Mimi wondered moodily into the loft where the rest of the gang were gathered. Huffing she moved the cushions around on the couch until she finally located her jacket and stomped back to the door with it.
"Chica is something wrong?" Angel asked concerned from where she was sitting next to Collins.
"Oh nothing much. Just that I might lose my job tonight." She replied bitterly.
"Wait? What?" Roger asked going over to her.
"The club's down on money so they're having to sack some of the dancers. We find out tonight if we're going to still have a job. Fucking awful job it is too, but it's a living."
"How do they decide who keeps their job?" Joanne asked moving out from underneath her girlfriend.
"The main manager is coming tonight to 'assess' the dancers. Probably a complete pervert."
After she had left to head to the club Roger turned to address the group. "This can't happen. If she loses this job she's going to be choosing between her rent, her health and her drugs and I know which she'd choose."
"She's a good dancer. She'll make the cut." Angel assured him.
"I just feel so useless waiting here to find out what happens." He groaned.
"Then let's do something to help." Maureen suggested.
"What have you got in mind?" Collins asked nervously.
"To keep her job she needs to show that she's profitable to the club." Joanne said catching on to Maureen's plan.
"So we should all go and act like her biggest fans, then they'll have to keep her." Maureen continued.
"You know how uncomfortable I'd feel going there." Roger complained. His jealous nature meant he didn't like the idea of his girlfriend dancing provocatively to other men. Seeing it would be even worse.
"Do you want your girlfriend to have a job or not?" Angel chided him gently. "You know that's all it is to her: a job."
"We'll do it" he decided feeling bad, "but Mark: no camera!"
"I wasn't going to" he protested unconvincingly.
"Now we need to make this realistic." Maureen took control. She looked towards Angel and Collins. "We all need to be there to see the hottest dancer in the club."
"You want us to act straight?" Collins asked annoyed.
"Honey we're doing this for Mimi, I think we can manage one evening." Angel placated him "In fact she's my best friend- for her I'll be a straight man." If that wasn't friendship what was?
The group met outside the club where Collins handed round some money he had got from rewiring an ATM machine. As they entered the club they looked round confirming that none of the dancers were Mimi. She was usually one of the later ones to dance. The room was laid out with a stage at one end leading to a long catwalk going down the room. Around this were circular tables where the dancers could come down to give the customers lapdances. Joanne suppressed a shiver. It was a seedy place and the seediest part of it was the man sitting at one of the tables at the front. He was a short but round man with greasy hair and a sweaty upper lip. He sat with a couple of other men also in suits. As they stared at the dancers they provided comments which he noted down. This must be the manager.
She led the others over to the table beside him, physically dragging Maureen who had been staring at one of the poledancers.
"I should have known it was a mistake bringing you here." Joanne muttered.
"Pookie I was just admiring her dancing." Maureen tried but Joanne didn't buy it.
"I can't wait to see this hot dancer you've been telling me about" Maureen said loudly to Roger making sure the manager could hear her.
"She's so sexy and incredibly flexible. It's amazing some of the things she can do." Roger boasted making Collins mutter "TMI man!"
"In fact I imagine most of these people are here to see her." Mark continued making Angel cringe into Collins shoulder.
"Straight remember?" Maureen reminded them strictly.
"It's too hard to keep away from Angel" Collins complained, but when Maureen threatened to sit between them they promised to behave.
As Mimi walked onto the stage with some other dancers the group erupted into cheers, wolf whistles and cat calls.
"There, that's her in the red" Roger called.
"Woah" Mark replied though his attention was more on the blonde girl next to her. He felt himself blushing.
Mimi was surprised by the louder than usual cheers and trying to find the source of the noise noticed her friends right by the manager. She loved that they were doing this for her and she danced her way along the catwalk until she was right in front of them.
"Anyone like a lapdance? She asked seductively looking at Roger.
"Hell yeah" Maureen replied winking at her before a nudge from Joanne made her mutter "I mean no".
