AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shit. I had tostop.
I come up with excuses to touch her body, but they aren’t enough. Instead of satisfying me, they make my body ache for more.
Maybe it’s because I want to control her, bend her to my will, and I think if I can bend her body I can bend her will.
Whatever reason it is, I have to forcibly keep myself from touching her now. It takes an effort to hold myself back from her.
9
ELOWYN
“I’ve called this meeting,” I said, “to figure out how we can improve our customer service and general behavior and deportment. Because you people have some major issues with employee turnover.”
I brought out a big box and set it on the big meeting table in front of me.
“This is a full comment box, and it has never been opened. Until today. Well, today is the day we are going to turn this drag club around.”
“We don’t need all this pageantry,” said Beau. “Just tell us what dumb shit you want us to do.”
I ignored him and opened the box as the queens sat silently around the table.
Then I opened the first comment card and read it.
“The dancers act like you have to give them $20s to get any attention,” I read, tsking in annoyance. “Well, that one is obvious bullshit.”
The next few cards contained complaints about the food at the club and the slow service at the club.
“We need to work on our customer service,” I said.
“I tried to service a customer,” Beau said, “And you didn’t like that either.”
I ignored him.
“OK, this we can do something about!” I said, grabbing one card. “No one gives a shit about the wait staff,” I read.
I un-crinkled the suggestion and spread it out on the table in front of us. “I’m going to burn the rest of the suggestion box, but we can try to appreciate the employees more. I expect getting a raise would be the superior option, but I am still twisting Rupert’s arm about that. I am going to open the floor for suggestions on how we can appreciate all the non-drag employees around here.”
* * *
Accordingto the Wikipedia article I had read on conflict management in the workplace, employees would feel Valued and Seen if they had evidence that their suggestions were implemented. Schwarb suggested a Free Appreciation Meal put on by the queens for the drag club’s other workers. After a brief and pungent disagreement between Schwarb and Luis on what a taco lunch should look like, we had settled on complimentary hot dogs with beer and a chocolate fountain with fresh strawberries and other fruit. I didn’t know if those things went together, but hopefully Schwarb and Luis were both feeling Valued and Seen.
Although there were a few hiccups, such as Cody misunderstanding and coming in full drag, the lunch was going very well. Schwarb had insisted on a generous amount of free beer, and there had begun to be a rather festive atmosphere. People seemed relaxed and happy, although the free beer was a little more popular than some of Schwarb’s overenthusiastically cooked hot dogs were.
It was probably because that asshole Beau wasn’t even here, even though he certainly was supposed to be helping. I was just reflecting how peaceful it was without him to worry about when he came in the door.
Of course, even though he hadn’t done jackshit to help out with the lunch, the air in the room changed as soon as he walked in. Big, tall, towering over everyone else there, casually dressed in his usual tight shorts and sleeveless top, his hair a mess of white-blonde waves, the gravity changed in the room, oriented toward him.
I ignored him, turning back to Adrian Stott from accounts receivable. He seemed nice. He was around 6 foot tall, trim and tidy, with not a hair of his smooth brown hair out of place. He wore a smart blue suit and was asking me about my job.
“I’m here temporarily as a conflict management specialist,” I said.
“What does that entail?” he asked, smiling at me.
“Er. . . managing the conflicts in the workplace,” I said, aware that I sounded lame. But Adrian didn’t seem to mind. He looked at me like what I was saying was the most fascinating thing in the world. It was nice to feel like someone was hanging on my every word for once, instead of saying shit like “you don’t know what you’re talking about, El,” or “that’s impossible, El.”
Suddenly I felt Beau beside me, and he reached out a big finger and flicked a curl of my hair that had escaped from my long braid.
“Never trust a straight man at the grill with a hot dog,” he said.
