Darin arrived at the club forty-five minutes before it opened on Thanksgiving, finding Sammy prepping the bar.

"Hey," he said, "you're a manager today, not a bartender. Make Dave do that. Did everything get going on time?"

"Yeah," Sammy said. "I made it here at seven and let the caterers in so they could get started. Did you know Emma's with them?"

"Yes, it's her teacher doing the catering, and she thought it would be good experience. Thanks for coming in so early. I closed last night and there was just no way I could be here at seven this morning."

"No problem. I had a hard time waking up that early, too, and I got off at seven last night."

"Well, if you can't stay awake till the end of your shift, let me know. I plan to be here from now until closing."

"Heh. If you can do fifteen hours, I'll try to manage twelve. Do you really think we'll be that busy? The caterer said she'd have two turkeys ready to go by noon and two more by two o'clock. I've been able to smell the food for the last hour."

"I can't say how busy it'll be, but over the past week, we've had five people call and try to make reservations. If nobody shows up and we have a bunch of food left over, we'll give it to our own people as they leave."

"Reservations at a strip club?" Sammy asked in surprise. "Are we even taking reservations?"

"No. I told them to just show up, and if there wasn't a table available, to ask for me and I'd figure something out. We can stick them at one of the little tables in the under-twenty-one section, maybe."

Darin had started advertising Thanksgiving dinner the week before, both online and on the big marquee sign out at the street. He'd also called the newspaper and found out they were once again doing an article about restaurants that were open for the holiday, and they were willing to include the club. The write-up had listed them at the end of the article, and presented it as an unusual option for those looking for something outside the norm, but it hadn't been derogatory and it had given the club mainstream exposure.

"Oh," Sammy said, "that reminds me, I've got the extra tables and chairs moved to the front of the storage room and cleaned off, but I wasn't sure where you wanted them, so I haven't brought them out to the floor yet."

"Great. Let me just go check in with the caterer, then you and I can rearrange some furniture before we open."

Darin walked through the doors behind the bar to find the kitchen busier than he'd ever seen it before. The caterer, a middle-aged woman with graying hair by the name of Terry, was checking over the work being done by Emma and another young woman.

"Hi, Emma, Terry," he said as he entered.

Terry looked surprised and asked, "Emma?"

"You've got to call me Emma here if there's any chance a customer might be around," Emma said. "I never use my real name here."

"Oh, that's right. Anyway, Darin, everything's on schedule. We'll be ready to serve right at noon."

"Great, though I doubt there'll be any customers here by then. Some of our own people might want to eat before starting their shifts, though. Will the steam tables and the cooler table I rented be okay? They were the best I could find on short notice."

"Yes, they're perfect. We've got them going already. Are they set up where you want them?"

"Yeah, that wall over by the back stage will have the least traffic. We don't usually run the back stage on a Thursday unless we get really busy, and we're going to add more tables around the rest of the floor."

Terry nodded. "I saw your sign out front. You're charging fifteen rather than twenty? Are you sure you're going to make any money? You've spent a lot on the food, and the equipment rental can't be cheap."

Darin almost laughed. Terry and her crew were the most expensive part of the bill. She was charging him a higher rate due to the short notice, the long hours, and working on a holiday.

He didn't mention that, though, and instead said, "I wasn't really planning on making money—it would take a lot of customers to reach that point. It's a loss leader, meant to advertise the club to new people. But I figured at fifteen bucks a head, we're actually coming in cheaper than the buffet down the road, so we might pull in some folks who are driving that way and see our sign."

She nodded. "Oh, I forgot to introduce you to my daughter, Anna," she said, motioning to the second young woman who was helping her, a short girl with dishwater blonde hair and what appeared to be a nice-sized chest under her sweater. "Since it's just the two of us for the holiday this year, when you hired me, I asked if she wanted to be my assistant."

"Hi, Anna," he said. He didn't try to shake her hand since she was in the middle of chopping potatoes.

"Hi," she responded shyly.

