| ☠ | Devin's POV | ☠ |

"Heeyy Ange." I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck.

He was sitting at his vanity in his private room that was branched off from Chris' office. Chris didn't pay much mind to me coming in here, and Angelo was the one that left the door open.

He smiled, setting his make-up brush down. "How'd you get in here?"

I took my arms off of him, then shrugged. "Door was open." I said, walking towards a chair in the room. I grabbed it and sat down next to his vanity.

"You look good." Ange teased as he eyed me.

It wasn't in a sexual way. Our relationship together has always been purely platonic, but we joke around with each other like two chicks.

As far as his comment, I guess I looked decent. After all the years of my weight fluctuating, I was surprised I was thin enough to fit into my old stage costumes. (Not all of them fit, because I did go through a phase where I was almost anorexic, but that was short lived.) I was wearing my typical black booty shorts with a long sleeve crop top, and matching velvet choke collar.

That's kind of another one of Chris' odd traditions here; he likes us dancers to all wear choke collars. It works well because the patrons catch on well, and they can tell the dancers from bartenders and other club-goers.

I brushed off Ange's comment. "I try. You look hot as Hell."

He had on an assortment of necklaces against his bare chest. His black jeans hung low on his hips, revealing the waistband of his underwear. Over everything, Angelo was wearing a thin, long sleeve sweater with a hood.

He laughed as he went back to doing his makeup. "Thanks. Figure I should try to look good for my last week."

"Aaabbooouutt that..."

"Oh no." Angelo replied warily. "That tone is never good with you."

I smirked and giggled a tad. Then I propped my elbow on the side of his vanity, putting my chin in my hand. "For nostalgia purposes, and the fact we both could use the money since you'll be out of work and I'm dead broke... Are you up for doing one of our iconic performances together?"

Angelo fought a smile as he flashed back to the good old days. "I don't know, Dev... I mean Chris won't care but I don't know if I have it in me."

I set me free hand on his leg. "Oh, come on. We both know you do."

Angelo stared back at me as he thought it over. I didn't move my hand and in fact added in my puppy-dog eyes. Chris walked in as we were in this position.

"You aren't trying to put moves on my boyfriend, are you?" Chris teased.

I backed up a bit, snickered. "No, just trying to convince him of something."

Ange sighed. "Do you remember, like once a month, Devin and I would do a performance together?"

"Oh, do I remember!" Chris responded enthusiastically. "I could probably pay the bills for the month just off the traffic we got from those performances. I enjoyed them a little too much too."

"Well, he's trying to convince me to do one last one." He said. "I don't know if I have it in me anymore. I'm getting old, Babe."

Chris knelt down and put his arm over Ange's shoulder. He looked at their reflections in the mirror. "You look beautiful to me. If you don't want to do it, I understand, but you do still have it in you."

Angelo glanced over at me and sighed again. Then he softly smiled. "Okay. If you two insist."

I leaned over and hugged him. "Yay! I'll meet you stage side at nine!" I stood up and started to head for the door.

"See you then. And Devin, you aren't doing this just to impress someone, are you?"

I spun around for a second. "Mmmm... maybe." I chirped.

Angelo rolled his eyes and laughed. "If you say so."

| ☠ |

My first night back on the stage and I'm coming back swinging! It was a Friday night. The club was packed with guys (and even some girls) fresh off work. It's sad to see some of the same people are still coming back here! A positive though is, I saw Ricky sitting back on the bar top. His legs were crossed and back arched as he flirted with a burly guy.

However both the man and Ricky's attention were drawn to the stage when Balz started to go into announcing us. He was the club DJ, but he also recruited dancers for Chris when need be.

Angelo stood next to me. His hood was up now, shadowing over the perfectly done makeup on his pale face. He wasn't worried, because he's been doing this for like eight years. I'm a little rusty.

"We've got a treat for you all tonight. The return of a crowd favorite, Ghost." I heard the crowd cheer as he said that. Glancing out from behind the curtain again, I could see Ricky smiling. "He's accompanied by the amazing Angel. Give them some love."

Love. That's a funny concept in this business. There's a difference between lust and love. Though we sell lust, we must make people believe we're selling love. They come here to forget their problems. Go figure, so do I. Here we go...