Read Online Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) by Ainslie Paton - Free Book Online Page B

touch his shoulder
or scribble him a note telling him to sit back, not to look like he was about
to jump down a person’s throat.
    He
palmed his face. He was having breakfast with five women he didn’t know, one of
whom he virtually itched to be alone with, and he’d lectured them about their
work choices, their lives.
    “You’re
right. I’m sorry.” He was a desperately useless human being and he finally
understood what Sarina had tried to teach him. Mostly people want to enjoy
their work, and if they enjoy it, they do well at it, and the way to connect
with people was to talk to them about what they enjoyed.
    “What I
should’ve asked you all is if you were having fun?”
    Dead
silence.
    So
maybe he still didn’t get it, because when Sarina asked that, the people she talked
to got busy responding, either complaining about things that annoyed them or falling
about like silly kittens, pretty much purring and rubbing up against all the things
they liked about work. It’d always been his cue to walk away, now it was his backup
plan.
    “What, like
now?” said Lavinia. “I’ve eaten enough to store till next winter.” There were
agreeable murmurs.
    “No, as
dancers? Does what you do make you happy?”
    There
was another awkward silence and Reid recognized it for what it was. To answer
the question, the women had to share a part of themselves with him, and he’d
done nothing to prove himself worthy of that.
    Cinnamon
took a sip of her coffee. “It’s a hell of a lot more honest than working as a
massage therapist.” She put her cup down and took a deep breath. “There were
guys who didn’t want to pay me full price because I didn’t give them a happy
ending. I’m trained as a sports masseuse but going into locker rooms made me so
nervous I used to puke. You know there are teams who won’t hire men, because
they think there’s something weird about having another man touch them. They
didn’t hire me because I was as good as a male masseuse, but because I was a
woman. That’s not positive discrimination, it’s sleazy. I don’t have to worry
about what the men who watch me dance are thinking. I know what they’re thinking.
I don’t have to worry that my hand is going to accidentally end up somewhere I
don’t want it. So yes, this is my happy thing till I’m done studying.”
    “You
never said that before,” said Lavinia. She shoulder-bumped Cinnamon. “Girl,
that’s wicked twisted.” She looked at Reid. “I don’t have any Josephine Baker
kinda reason for doing this. I just know this body,” she shimmied her
shoulders, “ain’t gonna last forever and I want to use it before I lose it. I
used to work in an office, but the money was bad and it was so boring I thought
I was going to take a staple gun and go postal. One day I’ll have to do something
different, but I’m young, I’m having fun and the fact I can make a man’s tongue
hang out while I do it, yeah, I’ll take that. My name is Lizabeth, by the way.”
She held her hand out to shake and Reid took it.
    “I’m
Kathryn,” said the dancer known as Cinnamon. She held her hand out too.
    He was
blown away by the power of that simple question and what happened when he
actually listened to the answer. He felt connected to the women now in a way hired
cars, waffles and grand gestures didn’t achieve. He looked to Tiffany.
    “I
don’t know yet. I’m so bad at it,” she said. “But there are worse things. I’m a
singer more than a dancer and I want to be in musicals but I have to do
something between auditions and I figured this might help build my confidence. At
my last audition they said I had poor stage presence.” She stretched her hand
across the table to Reid. “My name is Therese.”
    Reid
shook Therese’s hand, but he waited on Lux’s answer as if his next career move
depended on it.
    “No
kidding,” said Vi. “I used to sing, cocktail bars and lounges. I wasn’t Barbra
Streisand or anything, and I got older and