7. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Liam was a wreck when it was time to head down to the bar. He came out of his red and white room, stretching his arms over his head, and Abs walked right over to him with that little shimmy of his hips he had. “What are you wearing?”
“Clothes…”
Abs was beautiful, like a real pretty boy, and the makeup just made it more obvious. He had on plenty that evening, thick eyeliner, eyeshadow that was nearly as dark, and his hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. Well, what hair he didn’t shave. From the middle of his ear down, he shaved his head. It only made him prettier, too.
“Those are not clothes you wear when you’re trying to get tips. Come on,” he huffed in exasperation, then grabbed a fistful of Cosmo’s loose black T-shirt, one with which he knew he could easily move for the busy night and pulled him back into his room.
“We’re supposed to ask before we come into another guy’s room. Can I?” Abs asked, though he was already inside the door.
Almost afraid of the small, stick-thin guy, Cosmo stuttered, “S-sure!”
“Thanks,” he said, distracted as he let go of Cosmo’s shirt and opened the nearly empty closet.
“I thought Eazy was getting you a few clothes until you could buy some for yourself.”
“They’re in the bags down there. They’re…not my style.”
“What is your style? Homeless man? Middle-aged bus driver?”
Unable to comment on those, he simply shrugged.
He felt guilty, but he didn’t know why he would. Abs was no shy man, however, and his confidence and powerhouse personality were a bit intimidating. And that was from a guy who’d fought guys twice his size in prison.
Abs took the bags to the bed and started pulling them out, shaking his head at some, grunting at others. Finally, he held a red V-neck sweater and stone-washed jeans. “These aren’t great, but they’ll do. Change and we’ll do something with that hair. I wish I’d have thought to get ahold of you before this, but we haven’t had a new guy in a while. I’m out of practice.”
“A sweater? Aren’t we going to be sweating?”
“Sure, but this is light. I can take the sleeves off, but not in the time we have to get down there.”
He took the sweater, afraid of what else he’d take from it. “No, this is good.”
“Okay, I’m gonna run and tell the others we’ll be a minute. Get dressed and I’ll be back to do your hair.”
After Liam changed, he looked in the mirror and saw his hair was like it always was. The top was a little longer than the sides and back, and he’d swept it all back with his brush to keep it away from his face.
When Abs reentered the room, he was carrying a plastic tote with curling irons, blow dryers, makeup, jars, and bottles of stuff he’d never heard of. “What’s all that?”
“I go nowhere for longer than ten hours without this,” he said, which didn’t explain a thing. Once he grabbed Liam’s hand and led him over to the desk, he pushed Liam into the chair and patted both shoulders at once. “Now, this is about trust. If I’m scaring or hurting you, let me know.”
“Do I need a safeword?” Liam asked, joking.
Abs didn’t find it funny. “Sure, I use Roanoke when I am feeling kinky with my many guys. What do you use?”
After swallowing the big lump in his throat, another formed as he croaked, “I don’t really have one…”
“Oh, you’re one of those.”
Liam laughed a little, but then he felt a brush running through his hair and something being sprayed on it. “What’s that?”
“Conditioner. Your hair is like straw. We are blonds, Cosmo. That comes with a lot of responsibility.”
Totally confused by what that could be, Liam felt it best to keep quiet and let the man work.
It didn’t take long, and Abs was in his face with a makeup brush, to which he pushed. “No makeup!”
“Cosmo, don’t make me hurt you. We all use a little on weekends, just a touch to bring out the good parts and hide the not-so-good ones. Hands down and mouth quiet.”
How he ever became afraid of a tiny man like Abs, he’d never know, but his hand dropped, and Abs was brushing some kind of powder over his face, clucking his tongue the whole time.
“I literally can’t believe I didn’t think of doing this hours ago. I could have done so much better.”
After the powder, a cream was put on him, then more powder, and then his eyes were outlined with a wet, tiny brush. “Don’t you dare move and make me start all over.”
Like a statue, he was stony-still, and once the eyeliner was on him and a little eyeshadow, Abs sat back and took him in, gloating, “Much better! Now you might get a few tips, and definitely some IG followers, if not some phone numbers too. Remember, you’re Cosmo.”
“I don’t have an IG account.”
“Make one! What’s wrong with you?” After gathering his things in the tote again, he started for the door, but called back, “Well, let’s go!”
