by Denise Bayes
Suzon looks out at the cackling crowds. Friday night is always busy here. Conversation bounces from the ceilings. The whine of a singer warbles from the stage. Men order bottles of champagne for their paramours.
“Double the price, love,” the bar manager says. ‘They’ll never notice. Too busy trying to impress their lovers. ’
And the women alongside the gentlemen, some of them tarts just like her, some of them preening themselves in their wide-brimmed hats and their cheap jewellery, thinking being ‘an actress, Sir,’ or ‘a dancer in a review’ makes them better than her. Not knowing that Suzon and the other women all started with those same dreams of marriage and riches.
‘You’ll all end up like me with a price tag on you one day,’ Suzon mutters, under her breath so the bloke with the top hat lurking by the bar doesn’t hear her. Bad for business, women with opinions.
“Can I get you anything, Sir?” she asks, but he shakes his head, continues to stare past her towards the mirror on the wall.
Holding tight to the edge of the bar, she glances upwards. Her friend, Aimee, dangles from the trapeze, all glitter and sparkle. The men study her as she flies across between the chandeliers, their gazes lingering over the curves that her skin-tight green costume reveals. Aimee always does well with the gentlemen after her shows. Too well sometimes, returning to the tiny room they share above the pawn shop in the early hours, purple bruises already blooming on her skin, tears springing from her eyes.
‘A beer.’ The man with the tall hat has finally decided. As Suzon flips opens the bottle, he grabs one of the oranges from the glass bowl on the counter. She watches his long fingers stroke the dimpled skin in rough repetitive movements. Staring straight at her breasts, he tosses the fruit up and down, weighing it in his hand. She shivers.
‘And … an orange. Definitely an orange.’
‘Of course, sir.’ Suzon fixes a smile on her sadness and follows him through the labyrinth of tables into the darkness.
Denise Bayes’ writing has appeared in Ellipsis Zine, NZ Micro Madness, Oxford Flash, Free Flash Fiction, NFFD Anthology, 100 Word Story and Temple in a City. From North East England, she has lived in Italy, North Yorkshire and currently lives in Barcelona, Spain with her husband and a cavalier puppy called Rory, who is usually under her writing desk.
