Success Driven
Stories similar to this that you might like too.
It was a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon, the kind that made people say it must be summer. And yet, here in the parking lot of The Pit’s back alley, it seemed to rain on everyone. Not just for the ones who were standing out there getting soaked by the drizzle that came down from the gray sky over the city but also for the ones who had to work inside the club.
There was no air conditioning at The Pit so if you were working up front with the dancers or behind the bar, then your day could be miserable. As far as I knew, none of our group had to worry about working in either venue since we all had jobs that would keep us dry and warm this time of year.
At least, until one of the bouncers got sick or hurt, or someone decided to make an issue out of not wanting to get wet during their shift, then we’d all have to take turns. But today’s weather wasn’t going to slow down most of the customers coming into the club looking for fun.
The rain fell steadily, and the wind was blowing hard enough to push against us with each gust. We weren’t used to this kind of weather in Denver; it usually didn’t happen very often here. If you wanted to know why all you needed to do is go back five years ago when we were hit with some really bad storms.
It caused a lot of problems then, but we hadn’t seen anything like those conditions in recent times. Even now, while this rain might not seem much, it could still cause serious trouble if we had a few more days like this.
The wind pushed harder. The clouds looked dark and ominous, and they threatened to open up on us anytime. We were standing outside the back door of the club, waiting to see what the bouncer would bring over to let us in.
“This has been an odd spring,” I said to my friend, Lainey. “We’ve had too many days of this wet stuff.”
As she nodded her agreement, Lainey reached out and grabbed the sleeve of a passing customer wearing an old leather jacket. He was young but already showing signs of age in the way his hair was thinning at the crown of his head. A pair of aviator-style sunglasses hung around the neck of his tattered denim jacket.
I noticed that he was holding a guitar case tightly under one arm. That meant he probably had something good to play when we took him inside.
Lainey leaned close to his ear as she spoke: “Come in and tell me your name later, mister.” Then she winked at both me and my other friend, Amber. “But you can’t tell your buddies how great you are, okay?”
She smiled broadly at him then turned away from him and waited for the bouncer to show up.
Amber and I stood watching the man walk toward the back entrance of The Pit. He was heading straight toward where we were waiting. Amber was tall with black hair and brown eyes, and she was beautiful even though it was easy to see that her body had given way to pregnancy.
She was due any day now, but she wouldn’t miss a night of dancing for anyone—not even for her baby. I’m shorter than Amber but a little broader, and I’ve always thought I had a pretty good physique for my height and build.
My curly blond hair is short enough to make me look younger than my twenty-six years but long enough to hang loosely past my shoulders. I’d shaved my head once, and it was the only thing that really stuck because the rest of my hair never grew out properly.
Most guys like having a nice full beard or mustache, but that wasn’t going to work for me; it would just end up being painful for me to manage. Besides, the last time I tried shaving my head, it didn’t stay bald like I planned and looked like I’d gone through puberty again. So, instead, I kept growing out my hair as long as possible.
My friend Amber was also expecting a baby but didn’t have nearly as big a belly as Lainey. Her face was rounder, and she wore it well. She was the kind of girl who always attracted attention. The moment Amber started moving her hips across the floor, men and women alike couldn’t help but notice how sensual she looked.
For them, it wasn’t just her looks that were sexy—it was her confidence in herself that made them want to watch for hours at a time. But for me, it was more than that; it was how much effort Amber put into making sure she gave every single dance everything she had.
In a world where many dancers were half-interested in performing in front of people, Amber was a rare exception. And I knew she’d be giving it all to whoever walked in the door tonight.
The wind blew harder, pushing at my hair, and my clothes suddenly felt cold against my skin. The clouds continued to blow, throwing heavy droplets of water against us with each gust. This storm was starting to take shape, and I wasn’t looking forward to it.
“What do you think?” I asked Amber.
“It’s coming fast.”
“We’ll see.” I shrugged my shoulders. “If it rains hard enough, maybe we should close early tonight.”
Amber laughed. “No way am I missing this show.”
The door opened, and a short, squat guy in a leather trench coat walked out. It looked like he was about to break into a run. We all tensed up as he ran toward us. His arms were crossed tightly over his chest, and he seemed angry. The bouncer was behind him, and it looked like he was trying to catch up to the man in the trench coat.
“He must be pissed,” Amber said.
“Or maybe he got a look at our asses,” I said.
She rolled her eyes and chuckled as she watched the man get closer. “Yeah, if we weren’t married men, we’d probably want to go home before he does.”