As she moved to stand before him Roger slipped some of his money into her panties taking longer than the act required, but when he had finished she said "Uh uh this one's on me love. You better take your money back." Smiling Roger slowly put his hands back to retrieve the money and Mimi started to dance for him. "Remember no touching" she purred before turning around and wiggling her ass in his face. She knew how hard the no touching rule would be for him (and make him) so she was already planning how to address that problem later.
As she danced the group kept up the catcalls making the manager watch with interest to see who was so popular. When she had finished Mimi whispered "thanks for doing this guys" before moving back.
"Chica where's my lapdance?" Angel asked making Mimi stifle a laugh. "Do I get a free dance too?
"No you have to pay" Mimi teased making Angel put some dollar bills in her bra.
"Does being best friends count for nothing?" she pouted pretending to be hurt.
"That pout's not so effective when you're not in drag" Then she got more serious. "It means a lot that you're doing this for me".
As Mimi danced Angel was more interested in her outfit. "You should wear red more often Meems. It really suits you."
"But that's usually the colour choice of the fabulous Miss Angel Dumott Schunard" Mimi countered.
"True, but I've never tried red underwear before" she mused "maybe I should."
"Defiantly" Mimi encouraged "and you should get a suspender belt like this too."
Their conversation was interrupted by a loud groan from Collins.
"Enough! You expect me to act straight when I can't help but picture Angel in red panties? It's torture!"
"No it's brilliant" Maureen corrected "when you look at the dancers picture Angel wearing their outfits and you'll look turned on." Collins couldn't quite agree with the logic of this plan- it still made him want Angel, but he tried to clear his head and concentrate on cheering Mimi as she moved on to the next table.
"Relax" Mark muttered to Roger whose gaze was fixed on the guy she was now dancing over. Mark had the impression that if any of them dared touch her he would be over there in a second. "We don't know her" he reminded him.
Once Mimi had left to go and change into another outfit Collins and Roger went to the bar to get some drinks whilst Maureen tried a new tactic. Dragging Joanne with her she moved to the table the other side of the manager and got talking to the guys there. Flirtatiously she asked them what they thought of the club and then the dancers. They were so drunk that she soon had them agreeing loudly that Mimi was the best. Moving around the tables Maureen managed to get quite a few Mimi supporters- she just hoped they'd still remember by the time Mimi came back.
Meanwhile Angel watched amused as Mark stared at his surroundings. His gaze was particularly caught by a blonde dancer nearby.
Hannah had been getting jealous of the attention Mimi was getting. She needed to keep this job, but so far she hadn't been one of the most popular dancers there. A lot of the cheers had been coming from one of the wilder tables near the manager so she worked her way towards them hoping they were rowdy enough to cheer her loudly too. Besides the Hispanic guy was kind of cute.
Roger and Collins returned and handed out beers which brought Maureen and Joanne back to them. When Mark didn't immediately notice his beer being held out to him Roger followed his gaze to see Hannah. "We're here to help Mimi" he reminded him.
"Wow" Joanne gaped also seeing Hannah.
"You two have such similar taste." Maureen teased thoughtlessly.
"It would look abit fake to only cheer one girl" Joanne reasoned. "Perhaps we should also try and get some lapdances from another dancer to make it more realistic." Nobody wanted to fault her logic and Hannah was willing to come over.
As she danced for Mark his face turned more and more red, which made Roger stifle a laugh. He was sobered when the girl started to dance round him. After you had a dance from the best ass below 14th Street nothing could match it.
"Collins would like a dance" Maureen called handing the girl more money and gesturing to him. As the girl took the money Collins gave his best friend a scowl, but sadly it didn't work on her. He tried to act like he was enjoying the way Hannah jiggled her boobs in his face, but in reality he was loving the expression on Angel's face. Her eyes were glaring at the girl in jealousy and her lips were set in one of her adorable pouts that Collins wanted to kiss away.
Without being asked Hannah moved over to give Angel a lap dance still thinking he was the hottest member of the group. From behind she rested her foot on his thigh giving him a view of her shapely legs. She didn't notice that Angel was admiring her shoes rather than her calves. As she moved in front of her Angel leaned forward.
