A few weeks have gone by since I started training for the manager position at the club, and things have been getting so much better. I'm starting to get happy to go to work again, I'm starting to take care of myself again, and I've finally stopped thinking about Jon... Well, not fully.
Every once in a while, he'll pop up again. I would like to say that when this happens it didn't bother me, however, that would be a lie. The truth would be that every time I think about him, I miss him more and more. It honestly feels like my heart is getting crushed every single time he comes up. Ze said the pain would stop... I wish I knew when.
Letting out a sigh, I step out of my car and walk towards the club with a smile on my face. The second I walk in, I don't even change my clothes; I just run to Panda's office. Once I walk into the room, he smiles at me and pushes over the clipboard with everyone's name on it. At the moment, I somewhat feel like his assistant, however, I happily do everything he asks, knowing that I'll have to do everything myself someday soon.
Taking the clipboard, I walk over to the window and mark down everyone who's here today. Afterward, I start ordering who I think would be better to go on stage and when, and since I've watched everyone go on several times before, and I know their styles when they take the pole, I order it from the lowest energy to the highest energy, putting up a high energy pair to be our closing performance.
Once I have the list completed, I walk over to Panda's desk and hand him the clipboard. "You know your list are all starting to look the same, right," Panda asks with a raised eyebrow. I nod and bite my cheek.
"I thought it would be a good idea to have everything end with a high engery routine."
"That isn't a bad idea on paper, but you need to think about the dancers and the customers. These dancers that will always be opening, they are going to be getting fewer tips than the closing dancers. If that keeps up long enough, they will start to complain and they will want to leave to go somewhere that could offer them more time on the pole. And with the closing hours, you need to remember the state everyone will be in. The customers will be drunk off their asses. If they constantly get high engery, it could make them hyper. This will risk them doing something stupid that could hurt themselves or people around them, or get them arrested for stupid ass shit.
I get what you're trying to do, but remember that you have to add alcohol and tips into this list. So as weird as it will look going from someone like Brock to Lui, it's better to make that little mix up to keep people happy."
I nod as he talks and take notes of everything that he tells me. Once he's done, I take the clipboard back and start rearranging the names. After a minute, I look over the list and hand it back to Panda, who looks it over and nods in approval. "That's more like it. You're picking up on everything fast, Evan. I'm proud of you," he then says as he pats me on the back.
I smile and thank him and ask him if there was anything else he wanted me to do, but before he could answer, we hear the door to his office open. We look towards the door and see one of our dancers, who we call Bunni, take a few steps in and stop, staring at me with giant eyes.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were busy! I'll come back later!"
He turns away and starts closing the door, but soon stops when Panda says, "No need. Come back. Vanoss is going to be in here all night, so if you need something, you're better off telling me what you need now."
Bunni turns back and looks over to me before he walks over to the desk, his head hanging low. When he is right in front of the desk, he then starts to stretch his arm, nervously. "I... I'm out... And... I'm not going to get in trouble for asking in front of Vanoss, am I?"
Panda sighs and shakes his head. "No; I told you to come and tell me what you needed after all." He then reaches over to the right side of his desk and messes with a lock that I never really noticed he had on his desk before. Then again, I never came back here before, and whenever he needed to pull something out from his desk, he had always pulled it out from the left. It was a small peice of detail that I never noticed before.
After he messes with the lock, he opens the drawer and looked back to Bunni. "What did you need?"
Bunni then smiles a weird, somewhat creepy smile as he then says, "LSD."
My jaw drops and I snap my head around to look at Panda. I watch as he then reaches into the drawer and pulls out a box before he throws it to Bunni. "Make that last. I don't want to see you back here at any point this month for more of that shit."
"Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!" Bunni then quickly runs out of the room, shutting the door behind him, leaving Panda and I alone.
I just stare at him in shock and horror as he calmly shuts the drawer and puts the lock on it. He then takes a deep breath before saying, "I wish I had a better way of telling you this."
I blink and shake my head. "The guys... They've been getting this shit from you?"
"They didn't always get it from me. We had a regular that would stop by just for the boys. Never sat at the tables. He only got into the VIP rooms.
However, the son of a bitch fucked the boys over with a few bags. I'm worried that he may have caused Bryce's and Brock's overdoses. After I started suspecting shit, I found a guy to buy from. So, I buy the shit, watch the dude as he gets it to me to make sure he doesn't fuck with it, and then I sell it to the guys."
"Why didn't you just ban it all together?"
"I told you why, Evan. And even if I were to stop selling to them now, I would then have to worry about them buying from somewhere else and getting ripped off again and possibly dying."
"Well, how can you trust that this guy won't fuck you over?"
"Well, for one thing, he's a pharmacist. Pushing drugs is his job no matter what, and fucking someone over and possibly killing them when they are your best customer is a bad move to make. Plus, as I said, I watch him when he gets everything packaged and weighed out."
I gulp and stare at the drawer. "I... I-"
"Look, Evan," he then says, turning to face me and taking my hands. "I know drugs are something you can't stand, but it is a huge part of the club's life. Dancers have to go through a lot, and drugs help calm them down."
I start thinking about everything he told me before, and a question comes to mind. "... Did you ever use?"
"No. My mother did and all of her friends, I think I remember some of my old coworkers use to as well, but I never used. And you won't have to either if you don't want to." He then puts his hand on my shoulder and gives it a little squeeze. "I know you hate them, but in this field, you can't fight against them. You can make a rule in your own building where they can't do anything in front of you, but that's the best you can do."
I sigh and hang my head before I think back to the day of Mini's attack. Think about how those men treated us. Treated him...
"I understand... And if they feel like they need all of that crap in their bodies... I won't try to stop them."
I then look up as Panda stands straight up and wraps his arms tightly around me. I hug him back and soon after, he starts to rub my back. "You've grown up so much, Evan. I'm proud of you."
I blush lightly before I start to pull away. "Was there anything else you wanted me to do, sir?"
"Oh please Evan," he starts as he pulls his chair back and sits back down. "We're going to be partners someday soon. Please, call me Anthony."
I gulp a bit before I say, "Okay. Was there anything else you wanted me to do, Anthony?"
"Of course," he then says before he rolls backward and opening one of his filing cabinets. "I'm going to go tell everyone the order they'll go on for the night. So if you could, I need you to start going over all of these." He then pulls out several files filled with sheets of paper.
He puts them on his desk before he reaches over and takes the clipboard. "What is all of this," I ask, grabbing the first file.
"These are resumes for a security position. I need you to just check the experience of these guys and separate them into three groups. One for people who have experience as a security guard, one for people who have experience as cops, and one for people with no experience at all."
"Alright, sir. I can do that." He then puts his hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. "Oh, I'm sorry. Alright, Anthony. I can do that."
He then pats my shoulder before he walks around me, and I take a seat at his desk. "I should be back up here in five minutes. That should give you a good start."
"Alright, Anthony," I simply reply before I open the first file.