Chapter 3

Wearing a sheer dress and a pair of cheap lingerie below it, I walked out of the preparation room. No one notices me yet, maybe that's because another harlot is still dancing on the stage before me.

I was about to go to the stage since the girl is about to be finished dancing.

"Hep-Hep! Not that way, Ethel!" Manang Marissa Blocked my way.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked.

"You're not dancing on that stage tonight. We have very special visitors and they're in one of our VIP rooms. Lucio wants you to be one of the girls that will entertain them since, you're one of the top dancers lately," she explained.

"Oh," I realized. "But I don't dance in private rooms, nang. What should I do?" I panicking asked.

Yeah, I dance naked in public but I will never do it privately. Who knows what happens inside a private room. I don't even want to imagine it. I don't want to sell my purity!

"Don't worry, you'll just dance and keep them entertained. Those high-class men don't fuck women from this club. They prefer those high-end models that voluntarily lay in their bed."

"How can I be so sure about that?" I asked.

"We have our bouncers stationed to the VIP rooms for security and to prevent harassment to happen. So, don't worry, honey. What happened to you earlier won't happen to you here. Okay? Also, if anything goes wrong just come to me and I'll help you."

I just nodded nonchalantly. I still couldn't grip the reality. This will be the first time that I will dance in any private room of Artemis. I've never dreamed about it and I didn't even imagine doing it before.

It's funny, right? A choosy harlot who doesn't dance privately? What a joke! Though I'm telling the truth, I'm not comfortable dancing for a specific group of men. I feel like my degraded self will be degraded through the process once again.

I wish that I'd be doing this job well, the better the more I earn.

"What time do I have to go to the VIP rooms, Manang?" I asked while secretly pressuring myself.

"I'm not sure, 'Thel. Maybe, after those VIP men arrive?" She answered very not sure.

Oh, God! Please guide me, I don't want to fail this night. We still need to pay for our house rent. We still don't have dinner for tonight. Please?

I begged the lord and honestly, I sounded desperate for money. I don't mind, after all, it's true. I need money for living, you see, my life is on the edge of a cliff. We'll either find a way to get ourselves away from the edge without falling or we'll be falling endlessly and die out of starvation.

So, yeah. I don't mind getting called a gold-digging bitch as long as I have dinner to feed my family. After all, the money I'm earning is my prize for selling my body publicly without any conscience running inside my head.

I don't need a conscience, it can't feed me.

"It's time, 'Thel."

The moment she announced that I felt like all my blood inside my body has been flushed, but at the same time, I felt like all my self-doubt, and insecurities left me. Or should I say I threw them all once again?

Walking with my cheap heels that looked like only two dances or less and it will break, I saw three women with outfits not looking so far from what I am wearing. Though theirs are quite more revealing.

"Ethel! Come here, let's prepare!" One of the dancers approached me.

She's Morette, Moretta Agustin. She said we should be calling her 'Morette' since it sounded more classy and elegant than her real name, thus she became 'The Morette' of Artemis High-End Funclub.

She's one of the top dancers of this club and she's like me. We don't do extra services, she said "I'm too beautiful to be drilled by pebbles of old men." Which makes sense.

She is truly a beauty, if you don't see her in this place as an entertainer, you'd think that she's one of those customers.

Those bratty fashionistas with powerful family connections. She's morena, but that doesn't make her less beautiful than the other fair women with us here now.

She's also flawless and her hair is completely black.

Unlike me, I'm fair-no. I don't call myself fair. I look like a colorless ghost. Some even called me to chalk, because my skin tone is bright. Though I didn't want to criticize myself anymore because I learned while working in this club that I should embrace my beauty.

No one will appreciate you if you don't even appreciate yourself.

"Do you know who we're gonna dance for tonight? They seemed very important seeing that even us, who don't dance privately, will dance for them." I asked her when we get a close distance.

"I don't know. Maybe old rich dying men? Spending money without their family's knowledge? Typical VIPs we have here," she shrugged her shoulders.

Yeah, that's our typical VIP users here. Old, rich, and dying men. It's either they would want to spend money and get drunk 'till they die or they would come here to blow off steam from family problems. Which I think they caused themselves too.

I laughed at her statement.

"You're harsh," I commented.

She only 'tsked. "It's the truth, Ethel dear. Accept it."

I can hear the mellow music starting already. We're the backstage of the VIP room. I will dance after Morette. After a few minutes, Morette came back breathing heavily. She looked excited and tense at the same time which confused me.

There's no excitement and fun while dancing for old men.

"Ethel! You're so lucky! You're the last dance! You'll dance longer than we did!" She happily exclaimed.

"Huh?"

"Those men..." she breathed. "Those men are blazing hot!"

What is she talking about? Blazing what?