Finding Love at Club Polaris

Author's note and disclaimer: of course I do not own Sailor Moon. I really hope that you guys like this story – I'll try to work on it while I work on my other one. I rated this one M for mature because of language and also, of course, this is about strippers – so we're going to have some sexual content in here as well (although this might not occur until later chapters). This time I decided to use the dub names – which I hope you guys don't mind. There are some yuri pairings, so if you don't like that then, I guess that this story isn't for you. I also decreased the age difference between Serena and Darien in this story – just because of the circumstances. Words in italics are the Serena's thoughts – just to let you know in advance, since she's telling this story.

Summary: Serena is a new bartender at a popular club and unlucky in love, all the men that she's dated have been jerks. Little does Serena know that true love has literally been staring her in the face, but she's been ignoring him all along. Serena and Darien. Please review.

Chapter One: Club Polaris and the Mysterious Man

"Hi, well my name is Serena; I'm twenty four years old, single and still looking." I said to the camera positioned in front of me. My older sister Mina was behind the lens, she's a professional matchmaker, and because of the fact that my love life has sucked ever since my 18th birthday, I decided to use her services. We were in her office and she was taping me for her files. She likes to watch the tapes because she feels that she get a better sense of someone's personality when they are video tapped, instead of writing down their wishes for compatible mates on paper. Sometimes she would also show the tapes to other clients if they proved to be a somewhat "hopeless case," just to see if there was someone out there who might like them. Mina glared at me from behind the camera, and made a motion for me to continue. "Sorry I'm a little nervous – this is the first time that I've ever applied for one of these things. Does this make me seem a bit desperate?"

"No Serena!" Mina hissed, "just keep on going! We're still rolling!"

"Shit! You better edit that out later Mina!" I regained my composure and decided to give it another go. "Tonight I'm going to start working at a very popular club called Polaris, yes I know the one with the live strippers, and no I'm not a stripper you perverts! I'm a bartender, and I think that I'm a pretty damned good one at that. I've been bartending since I was twenty-one, went to bartending school, and I think that I'm pretty good at what I do. I'm looking for a man who is sweet and romantic. Someone who knows how to make me laugh is definitely a plus. Also a guy who can handle a girl who loves to eat, play video games, and pretty much knows how to have a good time seems like my perfect kind of man. I don't really have a preference in terms of looks; I'm mostly a personality type of girl. The reason that I'm still single is probably because I always end up with losers. Most men just want to try to use me as their personal blowup doll, use me for a while then cheat on me later. But I don't want to be someone's sex toy or trophy wife that just sits on the sidelines, there for him to fuck at a convenient time when he can't get any, or get all dolled up just to be presented at some charity ball – then told to go spend his money to make me feel better. I actually want to mean something to a guy, be his one and only. I want a man who will love me for me, and not want anyone else because he thinks of me as his jewel, his diamond in the rough – the most precious item that he has in his possession. I want to be treated like a princess, is that so much to ask? Doesn't every girl want that? Almost every man that I have been with has cheated on me, and those who haven't often just assume that I'm not long-term relationship material. People think that just because I'm a blonde with blue eyes and a nice body that I have no substance. Of course I've heard all the dumb blonde jokes – and most of them have been directed at me, but I want someone who will realize that I'm more than just T and A. I want a man who will realize that I'm intelligent, someone who is actually interested in my personality. You don't have to be Mr. Muscle with sensitivity to match your rock hard abs; I'm just out there looking for my Mr. Right, just like every other girl out there." Tears started to well up in my eyes, as Mina gave me the 'cut' sign.

"Perfect Serena, although maybe you could expand more on what you want in a guy – but otherwise yeah you did great, way better than my other clients."

"Mina, please don't compare me with your clients. I've met some of them before remember, and they can be pretty, um – interesting."

"Oops, sorry!" She said, giving me a pat on the back, "besides you're my sister –I treat you differently than my clients of course."

"Be honest with me Mina, how desperate am I?" I asked, praying that she wouldn't confirm my worst fear.

Mina sighed, "Serena do you really want me to answer that question?"

"Yes I do!" Even though I already knew the answer, I just needed to hear it.

"Incredibly, almost pathetically desperate. Honestly you need to stop looking so hard – I think that if you wait around the perfect man will just stroll on into your life."

