FIXATION

4. Lucifer

"Hi, I'm Raguel O'Rourke. I'm here for a job. The manager said she had one for me and I could start tonight...?" Raguel had been trying to get past the giant bouncer for ten minutes, explaining why he was using the back entrance to FIXATION. He'd spoken to Megan via email and he was sure she had said Thursday night at ten. The bouncer eyed him up, but remained silent and Raguel sighed, frustrated and tugged at his shirt, shifting his feet.

"Look, Megan told me to come to start my first shift, but because of you I'm going to be late and Megan didn't seem like the kind of person who likes her employees keeping other potentially better employees out of work. Am I wrong?"

The big guy smirked, holding out his hand, "I'm Kibbles."

Shocked, Raguel reached out a hesitant hand to shake the bouncer's, "Raguel," he introduced himself.

"Right this way." Kibbles opened up the back entrance, gesturing Raguel inside and he stepped in, following the hallway until he reached what appeared to be a dressing room. Filled with the employees of Fixation.

One took notice of him, a youngish looking woman with dark skin and frizzy hair. "You new, kid?" she asked and he nodded.

She jabbed her thumb to a door, smiling. "That way hon."

"Thanks." He slipped through the bunch of unnaturally attractive people and out the door where he was in a large room, hardly lit, a noisy crowd talking and cheering, at tables or bars or gathered in front of a stage or a pole, some dancing and he looked around for someone who could give him some sense of direction.

A woman in a suit was walking calmly through the crowd, talking to employees, and she spotted him, manoeuvring through the crowd and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you lost or new?"

"It's Raguel O'Rourke, from the coffee shop. We spoke-"

"Right, right, of course. Welcome to Fixation, the back stage area is right over there." She pointed to the door he'd just come from and he frowned.

"Is there a bar in there?"

Now Megan was frowning. "No, but there's a mini-fridge. Though I'd prefer it if you didn't drink on the job."

"I don't drink – I'm a bartender; that's why I'm here."

Megan's nude lips parted and the frown washed from her eyes. "Oh..." she said softly. "Shit."

"What? Did you think I was applying to be a stripper? No offence, but do I look like a stripper to you?"

Megan shrugged absently, but her mind was clearly worrying about something else. She shook her head and pressed her fingers to her temples, swearing beneath her breath. "Now I have an open slot on the main stage."

"You were going to put me on the main stage?"

"It's part of hiring someone new; we haze them a little- fuck what am I..." She then suddenly walked quickly past Raguel, towards the dressing room and he trailed after her. Again he was surrounded by curvy men and women, covered in more body glitter than clothing. Megan Watson was talking faster than Raguel could read her lips to the same frizzy haired woman he'd seen earlier, and the woman's hair bobbed and her hearings jingled as she shook her head.

Megan wiped a hand over her face and her foot tapped against the floor, and Raguel was standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"What about Lucy?" The frizzy haired women suggested.

"I can't just call Lucy every time there's a problem, Evanora. The kid's already the main source of income, what else can I ask?" She sighed and glanced at the woman tiredly. "I don't have a choice, do I?"