Her words sent a jolt of electricity through me. I felt myself start to blush. It was the first time she’d ever teased me in such a manner. Amber could easily make a joke about someone else’s ass when it came to sex, but she almost never dared speak of mine without my permission.
“Don’t let it bother you, Mike,” she continued. “You’re better than this guy will ever be.”
That compliment brought a smile to my lips; it made me feel special and appreciated. As a couple of girls began walking past us on the sidewalk outside, their heads swiveled around quickly to stare at me with hungry stares. I knew it wasn’t a coincidence that they saw me right after my wife talked about my own attractiveness. They were definitely checking me out.
Amber was already staring at them with a scowl on her face.
One of them stopped and looked straight at me, and she smiled brightly. Her mouth curled slightly, and she lifted her eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion. There wasn’t any doubt that she wanted to know what I was doing out here with my shirt unbuttoned so high.
I glanced down at my stomach, wondering if it showed off my gut too badly. Then my mind went blank as a memory flashed through my brain: Amber wearing nothing but that same smile while dancing naked under the lights. She was so wet and hot then, and I had no way to keep from touching her.
All I cared about was getting inside her. And that meant fucking her until we both fell onto the floor, breathless and exhausted.
I felt a twinge of guilt as my cock stirred at the sight of these three girls, but I pushed the feeling away. These girls were only passing by because their boyfriends were inside. They didn’t care about anything but what was happening there, not even if I were to take them upstairs with me right now. I wasn’t interested in them like that.
And as long as Amber didn’t find out what happened, neither would she.
But I wouldn’t lie to my wife about this.
I stepped up to the man in the trench coat and offered him a hand. He ignored the gesture completely, turning toward me and letting out a deep sigh. I recognized him as a regular at the club, and I thought perhaps he was waiting for someone to walk out.
Instead, he pulled back his head and spat directly in my face.
I stumbled backward in shock, falling onto the sidewalk and knocking one of the girls running by to fall flat on her ass. The other girl looked back in alarm, and it took me a few seconds to realize why: Blood was dripping down from the side of my face where the saliva hit my cheek.
“What the fuck?!” I shouted angrily.
The man in the trench coat was still spitting at me, so I jumped to my feet and punched him square in the jaw. I’d never fought anyone before in my life, but I figured I had a good chance of winning. My punches landed solidly on his face, sending him spinning into the street below. His legs folded up underneath him, causing him to roll several times across the pavement.
Someone shouted for me to stop, but I was already halfway across the street. When I got to the curb, I turned my attention to Amber and the two girls standing in front of us. All three of them were staring at me, wide-eyed and pale-faced.
“Is there something you need, ladies?” I asked them.
They looked confused. One of them was crying.
“Mike, what—” Amber started to ask me, but she trailed off as soon as she saw the blood leaking from her husband’s mouth.
She screamed, pushing herself against my chest to wrap her arms around me tight. But instead of wrapping her legs around mine, she wrapped them around her friend’s waist. The girl who had fallen over was still lying face down on the sidewalk, so she wasn’t really blocking us anymore.
Then Amber grabbed hold of me tightly, her eyes closed and tears flowing freely from her eyes. She buried her head into my shoulder, and her cries were muffled by her hair.
It was a good thing she did that because I couldn’t see shit at all without my glasses. It took a minute or so for them to clear my vision enough for me to look at Amber again. She was sitting straight up on my lap now, sobbing quietly.
And although she seemed to be calming down a little, her breathing was labored, and the redness around her cheeks and nose told me that she was having trouble keeping her emotions in check.
We weren’t close friends with this couple, just friendly acquaintances. So why do I feel such a heavy burden of guilt? I don’t deserve it at all. I haven’t done anything wrong. But I can’t push past these feelings anyway, not when they’re coming from a place within myself I never knew existed.
“Mike, are you okay?” Amber said suddenly, pulling back from me to stare deeply into my eyes.
Her gaze made me nervous. Had she somehow found out what I’d been hiding from her all along? Or maybe this was a new development, one she hadn’t discovered yet. Whatever it was, I didn’t want to answer the question for fear of what she might think of me after seeing what I’d done.
Amber reached up to touch my cheek, and her fingers came away stained with my blood. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
I shook my head rapidly, trying to shake my mind free of all of these unwanted thoughts. “No, I’m fine,” I lied.
There was an awkward silence between us. I kept glancing at Amber every so often, hoping that my wife would notice that blood was leaking from more than just my mouth. But her concern remained focused on my eyes.
“Did you have an accident? You know how much the clubs bother you,” Amber finally said in an attempt to cover for me. “You can stay home with me if you need some rest.”
