Slade
Apparently, Kara believes we have a lot of time to make up for, because the second we stepped in the shower she attacked me all over again, which was totally fine with me. We’re a match made in heaven and I thank God I didn’t give up on making her mine.
We’re now on our way to Logan and Skyler’s house. It was supposed to be our week to host, but since Sky has a small baby at home, we told them it was fine for them to do it. Kent is a few months old now, but it’s no doubt easier for us to go to their house instead of them carrying two kids to our house, plus we’re coming to the end of our rainy season, and the weather has been crap.
We pull up to their house and hurry inside, because despite the fact I said we had plenty of time, we’re now running late because we were in the shower until the water ran cold. I can’t help but smile just thinking about it. Kara freaked when she tried to finish washing her hair just as the water ran out. I laughed as she squealed and ran from the shower. We’re greeted by Logan. “Hey guys, hit traffic?” he questions, giving me a look that tells me he’s making a joke. We were having man talk not too long ago and I was bragging about Kara making up for lost time.
“Fuck you, man.” I punch him in the arm.
“Hey, language. There are littles around.” She turns to Logan. “Sorry we’re late.” She kisses him on the cheek and wanders into the house to find Miranda, Katie, Sadie, and Sky sitting at the table. She instantly scoops Charlotte out of Miranda’s arms and begins playing with her.
“Dude, looks like someone has baby fever.” Stone nods his head in her direction.
“We’re in no rush. We have plenty of time for babies. Besides, why rush when she has three kids right here to enjoy?” I walk over and greet the ladies, kissing them each on the cheek.
“We’re just waiting for Mikey to get here and then we can eat,” Logan announces.
As he does, Kent starts screaming at the top of his lungs. My brows shoot up as I glance over at him. “What the heck is that? You mention food and he screams.”
Sky laughs. “It’s his dinner time too. He’s hungry.” She walks into the other room, grabs a blanket, and sits to nurse him while we wait for Mikey. In the meantime. Charlotte is all smiles playing on Auntie Kara’s lap. She’s a beautiful baby girl, and looking at her makes me realize I how much I would love to have a family with Kara. I’ll pray every day that we have a boy. I’m not sure I’d be able to handle the fight I’ll have on my hands if our daughter looks anything like her mother. I’ll have to start carrying twenty-four seven.
“What’s that goofy grin for?” Kara looks up at me over my shoulder.
I whisper in her ear, “Just thinking about us having kids someday.”
She smiles, looking up at me. “I’d love to have kids someday, but I’m in no rush.”
I nod and smile as I walk away, leaving it at that. The girls all give me a look that screams, What was that about? But I shrug my shoulders and say nothing. The doorbell rings, letting us know that Mikey has arrived. I kind of feel bad for the guy. He’s the only one here that doesn’t have a girlfriend, but he has started joining us most weeks we get together. He walks around the room, kissing each of the girls on the cheek to say hello before he shakes all of our hands. Logan opens the fridge to pull out some beers and wine.
He disperses drinks, and once everyone has one, he calls everyone’s attention. “I have an announcement to make.”
Katie shouts out. “Sky’s pregnant.”
“Good god, woman, no. Kent isn’t even sleeping through the night yet. Give us some time and we’ll have a third.” He winks at Sky, who shakes her head and rolls her eyes. Everyone laughs.
“As you all know, due to the death of Higgins, and his illegal behavior, the club has been taken over by the city. Thanks to some connections between Cooper and I, we got them to up the auction on the property. As of today, Mikey and I now own the building and will be converting into a male strip club.” The ladies all begin to clap.
“Yeah, now you’re talking,” Katie calls out, excited for the new club.
“Can you believe he wanted another gentlemen’s club?” Sky looks to the ladies, who are all on one side of the room. “Ladies, I want you to know I put my foot down. I told him he either open a ladies’ club, or he opens nothing.”
“And of course because she wears the pants in our relationship, I agreed.” The room erupts into laughter and the guys all start pushing Logan around, fucking with him.
“That’s funny as hell,” Stone says, patting him on the back. “Way to stand your ground, man.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Logan rolls his eyes. “If Miranda threatened to take her pussy away from you, would you cave?”
“Damn, that shit’s harsh.” Stone shakes his head.
“Logan Michaels, you better watch your mouth. Stephan is right at your feet.”
He bends down to scoop up his kid. “Sorry, buddy. Daddy said a bad word.” He tickles him and Stephan squeals.
“Shane, I’d like to move you to the new club and promote Kelly to manager of Thrive. Is that cool?” He bounces Stephan on his hip.
“Yeah, whatever you want.” He, of course, couldn’t care less which club he manages, but it makes more sense for Shane to manage the strip club and Kelly to manage the night club.
Mikey puts his arms out to Stephan. “Come see Uncle Mikey. I won’t use bad words around you, little man.” Stephan leans to Mikey and he walks away, playing with him.
“Damn, turning my own kid against me?” he questions.
