Take It Off

Part 8

You got off the phone with the manager, and was just about to dial Paul's number, when you moved your head away from your telephone.

Why were you rushing to call him? He dangled the job after being fired. And would probably be smug about it. You thought, as you clicked the phone back on the receiver.

Since you called their manager that would be enough, right? You thought as you saw the amount of slips that were on your counter that were from the girls at the club.

Who knows how long you were going to be on tour, so you started collecting them up and looking at various measurements for each request, colors etc, and got to working on the requests to get them done and out to the girls to get that quick cash.

--

You had stacks on stacks of costumes that you completed working all-nighters to get them done before the tour was supposed to start up again after the little break in-between dates.

You had the costumes stacked all around you in your car and in your trunk. You didn't go to sleep after completing the last one, to make sure that you dropped off the costumes through the back entrance where one of the girls was waiting to get the costumes in and give you all the cash from the girls.

You were lucky that you remembered John's schedule knowing that after the night shift he would go home and not come back until late afternoon, so you were able to do the switch.

Picking up one of the boxes, and walking towards the back entrance you heard a whistle behind you, making you jump, and look behind you.

You were ready to run if it was John. But it wasn't him. It was Paul.

"Need any help?" he asked, as you narrowed your eyes at him, readjusting the box in your hands, as you knocked on the back door.

"No, I'm fine." You said, as one of the girls took the box in your hand, as a couple more girls surfaced to help you out with more of the boxes that were in your car.

"Why are you here?" You asked, as Paul smiled.

"Knew you would pop back up at the scene of the crime. Especially with all the customizations you were given by the girls. To get done before going on tour in a few days. Which by the way, thanks for the call letting me know you took the job. I had to find out by Doc confirming your being hired to work as one of the costume designers/seamstress that travels with us." he said, as you thought you heard a little bit of disappointment in his voice that you didn't call him.

"Thought it was enough that I called him." you said, as you walked towards your car to grab a box, as Paul did the same as you walked beside each other.

"Well I thought it was common courtesy to at least call. But that's just me." he said, as you rolled your eyes.

"I doubt you know anything close to common or courtesy." You replied, back as you dropped your final box, as you were handed a full envelope of money.

"If you guys need anymore stuff you know to mail them to me and I'll work on them when I have time when not on tour." You said, as you walked back to your car to get into the driver's seat, as Paul caught your door, leaning against the frame of your car.

"You need to know where to go tomorrow everyone is expecting you." Paul said, as he handed you a slip of paper with an address on it.

"Be at that address 9am tomorrow." he said, as he winked before pulling away and closing your door, as you started your car up and watched him shrink into the distance in the rearview mirror.

--

9am the next day, and you were sipping on your coffee turning into the address that Paul scrawled out onto the piece of paper.

You didn't know what you needed so you brought your machine just in case they didn't have one for you to use.

Getting out of your car, you walked up to the huge warehouse building after getting through the security gate and giving the guard your id that he checked off his list of approved people that could come in.

This was legit, and you found that you were shaking out of nerves cause you were going into a building any other KISS fan would die to be able to have access to.

Walking into one of the open doors, you looked up and around you and were surrounded by all things KISS. things from previous tours that you never thought they would have kept and yet they did.

You were staring up at the ceiling, not noticing that someone was walking your way, until you heard the echoing sound of feet against the concrete ground.

You watched the man walking up to you and felt intimidated.

He was tall, lanky, bald, wore dark glasses and had a measuring tape around his neck. He looked professional with a nice ironed shirt on and what looked like to be ironed jeans, and loafs. The only thing that didn't connect were the tattoos that were covering his arms, where his long sleeves were rolled up.

"Hi you must be y/n. We've been waiting for you." he said, as he held out his hand for you to shake, as he looked you over quickly, before turning on his heel.

"Let's walk and talk. I'll give you a quick tour of the place, it's pretty simple layout and you won't be spending much time here but you still need to know the ins and outs for after touring to know where to store the costumes and get fabric and materials to work on the next tours costumes for the next tour." he said, as you blinked realizing that he was really walking away from you, as you ran to catch up to him.

And immediately running into his back, as he stopped dead in his tracks, and turning to face you, moving his glasses further up his nose.

"Interesting, i thought you had better timing since you were a previous dancer from what i've heard from Paul." he said, as you smiled nervously.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to." you said, as he sighed.

"Not a problem, let's continue." he said as he started walking again, as you were walking behind him and he stopped again quickly as you ran into him again.

"Now that was on purpose." You said as you watched him turn around, this time with a big smile on your face.

"Oh i think i'm going to have fun with you y/n. Other girls on the other hand. Well if you have a problem tell me and I'll handle it. And i didn't introduce myself. I'm Ben the head designer. I'm going to oversee you and your designs and corrections you make to some of the costumes." he said, as you released a breath not realizing the tension that you had been holding, until Ben was looking at you with a smile.