Trish stormed through the party, looking for her boyfriend. He was standing, smiling, talking to one of her ex-boyfriends: Joe, the man who she had found in bed with a waitress. No, not just a waitress: their regular waitress at their favorite cafe.
"Excuse me," she said with an attempt at a smile, and whisked Tim away.
"Hey babe," he said casually, ignoring the scowl on her face. "Enjoying the party?"
"No," she hissed, "I am
not
enjoying the party." She pulled Tim by the arm and maneuvered him past Roy, her ex-boyfriend who she'd kicked out after finding his collection of internet porn. As if the BDSM stuff hadn't been enough, Roy had owned enough midget porn to fill three external hard drives. Trish hadn't even realized there were that many midgets on the planet.
"That sucks," Tim said, looking over his shoulder. "Still, I'm sure you'll enjoy it more when the entertainment arrives."
Trish opened her mouth in fury, but after a brief pause as Tim opened another can of beer, pursed her thin lips together instead. Clearly this relationship wasn't going to work...but the conversation would have to wait until after the party.
It was almost a pity. When Trish had first run into Tim at her local grocery store, she'd admired the confident way he approached her, the self-assured way he'd asked for her number. It had been a complete chance encounter, too - Tim lived and worked on the opposite side of the city, and had been in the area doing work for a client.
And she had to admit, the surprise birthday party had been an incredibly sweet gesture. If only he hadn't invited
everyone
she knew...
Trish was halfway across the party, trying to squeeze past her ex-boyfriend Jerry (who she had broken up with when he had suggested a threesome) and her ex-boyfriend Larry (who she'd dumped when she'd learned he was still on his ex-girlfriend's lacrosse team) when a thought struck her.
Entertainment?
The sound of cheering coming from her lounge room increased her heart-rate, and she practically shoved her ex-boyfriend David (dumped for eating toast in bed) over as she rushed to see what was causing such excitement.
Her heart dropped when she saw what it was. Her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend Tim was standing in the middle of the room, next to what looked like a...but no, it couldn't be.
"Honey," Tim said, grinning broadly, "Happy birthday."
With that, the woman standing next to Tim pressed a button on the boom-box she'd brought, and it began omitting thick, sultry beats. Trish's face was burning, her throat felt like it was closing up, and it was only with a great deal of effort that she managed to force a sentence out.
"Tim," she raged, "What...the...hell..."
"Relax, babe," he said, cutting her off with a grin. "You know you need to relax."
"Why the FUCK is there a whore STRIPPER...-"
Before she could finish the sentence, the stripper butted in.
"Call me Rose. Now sit down and relax - your boyfriend paid big bucks for me, and I want to make sure you have a birthday you'll never forget..."
For reasons she couldn't explain, Trish did as the stripper instructed, and sat down. As she looked around the party, she noticed her ex-boyfriend Mitchell watching with a gleeful look on his face. Of
course
he'd be loving this, she thought - she'd dumped him when learning that he had been a regular at strip clubs before they had met.
The beat dropped, and Trish noticed that the stripper had started her routine.
She really is very talented,
she was forced to admit. She was dressed in black thigh-high boots, a tight leather mini-skirt, and a red button-down top that barely went below her boobs.
Her dancing was...hypnotic. Without looking around, Trish could tell that every set of eyes at the party were on Rose. And even though she had never been even remotely interested in girls, Trish had to admit that her dancing was very...alluring.
As the stripper threw her head back and forth in time with the beat, her long black hair flew one way and then the next. Trish watched the motion, entranced, before moving her focus down to the girl's face.
Was that a...nose-ring? In the past, Trish had always despised nose-rings (any form of piercings on a man was a deal-breaker for her, and she thought anything more than earrings on a woman was just trashy) but she had to admit that it somehow suited her.