soon, i'll be leaving
She'd just gotten there, too. But there it was, she hadn't even made it back to finish changing, make up and hair set - she needed to go and get a few bottles of water from the front of the house when she saw out of the corner of her eye, dimly lit with red and purples from the florescent hanging precariously on the tracks. That evening's DJ was 'fraternizing' with a couple of the girls from the shift that came in after hers (although this was her second of the day, whoops). That's why she didn't like working the middle of the week so much, there was a girl that would spin on the weekends, liked her just fine. She always made steps to talk to the dancers about rehearsing things before opening, she got the cues right. She was just more professional. Just did her hair purple, bright purple, light purple. In-betweens, too. Her whole head looked a little like a night's sky, and if she thought she could get away with something like that, she told herself maybe one day she'd do everything up in blue or maybe evergreen. Not that it was really ever destined to happen, she'd bleached her hair a few times through the courses of moving and assuming new ..well, new everythings, pretty much. But eventually her hair always wound up longer and red. Naturally, that wasn't the point and the thought derailed just enough that the sound of the next song jarred her to the point where she grabbed at the wall next to her from just off stage.

She was watching two of the new girls on stage while several women wandered around nearly half dressed on the floor. Sex on Fire and after a time it would morph into something where the bass would drop signifying some change in styles or people or - she didn't know, she came in late tonight. But she'd have to talk to Brian about getting some earplugs after this evening, that shit got loud, but that's what happens when there's even a minute leaning toward power ballads, which is what it had been. Roman had roughly about fifteen more minutes before she had to be really ready, the bartender had sent her back a drink with three cherries skewered through, just waiting on the vanity where she'd taped up a picture of Alice Cooper and Miss Piggy. It wasn't hers, but it was hers. She was dusting herself all over with an iridescent pearly pink and purple shimmer when she'd heard behind her -- "Nooo, nobody knows who he is, he barely talks to anybody but he doesn't have to talk so much -- " an awkward giggle from a girl in gold and black platforms who nearly tottered right off the railing she was half holding on to.

"Maybe he just doesn't want to talk to you," the words sounded a little harsh but it was coming from, more or less, from a more amused sort of set of eyes, "y'all don't know - he could be, whatchacall it these days, asexual, maybe you just don't do anything for him, you think about that Paris," said through the cigarette in her teeth, knowing full well that girl's name was Ashley. Amy, that was her name, was trying to help someone wipe all the loose glitter off with some wonder bread when she saw the clock, tapping Roman on the shoulder with a free - semi glittered hand while Ro was setting her eyelashes, "you almost done, you need to get out there --"

She'd pulled at the garter buckle and straightened the stockings as she'd gotten up, moving the skirt she'd found that was too short and almost too tight to boot, the button up blouse, she'd thought about being a librarian tonight. Because what was the point if you didn't inject a little theatre for yourself? Or that was her thought. Winding her hair up in a messy bun and stabbing a pencil in it, "I know, I know -- my seams straight," the question came as she turned and stuck her ass out with a bit of a wiggle, forcing the other woman to abandon the wonder bread for a hard smack, which Roman sold with an exaggerated pout.

She'd been working there for five months now, with some time in between to go down to Georgia with a friend when there were open nights, she was getting pretty good, too. The little bit of exhibitionist in her didn't really care about the being naked so much, Roman didn't have so many hang ups on taking her clothes off, table dancing was awkward though. But she wasn't scheduled for any of that tonight, nope. Tonight it was just the stage and maybe some rounds through the crowd for dances. She'd readied herself off stage while the two on sauntered slowly down the stairs that were on either side of the stage. The lights hit and she nervously tip toed out into view, the stage lights going warm and yellow, pretending to be a bit shocked by the new colors, she stumbled back and over into the pole - where she looked startled, giggled and coughed, casually taking her jacket off and loosening the first button on her blouse as the music started to seep through the speakers.

Then the shirt, revealing a lavender camisole -- going back to the pole on the right, acting a little afraid of it and then back to humming and hawing. Truthfully, it wasn't just stripping, but management promised she could try and thus far it was going fairly well, each thing she took off, her wrists turned carefully and her eyelashes were kept low as she'd forced a blush as the clothes hit the floor as the song slowed to a stop, she was going to dance, of course, as a second came on and the lights changed over to something warm and dark, Roman casually turned herself around the pole with her arm stretched and toes in, still in the painfully high heels as the audience came closer and hooted, threw money and business cards -- 'cause that was going to happen, and then when she'd just started to pull herself up the metal, she looked out of the corner and saw...

