Free Wiser by Lexie Ray

already.
    He looked at my guileless face and smiled, tracing down my jaw with his fingers.
    “I’m glad that you’ll never forget,” he said. “Now, let’s get cleaned up.”
    The shower was just as hot as the bed, and we had sex under the hot spray of water, Emil taking me from behind. I could’ve stayed in the room with him for the entire night.
    When I finally got out of the shower, Emil was nearly already dressed, giving worried glances at his watch.
    “In a hurry?” I asked lazily, taking the towel from my body and using it to dry my hair.
    “I am,” he admitted. “I’m very sorry to be, because I want nothing more than to fall into bed with you again, but I must go.”
    “I understand,” I said, smiling. “We all have places to go.”
    Emil finished buttoning the cuffs of his silk shirt and stopped to kiss me before heading to the door. He reached into his pocket and peeled off a hundred dollar bill from what looked like many more. He rubbed it between my breasts before putting it in the palm of my hand.
    “I’ll never forget this, either,” he said, smiling as he rubbed my lip with his thumb. When he let himself out, Cocoa slipped in.
    “I hope you all had as good a time as it sounded like,” she said rakishly, leering a little at Emil.
    “Absolutely,” he said, grinning. “I have to run, though.”
    Cocoa shut the door and dropped her smile.
    “Probably to go home to his wife,” she said, her voice sarcastic. “Everything go okay?”
    “Better than okay,” I said, waving the hundred dollar bill in front of her, not caring that I was naked as the day I was born in front of Cocoa. She was my roommate and had already seen me in varying degrees of undress.
    Cocoa smiled at me. “Good girl,” she said. “That’s extra money, just for you. You must have really impressed him.”
    “I’m going to charge everyone I sleep with for now on, whether I work here or not,” I announced, grinning. “This is too good to pass up. I can’t believe I was giving it up for free for so long.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” Cocoa said, laughing. “Now get dressed so you can get your butt back downstairs and make some more money.”
    I found my bra easily enough, slipping it around my torso and fastening it in the back. I put my shirt on next for the simple fact that it was on top. But when I went to find my panties, they were nowhere to be found.
    “You seen my panties?” I asked Cocoa, pulling the covers back from the bed and even checking beneath it.
    “I see that pale ass sticking up in the air, but no panties,” Cocoa joked.
    “Son of a bitch!” I exclaimed. “Emil stole my panties!”
    Cocoa looked at me, her face blank, before she burst into deep belly laughter.
    “Looks like you made such an impression on him that he wanted to take home a little souvenir,” she said, slapping her knees as she fought for control, tears of mirth running down her cheeks.
    I couldn’t help but laugh about it, too. Emil was likely long gone, and I’d probably never see him again. Plus, it tickled me to see how amused Cocoa was by the whole thing.
    “I’m going to moon you all night long,” I promised her, giving up on the search and pulling on my skirt, sans panties. Going commando was doable, but I’d have to go out and get new panties to match my pretty blue bra.
    “Blue moon,” she said, launching into a fresh round of chortles.
    When we got back downstairs, Mama flashed me a happy smile and gave me two thumbs up. It was apparent that Emil had sung my praises before leaving. I wondered if Mama had any idea that he’d made off with my panties.
    The dull ache of sex was even more delicious without panties as I picked up a couple of drink orders at the bar, mixing two martinis and serving them to one of the girls to take to a table.
    Life at Mama’s nightclub was fun, I decided, and I was going to be able to save up tons of cash for art school.
    How wrong I was.

Chapter Three
     
     
     
    Thinking back on the