The Brothel

♡ Trouble

Pete is currently sitting in his boss' office, otherwise known as Madam or --if you wanna sugarcoat it--, the lady of the house. But around here, everyone just called her Ms. Melanie. Pete was sitting in the chair that was directly across from her desk, waiting anxiously for her to come in and probably scold him.

See, Pete hasn't been making any money since he and Patrick started fucking around in the past few weeks and he's been denying clients left and right. He didn't want to touch, look at, or talk to any other human being that wasn't his uniformed lover and it resulted in a lack of funds. He was supposed to conduct business and give a portion of his earnings to Melanie for necessities such as food, repairs, laundry, etc.. Basically like paying rent. And if Pete wasn't bringing in any money to contribute then he would be out of a place to stay unless he came up with some money, quick.

There were a simple set of rules that everyone had to follow, one of them being 'you pay to stay'. Which wasn't really a rule, per se, more like a guidline, but in Melanie's eyes it counted as a rule and Pete just so happened to break that rule. He expected the dark end of her usually pleasant demeanor, awaited some kind of yelling and obvious anger and that's probably what made him so nervous. He's never been in trouble before and he wasn't sure what she was going to do or what she was capable of. His previous encounters with her were always quite nice, she'd smile and they'd joke but Pete was pretty sure neither of those would be happening today.   

He jumped when he heard the door open, followed by light footsteps that belonged to the one and only Madam. Her split-dyed hair was piled into a neat bun on top of her head with a bow to match the color of her lipstick, completed with a black, short sleeved, scoop neck dress with a white collar. She always seemed to keep her looks professional, despite being the Madam of a whorehouse. But she was technically a business woman, if you wanted to think of it that way, and believed she needed to look the part.

She took a seat behind her desk, resting her hands on top of it and clasping them together, an unreadable expression on her face. But Pete knew she was upset with him, absolutely pissed probably, she was just good at hiding it like Pete with his emotions. Well, like Pete used to be with his emotions until Patrick came along.

Melanie already knew about Pete and the young officer that comes in with the rest of the men in blue, everyone knew about them, really, it's not like it was any sort of secret. But their endeavors were only tolerated because Pete had promised that it wouldn't interfere with his work, no matter how cute she thought the two were together.

"You're probably wondering why I wanted to see you." She says, her gentle voice contradicting her emotionless gaze. And even though Pete knows exactly why he's sitting in her office, he doesn't dare to mention it and just keeps his mouth shut. "I have a business to run here, Peter. You know this, don't you?"

"Yes." Pete answers, clearing his throat when his voice cracks. Then he starts to bite at his nails, wishing she'd just yell at him or something, but she doesn't.

"Good." She nods, Pete assumes that's a good sign. "Rule number four, Peter. What is it?"

"Uh, we... we pay to stay."

"Yes, yes, exactly. And what is my number one rule?"

"Um... It's, uh-" He feels like he's sweating bullets by now and he's not even perspiring, but his heart is pounding and Melanie being this calm puts him on edge. "...Don't fuck with your mo-"

"Don't fuck with my money!" There's the shouting Pete was hoping for, but she only does it the one time before lowering her voice. It wasn't soft and quiet like it was previously, but stern, like a mother lecturing her child. "You're fucking with my money, Peter, you know how I feel about that. You can keep your boy toy, okay, you can fuck him all you like. But if you want to stay here then you need to work just like everyone else."