Then, Alana laughs.
“Calm down,” she says. “You’re so easily riled up. All I did there was sing. Nobody ever saw me completely naked. The most they saw of me was everything that isn’t covered by a two-piece.”
“That’s still too much for the kinds of thoughts that must have been running through their heads,” I say.
She stares at me with a blank face for a moment. “What’s the difference between being in a two-piece on the beach versus a two-piece in a gentleman's club? No matter where I go or where Megan goes, despite what we’re dressed in, we’re going to be sexualized.” She says it all so casually, like the conversation bores her.
“But in a gentleman's club, they’re all there to purposefully sexualize women,” I tell her. “That’s the difference. And I don’t believe you kept your clothes on.”
She shrugs. “I’m not going to try to convince you that that’s all I did. I could really give a shit what you think,” she says easily.
“The night Megan left me, before I knew about you…What did my uncle say to you at the charity event?” I ask her cautiously.
She chugs her water, the plastic bottle crinkling as she drains it, and when she’s done, she takes in deep breaths.
“To Megan,” she corrects me but pauses. “He pretty much told Megan he’d pay her to screw her and give her a tip if she did it well.” I can feel my blood begin to boil.
“So, that’s why you scratched his face up like that.” It all makes sense now. Uncle George acted like he was the victim of an assault. I swallow down the bile my anger pushes up.
She stretches and lies back on the bed. “I was just doing what I do best.”
“What does that mean?”
She points her gaze at me and frowns. “Didn’t you hear me say it wasn’t enough food?” she says, annoyed, ignoring my question.
I sigh. Well, that’s the end of that conversation. I guess I could only get so much out of her. However, I leave the room feeling as if I just had a small victory. That was the most tamed discussion we’ve had since she arrived, and she didn’t make any of her cutting remarks. Other than judging me for never having been to a strip club, it could have been much worse. I actually smile when I get out into the hallway.
That was progress.
Despite eating six tacos, I thought she might want more. I take her tray back to the kitchen and load it up with the additional four I got her.
This feels like it was a turning point.
I hope it was.