by Alison Mello
“What?” Sky asks, and Sadie’s now on the edge of her seat waiting to hear what happened.
“The guy was a big nasty bastard that kissed her on the hand.” Katie tries to stifle her laugh but fails.
“The place is a dump. It needs some serious re-branding, but he says money’s no object, so I’m going in with all my ideas and we’ll see what he says.”
“Was he really nasty?”
“Girl, you should have seen all the food he scoffed down in the fifteen minutes I was talking to him, it was gross.” I shake my head, “He reminded me of one of those mafia guys you see in the movies.” They all start laughing. “He’s pissed,” I tell them as Logan approaches.
“Who’s pissed?” Logan questions.
“The owner of Vixen. He says you stole one of his dancers and that he was one of the top strip clubs in LA before Club Heat came along.”
“Let me guess…he thinks you doing some marketing for him is going to put him back on top?”
I shrug. “I guess so.”
“First, I don’t have any of his dancers that I’m aware of. Second, that guy is a dick and he loses dancers because he treats them like shit. Trust me, word gets out, and that’s why people aren’t going there. Be careful around him,” Logan warns before leaving us to our fun.
I sigh and roll my eyes because now I have to act like a professional around this prick and watch my own back while still doing a good job of making a sleazy guy look good.
“Look, here comes Lila.” Katie points out as Shawna walks her through the crowd.
“Hey, girl. I’m so glad you came.” I stand to give her a hug. “Lila, this is Sky, the owner’s wife, and Sadie, the head bouncer’s wife.”
They stand to give Lila a hug, and Shawna takes her drink order while we all take a seat. Sky asks Lila, “What’s your story?”
She sighs and tells them how she broke it off with her ex-boyfriend over a year ago and hasn’t dated since. She tells us that he was pretty rotten to her and that she’s been worried about getting into another relationship ever since. She met him through an online dating service and visited LA to meet him. Shortly after that, she found herself a job and moved here to be with him. “Come to find out he was dating like three other women while he was seeing me.” She shakes her head. “I was such a fool.”
“Nah, it’s all good. You never know, he could have been the real deal. You took a chance and it didn’t work out,” Sky encourages her.
“If anyone knows about taking chances, it’s Sky,” Sadie says. “This girl moved here from the east coast by herself to chase her dream of becoming a singer. She moved in with me and her dreams changed when she met Logan. Yours can change too,” Sadie adds.
Lila gives her a warm smile as Shawna puts her drink down on the table. “Thanks,” she says to Shawna, who nods her head and walks off.
“Drink up, we need to go shake our asses,” Katie shouts over the music. Lila downs some of her drink, and as we hit the dance floor, PitBull is playing. We all shout with excitement as we make our own little circle to dance in. Lila smiles as she dances next to us, and it makes me so happy. She really does seem like a good person and she deserves to be happy.
Some guy comes up behind Lila. He places his hands on her hips and starts swaying with her to the music. She turns around and says something to him and the guy walks off. We continue to dance through the next few songs and guy after guy approaches her. I mean, why wouldn’t they? She’s a beautiful blonde with bright blue eyes and she has a gorgeous figure. She’s wearing hip hugger black pants with a crop top that shows off her flat stomach and beautiful curves. I actually may be jealous of her figure. I wish I didn’t have to work so hard to maintain mine. I overheard Lila talking about how she’s naturally thin and can eat whatever she wants and never puts on any weight. Yup, I wish.
Sky leans in. “Come on, I need a drink.”
I take Lila’s hand and point back to the table. She nods and follows as we all walk back to our section for a round of drinks. The club is hopping as always on a Saturday night, and I have no doubt there’s a line down the street.
“Girl, some of the guys you were giving the brush off to, are pretty hot.” Katie fans herself.
Lila nods her agreement. “Yeah, I guess they were, but I don’t want to give the wrong idea by dancing with a guy in the club all night.”
“I get that, but there’s nothing wrong with dancing with one guy and then telling him thanks for the dance and let him know you’re dancing with your friends,” Sky says.