Oh.

Oh that's who they were talking about. She drew in a slow breath, shimmying up the pole and bending in time with the music, the gradual sway and turn of her body winding around and twirling with the soft music, making eye contact for a second as she was upside down, popping her bra off and holding herself there with her thighs and calves locked in place before releasing herself and going back to the slow turn and then dropping. She stretched her leg out and up, the voice against the song was breathy and wet and she'd... maybe, maybe. No, she didn't even know that guy's name and besides, bouncers. That's just -- not that she could talk about what work a person was in.

The hooting got louder and the one guy, that one guy who was always there early and stayed too late for her liking kept inching up toward the edge of the stage and while he didn't particularly do anything it was just then. More than a little unsettling.

The lights shifted from the warmer purple to a cool blue as that twirl had faced her toward the audience again, upside down she shimmied out of her bra, tossing it off to the side of the stage -- leaving her arms out in the air for a moment to roll her palms over the tops of her breasts and up her stomach before she'd slid back around and down to the floor -- teasing the edges of her underwear as she'd started to slither along the stage - kind of trying not to look in the direction she thought she found herself trying to catch with each turn she took while she was in the air because. No. That was completely unprofessional. Even if - besides it was dark, it was dark. Nobody looked like that, not in the light. The song was slowly coming to the end when she yanked the hem down with a bit of force at the next loud swell from the song, reveling a tiny flesh toned thong that was embellished with rhinestones, turning around as she'd stood back up -- the DJ pointing out that she would be back in a little while, so anybody who was interested should probably stay where they were -- and also that the next girl was on her way out, which promised to be more colorful.

This was not to say that Ro didn't notice the guy in the front in the skull shirt who was edging closer to the stage and very nearly made off with her costume underwear wasn't trying to put his best behavior forward when the lights came up a little, but she got her panties back so.. maybe it wasn't going to be all that bad. The problem was as nice as the club was, some not so nice things still went on, which was the truth for just about any sort of establishment where there were people drinking and taking their clothes off. But all and all, wasn't so bad. She'd gotten back stage and much to her dismay, her drink wasn't back waiting for her. The rest of the girls were bustling around, taping their tits back, oiling and shaving and putting lotion on everything, false eyelashes were being put on and fishnets were ...well, fishnets were always trouble. Nearly accidentally toppling over with one of the blondes that were still teetering around in their platforms, Ro was pulling on a long sleeve slashed mini dress that covered... most things.. sort of. Which was fine, all things considered - maybe. Although truth be told, Lap dances weren't always her favorite parts of the night. Squeezing past tables and through people, she took small fast steps in the too-tall heels back to the back of the club where the bar was - where Jon was, and coincidentally, where the new guy was. Not that she knew that, she just knew she was thirsty.

She saw, as her dance was ending - that he was talking to the bartender, who was a friend of hers. Who also was supposed to have her drink waiting for her backstage, well he wasn't supposed to, it was just a thing - she'd been working there long enough and they were friends, sometimes they went out to the little dive bar that was just on the edge of downtown and split a plate of French fries and go over who they thought was most likely to try to be sexy and lick the pole at the end of the nigt, because as they'd noticed there was always one. Not that it mattered who that guy was talking to, or that the bartender hadn't sent her drink back. Or how they were both looking up at the direction of the stage every so often - no, none of it had been important.

"And now this is late," the bartender had muttered, getting out a red plastic sword to skewer an odd number of cherries onto before dropping it into a tall soda glass, mostly mad at himself - two martinis, a tray full of shots and assorted beers (somebody asked for a flight - god, that guy needed to leave), "so I'm going to send you back there with this and --" he motioned with his left hand to Roman's drink, "and you're going to take it back there since you made me late with it in the first place," his eyes widdening with a nod toward the backstage, he paused, looking up to see the recipient of the drink standing there with her hand on a hip looking comically expectant, "and where were you," came the raspy squeak as Jon had handed the drink handed over to Mike with a shrug, nodding down toward Ro, who hadn't quite noticed that he was there yet because she was in the middle of pretending to be upset.