"Maybe you're right. I'm still young,"

"Yes."

"I guess I've turned a few heads walking down the street"

"Yes, definitely."

"I've got a nice personality that any guy could appreciate,"

"Yes."

"I'll never be able to find a man though!"

"Ye-no!" That's when I started bawling my eyes out. Mina came over next to me and started rubbing my back. She grabbed a couple of tissues, and handed them over to me, and I blew my nose loudly as Mina tried to comfort me.

"No Serena, you can do this – trust me, even though you're going to be working at a bar, there must be at least one decent guy who will come in for a drink. I mean after all I met Raye at a club – remember she's a bartender too." Mina said, smiling at the mention of her lover's name.

"But you two were just meant be together – plus you're girls. A lot of guys are jerks." I wailed at her, continuing to sob into my tissues.

"Serena you're perfect, seriously though – we're all still young and that perfect guy must be out there somewhere. You know that I would never let you become the crazy cat lady, I'd rather die than see one of my sister of all people in that type of situation." Mina gave me a heartwarming smile, and I just smiled back at her as the tears started going away.

"You know what sis, if I liked girls in the same way that you do – I'd have to consider stealing Raye away from you – she's pretty good looking." I teased, waiting for Mina's reaction.

Mina let out a cute laugh, "good luck with that Serena, I don't think that I'd ever give her up that easily. Besides do you think that you could really handle someone like Raye?"

I let out a little laugh; Mina was always able to make me feel better. "Yeah you're right Mina." I checked my watch, "well time to go home and get ready for work."

"Good luck with your first day on the job. Tell Raye that I said hi!" Mina said smiling at me.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that's the club where you two met isn't it?" I asked, as I was about to walk out the door.

Mina shook her head yes, "now hurry up or else you'll be late – and Raye doesn't like tardiness, she's head bartender you know."

"Thank heaven that I brought my clothes and makeup here with me, Mina can I please use your bathroom?"

"Sure – you know where it is Ser." Mina chuckled and watched as I ran out of the room, my large bag containing my clothes in hand.

I got to the bathroom and locked the door, then started changing into my sexy work outfit. I put on a nice black top that gave me an opportunity to show off my flat stomach – and unfortunately my large breasts. It took me a little while to get "the girls" to stay inside my top, but I managed with some tape that I always carry with me in case of an emergency. Ugh I hate having large boobs, and proceeded to pull on my short black skirt. I put on some fishnet stockings and thigh high boots – which made me taller, and I appreciated it since I'm only 4'11." The whole time I was getting dressed, I couldn't help but think about my new job, what it was going to be like – how Raye might kill me if I screw up. Raye is my boss; oh this is going to be good. Why didn't she interview me then? Maybe she didn't want to do it because of her involvement with my sister, and her bosses felt that it wouldn't be a good idea in case we're close. That must be it – but knowing Raye, she's a real hard ass. She's going to give me such a hard time, especially since Mina's my sister and she knows me so well. Damn, damn, damn! Oh why me! Even though I was panicking, I managed to get all of my clothes on, including my earrings, and the small wrap-around scarf which read "Polaris" at the two ends that hung dangerously close to my breasts; I touched up my 'hot red' lipstick, gave myself a nice smoky eye, checked to see that every hair on my head was in place and was ready to go. I gave myself one last glance in the mirror, looking up and down my body, damn I look like a hooker, ugh; maybe they'll give me a better outfit if I get a promotion. That's the life of a bartender I guess. Well at least black is flattering. I quickly put my change of clothes and makeup back into my bag, opened the door, and there standing in front of me was a handsome man. Only in a matchmaker's office could this ever happen. He had dazzling blue eyes and jet-black hair.

"Oh sorry, I was just about to knock on the door. I really have to use the restroom, and I needed to get out of here before work." He said a bit apologetically as if he had walked in on me.

"It's no problem at all, you didn't do anything wrong. Go ahead, the bathroom is all yours." I replied a bit nervously, trying not to stare too hard at the man.

"Thanks, well – uh – nice meeting you." He stammered as we awkwardly switched places, "thanks again, bye."