“Yeah, ya know, just a little fun.” Sadie wiggles her brows and we all laugh.
“Thanks, girls. I’m having fun, really I am.” She sinks back into her seat. “I used to be so outgoing and Jay screwed that all up for me.”
“Yeah, well, you have a new group of friends and we’re going to help bring the outgoing Lila back,” I announce with excitement. Lila laughs and shakes her head. She holds up her glass and cheers. “To new friends.”
Everyone clinks glasses and repeats it. ‘To new friends.’
When we get back out onto the dance floor, we see Stone, Logan, and Jonah out there watching the crowd, so we walk over and introduce Lila to them. They welcome her to the club and we form our dance circle right near them. Sky, Sadie, and I are purposely shaking our asses at our men, teasing them as we dance to Flo Rida. I suddenly feel some hands on my hips. I quickly turn my head and sigh with relief when I see it’s Stone. “Keep it up and I’m going to take you out back and fuck you in my truck.”
I grin up at him. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You’re working.”
He groans at me. “No problem, wait until we get home. I’ll show you how much of a tease I can be.” I gasp and cross my arms over my chest.
“Why are you putting a damper on my fun?”
“I’m not putting a damper on anything.” He shoves his cock into my back. “You can dance with your friends, but you’re being a cock tease and I have the hard on to prove it.”
I burst into laughter. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” I kiss him and he walks off to finish working his shift.
“What was that all about?” Katie asks in my ear.
“Sexual threats,” I tell her with a dirty grin. Her eyes widen and her smile broadens. “He said I was being a cock tease.” She bursts into laughter.
We continue dancing. The guys aren’t far away, and every now and then we catch them watching us. They’re about to announce last call, so we decide to grab one last drink and chill while they close up. We all head back to the VIP booth, and this time the guys follow. “Having fun, ladies?” Stone asks as we take our seats.
“Of course we are. We know how to have a good time,” Katie eggs him on, wiggling her eyebrows.
“You’re a troublemaker. I may have to go report you to your husband,” he says with laughter in his voice.
“Are you talking about me?” Shane asks, appearing behind Stone.
“Yeah, you. Your wife is causing trouble.”
“Little ol’ me?” Katie bats her lashes at Shane.
“Now I know you are.” We all start laughing because he didn’t fall for her sweet and innocent face.
“Shane, this is our new friend, Lila. She replaced Evelyn at Millennium.” Katie points to Lila, who stands to shake his hand.
“Nice to meet you. Hope you enjoyed the club tonight.”
“I did, thanks. It was fun.” She gives him a small smile and sits back down as Shawna returns with our final round of drinks.
“Anytime. The ladies know you just have to give me a heads up and this section is yours.” She nods and Katie explains that Shane is the manager and that Logan isn’t usually here on a Saturday night.
“We’re going to get ready for closing. We’ll see you later.” Shane and the guys all walk off to finish up.
“Logan owns Club Heat too. It’s the newest and hottest strip club in LA. I run the promo for both clubs. That’s what got Vixen wanting to us
e us to run the promo for them,” Katie explains to Lila.
“Oh that’s cool,” Lila smiles. “You must be excited to do something different,” she says to me.
“Yeah, it’ll be a different experience, that’s for sure.”
Lila pulls out her phone, and it looks like she’s shooting off a text. “Ladies, this has been fun, but my cab will be here in about ten minutes. Thanks for inviting me out. I had a blast.” She sticks her phone back into her purse
“Girl, you’re one of us now.” I give her a fist bump.
Sky says, “Bring it in.” We all stand up and give one big hug, making Lila laugh again.
“Okay, see you ladies later. I’m going to go wait for my cab. Have a good night.”
“There are two bouncers outside, but if you’re not comfortable with that, we can walk you out,” Sky informs her.
“Nah, I’ll be fine.” She thanks us for a fun night and slips out of the booth.
