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The bar was right where Jake said it would be and I found Celeste standing there looking over an inventory sheet.
“Hi, Celeste?”
She looked up from her clipboard and appeared only slightly annoyed to have been interrupted. I was quickly able to verify that 4 buttons unbuttoned was indeed the Club V NYC standard.
“You must be Samara. Welcome to my bar.” She waved her hand in a sweeping motion. “It is my bar. You’ll need to remember that. I know you’re up to your own standard back home and I’m sure that’s a high one and that’s fine. But keep in mind that this is my place, I rule the roost, and while I’m happy to help you out at first, you are here to assist me. It’s not the other way around.”
I nodded. “Got it.”
She gave me a once over. “I see you’ve met with Jake and he’s apprised you of our button policy.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s harmless for the most part. I’m starting to wonder if it’s an inside joke between him and the other owners. Anyway, as long as you aren’t ready to run right out of the place and file a sexual harassment law suit, I’m going to assume you’re ready to start?”
“Yup, ready to go.”
Celeste put the clipboard down. She had a short and serious looking bob and I could tell that everything about this woman was no nonsense.
“So, our setup is pretty standard. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble behind the bar. We get really busy on Saturday nights and with the ad campaign we’re expecting about twice the usual number. I’m not entirely sure that they thought this all the way through, but we’re going to have to manage.”
Celeste sounded exasperated. “Along with all of this, we’ve also had a few of our girls move up to floor work here on the main floor as well as upstairs. Do you work the second floor at your club?”
I shook my head. “Not anymore. I used to work it a little off and on when I first started.”
“Same sort of setup here, if you do end up going up there. Main open air lounge, a few private spaces, and the sky bar.”
The sky bar was one of the few things that drew attention to Club V. I wasn’t sure how it would be set up at this location with the kind of architecture the building had going on, but back home the sky bar was a bar that opened up onto a balcony. Plenty of people came to the front door requesting admittance, thinking they could
just pop up and have a drink. It seemed to be good advertising and members were far enough away from street level that they were still able to maintain some privacy.
“Overall we have the same basic setup across our various locations, only New York is the biggest. You’ll find it may be a little wilder here than you are used to and I don’t know if you’ve been told to be on your guard, but you should. I wouldn’t say people here are aggressive, but sometimes they get into a state and aren’t paying attention to who is bar staff and who is working the floor, although it should be pretty clear.”
I knew what she meant by that. There were floor workers back home, but it wasn’t the bulk of the business. It would be too risky to make Club V what boiled down to a brothel. Most people met there for sex. It was more about being in the open with it and finding people who wanted to engage in the same activity as you did. The floor workers were just a perk and part of what kept the place entertaining.
A crowd of businessmen approached the bar then and Celeste’s entire demeanor changed. “Gentlemen! What can we get you guys this evening?” Her smile was coy and she gave one of the guys a wink as they all sidled up to the bar. Taking their orders we both began mixing drinks and she turned to me to speak softly.
“You’re going to do fine. This place is bigger, the people are more important, but you’re here to do the same thing.” She looked out over the crowd. “But brace yourself. I think it’s going to be a bumpy night.”
**
“Cece? We’re out of vermouth.” One of the bartenders from the other end of the bar called out and it took me a minute to realize he was speaking to Celeste. It had been a very busy night with lots of martini orders and now at midnight it looked like we were out of a crucial component.
“Check the stock room,” she replied, trying to keep a smiling face for the patrons in front of her. She was a wiz at the bar and it was no wonder that the men liked to get as close to her as they could. She had the sort of sassy wit that challenged them in conversation, but she was completely out of reach. I found out over the course of the evening that Celeste was happily married to her wife and they had two beautiful children.
“Nope, that’s where I got this bottle.” The bartender held up and waved around an empty vermouth bottle. “It was the last one.”
“Goddammit,” Celeste cursed under her breath. “Make sure we order more on Monday. Samara…” she turned to me and narrowed her eyes. “I think I know where we have some extra stock, but it’ll be in one of the storage rooms on the second floor. I would call up there and have one of them run it down, but they never answer the phone at the sky bar. Go back to the storage area, take the freight elevator up to the second floor, and it’ll deposit you in a hallway. Go right and then left and then right again and there will be a door on your left. Check there for the vermouth. And if there isn’t any there just go steal a bottle or two from the sky bar.”
“Got it,” I said as I squeezed past the rest of the bar staff and headed back to the storage area. The freight elevator was easy enough to find and fired up when I pressed the buttons. It let me out just where Celeste said it would, but by the time the thing reached the landing I had already forgotten the exact directions that Celeste had given me. There was a right and then a left and a door on the left?
I made my way down the hall, turned left, headed down that hallway and instead of coming to any doors I came to a hall on the right and one on the left. Ahead of me I could keep going and I would be on the main part of the second floor. I took a left down the hall, away from the pulsing beats the DJ was churning out, and eventually came to a door. It wasn’t on the left though, which confused me, but I opened it and stepped into darkness. It sure looked like a supply room.
I felt along the wall for a light switch, but found nothing. I had my phone in my pocket which I could use as a flashlight if I needed to, but I felt out in front of me to see what exactly I was facing.
My hands touched velvet and went right through the curtain. Suddenly I realized that wherever I was, it was much more spacious than a supply room. When I pushed past the curtain and into a dimly lit area, I could tell that I had definitely taken a wrong turn, but I was too shocked by what I saw to turn around and run.
Chapter 4
Part of me wondered what the fuck I was looking at, while another part knew exactly what it was.
At the back of this large room was a stage and on this stage stood five completely naked women, each of whom were collared. There was an auctioneer taking bids on one of the women in the middle of the stage. It all looked very civilized as I saw the gentlemen in the room seated in round booths, some on their own, some with other women, some with what I assumed were business associated.
