Brenda Cowden stepped out of the club’s back door and took a long draw.  She tried to stop her legs from shaking. When they wouldn’t, she finally sat in the alley beside two days of garbage and a leaky dumpster.  The cigarette  slipped from her fingers to smolder in a pile of refuse.

“Put that thing out.” Her roommate Annie left the club as well and crushed the smoke under her heel. “What went wrong in there?”

“I got fired.”

“Because you’ve got limits on lap dances?”

“No. Rob says I’m hiding tips.”

“Oh.” Annie screwed up her lips. “Well, let’s go down the street and put in at Shimmy-Shebang.”… Read the rest