“Later,” I shout back, and as soon as she’s out of earshot, Sky and Sadie talk about how much they like her. We had a great night and our mission to make Lila feel like she fit in was a success. Now if I can only complete my mission to stop Stone from teasing the shit out of me tonight.
Chapter 5
Miranda
“Good morning!” Katie walks into the kitchen of our office.
“Hey, girl! What’s up?”
“Not too much. Listen, we need to plan another girls’ night out. Kara’s pissed we didn’t invite her since she’s twenty-one now and can drink and hang with us.”
“Um, isn’t she working at the club?”
“She will be, but she just finished her bartending course and is starting next weekend. Shane told her he can’t give her a ton of shifts at first, but he’ll get her as many as he can.”
“That’s cool. I have to get going for a meeting with Tanya and the web design team to discuss Vixen. Do you want to do lunch?”
“Sure, I’m free today,” Katie says.
“Cool, see you in a bit.” I grab my coffee and files for Vixen. When I get to the conference room Tanya is just getting there, but Jett from web design is already here as is our creative team. I guess we’re working on the logo as well today.
Jett looks up from his laptop. “Good morning, ladies.” We both say good morning and take our seats. “I’m not sure who designed this website, but it sucks.” He shakes his head as he scrolls through it. “The pictures are crappy, the girls look cheesy, and the place looks empty. This does not scream a hopping strip club to me. Not to mention half the links don’t work.”
“I noticed that as well. Let’s come up with a plan for me to show him. I plan on setting up a meeting with him as soon as we’re done here to go over what we think needs changing first, because not only does he need his website fixed, but the outside of the club needs sprucing up. His sign is damaged.”
“Not to mention the logo doesn’t scream private, sexy club at all,” Michelle adds.
“Okay, okay, we all admit we have a lot of work to do for this club. Let’s slow down and take this one step at a time,” Tanya calls out. “Jett, what do you need to get this website up to par?”
“I need his passwords, better pictures, and I need to figure out what he’s going to do about the private rooms he has available. If he wants them to be for VIPs, then he needs to set VIP prices and maybe come up with some packages he can offer them.”
I’m taking a ton of notes as Jett and Tanya go back and forth discussing the private rooms and the website. If Mr. Higgins wants this club on the up and up, he has some decisions to make. “He mentioned hiring some new dancers and a choreographer. Maybe we ask him to take individual shots of the girls, then the people renting the VIP rooms can have their choice of a dancer. That would mean you would need to add a section to the website for that.”
“That’s a breeze,” Jett says. “Maybe we do a Meet Our Dancers section. We list them with their stage names and their bios. It’ll look good for the club if he has some that are dancing to put themselves through school.”
“What if they don’t want their faces plastered all over a website?” Lauren spits out.
“They would wear pretty masks that cover their eyes, but why would it be an issue if their face isn’t covered in the club?” Jett asks.
“I’m just trying to look at it from the dancers’ side,” she says.
“Fair enough, we’ll run it by Mr. Higgins and see what he says,” Jett says to Lauren, and once again I’m making tons of notes. “The last thing I’ll need is a go live date. I need to know when everything that will be added to the site will be available. If he’s going to paint those rooms, then I don’t want to list the new VIP stuff yet. I can add the new logo and begin the process of switching it, but if we’re doing a grand re-opening, it would be better to wait and load it all at once.”
“Makes sense to me,” Tanya says.
We continue on with the design team, discussing logo ideas and what we think would be hot, but also have some sense of privacy for high profile clients. It’s not good for a governor or a senator to be seen walking into a club that screams strip club, but hey, they’re human too.
After another two hours of back and forth discussion, we have come up with a few ideas. The design team is going to create some sketches that I can take to the club. In the meantime, I’ll begin the process of writing up everything we want to change and our vision for the final product. Tanya adjourns our meeting, and I’m so glad because I’m starving, and can’t wait to go to lunch with Katie, but first I have to set up my next meeting with Mr. Higgins.
