One thing --- he ran a tight ship here in the lounge --- never letting anything get out of hand, EVER and always checking the register.One thing --- he ran a tight ship here in the lounge --- never letting anything get out of hand, EVER and always checking the register. He also spent a great deal of his time talking with his customers and making them feel like they belong in the place --- which is probably why this little out of the way shopping center lounge was so damn popular. The place did a hell of a business --- better that almost any place she'd ever worked in before. Linda excused herself, thanked her bar companion for the drink, and as usual, left three quarters of it sitting there in the glass as she walked around the end of the U-Shaped bar and into the dressing room to change. A little while later, she came back out carrying her travel bag, dressed in black slacks and a loose pale blue silk looking blouse and wearing a pair of brown sandals. As she came through the dressing room door she saw John standing behind cash register talking to Jo Ellen, the bartender. "I'm ready, boss!" Linda exclaimed. "In a minute, Linda --- I gotta check Jo Ellen in first --- OK?" Linda walked over and around the outside of the bar and headed for the door. Once outside, she took a deep breath of the fresh spring air and looked out at the blinding sun sitting quite a ways above the western horizon. The light blinded her momentari- ly after her almost four hours in the dimly lit lounge, but the air felt GREAT as it replaced the stale smokey gunk that passed for air inside that place. She walked over and sat on the back bumper of John's new Caddy, setting her bag down on the dull asphalt parking lot as she did. "What she'd really like to do," she thought, "was take a ride out to Crooked Creek Lake and Dam, south of town, and sit on a dock with her long, slender tanned legs and pale white feet in the still cold spring time water." But that'll have to wait for a while until she got her Firebird back from the goddamn bank. She'd still have it if Johnny hadn't have been laid off all Winter, and she hadn't been so damn stubborn about going back to work dancing. The unemployment money just hadn't been enough to cover everything, and despite her desire to stay home and take care of her eight year old daughter, Tammara, Linda had finally volunteered to go back to work at the only job she knew well --- DANCING! At first, Johnny wasn't at all happy about the idea of her back in the "circuit", but he got over it swiftly as she brought one neat looking dancer home after another to "party" and perform on their go-go stage at home. |