Tea Leafing: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

sanctuary. During
her drug years, any tattered thing would do. The need for high quality pharmaceuticals
far surpassed the need for comfort.
    Sam had become a bit of
a homebody. Since she worked in a club, ‘going out’ was the furthest thing from
her mind during her off hours. She wanted to burrow into a comfy couch, wrap a
blanket around herself, crack open a book, and drink cocoa with marshmallows.
She craved the feel of safe surroundings. The first thing Sam treated herself
to was what she considered a ‘grown-up’ décor. She couldn’t help but feel
slightly guilty about the splurge, but she was proud as her gaze traveled
around the room, drinking in the space that looked like it was pulled from the
pages of Elle Décor . She earned it,
after all.
    Expenditures were no
longer calculated in dollar amounts. Table dances were the new unit of monetary
measure. Sam felt it was easier to buy something worth fifty table dances
rather than a thousand dollars. She would break it down in other ways too, like, it’s just two hours in a VIP room. Strange how dancers
would change their thinking about money since it came
and went so easily. There was always more to be made, and the young never have
the foresight to realize they’ll be too old to dance before they know it.
    When it looked like Sam
would lose her struggle with her addictions, her parents checked her into one
of the best treatment facilities in the country. Her father’s insurance plan
refused to cover the cost so they took out a second mortgage on her childhood
home. She knew her mom and dad didn’t regret it. Or if they did, they’d never
admit it. They always told her, “Possessions can be replaced, people can’t.”
She carried the guilt.
    Sam was stashing money
away to pay off their mortgages. When she started dancing, she guessed it would
take her a year to earn the money. She’d underestimated the amount she’d make
dancing. She’d also underestimated the funds required to maintain herself . The yearly cost of make-up, costumes, hairpieces,
waxing, lasers, nails, tanning, massages and acupuncture, just to keep her
upright and earning, was more than most people make. She realized quickly that
the ‘spend money to make money’ adage applied ten-fold in this business.
    Sam had often thought
of returning to a more low-key office job and living like the rest of the
world. The growing gap in her resume would make the hunt increasingly
difficult. Compound that with taking a hundred and twenty thousand dollar a
year pay-cut made the decision difficult at best. She struggled with her
feelings of greed. Just one more year and
I’ll quit , she would tell herself, knowing she’d heard herself say the same
words about her first love — drugs.
    She pulled the soft
Alpaca afghan off the back of the couch and over her body. The feel of the
fabric nest comforted her, allowing her to put off decisions for just a little
while longer. She   slipped easily into a dreamless sleep.

 
 
 
    CHAPTER 5
    Returning to work the
following evening, Sam heard Gio’s mother, Pietra Maria Speranza DiFrancesco,
approach before actually seeing her. Even over the din of the club, the sound
and smell of Pietra was unmistakable. The click-clack-smacking sound of kitten
heels, the jangle of gold chains and the heavy scent of slightly fermented
Halston laced medicinal cream, were sure signs Pietra was near.
    In the middle of a
table dance for an engineer from Boise, Sam flipped her hair and moved slowly
in time with the music. Turning her back to her customer, she spotted the third
generation Italian’s orange hair a few yards away at the top of the steps of
the main floor. Judging by the hairspray lacquered style, Sam was certain Pietra had a weekly standing appointment at her favorite salon
to have her hair ‘set’.
    Pietra plunked her
hands on her ample hips as if all she was surveying was hers, and hers alone.
Her elbows stuck straight out from her body, making passage