The One With The Fruity Little Thing
Coming to work at noon two days in a row was not my idea of fun at all. I was a night owl and working at the club was perfect for that. However, going in to work on a new dance routine sounded a lot more fun than going in to scrub floors and glasses. Zac already treated me like a housewife, pouting until I cooked him dinner and cleaned up afterward; doing all the cleaning at the club, too, was just too much for me.
But working on a new performance… that was one thing that would get me out of bed early. Cade knew what he was doing; he had ideas and ambition. I liked that about him, and I was excited to see what he had planned for all of us. The fact that it annoyed Zac barely even registered at all. Zac was always bothered by some aspect of our job; that was nothing new. I wasn’t sure if it was the competition that bothered him, or if he still had his panties in a twist over Cade hitting on him, but I really didn’t care. Whatever it was, Zac needed to get over it.
In hopes of cheering him up, I drove by McDonald’s on the way to the club and we picked up an early lunch of burgers and fries. I sucked down my coffee while I drove, and Zac was still tearing into his burger when we walked into club. Even Ruby wasn’t usually in so early, but she’d come in and unlocked the door for us so that we could rehearse. Not surprisingly, given the fact that we were nearly always late, Cade and Eduardo were already sitting on the side of the stage when we walked in.
“So glad you boys saw fit to grace us with your presence,” Cade said, but the twinkle in his eyes canceled out the sarcasm in his words.
“You better be,” Zac replied, his mouth full of french fries. “I’m not usually up this early when I don’t actually have to work.”
Cade smirked. “Well, I feel special, knowing you got up just for me.”
Zac’s face turned bright red and he actually began to choke on his overly largely mouthful of fries. I slapped his back a few times, and after a moment, his face returned to its usual color. He plopped down angrily in a chair and turned all of his attention to his burger, ignoring the rest of us entirely.
In between bites of my own burger, I asked, “So, do we have some kind of plan for this group performance or what?”
“Well, I had this idea,” Cade began, sounding a little nervous and embarrassed. How anyone who looked like him could be so shy, I would never understand. “I used to do a routine kind of like this… I used to be a huge geek, believe it or not. So I would do a routine kind of mocking myself. Come out dressed like Steve Urkel—high water pants, suspenders, the whole thing. Then, you know, strip that off and… well…”
“Reveal the gorgeousness beneath,” Eduardo offered with a grin and a wink.
Cade chuckled. “Something like that, yeah.”
“Well, the costumes would be fun and easy,” I replied, already imagining what could I do with that theme. “What song would we use, though?”
“I used to do it to Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” Cade admitted.
“Oh, hell no,” Zac replied, shaking his head.
I rolled my eyes. “Zac’s a bit of an elitist about the music.”
“What about Sexy And I Know It?” Eduardo suggested. “I’ve been dying to put together a routine to that one.”
I eyed Zac. “Well? Is that one up to your standards?”
“As a song? No.” He sighed, but a tiny smirk was beginning to spread across his face. “But as a routine? It could be really funny. And hey, you could wear those ugly-ass glasses of yours.”
“Glasses?” Eduardo asked, grinning. “Why have I never seen these?”
I flicked a french fry at Zac’s face before turning back to Eduardo. “Because I usually wear contacts. But I suppose my glasses might not be entirely out of place as part of the geek costume.”
“No, that sounds perfect,” Cade replied. “That’s the good thing about this whole routine; the costumes are really easy to put together. But I think you would look good in glasses.”
I could have sworn Zac actually growled in response to that. It could have been a snort, though, because soon enough, he was laughing loudly. “Put it this way,” he said, “it won’t take much work at all to make Taylor look like a giant nerd.”
There was the Zac I knew—always looking for a reason to insult me. There still seemed to be something strange in his overall attitude, but I didn’t think much of it. Frankly, I was too busy being flattered by Cade’s compliment. I wasn’t entirely sure if he was flirting with me or not; despite what certain people might think, men don’t actually flirt with me that often. It was strangely… flattering. I didn’t know why it bothered Zac so much just to have someone appreciate him, even if it was only for his looks.
“Well, are we going to practice this bitch or not?” Zac asked, tossing his cheeseburger wrapper at my head. “I didn’t wake up early just to sit around and chat, ladies.”
Eduardo gave Zac a little eye roll, but hopped up nonetheless. “I think I’ve got the song on my iPod. It’s out in my car; I’ll go get it.”
“And I’ll see if I can find some costumes for us, at least just to practice with,” I offered, standing up.
“I’ll help,” Cade added, giving me a huge smile. Yeah, he was definitely flirting.
