Into The Fire by E. L. Todd

You’re gorgeous—on the inside as well as the outside.”
    She tucked her hair behind her ear. “You
hardly know me.”
    “I’m really good at reading people. I know
you well enough.”
    “Well…that’s sweet of you to say.”
    “You won’t stay single long,” I said. “Not
with legs like that.”
    She smiled slightly but it didn’t seem
genuine.
    “What’s your story?” I asked.
    “Meaning?”
    “When was your last relationship?”
    “You’re paying for my time,” she said. “We
don’t need to talk about me.”
    “I wouldn’t have asked unless I wanted to
know.”
    She sighed then looked away. “It’s kind of
hard for me to talk about…”
    I knew this was going to be a sad story and I
wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear it. “There’s no judgment here.”
    “Well…I was with this guy for about a year
and I was really happy…”
    He cheated on her . That’s where the
story ended. Who would be stupid enough to cheat on Alessandra?
There was no way in hell a guy could find someone better.
    “Then my appendix burst and I needed
emergency surgery. I didn’t have health insurance and the surgery
was a lot. There was other damage because I’d waited so long.”
    That’s not where I expected the story to
go.
    “The surgery was twenty-five grand and I
didn’t have that kind of money. I didn’t know what to do and the
collectors kept calling me so…”
    I was sitting on the edge of my seat.
    “I decided to strip—short term. I just needed
to earn the cash to pay the bill. I didn’t tell anyone…but Tony
walked inside and caught me in the act. He left me without looking
back, saying I was a whore for getting naked in front of
people…that was four months ago.”
    Was she serious? He just left her? “What a fucking asshole.”
    “I told him why I did it but he wouldn’t
listen to me.”
    “What the fuck was he doing in there to begin
with?” I snapped. “Talk about a damn hypocrite.”
    “He was with his friends…” Her eyes were
downcast.
    “That’s unacceptable. He had no right to be
mad at you.”
    She fidgeted with her hands. “I don’t
know…”
    “You did what you had to do to survive.” I
did much worse things overseas. There were things I’d never speak
of. But I didn’t have a choice. I had to kill or be killed.
Sometimes things weren’t always black and white. Situations were
complicated and existed in shades of gray. “If he judges you for
that, then he’s a piece of shit. You needed to pay for the surgery
and you didn’t know what else to do. He had no right to make you
feel bad about that.”
    “I guess…”
    “Don’t let him bring you down. It’s a good
thing he left anyway because you’re too good for him.”
    “Yeah?” She looked to me for assurance. “You
don’t think I’m a whore…for doing that?”
    “No. Absolutely not. I think he’s a pig for
walking into that strip club to watch girls get naked then turning
around and calling you names for being on the stage. That’s
low.”
    “I guess I should have told him the truth
but…I was afraid of how he would react. And I had almost made all
the money I needed. If I just had another weekend, he wouldn’t have
known.”
    I shook my head. “You should love people no
matter what they do, the good and the ugly. You should stand by
their side and support them, not desert them. You aren’t the one
who should feel ashamed. He should.”
    She took a deep breath and released it. “It’s
nice to hear that for once…”
    I put my arm around her and pulled her close
to me without thinking. “I think more highly of you now that you
told me that.”
    “Really?”
    “Really.”
    She rested her head on my shoulder. “Thank
you…”
    “Of course.” I ran my hand up and down her
back to comfort her. The dress she wore was thin, and I could feel
all the small muscles in her back. She was thin enough that I could
feel her spine. “Don’t let him make you feel bad. You did