"You're at least eighteen, right?" he asked.

"I'm nineteen."

"Did Sammy explain the floor rules?"

"Yes. I can walk to the steam tables, or stand at the carving station, but I can't hang out at the customer tables or the bar."

"Right. Not till you're twenty-one, at least. Well, if you ladies don't need me for anything, I should go help Sammy."

"I think we're good," Terry said.

Nodding, he left to help move tables around.

#

Five hours later, Darin was stunned at how much business the club was doing. When he'd opened the door at noon, there'd actually been people waiting—two men who'd come by themselves and a group of three college students looking for food since the dorm cafeteria was closed. The college boys weren't twenty-one yet, so he'd stamped their hands, put them in the under-twenty-one section, and told them to behave themselves.

Two hours after they'd opened, all the tables were filled and he'd started asking people to share. Customers who weren't eating, or who stayed at the club after eating, were clustered around the bar or the stages, or were standing against the walls to stay out of the way of foot traffic.

"This is insane!" Callie said, coming up behind him. "Sorry I'm late."

"No problem," Darin said. "Some of the girls who came for dinner saw how busy we are and decided to work, plus Amber started early. I was planning on being down to ten girls today including the evening shift, but with you, we're up to sixteen. I opened the back stage at four o'clock. Do you want to eat first?"

"I just ate a couple hours ago, with Mom. I might grab a bite later, though. I didn't eat much because I didn't want to dance with a full stomach."

"They'll be serving until eight, as long as we don't run out of food. I thought I'd bought plenty, and figured I'd be giving a bunch of it away, but now I'm getting nervous it won't last."

She laughed. "All right, I'm going to go get ready."

Darin decided to take a break while Sammy was still at the club to split duties with him, so he headed to the buffet tables. After filling half his plate, he stepped over to the carving station where he found Anna staring at the back stage. Amber was completely naked and spinning around the pole upside down, one leg hooked around the top of the pole near the ceiling and the other pointing straight down at the floor, spreading her legs wide open.

"Hi, Anna," he said.

"How does she do that?" the girl asked.

"Amber's been the state pole-dancing champion for the past three years. She doesn't usually go all out on the back stage, but then, the back stage doesn't usually have people lined up around it either."

"Can I learn?"

"If you mean pole-dancing, she teaches a class. I can get you her card."

"After I learn, could I work here? I've been looking for a job, and this is...different than what I expected when Alice—I mean Emma—told me about it. My mom wasn't sure about hiring me to help today, but I told her I could handle it. It looks like it could be fun."

"You know the job isn't just the dancing on the stage, right?" he asked.

"Yes, I've been standing out here all afternoon. The DJ keeps telling people to get lap dances and the girls keep disappearing into that room over there with different guys. I've seen lap dances in movies."

"It's a little different than in the movies. If you want to actually work, you don't have to learn to dance first. Just come by at noon on Sunday and Amber can tell you what it's like so you can decide if you really want to do it. But make sure your mom knows it wasn't my idea."

"Okay."

"And could I get some turkey?"

She blinked and looked back at him, embarrassed. "Oh, right. Sure."

Darin ate quickly, then got back to work. Sammy left when things started slowing down after seven o'clock, and they stopped serving food a little after eight. It was close, but the only thing they actually ran out of before the end were the dinner rolls. He ran the numbers, then went to the kitchen to speak with the catering crew while they finished their cleanup work.

"Hello, ladies," he said. "Still on your feet?"

"This is the longest work day I've had in...ever, I think," Terry said. "I'm exhausted."

Emma and Anna nodded in agreement.

"Well, maybe this'll make you feel better," he said, handing them each an envelope. "It seems that a lot of the customers wanted to tip but weren't quite sure how, with the way we were set up. Some of them left tips with the bouncers since that's who they paid for the meal, and some left money with the bartenders but told them the tip was for the food."

Terry thumbed through her envelope. "There's got to be over two hundred bucks in here."

"Should be almost two fifty for each of you," he said.

