There was the bang of a door from somewhere outside the office. A few seconds later, the small, dark murky office's door crashed open, revealing a scantily clad woman standing fuming in the doorway. From the red blush of her face, the balled fists held by her sides, and the way her skimpy bikini top rose and fell over her panting bosom, it was clear that she was the source of the commotion. She stared into the room, strawberry hair unkempt, several errant strands streaking across her face like faux-scars, her eyes fixating immediately on the figure seated behind the small desk within.
'Adam!' The sexily-dressed woman growled.
Inside the room, the man behind the desk seemed particularly nonplussed, a slightly out-of-place reaction to the woman's fury. His mouth twitched, though whether in pleasure, frustration, anger, or mere perturbation, it was impossible to tell. He put his palms to his chair's armrests, sighing, just as another woman appeared behind the furious female's shoulder, the newcomer curly-blonde haired and wearing a neon pink latex boob-tube. It bounced as she ran with the springy weight of the body underneath, and there were two small protrusions in it's front, roughly where her nipples would be, beneath the material. She put her hand on the first female's arm, pulling gently backwards.
'June, c'mon,' she said, looking at the slightly taller woman's head as if addressing her eyes despite their fixation on the man, 'let's just leave it, they're not worth it—'
'No.' June said, shrugging off the hand. 'I've had
enough
.' She stepped into the office. 'Get back to work, Kel, I need to speak to our
employer
for a sec.'
There was a brief pause during which the blonde's line-of-sight was unhindered as June entered Adam's office, and, for a fleeting moment, the pair met eyes. There was a flash of something—a sort of silent, wordless energy—that passed between them, and for an instant, Kel—real name Kelly, stripper name Cherry Pop—seemed to stiffen, her sky-blue eyes widening, almost as if they were receiver dishes reading a radio signal from Adam's own. A moment later, without another word, Kelly turned and left, her similarly pink-clad backside wobbling out of view.
Adam sighed again and pushed himself out of his chair. He was tall, stocky, and had the first inklings of a pot belly coming on. At thirty-five, he looked older than his age, and was an eclectic mix of stereotypes; gangly, hairy, both nasal and deep-voiced, somehow both fat and thin, and most of all, a curious mix of creepy and attractive. He gestured to the door, brushing his greasy neck-length hair from his face.
'Close that, if you wouldn't mind, please, June.'
June studiously ignored his request, and he shrugged philosophically. 'Fine, we can do this as privately as you'd like.'
'What I'd
like
,' June said, pointing at Adam accusatorily, 'is for you to
step up
and do something about these fucking men touching us. I've just had the
fifth
"customer" of yours think he can pull down my pan—my
underwear
and cop a feel just because I'm putting it in his face. I thought we'd agreed, this is a
strip
club,
not
a brothel, right? Or are you just letting them get away with it as long as they keep throwing hundred-dollar bills on the poles? Keep them coming back for another feel?'
Adam's arms went out, palms forward in a display of defeat. He smiled good-naturedly and leaned forwards slightly as he responded. He was actually taller than June, but in her present set of heels—six-inch clear stilettos—they were the same height. 'You're
right,
of course, my girl,
completely
right. Here, why don't you take a seat, and let's discuss this properly. You deserve to be heard and your concerns appreciated.' He gestured towards a couch that reclined by the wall next to his desk, and, pausing for a moment to consider, June took it. Adam passed her, closed the door, and took a seat himself opposite her, on a gaudy meeting room-esque orange chair - the circular type with a low, mostly aesthetic backrest and slim metal legs made from one continuous metal beam.
Adam sat and crossed his legs, letting his loose, threadbare blazer jacket fall open in the process, gesturing with both hands for June to continue talking. As if absent-mindedly, he began fingering a small black necklace that hung around his neck, previously tucked just beneath his shirt by his blazer and released by his movements. He seemed not to realise he was doing it as he stared intently at June, apparently wholly focussed on her words.
'Well—look. I'm
sorry
I burst in like that, but
fuck
man! I signed on to fucking
strip.
I know stripping is an inherently sexual thing, but there's a difference between jiggling my tits in front of some dudes and letting them
get up in
there!' She sighed, aware that anger wouldn't help her get her point across, and took a fresh breath, regathering her emotions. 'Look. It's just that it's not the first time we've brought it up. I said to you last week when two different men, who paid for the all-access service, thought they could touch me - one of them started rubbing my thighs, remember, while the other one thought it was an all-out fuck-fest and tried to bend me over the table? And I said then that Kelly, Anna, Rachel, even Maisie had all had men do the same, and... And, I don't know, I mean now, I have two men do it in one night and you're not... Not available, and, um, then some guy's dirty hands, end up, uh—they end up, you know, I mean one second he's there and it's cool and then... Then he's pulling down my... My panties, and he's... Uh, he's, uh, he's—his hand is between my... between my legs... And...'
As June spoke, her eyes slowly drifted, eventually finding the black bauble rolling gently between Adam's fingertips. At first, she kept her train of thought, paying it little mind, but as she continued to try to focus on her words, she found the flickering, sparkling object drawing in more and more of her attention, until she was starting to find it hard to remember what she was saying in the first place. Slowly, without realising it, June's angry posture had softened, and she had begun to slump back into the generous cushions supporting her back as she continued to stare into the twinkling little crystal, words and focus trailing off as the curious, intricate thing dragged more and more of her focus into it. It was... Strange. Oddly captivating. It seemed to shine from internal spaces that were too big, too far away to fit inside that tiny...
'Go on, June. Tell me all about the way the man touched you.' Adam said, leaning forwards. Notably, he never stopped fidgeting with his necklace - indeed, it was now considerably closer to June's eyes as she tried to resume her train of thought.
'I... Uh, well, I was—I mean, he was... Sitting there, and I was... I was dancing... He had my—I mean, his hands... Uh... They were, on my legs, and then... I-I was giving him a lap dance... And he... His hands went up... And then...'
The black stone kept shifting in Adam's hand, rolling back and forth, catching the lights in Adam's office and sending thousands of tiny flashes like camera bulbs straight into June's eyes. It was an oddly deep object, June found herself thinking, almost involuntarily - distracting, fixating,
magical
. Every time she felt like she had its shape and motion worked out, another flicker would show off some sub-surface facet, making it look wholly new again, almost as if the inside of the object were larger and more complex than the simple round bauble it appeared to be at first glance. She forged on, but the necklace just kept twisting, and for every new word in her mind, another colour-filled flash surprised her optical nerves and short-circuited her mind, and as she spoke, her thoughts grew more and more scattered and her focus more and more distracted.
'Tell me about where the man touched you.' Adam said, his voice level, yet his words somehow insisting. It was as if he weren't asking June as much as he was ordering her, yet his tone was still conversational, his face soft. His eyes bored into June's even as hers remained locked on the necklace in his hand. She did not look up from it.
'He... Touched me... Between my legs...' June said, now sounding thoroughly distracted, like someone trying to talk while driving or playing a video game.
'Where.'
'My... Vagina...' June vagued.
'
On
