You're Always You

Chapter Twenty-Three

David Minett

David had made sure to keep his plans to get a job to himself, mostly because he could easily predict the conversation that would happen if Monica found out.

The conversation that did happen as he was on his way out the door, and she questioned his intentions. "Where are you going? Are you going to the club again?"

....

David didn't have any secrets.

"You could say that," he replied, readying himself to open the door.

"Why?" Monica pressed. "Want Lydie to dance on you?"

In another reality, yes. But, that wasn't what he was going for. "No, Moni," he said, shaking his head. "...I'm unemployed."

....

His sister got up off the couch with an outraged expression. "Wait a fucking minute," she exclaimed, coming over and smacking his chest. "So you can work there, but I can't?"

"Did you like working there?"

Monica deflated, grumpily crossing her arms over her chest, which told him she was uncomfortable again just thinking about it. "...No. But what the fuck with the double standard?"

"It's not a double standard, Monica," David said. "I'm going there to work security. Not wiggle my ass."

"Fuck you."

"I love you too," he replied, kissing her forehead patronizingly. "Now go back to your coloring book, baby sis."

"It's not—Ugh! Asshole."

Dave chuckled and opened the door. "Trust me Moni, nobody wants to see me wiggle my ass anyway. I couldn't be a chip-'n-dale if I tried. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever," she grumbled, waving him off. He chuckled again and left home, heading out onto the sidewalk. Since he wasn't bringing anything that required heavy lifting—literally just his resume—he saw it best to take the subway like he normally did. He'd been doing a lot more driving than normal the past few days, and he wasn't that thrilled with it.

He wasn't thrilled with a whole lot here, but the notion that this wouldn't be his reality forever kept him going. It was...kinda why he wasn't entirely afraid to go broke. Which was dangerous, but....

Being in the Army for eleven years was dangerous, too.

David was apparently a dangerous person.

Who knew.

Though, thinking of that, he kinda hoped he wasn't now...overqualified for a job like this. Being a bouncer for a stripclub was definitely more for his old caliber, five years in the Army. But eleven? That was grounds for much more serious security detailing. And he knew that plenty of employers didn't take resumes that were overqualified.

Thinking about it, the mall definitely wouldn't have. At least, not at his old job. If they hired him, it was as the security director, the big shot, or something. Not just a mall cop.

This might be a problem.

Fucking Army....

David didn't regret serving his country, but he did hate that he'd done it for so long.

He also wasn't that fetched with the fact that he was becoming familiar with Dickie's stripclub, but that was the reality he was in. Literally. He found it a little strange, as well, that it was...operating at the moment, since he'd been of the impression stripclubs were a...nighttime kind of thing.

I mean, who the hell is going to a stripclub during normal work hours? Get a job, pervert.

Ugh.

Unfortunately, Dave was feeling like the pervert, because he was getting a job, at the club. He could imagine the other security guards were here for the free show, more or less, but his situation was different. Except, nobody would believe that, would they?

The fact that he couldn't tell anyone about this alternate universe bullshit was going to drive him crazy. Not because there was nobody, but because who in their right mind would believe him?

He wouldn't believe himself, if he didn't know better. If he were in anyone else's shoes right now, he'd call himself crazy.

He wouldn't have blamed his mother for sending him to a psyche ward.

Which was why he was keeping it to himself, and...begrudgingly accepting that people were going to totally think he was a pervert.

Sigh.

It was thankful, at least, that David had set this job interview with a manager, and not Dickie himself. God knows how that would've gone. Dickie would be pissed to see him, and then laugh his ass off that his high school arch enemy, whom he'd always been jealous of, was coming to him for work. At a stripclub. The teasing would go on forever, and Dave wouldn't even get a job out of it.

As Dave was heading for the supposed office he was meant to go to, he couldn't help but overhear an argument, between two voices that he distinctly recognized.

Dickie and Lydia.

"...one day. Monica isn't working here, but she's still a friend."

"She's dead to me and she should be dead to you. She's making you work twice as hard and I have to work to find a girl willing to replace her. I already have to start hunting for girls at the new building for when it opens."

Hearing that Dick was clearly in one of his moods, David couldn't help but swivel his head to search for the source of the conversation, and was a bit surprised to find it not that far away. Practically right beside him, in fact. And it made him frown.

He knew what his old teammate did when he was angry.

"...Then I'll go by myself."

"Don't fucking lie to me, Lydia. I said no. Enough."

And then Dick was putting his hands on Lydie and shoving her. Actually shoving her, not the light kind that people do, the kind that sent someone sprawling, and sent Lydia nearly crashing into a counter, the woman just catching herself.

David was compelled to step in, to help her, that was his wife, but....His head overruled his heart in this instance. Technically he had no right over Lydia, no right to step in. Arguably he could on good samaritan principles, but, well....He was here for a job, and while it wasn't imperative he work here exactly, it was ideal.

He didn't want to fuck that up.

Because if he did step in, got in Dickie's way, all hell would break loose. That was bad, in case that wasn't clear.

"Get back to work," Dick barked at Lydie, before leaving in the opposite direction.

After a few moments, Lydia seemed to realize that she wasn't alone, and looked over. "Oh, uh...." she mumbled, looking embarrassed. "...Hi....What are you doing back here?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but the door he was waiting for opened, and he couldn't exactly stay and chat. Right now, at least. "...We'll talk later," he told her, before entering the open door.