Harlow
I held up the red leather dress and assessed it again. Bloody hell, I’d never fit in this tiny thing. And if I did, it was going to stick to me like cling wrap.
Amy laughed and I landed desperate eyes on her. “Do I really have to wear this?”
“Yes, you do. But we all do so you won’t be the odd one out.”
I blew out a breath. “Okay, give me a minute to put it on and then I’ll be out so you can show me around.”
She nodded and left me to it. I was staring my first shift at Indigo in the eyes and to say I was nervous was an understatement. After quickly undressing, I wiggled my way into the red outfit. Holy heck, it was the tightest and shortest thing I think I’d ever worn. I surveyed myself in the mirror. The dress was low cut so my cleavage was on display, and turning slightly, I noted how it hugged my ass. Thank God I kept myself in shape. I didn’t look too bad but I was a little self conscious. However, I put on my big girl panties and dealt with it; this was for my Mum and she’d given me everything in life so this was the least I could do in return.
A couple of minutes later I was out the front and Amy started showing me how they ran things at Indigo. I’d worked quite a few bar jobs in my time and I was pretty impressed with the smoothness of this operation; they had it fine tuned.
We spent a good half hour going over procedures before Amy surprised me by saying, “Scott shocked me when he hired you.”
I took in her serious face. “Why’s that?”
“Well he didn’t interview you and when I asked him about that, he got shitty with me for asking. He also didn’t get Griff to check you out; another standard procedure for him. But the strangest thing is that you pissed him off the other night when you were in here drunk and I’ve never seen someone get the time of day from Scott again after they piss him off like that. Not unless it’s his sister or a Storm member. People only have one chance with Scott.”
Wow. And she didn’t know that I’d upset him on more than one occasion now. I tried to play it off. “I guess I’d better not piss him off again, huh?”
She smiled at me now; just a small smile, but one nonetheless. “Oh, I think you’re good to go, Harlow. From what I’ve seen it looks like you could get away with it.”
I felt heat rise to my face. “Bloody men. He just brings it out in me; I don’t mean to argue with him.”
“Story of my life too. My hubby has this way of pushing all my buttons until I lose my shit at him. The make-up sex is off the charts though,” she said, winking at me.
I laughed and felt like we’d bonded a little. It was a good start to a new job; there was nothing worse than starting a new job and not getting along with your new workmates.
She checked the time. “Okay, we have about half an hour till opening time. Let’s go over a couple more things.”
***
Four hours later, I was sitting in the staff room on my break. So far, I’d enjoyed the shift. For the most part the customers weren’t too bad. They really only had eyes for the strippers anyway so they didn’t ogle me too much. Well not anymore than the average man in the street. What had taken me by surprise a little was the number of women customers; not the ones who were there with their men but rather the ones who were there to check out the strippers. I shouldn’t have been surprised but I was.
My break was almost over when Scott walked in. I was standing in front of the locker that each staff member had and turned when I heard him. He stopped abruptly and took in my appearance.
“Fuck,” he muttered and shook his head.
“What?” Geez, what had I done now? I placed my hands on my hips in a defensive stance while I waited for his answer.
He stalked over to where I was standing, and resting his arm on the locker above my head, he leant into me. I was intoxicated by his scent of leather and oil, and butterflies scattered in my tummy. “You’ve got no fuckin’ idea, have you?”
Hell, with him this close to me, I had no freaking idea about anything. My mind was completely lost to him at this moment. “Scott, can you give me a hint, because I’m drawing a blank at the moment.”
“Jesus,” he said and then stopped himself, pushing off from the locker and away from me. He took a step back, eyes burning into me, and then said, “Fuck.”
Now I was really confused but before I could say another word, he turned and stalked out of the room. I was left standing in a daze. What the hell?
Without thinking, I took off after him. I found him in his office; he’d just walked in and still had his back to me. “What was that?” I demanded.
He turned to look at me. “That was me walking away before I did something we’d both regret.”
I crinkled my forehead; he wasn’t making sense to me. “Why would we regret it?”
“Shit, Harlow, we’re completely different people from different worlds, for one. And two, if something was to happen between us, it would be a one off for me and I’m fairly certain it wouldn’t be that for you.”
How dare he presume to know what I wanted. “So you get to make these decisions based on presumptions you’ve made? Without asking me what I actually want? You really are a throwback to previous generations, aren’t you?”