QUINN

“Did you send out the news?” I ask Nate, entering into his office that was found at the back of the club, and as usual, Faiza in his laps as they made out, their clothes would most probably fall off anytime soon.

After having a thorough conversation with Nate, we agreed that the club was doing well enough to hire two more bartenders. So he had taken charge of that. He wanted to hire a small marketing firm for an advert on the opening. Although beneficial, I voted against it. For the simple reason being only, elderly persons read the newspaper, and nowadays, it is very unlikely that teens will go through newspapers looking for job openings, though some persons find jobs through that method. It was somewhat slow.

But this was a club. We don’t need to put out an advert in the newspaper. All we had to do was tell Troy, the current bartender about it. In his turn, Troy will mention it to the youths who came to drink, who in turn will mention it to their peers and that is how the word will spread out.

Free advert. Or what I will like to call, word of mouth.

Sometime within the week, I had asked Nate to take charge of telling Troy about the opening, hoping that by Friday we must have had some applicants.

Which was today.

“For the last time, yes Quinn. Now can you excuse me, I’m busy” Nate says, exasperated as he makes gestures with his hands pointing at Faiza who gave me a shy smile. I rolled my eyes and left his office.

Nate was the first person I met when I moved to Missouri. My dad had just passed away and had left the most share of the Home moving Service Company to my big brother Jacob, a company I worked my butt off just to prove myself worthy to my dad. Three days after my dad was laid to rest, I find my big brother and my girlfriend in my bed, fucking the hell out of each other. Hurt at this betrayal, I sold my share of the company to Jacob and left.

I was just twenty one when I met Nate. He started as my roommate, slowly we became acquainted. I remember he almost lost Faiza when she walked in and saw me in nothing but a towel in our apartment. That was three days after I had moved in. Not only did she throw a fit, but she also came at me, threatening to beat the shit out of me and di remember at the time, the only thing running through my mind was ‘who the hell was this lady?’

Alas, Nate returned home and tried calming her down, but Faiza wouldn’t listen. She was convinced Nate was cheating on her with me. Telling her I was gay didn’t calm her down because she had made up her mind.

But after a month of death stares, awkward moments, and she walks in on me getting lucky with a woman, she finally believed Ethan was right all along. Three months later, Ethan had pitched in his idea about wanting to buy a club that was already going out of business, renew it and give it a name. But he was, however, short on finances. I had the money and knowledge of how to run a business, so together, we decided to embark on that journey.

And here we are now, four years later, best friends and business partners.

Who would have thought?

I was going to take charge of questioning the applicants for the opening because I had some qualities I needed in a bartender. The club was slowly getting stacked as people came in, once again trying to rid themselves of whatever hassle they had going on within the week. I make my way up the stairs headed for my office to go through some paperwork for the renewal of our liquor license.

Minutes into reviewing the paper, a light knock on my door take me off focus, I look up and there was Troy, standing on the threshold.

“Some applicants are waiting down,” he says

“Okay, thank you, Troy. I will be down in a minute” I say and Troy nods.

I close the file and make my way downstairs, the dance floor three times more popular than it was when I walked up. Three girls, two of them dressed in slutty clothes stood at the counter.

Troy pointed, indicating that these were the ladies for the job.

“Good evening ladies” I greet them and ushered them in the back.

Psychically, one matched person matched one of the criteria I needed. I ran a club, not a strip club, so the other girls dressed like strippers were already a point short.

“I am Quinn, manager and partner of Club Lux, my partner is busy in the back so I will be handling this. Can I know your names?” I ask

“Treasure” the decent looking one spoke up first.

“Rosa” one of the girls dressed like a slut spoke up.

“Honey,” the last girl says seductively, winking and twirling the ends of her hair.

“Great. Honey, you can go home” I say sternly.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved when women seemed desperate to have me, and it was clear as day this Honey girl wanted to have a taste of me. Any other time of day, I would have gladly given her what she wants, but right now, it had to do with my business, and that I take very personally and hate when people think they can mess with that because of their silly personal wimps.

“But-“

“You can leave” I repeat, giving her a blank expression that left no room for further debate, she whines and makes her way through the door new took earlier. Besides me, her friend Rosa poised herself after what just went down.

“Who amongst you-“ I start but got cut off by Honey’s voice.

“Fucking watch where you move” Honey yells, making us turn in her direction.

In front of her, stood a shy looking girl who shredded up as Honey yelled at her, and I don’t know why, but the fact that Honey raised her voice at her, bothered me.

And I did not like that one bit.

“I’m sorry,” the girl says, her voice so sweet and soft it sounded like that of an angel.

“Whatever” Honey says with an attitude, bumping the girl with force as she walked out.

The girl took a moment to regain herself, unaware of the eyes that were on her.

Then she looked up. And her gaze locks with me.

And I felt something I haven’t felt in so long.