When I get to my desk, I see flowers there with an envelope peeking out from the top.
“I invited Lila to lunch with us. I hope you don’t mind.” Katie approaches my desk.
“Not at all.” I pluck the envelope from the flowers and take the card out.
“Those are nice. Stone is so sweet.” Katie leans in to smell my flowers.
“They’re not from Stone.” I sigh. “Listen to this.”
Miranda,
Thank you so much for bringing your beauty into my club. I can’t wait to hear what you and your firm come up with for ideas on how to make my club better. Please tell me you’ll grace us with your presence again soon.
Mr. Higgins
“I just finished an email to Mr. Higgins confirming our meeting for Thursday morning.” I look up at her with shock on my face.
“What a sleazeball.” She pulls away from the flowers, making a face like the flowers smell like shit instead of the beautiful roses they are. “Forget him. Let’s go, Lila’s waiting.”
When we get to the restaurant, we’re pleasantly surprised that it isn’t packed, and we’re seated right away. The waitress comes over with some water for us and tells us she’ll be with us in just a few minutes. As soon as she walks away, Katie’s phone starts to buzz. “Hey Shane, what’s up?” Lila and I both sit quietly so Katie can hear her conversation with Shane, but things are not sounding good. As soon as she hangs up, I ask her what’s up. “That was Shane. He, Stone, and Jonah are on their way to Club Heat because apparently it’s been vandalized and Logan wants to call a meeting.”
“Vandalized how?” I ask, concerned.
“Graffiti all over the outside. Shane doesn’t know too much yet because he hasn’t gotten to the club, but he wanted to let me know he was going to work and would meet me at home later.”
And now my phone is ringing. “Hey, Stone. I heard. You’re on your way to Club Heat.”
“Yeah, how do you know?” he asks me.
“I’m with Katie and Lila at lunch, and Shane just called Katie. Is it bad?”
“I don’t know yet, baby, but I’ll see you tonight. I shouldn’t be gone long, but I have a bad feeling about this, so you girls be careful.”
“Stone, I don’t know if this is related, but I got flowers from Higgins today.” My voice shows I’m nervous about this situation.
“What the fuck?�
� he growls. “We’ll figure this out, in the meantime watch your backs.”
“We will.” I cut the call. My man is always concerned and so protective of not just me, but my friends too. He was one of the guys who really helped keep Katie safe when she was being stalked by the loser her father put in jail.
The waitress comes over and we all place our order, making sure to pick things that won’t take a long time since we only have an hour.
“I want to thank you guys for inviting me out this weekend. It was a lot of fun, and your friends seem really sweet.” Lila looks down. She’s a bit bashful.
“They really liked you.” Katie nudges her with her shoulder.
Lila smiles. “I liked them too.”
“Good, because we have to plan the next night out. Katie’s sister is bent because we didn’t invite her out with us.”
Lila laughs. “Sounds good, just let me know when and where.”
“How would you girls feel about hanging at Club Heat? I know it’s not male strippers, but I wouldn’t mind checking it out since that’s where Stone will be working soon.”
They shrug their shoulders. “I don’t care, I won’t be tipping any strippers anytime soon, but to just hang and have some drinks is fine with me.”
I burst into laughter. “You mean you don’t want to put ones in some chick’s thong?”
“Yeah, no…but you’re my girl, and if you want to hang there to see your man, then I’m down with it.”
“Me too,” Lila says.
“You two are the best.” I fist bump my friends.
The waitress delivers our food and we all begin to eat. We only have a little bit of time left before we have to head back to work and we don’t want to be late.
***
Stone
I pull up to Club Heat and instantly I see graffiti written all over the front of the club. Fuck, it’s worse than I thought. Logan is standing there with a few cops. One of them is Detective Cooper, who I’m assuming he called directly. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have come out to the club had Logan just reported it. I approach the guys as I see Shane’s truck pull in. “Logan.” I nod, shaking his hand before turning to Katie’s father. “Detective Cooper, how are you?”