A Moment Of Empathy

"What ? No, I'm very sorry but I couldn't do that. I'm not a stripper. I'm a serious business woman. Surely you can explain you've got a sick child ? They're bound to understand" replied Debbi. "You've obviously never worked in the gig economy" sighed Kaitlynne ruefully. "No sick pay, no fancy health care plans. No work, no pay. Make too many waves, miss too many gigs, no job. I only got away with tonight by the skin of my teeth and by sheer luck because of what happened with you."

"I do sympathize" said Debbi "But apart from anything else, I wouldn't know where to start going about stripping anyway."

"But they loved you tonight it seems" Kaitlynne argued, showing Debbi the messages she'd unlocked from her phone. "They did, she was great" confirmed Derek who'd been listening in amusement. "That's as maybe but I've no idea where that came from earlier. Somewhere in my subconscious or something I guess, convincing me I was you and I was supposed to be a stripper. I couldn't just go in somewhere cold and start taking my clothes off. Can't one of the other girls fill in ? From the agency or whoever it is you work for ?" suggested Debbi. "They're a ruthless bunch. It's cut throat. They'd want to muscle in and take all my regular spots away from me" answered Kaitlynne. "Look, I wouldn't ask otherwise but I'm really ****."

The baby began to howl again, in obvious distress. The Jack Russell jumped up on the couch alongside Debbi, casting puppy dog eyes and nuzzling her hand. "Carol was only telling me the other day that you've got a backlog of leave stacked up that you should've taken Deb. I'm sure you could take a break next week."

It was pretty obvious to Debbi that Kaitlynne was in a single parent situation. She didn't dare quiz the girl about her family. This could have been her in another lifetime, under different sliding door circumstances. "How many gigs have you got exactly ?" she said finally. I always was a soft hearted fool, she chastised herself as soon as she had spoken !