You Should Strip

Rebecca

Parker shook his hand and pointed to Becca. “Yes, well, I was just going to go home and entertain my lovely young bride, but my partner here wanted to spend more time together. The woman is insatiable.” Parker smiled as if batting the ball into her court.

Jason laughed and looked over at Rebecca. “I asked her to come with us, but I’m thinking it must just be your personal attention that she craves.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “You both can sit on something and rotate. I wanted to go home, strip out of these clothes and soak in a hot bubble bath until the water turned cold.”

She smiled knowingly, as she was sure the male minds before her visualized the image she’d painted without much color or skill. She laughed and reached for her drink. “Stop behaving inappropriately. I’m still your boss—and your partner,” she said, looking at each of them in turn.

Jason smiled and moved back a little. “That’s hard to do around such a beautiful woman, Miss Miller.”

Parker nodded. “I agree. You should go join them, Becca. I can find my way home. Really.”

Rebecca scoffed. “No. You asked me here to talk business and we’re going to.”

“Then, when you’re done?” Jason asked, moving a little as the server deposited a basket of chips on the table before them.

“Yes. She’ll be there, but you have to take her back to her car.” Parker looked at Jason, who nodded and turned to jog off, a huge smile spreading across his face.

“Wait a damn minute. I didn’t say I was hanging out with them tonight. What the hell, Parker?” She felt anger rise in her chest, her brow pinching between her eyes. She didn’t need to lead the poor boy on, making him think that something—anything—would come out of their relationship. Things needed to remain perfectly professional, and they would.

“It would be good for you to mingle with our staff, Becca. I’m not saying you have to hang out with Jason or take him home, though that might do you some good.”

She huffed, reaching for a chip. “You have absolutely no ethics. Why did I think business was a good idea with you?”

“I married a stripper. Pretty sure you knew the level of my personal ethics before we started this. Besides, you’re the ethical accountant. I’m the flamboyant marketing guy, remember?”

Rebecca shook her head, unease settling in the pit of her stomach over what the rest of the evening might entail. Pushing her glass toward Parker, she reached to take his beer bottle. “I need to switch to something lighter. I’m not getting blitzed in front of our staff. I’ll end up on the floor of someone’s apartment, and my whole cover of being a good girl will be blown to hell and back.”

Parker laughed loudly, Rebecca smiling at the warmth in his persona. “Please, God, tell me that if this thing with Mina falls apart, you and I can go to Vegas and be incredibly unprofessional together for a weekend.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes and nodded. “I’m in.”

Parker wasn’t her type at all, his artistic side dominating too much of his personality. Why he was concerned about what his once stripper wife planned to do in the way of getting a degree and joining the workforce was beyond her. He’d been a bit of a wild child, having far more than his share of fun in life until a few years back, when he’d sobered up and pulled himself together. The result of said sobering was losing his first wife Cindy, an artist who wanted to just go where the wind blew. Cindy had decided that Parker wasn’t exciting enough anymore and had found herself someone who was.

Rebecca had been friends with Parker since they were kids since he’d grown up just down the road a little, and she knew him all-too well.

Parker had no right or reason to push someone who was twenty-three at best to grow up. He’d married Mina for who she was, and honestly, Rebecca thought it had been a mistake. He needed to reconcile himself to the fact that he couldn’t change the girl and just start loving her for who she was or get yet another divorce. If things went wrong with Mina, Rebecca knew she’d be there for him and they’d celebrate the dissolution of yet another relationship like they had the first time—with liquor and inappropriate flirtation.

Their food arrived in the hands of two servers, one a young blond female who kept eyeing Parker while she stood beside the table. Rebecca almost felt a sense of protectiveness come over her, the emotion giving rise to the fact that she cared about him like family. He didn’t need another mistake to compound the ones he’d already made. Oh, he would make a million more, but this one wasn’t being made on her watch.

She looked toward the male server as he asked if they needed anything else. “Nope. You guys can go. Thanks.”

She reached for her plate and put a few items on it as Parker followed suit. “So, tell me why you married Mina, Park. Why did you think that was the right answer?”

He shrugged, licking sour cream off his finger. “She was beautiful and young and she was into me.”

“She was a stripper. They’re paid to be into everyone.”

He laughed and stabbed a piece of chicken with his fork, lifting it to his lips. “You’d make a great stripper, you know.”

She laughed, almost choking on the last of his beer. “Don’t make me laugh. That’s ridiculous. I’m in my mid-thirties.”

“And you’re beautiful.” He smiled in a knowing way and filled his mouth with food.

Rebecca felt her cheeks color again, hating the fact that any mention of her attractiveness found her embarrassed. She wasn’t a girl, but a full grown woman. When would she stop running from the attention of men?

When I find the right one.