“Nah, trying to get you to serve up some grub. We’re all starving to death.” Logan shakes his head but begins putting platters of food together for us to eat. As usual we all make our plates and settle in the dining room. Each of us sits in the same seat week after week. The topic of conversation, of course, is the new club. Mikey and Logan want to make some major changes to the place and completely change up the outside of it. They want it to look nothing like Vixen had so people won’t be reminded of the sleazy place. Since neither of them have experience with male strip clubs, they’ve both been doing a lot of research on what local clubs look like, with the layout and all of that. Now, the other struggle they’re having is naming the club. The girls are throwing silly names out like Chic Palace. Katie screams out Ladies Loves: Where you can find massive men at play. The girls erupt into a fit of giggles and Logan and Mikey groan and shake their heads.
“You ladies are all sick.” He hands Stephan the toy that he’s thrown yet again. “It’s gotta be something erotic. Something that draws a woman in. What do woman like?”
“Sex, diamonds, jewelry.” Sadie shrugs.
“Yeah, anything sexy like toys and trying new things.” Kara looks at me with a dirty grin.
“Women who are going to these places want to be wild and crazy. They’re either single or not happy in their relationship and want a man to fulfill a fantasy for them,” Sky adds.
Katie wiggles her eyebrows. “Women like abs. You can’t do like Vixen and have different size men.” She tips her head to the side, “Well, you can, but they all have to be oily, sexy, and have abs.” The girls all nod their head in agreement and those that can reach give her a high five.
“You’re all right. So, when naming the place you have to keep all of that in mind.” Mikey puts his fork down and pushes his plate away. “Come on, Katie and Miranda, you ladies do marketing for a living.” Mikey’s about to continue when Miranda cuts him off.
“I have it…How about Oasis?” Miranda’s eyes light up. She’s so excited.
“Now you’re talking.” Logan nods his head with a smile. He pulls out his phone and makes a note of the name. “Any other ideas?”
“Platinum Entertainment?” Sky questions. “Platinum usually means high end, and that will give us that classy feel.” Logan nods and jots it down. They continue on like this for the next thirty minutes.
Mikey finally changes the subject. “Okay, we have ideas for names, now tell me this, ladies. What do you want from a male strip club? What would make you to keep coming back for more?”
Kara’s face lights up. “That’s an easy one. Channing Tatum.” She laughs and the girls start fist bumping again.
Mikey chuckles and shakes his head. “I know this is LA, but I can’t get Channing fucking Tatum to strip for you.” He laughs.
“EEEE, Uncle Mikey said a bad word, Stephan.” Logan turns on his baby voice as he talks to Stephan.
Mikey closes his eyes, pissed that he slipped. “Sorry, little man.”
“No, no, Uncle Mikey.” Stephan holds one finger out to Mikey and we all burst into laughter. It’s cute as hell. Mikey holds out his fist and Stephan bumps it.
Mikey turns his attention back to us. “I can tell you all this. We don’t have a lot of time. Michael and I want this club open for Valentine’s Day. That gives us three months to get this shit squared away.”
“Holy shit, man.” Shane shakes his head. “Have you started working on it yet?”
“Yeah, demo is being done this weekend. We knew we wanted to change the stage and the seating area. We’re also changing the private rooms. They will still exist, but there will be less of them and they will be smaller, made for parties of five or less to get small, private shows. Plus we had to remove all the poles. Men don’t dance around no fu—” He stops himself “No damn pole.” He glances over at Stephan, who didn’t pick up on his near slip.
Logan adds, “Plus we’ve already started hiring dancers and looking into a choreographer for them. Most of the time they will have control over what they do, but there will be times when we want them in sync with each other, like at Club Heat.”
“They can use Heat’s stage to practice if need be until theirs is ready,” Sky tells them.
“Good point.” Logan makes another note. “Here’s my vision. I want to have two screens up behind the stage that projects the show and we’ll have someone manning the camera, that will zoom in to give close ups. There will be plenty of seating, and parties can call and reserve tables closer to the stage for a fee. The back rooms will be smaller with a little stage and enough room to provide lap dances off the stage if need be. Of course we’ll have a full bar, as well as cocktail waitresses to serve drinks. Mikey and I need to finalize some details as far as the actual layout and color scheme and such, but we both think we can pull this off.”
“That’s good, because your boy is going to need a little time off this summer.” Katie’s brows shoot up, giving him a look that says she’s dead serious.
“Why? Are you guys going on vacation?”
“No, we’re having a baby.” Shane spits out and everyone gasps.
“We planned to tell you earlier, but you brought up the club, and we didn’t want to steal your thunder.” Katie giggles.
“Dude, this is so awesome! You should have said something. I feel awful that we’ve been talking about all this club crap when you had such good news.” Logan shakes hands with Shane.
“It’s all good. Our family is growing, that just means we all have to share the limelight.” The girls get up and start hugging each other.
“When are you due?” Kara asks.
“The end of May.” I can see the girls are all totally excited. She grabs her sister by the arms and looks her in the eye. “I know you two haven’t been together long, but listen, you two are amazing and I know deep down you’ll be together forever.” Kara’s staring at her totally confused, and finally Katie continues. “Will you two be our baby’s godparents?”
She turns to me with a look of fear on her face. I smile and nod. “We’d love to.” They hug it out and then I get up and congratulate them as well.
Katie is right. We will be together forever. I even have the ring tucked away for the right moment. I’m not sure when that moment will be yet, but I’ve taken what’s mine and I have no intentions of letting her go.
The End