The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

Growth

Mike opened his answer with a question and a trip down memory lane. "Well...., Morgan, do you remember the first time you came to 'rox'?"

"Of course." Morgan waited to see how that was germane.

"Way out in the boonies, right? Before it was 'rox' it was a convenience store and bait shop that could not make it. Too far out. Too far away from the highway. Too far from good fishing. Someone's grand idea of if you build it they will come. The old subdivision it served was too poor to spend enough money there to keep it going. The place made a long go of it, but the owner finally sold to a new guy who thought a titty bar might make it there. The guy had money, so the convenience store was gutted and expanded. More space, more tables. Poles along the edges. Strip club. A private room for private dances and turning tricks."

"That is when Margie danced there." Morgan agreed with the history so far. "She was the top bill. Made the most money. When the owner was busted for illegal gambling, tax evasion, and a host of non-sexually-related charges, he went away for 40 to 50 because the judge made the sentences be served sequentially rather than the more normal concurrently. The problem was that the guy tried to bribe the judge by offering free access to the women in the club for life, and the judge was a deacon at a right-wing church that abhorred sex for anything other than procreation. Margie bought the club for cheap and remade it in her image. Sort of."

"Exactly: The 'sort of' being instead of being a topless place it became a strip club with table dances by fully nude girls. Margie thought being all the way bare would bring in more money. Still had the private room, but Margie only took a cut of the private lap dances, not the screwing. She screwed for money before and did not want a part of it in her pocket now. Not a moral issue: She just figured if the dancer needed money that bad, they should keep it. Why she did it when she did: She needed the cash. As long as they were a good dancer, and honest with her, Margie was willing to turn a blind eye to what she thought of as their sideline. She told me once a girl could just take a guy home to make that money. Better to have her fuck in the club where she could keep an eye on her. Make sure she was OK. The dude behaved. That meant I was supposed to keep an eye on it. She served alcohol because no one cared about the BYOB rule in a nude place. She broke the dancer/patron distance rules. No one cared. She kept the backroom for the girls doing the side work. No one cared. Vice got their squeeze and looked away. Then you showed up and made it so Vice just stayed away."

Morgan nodded. Did not interrupt.

"There we were, breaking all the rules, but somehow we were also the safe place. Girls worked there or came back there because, despite all of that, Margie took care of them. Made sure they made fair coin even after her take. She never made anyone do anything they did not want to."

Mike waved at the so-far silent Janie. "Janie could have retired by now if she took money on the side to fuck. Highest paid dancer: I can't even imagine how much she would have pulled down turning tricks. That wasn't her thing. Margie never asked her to or wanted her to."

"As you say, it is not merely that she did not take a cut of that action. She did not, but that was not the reason. Margie thought men are marks. She would get their money one way or the other. She did not need to get it that way." Morgan said.

"Nope. Better ways than via Janie spreading her legs for the patrons. Sounds like something Margie would say." Mike agreed.

"She said something almost exactly like that." Janie said. "In fact, she once told me that fact that I didn't do the customers helped me maintain a bit of mystery since I dance completely naked in front of them. At least, she said, they didn't know what I was like to fuck. That part remained forbidden fruit. A fantasy of the experienced and sexually mature woman. No guy came to the club for a virgin. Her words."