Chapter 6

After what felt like a lot of hours, Giovanni had done his duties for the day and felt accomplished enough for leading by example. He looked at his watch and started off to meet James.

***

"So you mean to tell me that this lady gave you a different vibe from other strippers? Like, she didn't deserve to be there? And you are concerned because you feel like there is a huge story behind her and you want to help? Correct me if I'm wrong," James said after Giovanni had explained everything that happened.

Giovanni sipped on his coffee and looked up at James, "There is a reason why I enjoy having you as my lawyer." "Don't flatter me too much. Anyway, you shouldn't be too stressed if she didn't call, and if you're so desperate to find out why, you could just go to the club and see her again," the idea that James suggested gave Giovanni more hope. He touched his beard and looked in the direction of the strip club.

"You're right, I should have thought about that earlier, it just breaks my heart to see her there, knowing that other men are....touching her," this sentence was enough for James to realise that Giovanni was going through a 'love at first sight' situation. James looked at his phone and told Giovanni that he had to go because his girlfriend needed help with something.

When he left, Giovanni decided to leave the cafe, drive a little closer to the club but slightly out of sight, and wait for Ginger to come through. It wasn't going to be too long, he was going to wait.

***

Ingrid set her Alarm for 4:30PM, she needed her beauty sleep if she was going to be working for those long hours all night. When she walked out of her room, she heard music playing from downstairs. She grabbed her rob and went down to find out if her cousin was still around or not.

"Good morning sunshine!" Clover said so happily, "Who's the girl that you were with?" Ingrid didn't want to waste any time. "Oh, come on, can't we celebrate our new income first?" Clover spun around and started heading towards Ginger so as to give her a hug. "Tell me who she was and why she was here!" Ingrid yelled. Clover put his hands out to signal for his surrender.

"Okay, her name's Kate. I met her at the bar last night, she was pretty drunk and horny, so I brought her home and we...made paper snowflakes," Ingrid asked him why he left her at the strip club and why he didn't even think of going back for her but chose to sleep with a stranger.

"The bitch talked a lot about her college education and I digged that, okay? Besides, you don't turn away free sex," Clover proceeded. "College education?" Ingrid knew that Kate lied about that, no way would she have gotten into any institution with the grades she had. Ingrid wanted to beg Clover to not see her again. "So, was this just a one-night stand?" she nervously asked, "Oh, my Ginger wants me all to herself? Don't worry, I don't plan on seeing her again," Clover responded.

Ingrid started to walk away, she heard enough. She told Clover that she was going to get dressed. Time to get into routine!

Clover and Ingrid drove to the Red Spot silently, Ingrid was staring out the window the whole way, thinking about everything that Clover told her about her cousin. She looked troubled, it wasn't hard for anyone to see that Clover wanted her at her best just for his business and not for her well being, "Are you okay, Ginger? You look a little bit low, you know we need that bright side of you right?" he held her lap and parked the car.

Giovanni was playing some music through his headsets when he saw Clover take Ingrid's hand as she stepped out of the car. Clover whispered something into Ingrid's ears that made her pull her coat closer to her body. He led the way as she followed behind.

Giovanni walked into the strip club and straight to the bar. The bartender wasn't present at the time so he had to wait. Giovanni thought to pay to meet Ingrid after her strip dance performance was over so that he didn't have to disturb her.

As he waited, the guy that walked up the stage gave a different name, Ginger wasn't performing. Some girl walked up the pole, she had a bigger body than Ingrid's, but she lacked the walk of grace and seduction that Ginger gave the audience the previous night, but they still liked her.

"Well, this is your second time here, love the place? That's Tiger-Lilly, she sure does know how to shake that bubble but," Cloud said when he came back. Giovanni turned around and shook his head, "oh, no, can I have some water?" Cloud raised his eyebrow, why would a guy like this just order water? He noticed how Giovanni kept turning his head, but he didn't want to ask.

"Sorry to be a bother but I just wanted to know, what happened to the girl who performed last night?" Giovanni finally asked, "Ginger? Upon arrival, the bitch had these 3 rich customers that paid the manager directly to sleep with her in the private room upstairs, she's quite the catch, right? You should know," Cloud chuckled as he began wiping the wine glasses.

