Chapter 4

"huh?" Beatrix lifted her head to look at miss Lorena. Did she really mean it? or was she pulling her legs? she couldn't answer that

"you heard me! or you don't need it" she raised a brow

"I..I...I do" she found herself stuttering. But wait!

"I don't think you'd give me one more chance and want nothing in return" she glared at miss Lorena

"you're right dear! nothing goes for nothing" she smiled mischievously and Beatrix mumbled some choice of words under her breath. She wished her life didn't have to be so bad that she'd end up begging to work in a coffee shop. Nevertheless, she still needed to hear what miss Lorena was going to demand.

She looked up at miss Lorena "and what could that be?" she kept a straight face.

"you don't need to give me that look dear. It's nothing hard. I just want you to work full-time without shifts. You begin by 8 am and go home by 11 pm" she meant business.

Beatrix was amazed by her demand, it was an easy one but not for her. Here she was thinking that miss Lorena was going to demand something impossible.

"What!" she looked at her "why would I work full time? I always come late because I don't get enough rest and you want me to work that late?" her eyes glittered with concealed rage.

"You don't want it? or would you rather work during weekends?" her tone wasn't pleasing. Beatrix loved the weekend because she didn't work at the coffee shop during weekends, she only worked at the clubhouse and she didn't mind, dancing was her life. What was she going to do now, she was left in a confused state. She had to make a decision or else, she'd lose her job and she wasn't financially stable for that.

Beatrix was a young lady who grew up to fend for herself. At 15 years, she lost her parents and since then she had been catering for herself. Her parents were not wealthy when they were still alive and when they died, she felt abandoned, she was left with nothing but more suffering and she decided to fix her life but things weren't so easy for her. She did part-time jobs from which she was able to take care of her tuition to some extent after which she dropped out and hence longed for a comfortable life.

She moved to San Francisco a year ago and began working at the coffee shop but she needed to do something else because working at the coffee shop wasn't getting her enough money as she wanted and since she loved dancing, she, therefore, decided to go into stripping which she felt her opportunity of getting the life she desired was going to be achieved. But having two jobs wasn't easy for her as she had no time for herself during the weekdays but she had little time for herself during weekends and miss Lorena wanted to strip her of it but she wasn't going to agree to that.

She looked at miss Lorena lost deeply in her thoughts. What would she do? she thought hard and finally spoke up

"I'd work full time," she said with pain, she cursed her life for being this way.

"You'd work full time? you seem to love your weekend" miss Lorena laughed. How she felt the urge to hit her in her face but who was she to do that?

"Yeah, I do" she sighed inwardly and she made her way to the door

"and... you begin working full time from now" miss Lorena snapped and she turned to her unexpectedly "huh? I should start working full time from now?" she was amazed but angry.

"yeah, if I were you, I wouldn't call it full-time because you came in late today. Just think of it as a make-up for showing up late" she smiled.

Miss Lorena seemed to find the whole situation funny but Beatrix wasn't. She pondered on how she was going to survive doing that. Working till 11 pm at the coffee shop and working from 11 pm till dawn at the clubhouse, that was definitely going to be hectic for her. She couldn't reduce the number of days she'd work at the club, that'd affect her payment.

"There's no harm in trying," she said to herself, She was willing to give that a try. After all, she still has a pending offer with Paxton but she wasn't sure how long the offer would last.

* * * * *

She watched customers troop into the coffee shop to buy things. She looked at her wristwatch, it was 10 pm, she had just one hour left but it seemed like a whole day, and she was already drowsy. How was she going to dance at the strip club at night? she wondered. She couldn't do that in her drowsy state and she couldn't take a short nap at the restaurant because miss Lorena sat at the far end of the shop watching her like a hawk.

For a minute, she wished Tyler was there, he'd have helped her out and she regretted accepting miss Lorena's offer, she would have just resigned as they had earlier agreed. She took out her phone when she noticed miss Lorena had taken her eyes off her and texted miss Lorelei saying she won't be available for today.

She needed that small break and not a breakdown. She was sure that if she performed in her state, she'd break down. Soon after her shift ended and she didn't waste time packing up her things. She just needed to get back to her apartment and enjoy a good night's rest.

"Don't forget, your work time is 8 am tomorrow" miss Lorena had said to her before she left, she just sighed inwardly and walked out. She flagged down a taxi and hopped into it, shortly, she arrived at her apartment.

She looked down at her bed and smiled, "There's no place like home" she shouted as she sank onto the bed, and shortly, she was heavily asleep.