“Something happened. It was way back when you’d just started here. I didn’t know you that well.”
I picked at the edge of a notebook sitting on my desk.
“I finally worked my way up to band booker after pestering Chuck about it for two years. George, the guy who used to book bands, had taken me under his wing and showed me the ropes. I think he wanted to show me more than the ropes but I managed to avoid that. I worked behind the bar but every spare minute I had, I'd work with him, doing all the shit jobs so he could sit back and take it easy. Poor old George had taken it too easy, though. A heart attack meant he had to quit and I had my chance. For about a year, I'd had my own ideas about how things should be run but he'd rejected any idea I had.
“He’d tell me it was the way things were always done. And I’d tell him that didn’t mean it was the best way. He’d nod but nothing ever changed. He’d just get all defensive like I was invading his territory.”
I looked up and smiled.
“Sounds about right.” Carlie took a drag on her cigarette. “Old dinosaur.”
“When he retired, I got a chance to make this place into something. Instead of being a bar that had bands, we became THE club to play. Then, bam, I started dating one of the guys hanging around the place. Hottest guitarist in town. Hot in body anyway, he was a shit guitarist for a shit band. Pete Cooper. That man was sex on legs. Too much sex. Not enough legs.”
“Hey, I remember him. He was fucking hot as. What happened to him?”
I was getting to that bit. Carlie could just wait.
“It was all about the sex. They were supposed to be playing one night and we got really hot and heavy before they went on.
"Come on, Violet, just a quickie before I go on stage. I'm burning up here. I can't play because I'm so crazy for you. That was the kind of shit he said.”
Shit that I fell for because that guy had me wrapped around his finger. I didn’t tell Carlie that because it still made me burn up inside to think I’d fallen for his stupid tricks. I’d thought he’d loved me and we had something. Pete hadn’t thought the same.
“I was supposed to be working the door but he had me up against the wall, lips locked together and his hand up my skirt. We were pretty much dry humping for the world to see.”
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up about that.” Carlie smiled. “Everyone in the world has dry-humped someone in that room. Some of them even wet hump. God, they do it downstairs. More than one girl has got in trouble at Trouble...”
“Oh, it gets worse.” I didn’t want her turning this into a joke. I hunched forward, tense and ready to flee.
“Sorry. It’s just that I think you are overthinking this. One bad relationship doesn’t break you forever.”
As she said that, a funny look came over her face. Like she’d realized what she’d said and how it applied to herself. Carlie had secrets just like I did. Our friendship was built on not asking too many questions. Maybe I shouldn’t say anymore but, now that I’d started, I had to let it all out.
“We stopped because people had gathered around, watching and laughing. We needed privacy. I figured I could leave for five minutes. It was slow on the door. The band room was already packed and everyone who was going to show up was there already.
“With nothing but sex on the brain, the two of us race down to my office for some privacy. I left the cash box with the door takings with the bouncer. I mean, that was his job, right, to be security. The sex was fast but mind-blowing. He fucked me hard. I think there are still my nail marks in the desk from that night.”
“Where?” Carlie bent forward looking for them.
I pushed her way. She didn’t’ need to see my sex scratches.
“When I got back upstairs, the bouncer was nowhere in sight. With my brain still fuddled from the fucking, I ran to the bar and asked if they'd seen him.
“The barman said he’d gone out for a smoke break. My stomach dropped. He should not have been doing that. Not with all the takings for the night. What a dick. I ran downstairs to the back alley where everyone smokes. You were out there and I asked you if you’d seen him.”
Carlie nodded. “That big gorilla guy who always wore the purple suit. I remember him. Fred.”
“You said he hadn’t been out all night and I nearly threw up. I ran back inside, ran all over the club. He was gone. He was fucking gone. And he'd taken the night's takings with him.”
“Fuck. How did I never know about this?” Carlie lit up another cigarette and stared at me. “You must’ve been shitting yourself.”
“I came to my office and wrapped the blanket around me and just stared off into space until Chuck came in and found me. He raged at me because the band hadn’t gone on stage. It wasn’t just Fred who’d shot through – Pete disappeared along with Fred and the money.
“I never saw Fred the bouncer again. Or Pete the shit guitarist. They'd played me. Like a fool. I found out later that Pete had run up a shitload of drug debts. Thousands of dollars. I figured the two of them had split the takings and left town.”
I paused for a moment. Even the memory of that night had me shivering.
Carlie frowned. I always thought if I told anyone about that night, they’d laugh at me and I’d die from the humiliation. Stupid me, thinking that Pete loved me. But I should’ve trusted Carlie.