"Bye," I smiled at him and gave a little wave, then remembered where I was supposed to be going and hurried out of the building as quickly as I could. I reached the parking lot, climbed into my Land Rover, and threw my bag into the back. Yes I said Land Rover, I guess you wouldn't expect me to drive that car, and sped out of the parking lot. Luckily Polaris was only twenty minutes away from Mina's office; unluckily I had five minutes to get there on time. Damn it, how will I be able to make it on time, I don't want to speed too much because cops pretty much live inside their cars on these streets. But if I'm late that means that I have to face the wrath of Raye, is there no end to my misery? Then I notice a green light coming up. Yes! If I keep on getting all of these green lights, then maybe I will still be in the clear. As I got closer and closer to the light I sped up a little bit because it was a stale green light and I'll be damned if I have to sit at the light for a few minutes. Of course, with my luck as bad as it is the light turned red a few seconds before I was even close to the light. "Shit, why me? Oh well I can make up for this – cops or no cops, I can make up for this" I said, trying to comfort myself. But the light seemed to refuse to turn green again; I slowly realized that it's one of those timed lights. "Come on you stupid light, turn green!" Finally the damned thing turned green, and I took full advantage of the situation, and quickly hurried towards work. Then I hit another red light at the next stop. Another one came up a minute later. This is the last time that I ever drive from Mina's office to my job. Eventually I got out of the final red light and made a right turn into Polaris' employee parking lot. It was 5:40; I was a whole twenty-five minutes late – which would not run well with Raye. I quickly parked the car in one of the few remaining spaces and turned it off. As I was about to get out, I immediately noticed a woman in a short red dress standing outside of the employee entrance – hanging around right underneath the "no loitering" sign. She was not wearing the usual attire of a Polaris bartender; the club's colors were blue and black. The newer employees wore black, and the veterans would wear blue with some hints of black here and there – I knew because I had been to the club a few times with Mina when I was still in bartending school. It had been my dream to work at Polaris ever since I first stepped foot in there. So I assumed that she might be a customer, or some prostitute trying to make a quick buck with one of the strippers. Is she really just lingering right outside of the employee entrance, what the hell? I'm going to have to tell her to move. Getting out of the car, I was about to run up to her and say "excuse me" when a familiar voice echoed into my ears.

"What the hell took you so long meatball head?"

I was about to defend myself – because I absolutely hate that name, when I noticed that the reason that the voice was familiar was because it belonged to – "Raye! I'm so sorry I'm late, please forgive me."

"Where were you and what were you doing Serena? You know if I knew that you weren't such a great bartender and didn't need to do any orientation training, I would have already fired you." Raye said as she leaned against the building, her red dress clinging to every curve on her body. She aimlessly stared at the car directly in front of her and I could tell already that this cannot be good.

"I'm so sorry Raye, it won't happen again…" I groveled, prepared to get down on my knees and beg for forgiveness. "If you must know I was at Mina's office, I was – um, well, we were…" I really didn't know how to explain this to Raye knowing that she would definitely make fun of me if she knew why I was at Mina's office.

"Let me guess, someone can't get a date and needs a bit of help from big sis?" Raye asked, looking at me for the first time, her large dark violet eyes accusing me of wrongdoing, hands on her hips. I was utterly speechless. "Mina called me earlier and told me that you might be late because you were coming from her office. She told me that you were making a profile, and to please excuse your tardiness for today."

Damn it Mina, haven't you ever heard of confidentiality? You're supposed to be practicing it because you deal with people's personal lives! Inside my head I was fuming, but I could not possibly display this to Raye, who at this point – I couldn't tell if she was mad or if she was enjoying watching me squirm.

Raye studied me for a bit, and then a sly grin crept across her mouth. "It's about time that you started thinking about getting serious with someone Ser, but next time do it a few hours before work instead of a few minutes. Mina is the best at that sort of thing though, so at least you went to the right person." I sighed with relief and smiled back at Raye, happy that she wasn't going to try to rip me a new one – at least not today. That's when Raye's expression changed, to a large frown. "But next time don't expect Mina to be your saving grace. You have to be here on time, and you won't be able to use my girlfriend as a method of covering your ass! As one of the new owners of Polaris, I have to make sure that everything at the club is running smoothly. Just because I'm dating your sister doesn't mean that I'm not going to treat you differently than the other employees okay?"

