Cold Hard Cash: A Story of Erotica by Bebe Wilde Read Free Book Online Page A

omelet?” he asked.
    I picked up the fork and took a bite and it melted like butter in my mouth. “Oh, my God!” I moaned. “That is delicious!”
    He grinned. “I make the best. We use my recipe at the diner.”
    “The one I saw you at last night?” I asked curiously.
    He nodded. “Yeah, I own it. It’s mine. Well, I own it with a business partner.”
    My mouth dropped. Not only was he a stripper, but he was an entrepreneur, too? Wow. Was he, like, real? I mean, I’d never come across a man like this if he wasn’t in some romantic comedy or something. It was a little weird. I felt a little weird. And he could cook! WTF!
    “So, let me get this straight,” I said. “You own a diner and you are a stripper?”
    “I own the showcase, too,” he said. “But I’ll retire in a few years. I can’t do this much longer. I’m in my thirties now.”
    “But you’re a stripper,” I said, thinking he was skewing my whole view of the world. Weren’t strippers supposed to be, like, bad with money and not exactly intelligent? Where had I heard that? Had I heard that or just made assumptions? I didn’t know. The next thing I knew, he would tell me he was doing this to pay for college.
    “I got into it to pay for college,” he said.
    I almost fell out of my chair.
    “But then I realized I liked it and the money is great,” he said. “And I figured out if I saved some money, I could have a house. So I saved and bought this condo. I would have built up equity, too, if only the housing market was worth a shit now.”
    I just stared at him. Was he for real?
    “Then I began to understand that I was working for someone and they were making all the money while I did all the work. So, I formed my own dance company. We do gigs all over the country and even some outside the country, too. Australian girls love us.”
    I just stared at him again. How was I supposed to respond to that? I couldn’t think of anything so I said, “I’ve always wanted to go to Australia.”
    He pointed at me and winked. “Next time we go, you can come with me.”
    Come with him? I couldn’t help but glance at the door. What was going on? Had I entered the Twilight Zone or something? This guy was acting like… Well, like he liked me. I mean, I know he liked me, I just didn’t think he liked me.
    “Australia is so cool,” he said. “The Great Barrier Reef? Oh, you have to see that!”
    Was he going to take me? I checked him out. He was acting like he really wanted me to go with him. So I got a free trip out of this? WTF? No, seriously, what the fuck?
    “But, yeah,” he said, leaning on the counter. “I had to be smart, my parents taught me that. I told them I was a stripper and after they got over the shock and realized they couldn’t change my mind, they told me to save that money and invest it. I did. I’ve been smart with my investments, too. I mean, I want to have plenty for when I have a family, you know? I want to get married and have kids. Don’t you?”
    I was going to pass out. I had never had a guy talk about marriage within the first twenty-four hours of meeting them. In fact, most avoided it like the plague, like if they spoke of it, I’d be all over them, begging them to marry me. Sure, they were assholes, but still. This was the reason my ex and I broke up. He didn’t want to get married. But then, maybe that was because there was something wrong with him. He was a few years older than me and still running around like he was in his early twenties, going to bars and trying to pick up women. In a few years, he was going to look pathetic. But me? What about me? How did I look? I didn’t know.
    “Myra?” he said. “What about you? Don’t you want to get married?”
    “You’re not for real, Cold Hard Cash,” I told him.
    “What do you mean?”
    “You’re just not real.”
    “Are you saying I’m fronting?”
    “Are you?”
    “I am not,” he said.
    “Listen, I want to have more sex with you,” I said. “You