"So this is where you're taking this - this is Ro," he nodded down again, "and this is the new guy so - new guy, who kept talking to me and not being useful," motioning at him to give her the drink. "I'm sorry I'm not usually, he's just being a dink and -- " her eyes finally training up to focus in the dim light to see the person who was holding her drink and there he was, the new guy. Who was not at all what she was expecting and was not about to admit to anything like her mouth going a bit dry or her breath catching or the weird tickle in her head that traveled down to tease at her fingertips and the joints in her arms because wow - she wanted to touch him, which was a strange second thought.

The new bouncer introduced himself, stumbling for a second long enough so that she could see the way that he'd almost like, nearly tittered with the corner of his mouth turned sharp after he, himself, noticed what he'd done. He made note of how what she'd done was good - it felt more intimate than the numbers prior in that night and she blushed lightly at the observation. It meant he'd actually paid attention, hopefully he hadn't noticed her actually watching him from where she'd been. But in her defense, he had been in the spot she zoned in on when the crowds were just a bit too loud. Sure.

The glass was sweating just a touch when he'd finally handed it over, which was only a problem in that it made her fingers slip in turn, not enough to drop the glass but there was irritating accidental she'd-be-thinking-about-it-for-a-while hand touching, which Roman was trying very hard not to directly draw attention to, her smile turned to a nervous kind of giggle after the glass was secure and the straw was between her teeth. There was a name after all, her eyes brightening up at the mention and ..maybe it was kind of cute that he'd said that first, even if it was a dumb thing that Jon did. Who was right there. Witnessing all of this - and that was not something she wanted, but she wasn't prepared to just start walking away yet. Filing his name away as second favorite ninja turtle. -- Because that's what happened. Pushing the straw away from her mouth, she shook her head, "they don't really like it when I do," waving her free hand at the back of the stage kind of embarrassed, "but I get to every other week on odd days." Her eyes rolled a little to the side, not that she minded, truthfully the one way was easier than hers, "but we'll be back to the regular drop and pop next time," leaning her weight into her hip and sort of absently settling in against the bar to stay. Not that she had any reason to, she had a few minutes though. Sort of, theoretical minutes anyway.

"You um," setting the drink back down to fish out the red sword with the cherries and then..putting it back down almost immediately after to fuss with her hair, "I think you're probably going to walk out with at least seven girls' numbers tonight from the back," her eyes widening a little with small grin. Which was not what she'd planned on asking, she was going to say something along the lines of you were standing at the spot I focus on, but thankfully her brain stopped it before it made the long, thankless travel from there to her mouth. Only because god only knew what she'd say after the fact.

The music changed and another girl came out, this one in bright pink ripped spandex and matching fishnets, along with the bumping blaring sound of one of the new Nicki Minaj songs thumping through the speakers - which made Roman make a face in the middle of the ... introduction? It had to be awkward by now, didn't it? It should have been. Her eyes going soft and big as she'd tried not to make any kind of eye contact, just going over the outline of his shoulders. After a very big breath and a late smile, she took a big gulp of her drink and sat it back down - leaving everything else alone, "I've probably got to um go change again so. If you're staying I guess I will.. I'll, I mean we'll probably see each other later, probably um..." pursing her lips tight for a moment, "you should. You should eat my ch.. the. Cherries. Yes. Because he'll throw them away and I have to ..." realizing now that she was stumbling all over herself, "before I make a bigger idiot of myself," reaching over to squeeze at Mike's arm just before she'd turned to start walking off back to the door she'd came from, but stopping in the middle of the line to get pulled into a conversation with one of the groups at one of the larger round tables that had just ordered drinks.

Oh, that was stupid, chastising herself in the middle of making big smiles and sitting on the edge of the table, kicking her leg out just enough to almost but not quite touch the guy who was sitting and leaning forward talking to her. Just standing there and babbling, though, is probably better than the alternative. Not that it mattered, it was fine. She could count on both hands the people in the back that wanted to ..at least tell that guy their names and there just wasn't any reason to entertain anything other than being introduced, and she was fine with that, the little pulls and scratches in her thought while she was standing there with him was enough to... It was just enough. Besides, "yeah, I know, you didn't bring half the office this time, I'm impressed -- " which was almost a lie, sort of. It just seemed like that group took up two tables and half the side of the catwalk. "I'll be officially out for that in like.. probably half an hour," in regards to when she could be asked for specifically. But there were way worse things.