"Yes ma'am." I said, happy that she was at least giving me a free pass for today.

"Now come on, let's get to the bar." Raye demanded as she opened the door and escorted me into the back of the club. We passed by two dressing rooms, one with the word men on it, and the other with the word women neatly written on the door. Men and women were coming in and out of the rooms, and from the looks of their attire – most were strippers. The men had pants with buttons going all the way up and down their pant legs, and easily ripped up shirts. The women were wearing sexy shirts that let you get a little peak, and short – flowing skirts that seemed as if they could easily be taken off. A few of the people who were coming out of the dressing rooms were new bartenders, like myself. I assumed that most of the veterans were already at the bar – helping to set up for tonight. Raye quickly ushered me through the kitchen, while telling me "don't even think about grabbing a snack Serena - I want you to keep your girlish figure" and out to the empty club. I noticed a few other new bartenders had followed the two of us out from "behind the scenes."

"Okay, I'm going to get the rest of the new bartenders and then we'll do introductions – you weren't the only one who missed orientation Serena, aren't you lucky? So just wait here for a few minutes, and then we'll start."

I nodded at Raye, and took the minutes allotted to me to take in my scenery. The club was just as I had remembered it. The ceiling was painted black with a few white lights here and there that were made to look like stars. Larger multi-colored lights hung from the ceiling, which were used to illuminate the strippers when the time called, as well as set a mood for the club. The walls were blue and had the word "Polaris" written once on each of the walls in black. Besides that, there wasn't much else in terms of decorations on the walls. From a person entering the club's perspective the bar, complete with a long line of bar stools and a large, fully loaded bar was to the far right of the room. Both ends of the bar were not connected to the walls or anything, which made it easy for the bartenders to get in and out of the bar. A small section of the bar was reserved for the waiters to pick up bar orders for the people on the second floor – or for the booths against the first floor walls. Adjacent to the bar, two blue doors marked "employees only" lead to the kitchen – where I had came out of earlier with Raye, where all of the delicious treats that club Polaris had to offer were made. A few brightly blue colored tables and chairs were positioned throughout the room; electric blue booths were placed against the wall, so that way people who wanted to order some munchies or just take a break could do so. The seats looked almost as if they had been lined with silk for extra comfort – but I doubted that the fabric on the chairs and the booths were composed of electric blue silk. A nice size dance floor was positioned in the middle of the room. To the left – a bit in the back, was the vertical "stripper stage," which was large enough for three people to comfortably walk across, and long enough to be a catwalk. Four stripper poles lined the stage. Tables and chairs were lined up near the stage, barren for now, but soon to be filled. In between the bar and the stripper stage was a black DJ booth, where the hottest new DJs would strut their stuff. The majority of the speakers were hidden from view, placed into sections of the walls. Stairs immediately to the left of the front entrance were blocked with a velvet rope. A bodyguard had already been placed next to the stairs. As an employee, I knew that the stairs lead up to the second floor, which I could see from where I was standing. The second floor was partially open – in the middle, essentially think of it as a big square with a medium-sized hole in the middle. A long line of golden bars or "fences" or whatever you want to call them, blocked off the entire open space – that way guests would not be able to slip and fall down onto the first floor if they were a bit too tipsy. Large booths, tables and chairs – exactly the same as the ones downstairs were strategically placed against the walls and on the carpet of the second floor – in a manner so that people on the second floor could look down on the people on the first floor. Normally the second floor was reserved for VIP guests, who had attendants bring them drinks from the bar, but at times the second floor was also rented out for bachelor and bachelorette parties (if they didn't want to pay a pretty penny to rent out the whole bar – and believe me there were people that did). As I completed my once over of my new job and old stomping ground, I noticed that Raye had re-emerged from the back of the club.

"All right bartenders! Time for introductions, let's get to know each other – and I guess we should also introduce you to the chefs who work behind the scenes, and the waiters whom you will also be working with. So go ahead and mingle for a few minutes, then let's get ready to get started. The bar opens up at 6:30 and it's 6:00 – so hussle up people." As quickly as she had emerged, Raye vanished back into the kitchen.