"Wow," Anna said. "Thank you!"

"Yes, thank you," Terry said. Emma nodded.

"One more thing," he continued. "Remember when I said I wasn't planning on making any profit from the food? Well, that plan kind of flew out the window. I know that we sort of planned for getting this busy, but none of us really thought it would get anywhere near this bad, or at least not for so long of a stretch. Based on the numbers I've got, we actually did make a profit on the food—almost a thousand dollars. So you each earned a three hundred dollar bonus."

He took out another set of envelopes from his back pocket and handed them out. The three women looked at them in disbelief.

"Darin," Emma said uncertainly, "five hundred fifty is as much as I've ever made in a shift here. Terry was already paying me for the day."

Terry and her daughter didn't seem to know what to say.

"If we served food here for real, the house would have kept the profit," he said, "but this whole thing was just supposed to be a marketing plan, and I'm pretty sure it was a successful one. You three have been working for fourteen hours straight—take the money."

Emma hugged him, then Anna followed suit.

"Thank you," Terry said again. "It really was busier than I expected, but if you ever need a caterer again..."

He laughed. "I'll hold onto your card." He wondered if she'd still be so willing later, if Anna went through with her plan.

Darin helped the women load their supplies into Terry's van, then returned to his office. It was still busy for a Thursday night, but was beginning to approach some level of normalcy. Before Amber left for the night, he planned to give her a bonus as well, since the whole thing had been her idea. The increased revenue from the bar would be enough to cover it.

For the club, it would probably end up like any other Thursday in terms of profit. The bonuses ate up most of the extra, and other revenue was down for the day, since not many people had used the private rooms. But as an advertising campaign, he was happy with how the day had gone.

#

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Callie went home with Junie after school. They locked themselves in Junie's bedroom so her little brother Cody wouldn't bother them, and Callie showed her some makeup tricks she'd learned from the other dancers.

A little after six o'clock, Junie's parents got home from their bakery, so the girls went out to greet them. Junie's father, Jack, helped his heavily pregnant wife through the door and to the couch.

"Hi Mom, Dad," Junie said. "How was work?"

"I finally convinced your mom to start her maternity leave," Jack said. "Hi, Callie. We haven't seen you in a while."

"Yes, hi, Callie," said Junie's mom, Sally. "We've missed you. I would stand up and hug you but it would take fifteen minutes."

"I've missed you guys, too. Even Cody."

Cody stuck his tongue out at her and ran off somewhere.

"Are we doing pizza tonight?" Sally asked.

"That works for me," Callie said.

"So," Jack said, "Junebug tells us you've got a new apartment and you wanted to know if she could stay over sometime?"

"Yes, it's a neat little place. You guys can come over and check it out first, if you want."

"It's just you? Your mom's still at the house?"

"Yes, just me."

"I hope you know, if there are any problems at home, we'll help in any way we can."

"I know, but there aren't any problems, I just wanted to try living on my own."

"Your mom's doing okay?"

"Yes, though she's thinking about moving somewhere smaller. She likes my apartment." Callie thought hinting that her mother approved of her living situation might alleviate some of his concern.

"You're paying for it out of your waitressing job?"

That was the story they'd decided on for Junie's parents. Callie hated to lie to them, but she didn't want to risk them not allowing her and Junie to be friends anymore.

"Yes, I'm making pretty good tips."

"Where are you working?" Sally asked.

Callie realized she hadn't thought through the lie far enough. If she named a specific restaurant, Jack and Sally might drop by.

"Oh, umm, it's at a nightclub. I'm allowed to serve drinks, I just can't go there as a customer." She hoped that would do the trick, since Junie's parents didn't drink alcohol and probably didn't keep track of the nightclubs in the city.

"The same club your mom waitresses at?"

"No, a different one."

That seemed to work. She wasn't sure they knew where her mom worked, either.

"Well, just be safe, okay?" Jack said. "Nightclubs can be rough places."