Giovanni was so pissed. He felt all kinds of emotions towards the news he just got. He felt terrible; he was no different from the men that wanted to sleep with her tonight because he did it yesterday too. He got up from his seat and started to head for the door. He went into his car and hit the driving wheel, "Shit!". After a good thirty minutes of thought, he realised, why didn't this hit him in the beginning? He came up with an idea.....

"Hey! bartender, do you know how much these men paid?" he said anxiously, "Well, pretty much $650 each," Cloud responded. Giovanni offered to pay $900 to be with her on behalf of those three guys. Cloud went at the back room after telling Giovanni to wait. Giovanni was tapping the table, five minutes had already passed. "Come on, what is taking so long?" Ten minutes now.

Cloud finally emerged from the corner, “well, boss says you can have her in place of the other two, provided that you pay cash and not cheque." Giovanni counted $900 and placed it on the table, "Wait, other two? What about the third guy?" he asked. "Meh, there's one guy with her right now, his time will be up soon, in like 10...."

Before he could finish, Giovanni made the run for it, after all, he knew where the place was. He skipped some steps just to get faster to the room. He forced the door open, thank goodness it wasn't locked. He found a 50 year old looking man between Ginger's legs. He was choking her while forcefully going in and out of her. It may have been just one night but Giovanni knew what a moan of pleasure sounded like from Ginger, this one sounded a bit more like pain.

He yanked the man off of Ginger, "Hey, what are you doing? I'm not finished yet!" Giovanni pushed him out of the room and threw his clothes out, locking the door afterwards so that he couldn't get in. "What the hell were you thinking?!" Giovanni started yelling at Ginger, "It's my job, I have to do it....just like I did it with you," Ginger said while covering her naked body with the pink sheets.

"Ginger, I didn't want that from you, I'm here because....to be honest, I can't help but feel that you deserve better," Giovanni sat down on the edge of the bed. Ginger started tearing, she wiped her eyes and said, "I don't want to talk to you, Giovanni, please.

Ginger put her head in her hands, she pushed her curled hair backwards. She looked up at Giovanni, waiting for him to get up and go. "Tell me, how much did you pay to walk into this room in the middle of my job?" She asked. ".....$900, but it was for the best, Ginger, I couldn't let them have you," Giovanni started to explain. Ginger looked away and started shaking her head.

"So it's the selfish side of you talking, right? You enjoyed me so much that you don't want anyone else to have a taste!" Giovanni sighed, he didn't know how to respond to that accusation. It wasn't true, but how was he going to make her understand that he was just trying to help? "How did a guy like you manage to pay that amount of money?" she asked.

"Well, you see, what you don't know is, I'm a CEO of one of the billionaire companies in Australia; G.SOR Inc." Giovanni answered as he began to pace around the room. Ginger's chuckle turned into laughter, "this all makes sense, how would a money making machine like you ever understand what a girl like me is doing here?" she looked him dead in the eye. Giovanni's back was facing her, she was right. He wasn't going to understand, but he wanted to try.

"If you could just let me in, talk to me, maybe I'd understand," he turned around slowly. "You know, I'm only 26 years old. If I really just wanted to use you, I probably would have bragged about being a CEO from the beginning. A lot of ladies these days really get hooked on the dollars that a guy makes more than they treasure his heart."

"So, what? You want me to treasure your heart?" Ginger chuckled, "Its too early but, I really want to care for you, please," Giovanni's eyes sparkled with innocence. He looked down and held the back of his neck. Ginger looked away, "Ingrid...."

He looked up at her to find out why she said that, "My real name is Ingrid, Ginger was a name that my boss gave to me, I liked it because it made me feel powerful, " she explained. Giovanni noticed a tear rolling down her cheek. He got up to wipe it off, "you were powerful enough to walk up to two guys fighting, I didn't need to know your name to see your power." Ingrid started to cry, she pulled his collar to kiss him, he clamped his hands on the sides of her face.