Hey, everyone. This is my first submission here on Lit. Please, toss me some reviews and comments!
Sam Taylor knew it was a bad night the moment he walked into work.
Most nights were hectic at the Blue Room, New York's busiest escort service. Tonight was just a pure disaster. Erica, James, and Hector had all called in sick. The flu had hit them hard, and it was left that the Blue Room was massively understaffed.
It wasn't exactly the standard brothel. Tamara, Sam's boss, had once been a working girl herself. She discovered that pimping was much more profitable, and she had started the Blue Room on a loan from some unidentified loan shark. She had gotten it paid off in the first few years. Tamara knew how to run a business.
She knew that managing a staff of attractive twenty-somethings and rich clients required delegation. That was where Sam came in.
"Now, I'm going to have to call Mister Hendricks. He usually engages Hector, so we'll see if Robert might perk his interest, or if he wants to reschedule." Sam could have seen why Tamara had once been on the other side of the business. A black woman in her forties, she had aged incredibly well. She wasn't tall, but she had piercing eyes that made Sam feel about a foot shorter than he was.
"Of course, Tamara." She tapped in a few things on his tablet, a memo o himself to call Hendricks at his earliest chance. He didn't want to have to explain to the old shipping tycoon that hector was out, but well, that was life. "Is there anything else?
"No, not unless you want to fill in for Hector." Tamara said. He knew it was a joke. It was a well-established one. It still made a part of Sam boil inside.
"Not a chance." He said and he stood up to exit Tamara's office.
Once Sam was safely outside the office, he let out a soft breath.
The one rule he had made when he started working for the Blue Room was that he wasn't one of Tamra's "stable." He didn't have a problem with the job. Under different circumstance, he might have gone into the stable with head held high. Any of the boys or girls that Tamara employed as her escorts earned more money than he did during a given week.
He was Tamara's assistant for one reason. He had a huge demonic problem.
Sam's father had been a normal human, a perfectly normal guy with some knowledge of magic and the supernatural. Jake Taylor was one of the most knowledgeable folklorists on the West Coast. He had married a succubus, though, which left Sam with his own problem.
He was half-incubus, and while it seemed like a sex demon and an escort service seemed like a match made in heaven, there was a problem. Sam had never had sex.
Sure, he had fooled around at points, but he had never had the one big wham that had awoken his demonic side.
He wanted to be rid of it, but he also knew that side of him could hurt people, could be terribly powerful. Sam had been raised too well. He wanted to be better than his heritage. Succubi could live in society fairly easily. Incubi could be monsters.
Never the less, he adjusted his tie, and he started to walk through the back halls of the club. The Blue Room had dancers out in the front area every night, both men and women. Tamara was very forward thinking. More people had more money to drop on high-class companionship. Why just limit yourself to one facet of heterosexuality?
The public area of the club had a stage on one end, and a bar on the opposite end. Tables and booths littered the space in between and tables were between the two. There were four booths, two on each of the side walls. The first hour tonight was for Tamara's girls, then some males would start to be sparsed in.He made his way over to the bar, to check in on the club's barkeep.
Emily was a perfect barkeep. She kept him apprised of their liquor situation, knew how to mix just about anything, and she expected only the same from any other bartender. She was a short woman, dressed in her usual vest, shirt, and bowtie. She was sporting a slicked back blond hairstyle this week, one of an ever-changing rotation of styles.
"Hey, Em," Sam said. "How's it going tonight?"
"Business as usual, Sam," She had a whiskey-rough voice, always polite. "How's Tamara tonight? Heard we've got a few sick folks."
He sighed. "Yeah. Erica, James, Hector. So that's two dancers and one of our best boys." He shook his head. "I haven't even called Mister Hendricks yet. He's going to get all...emotional." He shook his head. He could see how people liked Hendricks could form attachments to Hector. He was probably the most passable boy they had as an escort. While it was something Tamara prided her girls on, she hadn't ever found a good male she could pass off for the "boyfriend experience"
Hector being out meant that Hendricks was losing his favorite guy, which meant that Sam would spend fifteen minutes listening to him complain. A little sigh escaped him, as he heard his ring tone from his pocket.
He checked the caller ID first, but he could take a wild shot at the dark at who it was. Yup. He answered the call, pressing the phone tight against his ear to drown out the sound of the music onstage.
"Sarah, what did I tell you about calling me at work?"
Out of the two Taylor children, Sam was by far the quiet one. Sarah was the outgoing type. She worked at a surf shop in San Diego. She completely embraced her demonic side. She enjoyed the life as a succubus.
