that girl, but you did it and you did a good job. I might need to call on you again and I need to know I can depend on you," he said, in a not unpleasant voice.
"I don't know...," Katherine started, but was quickly cut off.
"Can I depend on you?" he asked again, this time in a stern voice.
"Yes, Sam," she answered, looking at the floor. Her time at the club had taught her to deal with one thing at a time and she thought this was not the right moment. Just get through today, she repeated over and over to herself.
"Good, I knew I could. Now let me tell you something. Your dancing going to help you with the others. You're one of them now. You spend more time chatting with them now and get to know them better then you can start getting your information," he explained.
His words immediately lifted her spirits and with a quick nod and a hint of a smile she stood and left. Sam thought about her night of dancing and the reports he had gotten back. It had surprised him she had gone as far as she did, although he realized she had been full of surprises since she came into the club. His mind toyed with things he might try, however for now, he decided to leave her with some positive encouragement. It was something he learned long ago when dealing with club girls; take some, then give some.
The demand from Sam that she needed to be prepared to dance again tempered Katherine's enthusiasm with his acknowledgement that she would soon be able to start gathering data. Surprisingly, she had been able to accept most of the night as a necessary task in achieving her goals. The last couple table dances were too much, but she knew it was her being pressed for time and the effects of all the alcohol she had consumed that forced it to occur. Still, it wasn't like her at all, and she certainly didn't want to have to do it again. Thus, it was important to progress with the girls as fast as possible.
For the rest of the week, Katherine worked as a waitress with renewed enthusiasm, and spent any spare moment purposefully seeking out the dancers to chat with and get to know. She thought she was making good progress, and also had to admit that Sam's statement concerning "being one of them" was proving to be true as they were now much easier to approach. Also, she was pleased that Sam was not being demanding and, in fact, she had only seen him once since they talked and that was when he was just passing through the club.
Even Jeff seemed to be calming down. He did wait up for her Monday night, although for the last few days he had been asleep when she got home. She felt bad for hiding things from him, but she knew he wouldn't understand and would force her to stop if she told him the truth.
Friday night was uncharacteristically slow at the club and Katherine was able to leave early. Before she left, she spoke for a few minutes with Sam who told her she could try her questions on a couple dancers he picked out the following week. This made her giddy and when she got home Jeff was still up, and they shared a snack and a drink before heading to bed.
That night, Jeff returned to his questions and in her good mood Katherine played along a bit getting him worked up by telling him some made up stories of her being touched. In reality, she had learned how to position herself to avoid most of the groping. Nonetheless, it got her husband excited which made her aroused and they had some hot sex before falling asleep.
Saturday started out slow as well and Katherine was hopeful she would be able to leave early once again. However, around nine a crowd started pouring in and within an hour it had reached the point that she was worried, with each new entrant, that she would be summoned by Sam. It was in that time frame that she noticed two of the girls leave with their customers through the back door. While working in the club, Katherine had seen it happen several times before, but a voice inside her had told her it was a subject to stay away from. It had just hit 10:30 PM and Katherine thought she might be out of the woods, when she was told to go see Sam.
"Need you to dance. Go get dressed," he told her abruptly. Kat's presence the last time had gotten the crowd going and the club had one of its best nights in months so, he was hopeful it might happen again.
"Sam...," Katherine started to whine, but was cut short by his angry glare.
"No back talk. And, take your pill," he barked, knowing the mixture of the drug and alcohol would help with her inhibitions.
With a defeated sigh and an affirmative nod, Katherine turned and left the room but stopped just outside, leaned against the wall and looked at the ceiling as she thought about what to do. So close, she thought to herself. Next week was supposed to be the start of the data gathering and now this.
"Shit!' she finally proclaimed to no one, and headed towards the dressing room dropping her tray on the bar as she walked by.
"Hey!" Roland called after her but she ignored him.
Twenty minutes later, Kat stood in front of the long mirror making final adjustments to her make-up. She was dressed in a red sequined g-string and top with a black baby doll that tied in the front as a cover. On her feet were matching red heels with spaghetti straps that came partly up her calves.
At that moment, a larger girl that went by the name Sadie came in and said to her, "Better hurry baby, they been calling for you."
"Thanks," Kat replied, rolling her eyes with exasperation.
"Baby, you are going to make some money tonight," Sadie responded, while looking her body over.
The DJ must have spotted her leaving the dressing room because he called her name as soon as she stepped out. Minutes later, she was on stage and like before the crowd's attention was instantly piqued.
Kat was surprised at how much easier it was to get on stage, move and remove her top. She wasn't happy about it by any means, however she forced herself to take on an air of indifference while thinking about how she might be able move forward with her work.
Dutifully, she stepped to the edge of the stage so the leering men could put the bills in her g-string, and when she finished her set she retreated immediately and caught her breath just off stage. Sam hadn't put a quota on her like before so, she had no incentive or intention of working the crowd and for the next hour she was able to avoid sitting with a customer. It was just before midnight, after she had been on stage for a third time, that she saw Roland approaching.