I walked around, said hello to a few people, but no one really captured my interest, with the exception of the head chef – who also doubled as a bartender when she wasn't in the kitchen, monitoring the sous chefs and waiters. "Hey Lita!" I yelled out to the tall brunette who was talking to a few of the veteran bartenders. She proceeded to excuse herself, and head over to me, a big smile on her face.

"I love seeing familiar faces, how are you doing Serena? Long time no see – and you work here now, wow!" Lita said, giving me the once over, "that uniform looks nice on you. So I guess I won't be expecting you to order up one of my Polaris specials anymore now that you work here hmm?"

"Nah I'll still order them, but I think that I might eat some before and after work. If that's all right with you – I could never pass up your delicious food." I grinned, while my stomach let out a loud growl – I hadn't eaten since lunchtime.

"Oops, looks like someone forgot to feed the beast, I'll go whip up something for you really quick, give me five minutes." Lita said smiling at me, "and don't worry it's on the house this time."

"Thanks Lita, you're such a great friend." I was so happy I could barely contain myself; this job was going to be awesome. I couldn't have asked for a better job if I had tried. Five minutes later, as promised, Lita came back with a grilled cheese sandwich and some french fries, which I hungrily gobbled down.

"Wow, I guess your stomach wasn't kidding – you are hungry." Lita laughed as I quickly finished my plate.

"You're a lifesaver Lita, thank you so much. I'm really going to enjoy working with you – and not just because you're my favorite chef." I giggled happily, as I handed her the empty plate.

"Thanks Serena, I really appreciate that. Well, it's almost time to get to work, are you ready?"

"Definitely – I've been waiting to get a chance to work at Polaris for so long – well maybe not that long, but it's good to know that dreams come true. Well, I should head to the bar, and I'm guessing that you're off to the kitchen, so it's always nice seeing you and I'm so glad that we'll be working together."

"Yeah I'm glad to see that my favorite regular is going to become one of my favorite co-workers. I'll see you later then Serena." Lita said as she walked back through the two bright blue doors, with all of the sous chefs and waiters following behind her. Inside the kitchen I could hear her giving a pep talk to her crew.

About five seconds after Lita had gone back into the kitchen, Raye came out from behind the doors, "all right ladies and gentlemen it's time to get to work! We're opening the doors to the club in five minutes. The strippers are already in position and so are the cooks and waiters, so all we need now is the bartenders. Go ahead and take your places at your individual stations and set up whatever else you need."

I got to my station and eagerly waited the opening of the club. Everything was set up, from the mixers to the alcohol behind me on the racks of the bar. I was so excited and ready to get started. The larger lights on the ceiling came on, setting a nice happy mood for the club. The five minutes passed really quickly, and soon I found myself faced with a large number of hip – mostly single, nice looking young people coming into the club. My first customer was a nice young woman who said that she never really went out to clubs much, and was just looking to have a good time and meet some new people. She told me that her name was Amy, and that she worked as a doctor at the nearby hospital.

"So what made a nice looking doctor decide to come to a place like this?" I asked her over the roar of the hidden speakers.

"Ah, just to try something new. My matchmaker said that I should try to be more adventurous, and maybe then I could meet more guys."

"I don't want to pry into your life or anything like that – but is your matchmaker's name Mina by chance?" I asked I simply could not believe that this pretty doctor was one of my sister's clients.

"Yes, Mina Love, how'd you know that?" Amy asked me, a bit puzzled.

"She's my sister – and, well don't tell anyone but my matchmaker too."

"Really? But you're a bartender, not to mention that you're gorgeous – I'm sure that you get tons of guys."

"Well – I wouldn't say tons of guys, but all the ones that come knocking on my door are losers." I said, "besides you're a very good looking woman as well. Beautiful blue eyes and very unique blue hair, obviously intelligent since you're a doctor, why do you need a matchmaker?"

"Well…" Amy said, a light blush starting to form around her cheeks, "I'm very shy – I can never follow through. Especially when I meet someone who I really like or think is attractive. Plus, I'm attracted to women, so it's even harder – women seem to be a lot more confident than men."

"Ah I can understand where you're coming from Amy. My sister is a lesbian as well, she exudes confidence and has no problem getting girls. I wish that I had also inherited the ability to attract the right kind of people – just like our mother." I replied, pulling out a fresh glass, ready to serve. "So what will it be then Dr?"