"Honey do you mind if I say something?"
"What would you like" Hannah purred into her ear.
"Yellow is so not your colour." In shock the girl backed away.
"What about my lapdance?" Joanne called, but Hannah was already stepping back onto the catwalk.
"I'll give you one later." Maureen promised.
"Jealous huh? Collins teased Angel, but was concerned when she didn't smile back.
"Honey I…" she started then after a pause asked "can we go talk outside?" as the loud music meant they had difficulty hearing each other. Once their hands had been stamped to get back in, they walked out of sight of the club where they didn't have to pretend to be straight.
"Do you ever wish I was a woman?" Angel asked seriously.
"You are a woman" Collins answered slightly surprised by her serious question.
"But physically I'm not. I'm not like that dancer. I don't look feminine like her."
Collins realised that she hadn't been so jealous about the girl giving him a lapdance, but that she couldn't be a girl giving him a lapdance "In all the weeks we've been together have you not noticed that I'm gay?" Collins teased gently as he stroked Angel's cheek. Then he continued more seriously "baby I love you as a man and as a woman. You're an incredible mix of both and I'd far rather have a lapdance from you than anybody else. Besides think of all the fun we couldn't have if you were physically a woman" To demonstrate this he moved his hand lower to stroke Angel and making her breath hitch.
"Good point." She gasped.
"Yours too" He smirked still stroking it.
"You have a one-track mind" Angel admonished. "All you think about is…
"You" He said quickly. "The way you are. I wouldn't change anything."
They returned just in time as Mimi walked back onto the stage wearing a skimpy black leather and lace outfit. As promised the tables all around them cheered and whistled. As the evening wore on the club's S&M theme was becoming more apparent. It was time for Mimi's speciality: a pole dance where she was handcuffed to the pole. As she danced the group catcalled her making Mimi give them a saucy wink.
Roger however was not enjoying himself. He felt very possessive of Mimi at this moment, seeing lots of people leering at her only interested in her body not her. He also knew that this was not exactly Mimi's dream job, true she didn't hate it, but he thought she was good enough to be a professional dancer. Instead she was being handcuffed and would later on be tied up.
Seeing his pained expression Joanne leaned over to him. "Need to get some air?" He was tempted to escape for abit, but knew he didn't want to leave Mimi. It was as if his presence here would support her and help her keep her job. Not logical he knew, but when is love ever?
As Mimi gyrated on stage she too noticed Roger's expression. In some ways they were opposites she reflected. On the outside Roger always acted hard and tough- it was only those who knew him well that were aware of the depths of emotion he kept locked inside. She was different. Whilst she liked to live fully and let her emotions lead her, her hard life had left its mark. She was very tough on the inside as you would find if you ever crossed her. She had learnt to accept her job for what is was, but in a strange way she knew she dealt with it better than Roger. For these reasons, as she was being tied up, her sympathy was with her boyfriend.
After Mimi had finished for the night Roger's friends persuaded him to wait for her at her apartment. It would spoil everything if someone were to realise they were her friends. Roger let them in and began some moody pacing. Angel meanwhile borrowed some of Mimi's makeup complaining that she had been masculine for far too long. The pressure soon got too much for Roger and he had to go upstairs to fetch his guitar. The chords of Musetta's waltz filled the apartment much to the other's annoyance, so it was to everyone's relief when Mimi arrived.
She was remarkably calm for someone opening her presumably empty apartment to find herself being attacked by a barrage of questions from her friends (one of whom was half in drag with her makeup and jacket).
"I kept my job" she assured them when they had quietened enough for her to speak. Through the cheers she held up her hands to signal silence. "And I got a pay rise."
"That's brilliant" Roger exclaimed sweeping her into a kiss.
As he returned her to her feet she continued "it's all thanks to you guys. The manager said he 'didn't realise how popular I was and I'm a real asset to the company'."
Mark couldn't hold back a snort at the manager's words.
"There's just one problem" she added. "He's going to start doing frequent visits."
Looked like the bohos would be regulars at the Cat Scratch Club.
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