Alpha’s Virgin Stripper

JOJO:

The coming days went by in quite a blur for me. I spent most of my free time with Ashley, or on a call with Mel and Valerie. I had made it my point of duty to reach out to them, even if it was for only ten minutes, every day.

I was not going to repeat the same mistake I made the last time. The mistake of letting them be on their own while I lived the next thing to my best life over here. Ashley had also advised me to look towards opening a bank account, so Bentley could begin to deposit my money there, instead of giving me cash all the time. With a bank account, I could also work on acquiring a credit card and would not always have to fill my bag with wads of cash. It was not safe, and neither was it sane. She scolded me for sometimes having up to five thousand dollars. One day, when we were out to get snacks and my purse fell from my hands, it opened up and all the contents spilled on the ground, including all the extra cash I had earned from the night before. I lowered my head to the ground to pick them all up, but when I raised my head, Ashley was staring daggers at me. “Have you ever been robbed before, Jo?” She asked. When I shook my head, she nodded and turned to the cashier. She quietly paid for our snacks and walked ahead of me. Confused, I ran after her.

“Hey, Ash! Why would you ask me that?” I was curious to know. She turned her back to me and arched a brow, feigning ignorance. “Ask you what?” I frowned while panting behind her. Perhaps, it was finally time for me to take Bentley’s extra fitness classes a tad bit more seriously.

“If I had been robbed before,” I replied, even though I knew I did not need to. She flashed me a smile and opened her right arm, urging me to step under her arm.

When I did, she placed it over my shoulders. “You’re carrying that amount of money in your purse, it’s obvious you have not been taught a lesson or two before.” She continued. But, I was still confused.

And I was curious to know and understand the full concept of what she was speaking about. “I still don’t get you, Ash,” I muttered. She looked over at me. “We are going to get you a bank account on Friday, so you don’t even need to understand what I am saying.”

And that was all she said. Fast forward to Friday afternoon, with just three hours more to get ready for work, I stepped out of my account officer’s office, searching for the way back to the reception hall, where Ashley would be waiting for me.

When I found her, she had her eyes buried in the leaves of a novel she had been reading for over three weeks, her ears were plugged with her Air Pods, so I had to walk up to her and pull the buds from her ears.

She snapped on reflex first, before her face relaxed on seeing me. I laughed, I never thought I’ll ever see her that scared.

“Relax, I wasn’t trying to rob you,” I said aloud, in between laughs. I saw her trying to mask the laughter on her face.

“Ha-ha! Touche.” She stood up to leave. “Let’s go now, the other girls are waiting.” I nodded and followed her behind.

After my small ordeal, Zita had become colder toward me. If I thought she was cold before, she was Antarctica itself now, or the freaking North pole. Zelda and the other girls were slowly getting comfortable around me again. Frankly, that was more than enough.

Ashley and I took a cab from the bank and headed back to the Rush Empire building. To be honest, it did feel good to have my bank account. I could not wait to tell Mel that I would no longer have to return home to be able to give her any money she and Ley needed.

Better still, my account officer had made it clear to me that it would be easier to save like this. I had never needed to be aware of such things before, I had never even had enough money to need the services of a bank. It felt surreal, the good kind of surreal. We stepped into Rush Empire and took the elevator to the floor our rooms stood on.

I had noticed Ashley was absent-minded. She had been so since the last weekend, apart from when she instigated the heartfelt and heartwarming “tell us your dream” session with the girls. I wondered what it could be. Perhaps, she was having problems with Beta Kenji. That had to be it! I could remember Mel only got into this mood when she was having a lover fight with Shawn.

She would tell me how much she hated him and never wanted to see him again. But, once he called, she would jump over her couch and dive the phone to answer. She would fall in love with him all over again. Wait, my bad, she never fell out of love with him in the first place. Just like my mother.

It was annoying to watch them love people who they had fights with. If you loved someone, you were never supposed to fight with the person. You two were supposed to live a life filled with milk and honey together.

There were to be no misunderstandings, that was what love was. It never made the other person cry. But, what did I know? We got to the front of our doors and Ashley trotted past me. She looked as though she did not know where she was, or where she was heading to. I wanted to talk to her, but I decided against it. If I had anything to do with Beta Kenji, then she would tell me if she wanted me to know.

However, if this continued tonight, I would just have to ask her. “See you tonight Ash.” I waved when she opened her door. She cast me a small smile. “I’ll see you too.”

With that, I opened my door and stepped into my room. Just as I was about to close the door behind me, my phone rang in the side pocket of my denim min skirt. I reached out to my pocket for it, answered it, and pressed it to my right ear while I locked the door. “Hello?” “Princeton park police station. Am I speaking to Miss Jojo Wyatt?”