"Only my patients call me Dr. Mercury, but you can call me Amy. I think that I'll just have a non-alcoholic cherry coke for now if that's all right?"

"Sure Amy, and you can call me Serena if you'd like."

"Very nice to meet you Serena," Amy said with a shy smile playing up her pretty features. "I wish that I could have a friend like you – I'm pretty lonely most of the time."

"Well who says you can't Amy, I normally don't do this with strangers – especially not strangers whom I bartend for, but I feel a special connection to you. Give me a pen, and I'll give you my number – we should go out sometime. By we I mean you, me, my sister, and some of our friends – we're a pretty fun group of people. You'd really enjoy yourself." I handed Amy her drink on a napkin, then pulled out another one to write my number on. Amy handed me a pen, and I quickly and neatly scribbled my number on the napkin. Amy took the piece of paper and safely put it into her purse, then pulled out her wallet. She gave me the five dollars for the simple beverage as well as a five-dollar tip, which I told her to keep because I don't like getting tips from friends. Amy blushed, smiled shyly and insisted that I keep the tip, which after a bit of pestering, I did.

"Thanks for this Serena, I'm really happy that I was able to make a new friend – and perhaps even more friends sometime soon." Amy gave me a nice large smile and was about to get out of her seat, but I had something up my sleeve.

"Hey Amy, one more thing" I told the blue haired woman, "you might want to head to the stripper stage area – the strippers are about to come out in a few minutes – and there's always a girl up first to start the night." I said with a wink.

Amy gave me a smile, whispered "thank you Serena" – then headed off to the stripper stage area, trying to get through the crowd of people.

A few more people, nameless – faceless people came to my station and requested drinks. Everyone from sleezy guys to pretty but prissy princesses came to my station. It wasn't until about an hour later that my next intriguing customer of the night sat at my station. This next customer was a man – who looked awfully familiar, but I just couldn't put my finger on where I had met him, or if I had met him in my lifetime. As a bartender you meet a lot of people – and someone has to be very unique in order for him or her to stand out. Based on the way that he looked, I thought that I could have met him in my dreams. He was tall, had jet-black hair and gorgeous blue eyes. Underneath his professional black dress shirt, I noticed that he was a very muscular man. He came up to me, stared at me for a minute, and then a smile crept across his face.

"I think that we've met before" he said, he had a very nice voice – it was deep but not too deep, the kind that you would imagine an Adonis to have.

"Oh have we?" I asked, trying not to display how gorgeous I felt that he was, ah Serena, don't fall into the trap, a guy this good looking must be a jerk. Don't show him that you're interested. I coached myself, smiling back at the man.

"Yeah, at Miss Love's office – I was the guy that you bumped into when you were coming out of the bathroom this afternoon."

The memory of the earlier encounter with the dazzling man, immediately registered in my head, he was kind of shy and very nice. But I had to be careful and not let my guard down completely just because he had been nice when we were doing the toilet tango. "Yeah I remember you" I remarked casually, "so what will it be stranger?"

"Hmm – well I don't really want anything, maybe a glass of water or something light, I have to get to work in a few minutes."

"Work huh, so why bother going to a club if you're about to go to work." I checked my watch, it was about 10pm, "and what job could you possibly be doing that would require you to be dressed so nicely but work so late at night?"

"A woman of many questions – I like that. Well in a few minutes your questions will be answered." The lights of the club, which had been changing all night, changed to a green color.

"Got to go, see you later blondie." With that he gave me a wink and disappeared into the crowd.

What the hell is this guy's problem – how dare he give me such a horrible nickname! Although if it is coming from him, I guess I wouldn't mind so much. My next customer, an elegant woman with aqua colored hair came up to the station and ordered a cosmopolitan. As I was fixing the drink, I listened as the DJ announced the next act from the stripper stage. I've been to Polaris enough to know that when a DJ announces a stripper – that means that he or she is pretty hot stuff, so I decided to sneak a peak once the performer came onto the stage.

"Ladies, if you may direct your attention to the stage, as well as any of my brothers who enjoy men as much as I do, right now we have for your viewing pleasure – our favorite business man Darien!" Energetic music was starting to fill the club as the stripper walked onto the stage; I wasn't paying attention at the time because I had to finish making the cosmo for my customer.

