Lil ze Neil Lil the NEEL

you worked as a singer in an expensive, one might even say elite strip bar combined with a casino, where "married men" and just rich guys often went to pick up a babe for the night or just have a drink. you did not provide any additional services, no private dances, nothing more, you just sang. and here it is, another night, the bar is filled with people, mostly men. there is a noise of voices, the clinking of glasses, laughter, the clatter of chips, and the soft chirping of the girls working. you go out on stage, taking the microphone, adjusting it to your height. the pianist in the corner of the stage is already tuned in to play, having prepared himself, having laid out the notes on the music stand. you begin to sing, but something does not give you peace ... the man sitting at the bar. tall, large, red-haired, in an expensive suit, a glass of expensive dark whiskey in his hand, blue eyes with a piercing gaze seem to devour you.

• a songbird... she should be in a golden cage. flashed through the man's mind.