“Jobe, and I will be. Thanks for asking, unlike the asshole inside who took out all his aggressions on me. What’s your name?”
“I’m Beck. You’re um, you’re bleeding through your shirt.”
“Fuck, this is silk,” Jobe winced again as he struggled to look at his back. “Thank fuck for leather seats. Come on, let’s get you home.”
Needless to say, by the time we got to my building Jobe said it was a hard pass and drove off–with me still in the car. The blood was so bad by the time we got to his place that I spent the night cleaning his wounds. He’s the one who told me the place next door to his was available to rent and assured me I could afford it, but I doubted that. Jobe lived in a super nice building with security and everything, so I didn’t believe him. But in typical Jobe fashion, he took over and had me moved in by the end of the month.
That was five years ago, and it wasn’t until recently that I found out Jobe owned my condo as well as his. He could’ve been making a lot more rent if I wasn’t here. Guess all along, he’d been my one and only true friend.
With Jobe no longer living next door it was lonely to be here without him or Daddy. Daddy Stanley turned an area of Jobe’s workroom into a playroom for me at their new fancy place. But I couldn’t stay there all the time, it wasn’t fair to my pet fish Goldie, she got lonely.
Jobe was my only family, and now by extension Daddy Stanley was too. Jobe, Daddy Stanley, and my Daddy spoiled me this past Christmas. Guess when Jobe came into my life it changed, for the better.
Best. Christmas. Ever.
Daddy pulled into the parking lot and turned off the car. “Bunny…”
“I know, Daddy.” I glanced at the dimly lit, aging building that’d been my job for way too long. “I feel it too.” Honestly, there were very few adult dance clubs in the greater Las Vegas area that didn’t look as rundown as this one. Dancers brought in so much money, especially while giving lap dances and the cut the house took was ridiculous. They weren’t the ones shaking their money makers, giving grubby guys a cheap thrill, so you’d think the least they could do was make our workspace better.
Yeah, I was more done with this job than I thought. I’d get in one last shift, then clean out my locker, and give Mick my two weeks’ notice. He’ll likely let me go when I do but that’s okay. I’ll find something else closer to Daddy’s house once I get settled in.
Decision made, I headed inside to get changed.
The locker room was a locker room. Smelly, cluttered, the lockers and benches were beaten up. The dancers had to clean it themselves, which meant me and two other guys did it because no one else cared enough to. Honestly, I wasn’t giving up anything I wasn’t better off without, by leaving this job. It had served its purpose and now it was time for my second act.
Here’s to hoping it doesn’t start out like the first one did. Alone, named by the first person to take infant me into foster care after being abandoned at the hospital. No clue who my family was or where I came from. No history of my history.
All hail act two.
But I never let that get me down before and I wasn’t about to start now. These were good changes I was making, positive ones.
I slid into my leather boy shorts and harness, took a deep breath and emerged from behind the curtains.
“You’re in station twenty-seven,” Mick barked in my ear. As though we couldn’t hear his big mouth over the music. Just having him that close to me made my skin crawl. He was so nasty. Daddy glared at Mick when he nearly swatted my behind.I mouthedthank-youto him and danced through to the waiting tables.
Here, the dancers did everything. Danced, took drink orders, delivered drinks, gave lap dances. Behind the scenes some of the dancers did…other things, but not me. Even before Daddy, I didn’t do that, but given the break Jobe gave me on rent, I hadn’t struggled to pay my bills for a long time and even when I did, I just took on extra shifts.
Throughout my life I struggled with being one of the forgotten ones. Crying myself to sleep, wondering when a family would adopt me, but they never came. I learned early on that I was the only one I could count on. Now here I was, serving drinks while the first and only man I’d ever loved, Jobe doesn’t count, that’s a BFF kind of love even though we no longer played hidey hole. The love I felt for my Daddy was the forever kind. It hit me hard and fast as I watched him work from a nearby table tonight. I’d never said those three fateful words to another human aside from Jobe and it was never one of those formal I love you’s like in the movies. Now more than anything I wanted to tell Daddy how much I loved him. It’s okay if he doesn’t love me back because I know it will happen, someday.
At least, I hoped it would.
“Da-“ Before I could finish the word I was spun around and landed atop some guy’s lap. A guy with a very…hard…lap. Daddy and our security guard practically flew across the room. Daddy had me off the guy and security yanked him out of his seat and escorted him right out of the club.
“Are you okay, Beck?” Daddy asked.
I nodded. “Daddy, please, just take me home.”
“Anything you want, Bunny.” Daddy packed up his laptop and work bag and led me toward the back. Mick came barreling out of his office.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get your ass back out there, Beck.”
Daddy growled, but I shook my head at him. This was my issue to handle, though knowing he stood behind me definitely gave me the push I needed. “Mick, I quit. Effective immediately.”
The nosy dancers in the changing area stood nearby, watching it all unfold.
“Empty your locker now.” Mick slammed the door to his office, as though he had any control over this situation.
“Good for you,” Israel, one of the other dancers said. “I wish I could get out of here.”
