The Butterfly House (2 page)

Nolan ~
Two

The atmosphere at
The Butterfly House
felt intense, almost electrifying. Sam and I watched as girl after girl come out onto the stage and perform their routine. They actually dressed with care and put on a very seductive show before taking off their clothes. Lotus
was the main event of the night. When the lights dimmed and the music started I felt my heart beating heavily like a drum all over, even in my ears. The music was dark, slow but with a rhythm that felt almost heart-breaking and erotic at the same time. I was torn between closing my eyes to feel the music and keeping them open because I knew
she
was about to come out on the stage any second.

I was glad I kept them open but I'm pretty sure my mouth dropped in shock. Lotus had legs that went on forever – long and shapely. She shared them as she walked down the stage, turning slightly to look out over the crowd. I saw a flash of what looked like a tattoo on her left ankle. Upon a second longer look, I saw a butterfly entwined with a  lotus, the colors were amazing, purple, red and yellow. The tattoo and its blend of colors added to her allure.  She was not just beautiful but hauntingly pretty.  Her hair was a deep red, very long with highlights. She wore the color sage green like it belonged to her. She also had curves in all the right places. She took her time keeping in tune with her music as she danced. She sat in a beautiful divan sofa that sat on the side of the stage. She rolled a stocking down her leg as if it were a long-lost lover, taking her time as well with the other stocking. Then slowly she peeled her panties down her legs and dropped them onto the stage. But the way she was seated you couldn't see her fully nude, her pussy was merely a shadow hidden between her gently closed legs. She carefully flipped her long hair over the back of the sofa as she leaned back further. She caressed her own arms gently, then her cupped her very full breasts still in her corset.

When she reached for her corset, I saw her head turn and the stage light caught what looked like tears in her eyes. I felt myself drawn in as I stared at her, she noticed me and smiled directly at me as if it never happened. But it had happened I saw it. From that moment on my heart felt like it had been pulled on.

What happened next I was not expecting. She began to sing, in this deep soulful voice. The music we had been listening to had blended right with her voice. She sang of love and desire but it felt bittersweet. I was speechless as the song ended and the lights on the stage went out. When the main lights came back on, she was gone and so was my heart.

Ava

I wanted so much for this not to of have happened. I am only in my second semester at NYU and everything has gone horribly wrong. I'm terrified to ask my parents for money. It's not that they'd say no but they'd say no to what I am doing. It's my own fault I find myself in this situation but is it really wrong that I thought of another life besides my own? I don't believe so. I had to do the right thing, even if it meant my life had to change.

Dancing at The Butterfly House was not exactly where I wanted to be at this moment in my life but the money is what I desperately need right now.  Why was it that
money
was always the one thing in life we could not survive without?

Tiny little sighs were coming from the little incubator. Tossing my text book onto the chair, I walked over to him. Tiny little arms and legs were pumping as I saw his little face getting all geared up to cry. He was a fighter and I was so tired. I didn't care though, he was precious to me. It was two am and I had an anatomy test tomorrow but it would wait and so would sleep. I had to be here for him.

I called him baby Miles. He was only a few days old but he was mine. He had soft blond hair and the bluest eyes. I was all he had in this world right now and I was going to take care of him, even if it meant taking off my clothes every night in a huge roomful of people.

Miles had been born prematurely. He has what's called patent ductus arteriosus, known as PDA.

We have a blood vessel that connects the aorta (the main artery to the body) and the pulmonary artery (the main artery to the lungs), called the ductus arteriosus. This opening usually closes shortly after birth. A PDA occurs when this opening does not close after birth.

He was being given medication, Indomethacin through an IV to help close the opening.  This medication worked to stimulate the muscles inside the PDA to constrict, causing the connection to close. I was praying this would work. The cost of his care was already breaking me and if this did not work then he might need surgery. I didn't want to ask my parents for help. I could handle this alone, I had to.

I felt tears sting my eyes. I was so very afraid for him. I had no idea how I was going to come up with the money but I would do it. I smiled, wiping away my tears as the duty nurse came in to check on his vitals. I wasn't really supposed to be here but because of his critical situation and my schedule they allowed it. I watched as the nurse took his vitals. I held his tiny little hand the entire time.

Nolan ~
Three

I was officially never going to sleep again. I couldn't stop thinking about
her
. I wondered what her real name was. It was not
Lotus
, I'm sure that was what they called a stage name dancers used. I would never insult her by calling her a stripper, she might have shared views of her nude body; however she also graceful and that
voice
– it was like having your cock as well as your heart stroked. I meant that in a good way. A man should always desire a woman who captured his heart and made his body sing.

I stopped myself right there. God I was not going to fall for another
Monica Lansing
. I loved Monica from the moment I first met her, I could deny her nothing. That was my downfall.

Just hearing her name was like having my heart pulled on. It was getting a little less painful when I faced it, even if I was only talking it out in my own mind. Monica was the reason I moved to New York. I had had a small glass business in Mesquite, Texas but my sales were all over the United States. I had just begun to do business overseas. I had hand-crafted wedding rings for a couple in New Orleans, Jason and Morgan Delaware. Mr. Delaware had wanted a set of wedding bands that were unique. His wife Morgan loved copper, so with rose gold looking very close to copper, we made the center of the rings in rose gold and the outer sides of the rings a periwinkle purple and dark teal glass blown together to form the colors like ice cream swirls. Morgan had called me herself to let me know just how much she loved my work and the design.

