Polly left the coffee shop with a strange feeling.  The Stripper had thrown her for a bit of a loop.  He wasn’t the greasy, sleazy, back-alley-cocaine-snorting stripper she thought he would be.  Shame on her for thinking that, but if she was being honest with herself, that was the kind of guy she expected to meet today.  She went over in her mind her impressions of him as she got into the car.  He was tall (she would say close to 6 feet), very well dressed, smelled good (sort of like vanilla for some odd reason), a nice clean shave on him, short stylish hair, and he obviously worked out and had a great dental plan.  And he was university educated.  She knew from other research her thesis advisor had discussed with her that some female strippers are university students trying to pay for school.  Polly wondered if this was the case with him.  But he had graduated, but was still stripping.  Interesting.  She made a mental note to add this to the list of questions she would ask him the next time they met.  She felt herself smiling at the thought of meeting him again, and reassured herself that she was smiling because this was going to make for some great research, not that it was about meeting him in particular.

Her phone rang, and she answered it via Bluetooth.  It was Jason, her boyfriend of 3 years. She had met Jason at a graduation mixer; he was in education and she was in sociology.  She was attracted to his chocolate brown eyes and confidence, and the fact that he seemed to really like her. It didn’t hurt that he was going to be a gym teacher and had a nice body.  Teaching jobs are hard to come by though, and Jason ended up working in the hospitality industry and had worked hard to get into a middle management position in a posh hotel.  When they met, he was very full of life, and they laughed a lot.  She loved his laugh.

“Hey love!” she answered her phone.  “I’m on my way home, should be there in about 20 minutes.  Wait until I tell you about my research today,” she said excitedly. She was feeling a little frisky after this meeting with The Stripper and could not wait to tell Jason all about it.

“Yeah, that is great honey.  You would not believe the day I had too!  I will tell you all about it when you get home.  Can you pick up some pasta sauce from that nice deli we like on your way?”  The grocery store was out of the way and she had already passed it.

“Sure will,” she said, changing lanes to backtrack to the deli.  He loved this pasta sauce, and she loved him.  And you do things for people you love, right?  “I really can’t wait to tell you about my day,” she said as flirty as she could.

“Alright, well I am getting the salad ready.  I will see you soon,” Jason said, and hung up.

Polly didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye and tell him she loved him as she usually did.  But he was busy helping make supper.  She should be happy that he helped with that, as many of her girlfriends had boyfriends who did nothing around the house.  Count your blessings, her mother always said, it is better than being alone.  Jason wasn’t perfect, but he was perfect for her, Polly always said in his defence.

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