Chapter 1468

Catch Me If You Can-
When I’m up there under the lights with my tassels twirling and the 24-carat smile frozen on my face, I pick someone. Someone sitting in the lightspill at the end of the runway, someone quiet. Not one of the whoopers or the ones whose mouths hang wide open like they’re trying to inhale the whole damn atmosphere in one gulp. My preference is someone who looks a little uncomfortable. A guy with the hint of a healthy blush tickling his gills. I lock eyes with him. Give it a bit of sauce-and-wink. Shrug my shoulder like I’ve got a little suggestion to make. Give me a shy one with nervous eyes and maybe a little quirking dimple, and that’s it, I’m hooked.
And then I wheel the character out – the bearded lady, the mermaid caught in the fishing net, the spacegirl floating in the most peculiar way, whatever. So long as I have someone to latch onto, to hook my eyes on, I’m good. I dance for him and forget the sea of eyes that follow my tits like they’re watching a fast rally at Wimbledon. With luck, we’ll turn all the arseholes into angels by the end of the night anyway. Marcia will have them eating out of her hand, despite her subversive tattoos, and Joelle will win the hearts of the most misguided leerers – flutter her diamante lashes and blow them a kiss like she’s lobbing a perfumed hand grenade.