Monica had lured me out here to New York City. I will admit my business has come a long way; however what happened between us was enough to make me want go back home to Texas. I refused however to make it that easy for her. We moved here on the pretext that she was pregnant with my child. My business was going to grow if we just stepped outside of my comfort zone. When I think back on it, I should have delved more deeply into the situation. The pregnancy was unexpected but I loved children so I never questioned her motives.

We made the move. I spent all of my hard-earned savings on a huge condo and leased a building for my business, all in downtown Manhattan. At first it was all so overwhelming. I grew up in Texas, where we rarely saw snow and never ice storms. My first year in Manhattan I was homesick for homemade tamales and my family.  Monica never wanted to leave the city to go anywhere. At first I spent long hours getting my business running, and after a few months I started to wonder why every time I asked Monica about the baby – or getting engaged at the very least, she changed the subject. Her body never seemed to grow with the pregnancy like other women, I had just assumed it was because she was always watching her figure. 

One night I left work early hoping to take her to dinner and surprise her with a ring and ask her to marry me. The surprise was on me however. She was home I saw her keys on the table inside our front door. I heard laughter as I set down my briefcase and dropped my own keys on the kitchen counter. We obviously had a visitor.

I realized the laughter was not coming from our living room but from our bedroom. The laughter was a mixture of my wife and another woman. I recognized Monica's moan as I walked down the hallway. I could feel myself getting anxious as I approached our bedroom door. The door was ajar, I pushed it open.  Monica and another woman were together on our bed. They were both nude and kissing. The other woman was fast to jump up and grab her clothes, she shot past me but Monica didn't even attempt to move. She rolled over and smiled. I felt sick to my stomach.

“Hello lover,” she said laughing.

“
What the fuck is going on?” I shouted. I could hear a roaring in my ears. I felt this rage building, then I saw red.

Laughing she got off the bed and began dressing. We really got into it then. I grabbed her arm, demanding again to know what the hell was going on.

She was bored. Bored? No kidding. The bitch didn't want to work or attend college. What about our baby? She laughed in my face. She took care of that little problem once we got here, that was her reason for wanting to come here. She didn't want anyone back home to know about it. I realized then why she begged me not to tell anyone in her family or mine about the baby. She wanted to come to the Big Apple to party and have fun. A baby would have kept her from all that.

I was livid. I gave her enough time to pack her stuff and get out. I had the locks changed that same night. I had not seen her again since. It wasn't really that I missed her. I had thought I loved her and she destroyed me with her unfaithfulness and then aborting our child. She knew if she told me she didn't want the baby I would have fought her to keep it.

My business was making steady money I could have taken care of our child and her. We could have worked something out. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that in the long run it would probably not have worked out in the best interests of the child. I was thankful we had never gotten married, it would have been much harder to get rid of her. She wanted money that first night. I was not falling into that bullshit trap. I offered her money for a hotel room for a night and a ticket home to family in Texas. She laughed in my face. She said she didn't need my money, that she had friends here that would help her out. 

The hurt was still there, even after four years I still felt it. It hurt to know that she had never really loved me and that it had been so easy to rid herself of our child. I never stopped thinking about that part. It was the loneliness that I just couldn't seem to shake.

I had an early meeting with Sam to discuss business and it was obvious after his insistence that I needed a night out, it involved
The Butterfly House
in some way.  Punching my pillow I willed myself to sleep. I would meet with Sam first then maybe; just maybe I'd find out who
Lotus
really was.

Ava

I woke feeling like someone had dropped a house on me. Grabbing the clock on my nightstand I saw it was almost eleven am. I had a little time to grab a shower, study a bit then take this exam. Tossing the covers aside I stood up, I had not gotten home until five am from the intensive care at the hospital. I was still very tired but when I left baby
Miles
seemed to be doing well with the IV medication. I said a silent prayer as I peeled off my yoga shorts and tank top, then headed for the shower. After adjusting the water temp and pulling the curtain aside, I stepped into the shower.

While lathering my hair I started mentally going over my notes for the anatomy test today. It was on the skull and neck. I had to figure out a better way to manage my homework, study time, work and Miles' visits. I wanted decent grades but that was getting tough to pull off. How did people manage to juggle a family, work and college? I would just have to try harder to make this work.

I sat down at the kitchen table to study while my hair dried. I picked up my tip envelope, laying the cash aside I stared at the business card that was with it.

Last night one group of business men had left me a one thousand dollar tip. I had to hide my shocked expression when I looked at my tips before putting them in my purse and leaving. The house didn't allow the customers to tip us in person. There was absolutely no touching inside those doors but customers were always welcome to leave us a business card and tip in an envelope. By leaving us a business card, it meant they could approach us privately, away from work. I never kept business cards or contacted any customer outside of the house. I decided to keep this one, mainly because I loved the design. The design was a beautiful woman blowing glass.

The card read:

Walker Deviant Glass Designs

Nolan Walker, President & CEO

Downtown Manhattan, Spruce Street

On the back of the card there was a hand written message.