It was sweet of her to try. I wanted to tell her everything. To explain what happened. How it wasn’t really my fault—that the man who’d spit at me had threatened Amber, too. That I’d tried to protect her.
But I was too afraid to say any of it, even when her soft hand ran gently through my hair.
“Come inside with me,” I heard someone say. I looked up to see that it was one of the girls who’d been standing next to Amber, leaning forward with her hands covering her mouth. Now that she’d seen me bleeding, she had no doubt realized that her friend had caused the injury.
“That man is my uncle! He’s sick!”
“Who?” Amber asked anxiously.
The girl looked at her blankly. “Oh…he lives right upstairs.” Then she glanced at her friend, who still appeared shell-shocked. “You should go ahead and call the cops, then, honey.”
As soon as we stepped into the lobby of the apartment building, I could see that the door to Amber’s sister’s room was open. I didn’t wait long before hurrying over to find out what was going on. When I got close to the open doorway, I smelled something sour and stale and immediately regretted the decision.
But I knew that I had to take a look anyway; the girls’ safety was way more important than my own pride.
When I pushed through the curtains, I found Amber’s sister lying facedown in her bed. She didn’t respond to my greeting, but she was shaking violently, which left me no doubt that I was dealing with a drug addict or alcoholic. I quickly pulled back the covers to confirm my suspicions.
What was left of my face turned bright red again as I stared at what looked like half a dozen different types of narcotics, needles, and other paraphernalia lying beside her, mixed together on the thin hospital blanket?
I’d known Amber’s sister wasn’t perfect, but I’d never seen her act this way before. She’d always seemed like such a well-behaved young lady, and certainly, she must’ve been raised better than this. What was it about Amber’s mother that had caused such a drastic change?
I felt bad for Amber, having to deal with all of these problems on top of her normal day-to-day worries. This was one problem she probably needed help with, rather than me.
I walked out of the room with the intention of leaving Amber alone to deal with things on her own. But the moment I saw the girls outside again, my feet took over without warning. I headed straight for them, not knowing what I planned to do. It wasn’t until I reached my target that I finally decided.
“Hey there,” Amber greeted brightly. “How was your day?”
Her tone of voice suggested that she’d been expecting to see her two friends for quite some time now. The girls looked worried when they noticed that it was actually Mike who approached them.
“Uh…” the girl who’d spoken to me said nervously.
She started to turn toward the doorway, but she couldn’t pull her gaze off of me. I knew instantly why she was staring, and I hated myself for allowing the situation to develop in this particular fashion.
My wife and I were both still in our wedding clothes from the ceremony we’d held last night. If Amber hadn’t been wearing her white dress with lace detailing, I could very easily have mistaken her for a prostitute herself. I’d seen her in her underwear once before, but I’d hardly considered it a romantic encounter.
And although she’d worn skimpy swimsuits and bikinis during the times we went swimming, we weren’t even dating, so she might’ve been doing whatever it was she did then because she was comfortable around me and simply wanted to be attractive in my eyes.
This was different: She wore a simple blue dress made from cotton material that showed off plenty of skin without looking cheap, and her makeup had been carefully done by professionals. It was easy to think of her as a woman who enjoyed sex for the sake of pleasure—but not tonight, when she’d just married another man.
Amber’s smile faltered for a second when her friends realized my intentions. She had no idea what she’d just invited into her life, but she would have a few minutes before she understood exactly what was going on.
“I’m so sorry,” I repeated for the third time. “But I can’t let you leave here without telling you the truth.”
The girls looked back and forth between us curiously, but neither spoke up yet. After a pause, Amber added, “Is there anything else I need to know about my father?”
“No, he’ll be out of town until tomorrow evening. You’re safe for now.”
For some reason, that didn’t seem to reassure either girl as much as it should’ve.
I turned to leave, but Amber’s words caught my attention before I could get away. “Wait a minute…Mike?”
She hesitated for a brief moment, searching my eyes with an uncertainty that I’d rarely seen in someone so strong-minded. Then she finally nodded and said, “Yes?”
That was the best choice Amber could make right now. She had a lot more to lose if her new husband was discovered as a fake and sent packing before she knew any better, while she also needed to protect the girls from being dragged into it. That was how a real family behaved, and Amber should’ve been acting like a part of one by now.
Still, I couldn’t stop wondering if this was really a wise thing to do. She needed a partner in crime for a good cause, not someone like me. But the longer she delayed, the harder it would be to convince Amber that she didn’t want this marriage. And I had a feeling it wouldn’t matter what I told her.
The End