"Oh, it's safe. There's a bouncer to watch out for us, and I don't drink. They have strict rules about that."

Junie looked nervous as the conversation skirted too close to the truth.

"That's good to hear," Sally said.

"What about college?" Jack asked. "Did you figure out what you're going to do there yet?"

"Junie didn't tell you? She helped me apply to the University."

"Excellent," he said. "Any other schools?"

"No, just here. I don't really want to move away right now. If I don't get accepted, I can try the community college instead."

"Well, I'm glad to hear you decided to apply after all."

"All right," Sally said. "Shall we get the pizza ordered? What does everyone want?"

#

Darin was in his office when Callie came in.

"It figures that the first day I drive my own car, half the parking lot is full of construction vehicles."

He laughed. She'd picked up a cheap used car a few days earlier, and while they carpooled sometimes, she'd wanted to try driving herself for a change. Darin didn't know anything about cars but had gone with her so the salesman didn't try to take advantage of her. They'd traded off, with one person secretly checking car-pricing apps on their phone while the other person was talking to the guy.

"Most of those will be going away in a couple days," he said. "They just need them while they're prepping the ground and putting in the foundation. After that, it's mostly just the workers' trucks—at least during the hours that we're open—and they promised to park them in the back to stay out of the way."

"Oh, that's good. I'm gonna get back to work, just wanted to say hi."

Darin kissed her on the forehead and patted her ass as she left his office. She'd been in the lap dance room when he'd arrived, so it was the first time he'd seen her since she'd left for school that morning.

He'd been surprised by how quickly the construction had begun, but a lot of the preliminary work had been done already and the original architect was still available. The permits had come through on schedule and the architect found a solid construction firm that was available. They'd assured him that while there might be some delays due to weather, the work could occur over the winter.

After discovering the extra money Charles had left, Darin and the architect revisited the original expansion plans and modified them. The expansion would now be as large as the main room itself, but divided into three sections. The largest would add a new stage and plenty of customer seating. That room would be easily visible from the main room, so that customers could move back and forth when it was open. When it was closed, it could be used to host private parties.

The second section was a new area for private rooms, with the walls built in from the beginning rather than sectioned off afterward like in the current building. It included six rooms, which would give them two more than they had now, and the soundproofing would be better since the walls were real.

The last part of the expansion was a room designed for small parties. There would be a pole and dancing floor in the center of the room, and four leather couches facing the center. The girls could move between the pole and the couches during their dances. A small bachelor party or group of businessmen could reserve the room and hire dancers to entertain them.

Once the expansion was complete and ready to open, the construction crew would start on some changes to the original building.

The old private rooms would be torn out and turned into a new, larger lap dance room. Then, the back stage would be removed and a new stage built down the center of the main room. The new stage would have three poles, each with its own set of steps leading up to it, though they'd probably only use the two spots at the ends to begin with. When the new stage was ready, the old front stage would also be demolished, so the customer tables and seating could be distributed better around the room. He'd had to increase all the shift sizes by one girl at the end of October, and their two old stages wouldn't be enough if they got any busier.

The expansion could be built without interfering with the club's operations, while the renovations in the original building would be mostly scheduled for mornings before the club opened. It would be awkward during the week where the new stage was being built, but Darin hoped the customers wouldn't mind the inconvenience.

The expansion itself would cost a little over three hundred thousand dollars and the renovations would add another forty-five thousand. Charles had topped up the maintenance account before his death, so Darin moved fifty thousand from there into the capital investments account. It had been easy to get a loan for the remaining fifty thousand, and he'd be able to pay it off quickly with the profit the club was now bringing in.

He hadn't decided what to do with the old lap dance room yet. The new one would be larger but not huge, so one option was to keep it in reserve in case they needed both rooms. Another option was to turn it into tiny, private lap dance booths, each with just enough space for one chair.

Unfortunately, the expansion wouldn't be done until February or March, but Darin was still eager to see the results. He decided he'd start stopping by during the day to check out the progress.