What I need right now is Willan to swoop in and do that thing where he fills in the blanks for me. It’s fine, though, because Kai still gets me.
“It’s cool. I don’t ‘get it’,” he waves his hands about to demonstrate the vagueness of it all. “But I get it.”
“Thanks.” I nod, smiling tightly and swallowing the ball of emotion lodged in my throat. One of the things I love about Kai is the easy way he just accepts things and rolls with life. Sometimes he’s too easygoing, but right now, it’s definitely his number one trait.
“Whatever you need bud.” He claps me on the shoulder and scoops me up against his side. “Now let’s go meet our adoring public,” he crows, pushing his way through the door with his usual dramatic flair.
We’re busy from the moment we get behind the bar.
Kai and I made a pact when the Hot Vampire Bartender thing started to blow up online that we weren’t going to get involved—something our boss, Maddy appreciated. We’ve both had our fair share of overzealous ‘fans’, and having no obvious association to the whole thing has helped us keep a healthy barrier between us and them. Not that we don’t check on the feeds—it’s not like either of us have egos small enough tonotlook.
One thing about not being involved, though, is that our weekend get ups are always a secret. It’s become a bit of a drawcard for people to come and see what we’re up to. But from the crowd already flooding the club, someone’s told someone what our plans were for tonight and word’s gotten out.
Not only did we manage to get everyone involved in dressing up, but some of the day cleaning crew have gotten involved in the action and they’ve decorated the place in ‘ancient’ gold decorations and vines. The oversized medallions and chains and streamers clash violently with the usual black with red neon lighting, creating a tacky, glorious mess.
I love it.
We’re so busy I almost miss when Willan and his friends come in through the VIP access, Erod going out of his way to showboat the shit out of escorting them to the booth roped off especially for them. Thankfully, Kai is right next to me, and he stops what he’s doing to moon over his boyfriend from afar. Double thankfully, the crowd thinks it’s adorable when he stops making drinks to clutch dramatically at his chest and make finger hearts at Finn from afar. I make a show of rolling my eyes at his theatrics, but when my eyes meet Willan’s across the crowd and the spinning spotlight hits him just in time for me to catch his small wave, my smile turns a little dopey, too.
Even when we aren’t up on the bar, serving on the weekends is always a long running performance. We dance, we get flirtywith the customers, and generally act like ratbags whipping each other with towels and spraying each other with drinks.
After a couple of hours, I’m itching to get out to Willan and say hello. He came up to get a round of drinks, but Lifo served him before I could. They’ve left their table at the moment, and I think I can see Jax’s bald head and the tip of Willan’s ponytail on the dance floor.
“I’m just going on a glass run.” Kai yells in my ear, slipping his register key onto my wrist before he scoops up the glass rack. I whip his butt again with the towel, getting him with a solidcrack.Glass run, my ass. We’re busy as fuck and we have glassies for that job. He just wants to flirt with Finn.
I’m vampire enough to admit I’m jealous I didn’t think of it first.
As payback, I signal to the DJ to crank our song when he’s all the way over by the booths. He flicks me the finger before finding refuge at the guys’ VIP booth, Rolli—another security guard on with us tonight—close at hand just in case.
With Kai all the way over there, the bar is all mine and I make full use of it. I might have scores of adoring hands reaching for me, but all the faces are a blur except for Willan’s. It’s shockingly easy to find him, and it helps that he’s currently wrapped up in the arms of Jax and Lusce. There isn’t a lick of jealousy because he’s focused entirely on me.
When the song ends I drop down from the bar—once again with the help of Belinda who does another twirl with me against her cheek just in case I need a second. I do—I’m hard as fuck—but I made sure to rearrange things right this time.
The second my feet are back on the ground, it’s back to work. There isn’t even time to enjoy the rush, it’s just drink after drink after drink. Sometime later—who fucking knows at this point—I’m tapped on the shoulder to go load up the cart to refill the rapidly depleting fridges.
When I slip around the edge of the bar on my way to the storeroom, I spy the familiar dangle of black hair in the line. Evading the hands trying to stop me to ‘chat’, I sneak up behind him. Plastering myself to his back, I quickly pull his ponytail and then pinch at his sides. The first pull has him jumping, and the pinch has him trying to turn, but my chin is already planted on his shoulder.
“Hey good lookin’. What’re you up to?” I say, needing to yell to be heard over the thumping music. My hands start sliding around his waist before I realise what they’re doing, so I snatch them back, and end up not entirely sure what to do with them. I end up putting them on his shoulders to help brace myself. I need to stretch up onto my tiptoes to comfortably reach his ear.
“Fuck’s sake. You scared the shit out of me.” He rubs at his temple and sure enough, this close, I can hear the galloping race of his heart. “I was waiting to order. And was going to ask if you were still finishing at three?”
Because Kai and I opened, we don’t have to stick around for close. Unable to help myself, I press even harder against Willan’s back, hoping he can feel the line of my half hard dick through our clothes. If any of his friends saw us, we could just blame my closeness on the crush around us.
“Sure am.” Someone bumps me from behind forcing me to rock into Willan. From my awkward angle, I see his eyes sink closed, a shudder rippling through him.
“Do you want—do you want to go home together?” Eyes still closed, he swallows hard and licks his lips. It almost looks like the question physically pained him.
Go home with Willan? Sign me the fuck up.
“Fuck yes.” I turn so my nose brushes his ear and I’m rewarded with another glorious shiver.
“Good. That’s good.” Willan is so breathless I wouldn’t be able to hear it if I wasn’t so in tune with the vibration of hisbreathing and pulse. It kills me to leave him to get back to work, but knowing we’re going home together makes it easier to swallow.
Work both drags and races for the next few hours, passing in great big blobs that feel like they take forever to accumulate but then disappear before I know it. Kai and I dance together a couple more times. On the last time we get up there, Finn’s close to the bar so Kai pulls him closer and ends the dance by jumping down and snogging him into oblivion.
It’s been a banger of a night, but I’m more than ready to go when I slip into the almost painful quiet of the staff room with Kai after we clock off.
“You right to get home? Finn’s driving me to his.” Kai has turned into a total passenger princess since Finn finally got a car and his updated license organised for Ulydessia. It means I’ve lost my drive to work buddy half the time, but like Kai said before, I’m happy if he’s happy. I’m not going to burst his bubble.