As I handed the customer her drink and waited for her to dig out her wallet, I decided to take a peak at to see what was so special about this stripper. To my horror, there was the guy from Mina's office, the same jet-black hair and brilliant blue eyes, taking off his pants for dollars. My jaw felt like it had dropped down to the floor. Women and gay men were flocking over to the stage holding ten, twenty, fifty, even hundred dollar bills in their hands. It was like a stampede; they were knocking down tables and chairs, trying to get to the stripper – whose name I now knew was Darien, trying to get him to take their money. His shirt was already on the floor, and I couldn't help but stare – the man had washboard abs, and I – nor any other woman in the world wouldn't mind taking a washcloth to those abs.

"Excuse me miss. Excuse me!" My customer yelled at me.

"Oh sorry, please forgive me." I said, smiling at her.

"Don't worry about it," she said, "you must be new here or something – Darien's been quite the attraction for a while. He seems to have the same reaction on every single straight woman and gay man who has ever been in this club, similar to the one that you just had. And I'll tell you something else – he's available." My customer said, winking at me and handing me fifty dollars.

"Let me get your change miss," I said, hurrying to the cash register next to my station.

"Don't worry about it, keep the change hun, you obviously have good taste, and you're not too bad looking yourself. Trust me you'll be seeing a lot more of me, the name's Michiru for future references." The woman said, blowing me a kiss and departing from the bar.

Did she just hit on me? Nah there's no way – I thought that she was hinting that she's really attracted to Darien. Darien finished his act; more customers came and went, eventually at 4am the club closed due to a small number of people in the club. After my day had ended, I counted the money that I had made, took out my tips, and gave the rest of it to the head bartender – who was in charge of looking after the money and then giving it to Raye. After that I decided that instead of changing in the back dressing room, I'd just go home to change – I wasn't exactly comfortable with showing my body to a bunch of women, most of whom I had never met. As I reached the door, someone tapped me on the shoulder; I spun around and was met face-to-face with the last person that I wanted to see before I left for home. My heart started to go pitter-pat as I looked up into a pair of bright blue eyes.

"Hey blondie, my sister told me that you really enjoyed the show. I guess you really like the way that I do my job." Darien said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Your sister?" I asked him, a bit confused.

"Yeah, Michiru, she's my sister – really nice woman, but if you're into girls, sorry she's already taken. I was actually kind of hoping that you were into men though." He grinned that cheesy smile once again; a smile that I could tell has been used on lots of women. This, of course, did not fly well with me – a woman who had been with enough players and "stripper types" to know that men like Darien spelled trouble.

"Listen here buddy, I'm not some object like most of these women that you toss around. I know men like you – and I don't appreciate the way that you're coming onto me, so why don't you just bug off before I report to Raye that you're sexually harassing me." At that remark, he was kind of taken aback – I'm sure that no one had ever told him off like that.

"You're quite the spunky one, I like that in a woman." He said, trying again.

"Like I said before, watch it mister…leave me alone."

"But why not? I'm a nice guy – I can show you if you want." At this point I was so furious with him that I was almost to the point of tears.

"I know what you want to show me douchebag, something that you've shown many women before me, and believe me I'm not interested! You're just like all the other men who try to get into my pants, and you know what, I'm sick of it! Get this through your thick skull, I don't date men like you!" Well at least not anymore. I took that opportunity to take my leave, running out to my car, I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. I knew that I wouldn't have to worry about figuring out how I did today. Raye would be at the house that I shared with Mina, and I would see her in the morning. All I could think about on the way home was Darien. I kept asking myself questions like: How could someone who seemed so shy and sweet one minute be a complete asshole the next? I guess it was the magic of Mina's office that actually turned him into a decent guy. After speeding through traffic lights on the way home, I finally made it there after what seemed like an eternity. Then I got out of my car, locked it, hurriedly found the keys to open the door, ran inside to my bedroom and cried myself to sleep.

Author's note: yes that was a very long first chapter – but the story just flowed really well. I hope that you guys liked it, please review, I'd really appreciate it as well as any suggestions that you have. Thanks everyone. Any questions or comments feel free to pm me as well.