Zac shot me a strange look, but I ignored it and instead led Cade backstage. We had a few bits of costumes in storage, although most of us were responsible for our own. Still, I thought we could find a few shirts, bow ties, maybe even suspenders to play around with, even if they didn’t end up being part of the finished costumes.
“You know, this is a lot nicer than I expected for such a small club,” Cade admitted as I ushered him into the small closet packed to the brim with our costume odds and ends.
I began flicking through a rack of clothes. “Yeah, Ruby tries to take good care of the place. She has big dreams for it, if you couldn’t tell.”
“That’s a good thing,” he replied, following my lead and digging through a random box of supplies. “The last club I worked at was a mess. It was this total hole in the wall and super sleazy. I guess clubs that cater to women are generally a little classier, though.”
I coughed a little. “Oh, you—you worked at a gay club?”
“Mhm,” he replied, holding up a bright blue bow tie and grinning. “What do you expect? I am gay, you know. But working here is alright, as long as the women look and don’t touch.”
“Good luck with that,” I replied. “We get a few guys, though. It’s not exclusive.”
“Oh, I bet Zac loves that,” Cade said. He stepped in a little closer and looked over my shoulder. “That’s a good shirt. We can use that one.”
“I thought so too,” I replied, plucking it from the rack. “And truthfully, Zac doesn’t really like when anyone here touches him. He’d rather they all keep their distance, male or female.”
“And why does he work in a strip club again?”
“The money,” I replied with a shrug. Grabbing a couple more button-up shirts and a few pairs of tear-away pants, I turned back to Cade. “If you can find a few more bow ties and suspenders, I think we’ll be ready to practice.”
Our arms loaded down with the makeshift costumes, we made our way back to the front of the club. Eduardo was fiddling with the PA system while Zac still sat at the table, chowing down on what I was pretty sure were my fries. With the way he ate, it was amazing that he managed to stay in such good shape at all.
Once I managed to pry Zac away from the food, we changed into our costumes and turned on the music. Cade already had something of a routine, complete with some very dorky moves, worked up, and it didn’t take the rest of us long to catch on. For once, Zac’s less than stellar dance skills came in handy. He even managed to throw the running man into his part of the performance. We all struck ridiculous poses, popping our bow ties and suspenders, before finally stripping down and getting into the real dance moves.
For his part, Zac dropped to the stage and did a few push-ups, while Eduardo rolled his hips like only he could. I turned around and flexed my ass muscles; one of my favorite moves and one that Zac always mocked me for. And Cade… well, I wasn’t sure what Cade was doing exactly. The way he rolled his hips rivaled even Eduardo’s moves, and was both disturbing and kind of enthralling. His junk was actually wiggling. It was easily the most obscene thing I’d seen on the stage at Double Entendre’s, and that was saying a lot.
I was too caught up in watching him to even notice that Ruby had walked in. When the song stopped, her clapping filled the room.
“I love it!” She squealed. “You boys are going to be great—not that you aren’t already!You know what I mean.”
“Thanks,” Cade replied, blushing a little. “It still needs some work, but I think we’re off to a good start.”
“I just love to see my boys bonding,” Ruby said. “You guys should do more of that.”
“Bonding?” Zac replied. “I don’t think I like the sound of that.”
“I wouldn’t question my judgment while you still owe me, Zac.”
Before he could reply, Ruby had ducked behind the curtain and vanished from sight. Sometimes I really wondered if she was magic; she seemed to appear whenever she wanted, and disappear just as quickly. As she’d proven to Zac, she definitely saw everything. It was a little freaky, but it kept us in line… mostly.
“It’s still missing something,” Eduardo said, picking up the bits of his costume. “I know we’ll come up with better costumes before we do this thing for real. But how do you boys feel about bikini briefs? I mean, that’s what they wear in the music video. Or even thongs. What this club really needs is more thongs.”
“Nope,” Zac replied, shaking his head. “No way in hell are you getting me in one of those fruity little things.”
Cade actually snorted at that, immediately covering his mouth in embarrassment. Zac shot him a glare, but it didn’t stop the giggles that his hand was only barely muffling.
“Well, I don’t mind,” I replied, trying not to let Cade’s giggles infect me as well. “But it won’t work unless all four of us wear them.”
“Is there anything you won’t do for money?” Zac asked.
I shrugged. “Probably. I’ll let you know when I find it.”
That earned me a wink from Cade, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. If I hadn’t known better, and I wasn’t so sure that I did, I would have thought he was flirting with me. But that was just silly; he knew I was straight. Why would he do it anyway? He’d already learned, no doubt, that flirting with Zac was a great way to get a rise out of him. But what did he accomplish in flirting with me?