The Stripper Equation

Piece Offering

We finished off the night making great tips.  The fresh meat were pretty successful too.  Wren Steele and Georgia Peach were the top contenders next to Kiera’s buddy Silva Dollar, no thanks to Kiera.  She was useless.  There was going to be a meeting after we were done closing the club and with all the extra hands with the fresh meat girls it went by much quicker than normal.  With admission tonight every client got a ballot that they got to write in their favorite fresh meats name on.  We put out a wooden box and they get counted at the end of the night.  This is how we diplomatically pick who moves on to round two.  It’s just like our political system.  The girls can use what means they want to influence the clients we really don’t care.  In the end we can veto how many girls move onto the next round.  The ballots are more of a guideline.

Tanner was going to help Dominique count the ballots and I watched their interaction carefully before they moved into the office.  How could I have missed her involvement with the drugs all along?  I watched her during the clean up warily looking for clues.  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary but I also didn’t know exactly what I was looking for.  Now they were behind closed doors and there may or may not be drugs behind those doors as well.  The one thing I did know was whether or not she was involved in selling the drugs she definitely wasn’t doing them.  I knew her enough to know that she despised them, which was why none of this made any sense.  We were all sitting around patiently waiting for Dominique to announce who made it to round two.  The fresh meat anxiously anticipating the results, with the exception of Wren and me.  I knew she had no doubt she was a shoo in and I just wanted to go talk to Noah.

If it weren’t for the fact that Tanner was already suspicious of me from being in the office earlier today I would have offered to help count.  Well technically it was yesterday but still Dominique had just told me not to go in there without permission so I didn’t want to continue to bring attention to myself.  I was driving myself crazy, I just wanted to see Noah.  When I was just about to make up an excuse on why I had to leave Tanner and Dominique came out of the office.  Venus gets up on the stage.  “Alright the results are in.”  She says with much gusto.  All the fresh meat sit up a little taller and I noticed this time Wren is included.  “Everybody did great.  The votes were so close.”  She says this every time.  Even if a poor girl didn’t receive any votes Dominique would never admit it.  “And whoever doesn’t make it to the next round is welcome back anytime.”  We very seldom get repeats.  And the few that we have rarely fair better the second time around.  We once offered a girl a job as a waitress after her third try out.  She actually accepted and stayed almost a year.  Poor girl just didn’t have any coordination.  She wasn’t a very good waitress either, but she was so sweet the clients still loved her.  We took her sporadic dropping of trays of drinks in stride and turned it ironically into a drinking game.  Eventually she went back to school.  I hear she became a nurse. 

Daphne grabbed my hand and squeezed it hard.  “Oh my gosh Cherry.  You already are hired.”  I pulled my hand out of her grasp wiggling my fingers to make sure they still work.  “You know that right.”  The way she was acting you’d think we would get a bonus if our buddy got hired or something.  She just glared at me and told me to shush.

“The girls making it to the next round will come in tomorrow morning and we’ll run through a routine.  Then tomorrow night we get to vote one more off.”  Dominique looked out to make sure everyone was paying attention.  “Alright.  Moving on to the next round in no particular order.”  She always says in no particular order but we all know that she says them in the order of who got the most votes.  She always wants to spare their feelings.  “Wren Steele, Silva Dollar, Georgia Peach, Liberty Belle, and last but not least”, which in Dominique speak means she wasn’t really good enough but Dominique’s routine needed five girls and she didn’t feel like revising it by tomorrow morning, “Lux Diamond.”  After the winners and their buddies celebrated Dominique finished.  “Everyone’s invited to Mike’s Bar for the after party.   Remember fresh meat to be here tomorrow morning 7.30.”  There were collective groans.  It was earlier than usual but this was to weed out the weaklings.  If one doesn’t show Dominique isn’t above calling one of the rejects to fill quota for her beloved routine.