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Flashing the cash

My idea revealed my hubby's true career...


Published by: Laura Hinton & Jo Riley
Published on: 21st July 2011

The gas bill lay on the side untouched. Last quarter’s was underneath, and I’d tucked the electricity bill under that, hoping it would go away. Who was I kidding, though? The bills were mounting up and needed paying, but how?
‘It’s time to face reality,’ I told my hubby Jay, 27. ‘You need to get a proper job.’
‘I’m trying, honest babe,’ he said.
But after a year of living together, it was my modelling career that kept us afloat. His courier job didn’t even make a dent in the rent. He was genuinely trying to find more work, though. He’d tried his hand at everything from bar work to fitting windows.
‘What Jay needs to do is find something he’s really good at,’ I grumbled to my pal Kirsty, 31.
‘That way, he could make a career for himself,’ she agreed.
‘Yeah, and I can think of a few things he’s good at,’ I sniggered. ‘But they’re not the sort of thing you can share with the rest of…’
Then something hit me.
When I’d met Jay in Spain two years earlier, what had I first noticed about him? That six-pack, of course! Tall and muscular, with blond hair and blue eyes, he was gorgeous.
Even now, some of my closest friends still stammered their way through a conversation with him, thrown by his good looks. What if he used them to make money?
Flicking through Yellow Pages, I found a number for a strippergram agency and plonked it in front of him. ‘You should call them,’ I said. ‘See if they’ve got any jobs going.’
‘What?’ he snorted. It might sound mad, a wife encouraging her husband to strip in front of other women, but I totally trusted him. Besides, we had bills to pay.
‘I can’t do that,’ he protested.
‘Why do you spend hours in the gym if you don’t want anyone to admire you?’ I asked. ‘And we need the money.’
‘Okay, I’ll call,’ he sighed. They asked him in for an audition, and signed him up immediately!
‘Right, now we have to work on your moves,’ I told him, finding my Backstreet Boys CD.
‘You’ll need this, too,’ I said, handing him a bottle of baby oil.
‘I’m not sure about this,’ he said. But with a bit of encouragement, he was wriggling sexily around the lounge.
How would he manage at his first job? I drove him to the party he’d been booked for. Within 20 minutes, he was back. ‘No one turned up,’ he said.
‘What did you do?’ I asked.
‘I-I stripped for the birthday girl… and her husband!’ he cringed. What a disappointment! He didn’t feel down for long though, especially when the cheque came through. For 10 minutes work, he’d earned £120!
Stripping off to such an unexpected audience gave him the courage to try again. Soon, he was booked up most evenings and weekends. I didn’t mind – there wasn’t an overdue bill in the house.
After four years of stripping, Jay started his own business, the Dreamboys. It was a roaring success and now has 60 strippers on its books.
I can’t believe I persuaded my boyfriend to start stripping for a living. But I suppose it shows that, although he’s got the body, I’m the one with naked ambition!
• Visit www.dreamboys.co.uk
Melanie Lyons, 30, Chelmsford, Essex