strippers :: [malik]

xxi. taco tuesday

"Got the club feeling like a safe house
All this damn money, let it rain down
We ain't going home, we wanna hang out
We up in this bitch."
__

"Table for Styles?"

"That's me."

"Right this way."

He grins that adorable, dimpled grin, "Thanks, Minnie."

"Damn it, Haz," Niall laughs beside him, as he trails their hostess into the club. "They ought to start handing you rewards for how often you're here."

He was on like, a first-name basis with his favorites, apparently.

The ones who worked the front, at least.

"Hey," he shrugs, as Minnie leads them deep into Phoenix, her body swaying, pierced cheeks glinting with her smile, "I'll take it."

Niall laughs aloud, following behind him into the red-lit lobby. Harry really was here so fucking often it was like he ought to buy shares in the company, honestly.

"Too bad Calum couldn't come," Harry adds, and Niall laughs again.

"Y'serious?"

Harry grins, tongue in cheek. "Of course," he replies, and Niall only laughs harder. "His girl isn't working tonight," he claps Niall on the back, "Bet he'd actually have a good time."

"Like you, Haz? 'Cause you're set to have a good time--"

"Anytime," he grins, as the girl pushes open the door and lets them inside. "Here, at least? Absolutely."

There was just...there was something about Phoenix.

Something special.

And Harry didn't quite know exactly what it was, but he knew since the first time they'd stepped into the club, he knew that there was something about it that would keep him coming back.

He's led inside, through the double-doors, past the center stages and the deejay and the bar and he's taken over to his table and despite the beautiful figures all dancing and shaking around him, he's suddenly taken back to a conversation he'd had with Louis, right when he'd moved from the country and into the city and he'd started at UCL those few years ago. It's wild, he thinks in this moment, as the bottle girls come over and his favorite, the one with the gap between her teeth, begins filling up his ice buckets and the others bring over menus and bottles, because he's back on that beat-up couch in Louis flat, and he's with Zayn and Niall, and Louis is telling them emphatically, using both of his hands in gesture, "There's a lot of money in strip clubs."

Always going on about money, Lou.

"Tacos, boys?"

Niall taps him, startling him from his mind--his memories.

"Hazza?"

"Huh?"

"Tacos?"

Mouse is holding up a menu.

"Oh," his signature smile is back like it never left, "Right," he grins. "And tequila."

Asmaa doesn't work on Tuesday.

Thankfully.

Why? Because Harry was so set on going to Phoenix on this day and something about having his mate see his girl naked was starting to play with Zayn's emotions.