Liam followed him to his room, where he left the tote, then they walked down the stairs together to the bar. All the while, Abs was telling him the extra things he should do. “I am great at this stuff, and Mims is too. I take videos for Goldie and Hippy, while they’re working out, and they post their reels, and then I get candid shots on weekends that aren’t really that candid. You all always know, and you have editing rights.”
“Editing rights?”
“Yeah, if I take a picture that makes you look like some troll with a wart the size of a watermelon on your face, we delete that one and move on.”
“Oh, right. Got it.”
“You’re all muscley too, so if you want me to take videos for you, I’ll be happy to, and don’t worry, I don’t fall for the other guys. Mims won’t either. None of you are old enough.”
Liam turned his head and asked in a hushed voice, “Old enough? Oh, right, he likes older guys.”
“He’s way into daddies, but it’s a psychological thing, all his shrinks have said it. He got tossed out on his ass by his dad, so he has been searching for one since. It’s all very tedious, but he’s the sweetest guy in the world, so we all keep quiet about it.”
They were at the entrance to the bar, but before they went through the door, Abs warned, “They don’t know you yet, but you’re hot, so you’ll likely get hit on a bunch even on the way to the bar. Head down and barrel through.”
“Barrel through?”
“The crowd! Oh, you are so, so new. Wait until you see them.”
Abs opened the door, and though it was only nine in the evening, all he saw was a sea of faces.
The bar was big, but all he’d seen of customers had stayed in the front area. The two big rooms on either side of the veranda behind that main part were filled to the brim with people. And he saw as they barreled through that the veranda was full, too. Full on a cool October evening. It was insane.
Once they got to the bar, Liam’s eyes involuntarily widened as he saw Goldie and Hippy on top, dancing. Well, dancing was a stretch. With the pop music playing loudly on the speakers all over the pub, Goldie and Hippy were both rolling their hips and lifting their shirts. And all of this was happening while Mims was spraying the crowd in front of the bar with water from a nozzle.
Abs was clapping his hands, but then went right to work, running from one end to the other, taking orders. Liam felt like a deer in the headlights for a long moment, but a cacophony of people were shouting orders to him.
Whiskey and Coke, low ice…G&T, heavy on the G…Mango Mint Julep, no ice…tall dark beer with a shot of Scotch on the side.
The buzzing in his head wasn’t from the voices, but the stress. It hit him hard and fast, but he put himself to work, pouring drinks while Goldie and Hippy jumped off the bar and made drinks too.
He’d never been so busy or worked so fast in his life. It was amazing, but the others were faster, better, and all the time they were making orders they were laughing, playing with one another, tossing bottles back and forth and more.
There was more dancing on the bar, and the way they did this weird “wave” the crowd called for over and over, was something he had no confidence he’d ever be able to do.
A bottle was held by Abs, who winked, posed and flirted, then threw the bottle in the air, to which Haze caught it, did a spin with his body and the bottle, then he tossed it casually for Hippy to catch.
Hippy caught the thing and juggled three bottles before tossing it for Goldie to catch. Goldie poured some down his shirt, splashing it a little and letting some land on his tongue before he tossed it for Mims to catch. He’d toss two bottles around and then poured three long lines of shots with them, shouting “Wave!”
He’d been told about it, but to witness it was much different. Murphy was the one to call for them, and each time, the crowd hooped and hollered happily. The wave drinks were on the house for those lucky enough to be close to the bar to grab the shot.
“Hey! Get on my drinks,” some lady shouted, and before he could, Abs went over to her and, with his snarkiest voice, said, “I think you’ve had enough, honey. You’re getting a little sloppy.”
She flipped him off, but Abs simply winked at her while she stormed off.
“You can’t let them be assholes to you,” he shouted to Liam over the music. “Murphy would rather lose a customer than let them do that shit to us.”
A fatherly move. Well, unlike Mims, Liam wasn’t in the market for a dad, daddy or anything of the sort. “Thanks,” he said, and took the advice to heart.
“Hey, gorgeous,” someone hollered at him. At first, he looked around to see who the little twink could be calling to, then he realized it was him.
“What can I get for you?”
“Your number! And a Mojito!”
Feeling himself blush, he turned fast to get the drink started as the twink giggled.
After taking the twink’s number, smiling rather shyly, which also wasn’t exactly like him, he got to making three martinis. He ran out of vermouth, which he’d tasted, just so he’d know what it was like, and he thought it was probably the vilest thing he’d ever tasted.
He saw another bottle of the crap on the bar by Hippy and hollered, “Hippy, are you done with the vermouth?”
“Sure thing, Cosmo,” he yelled back, but instead of sending the bottle down the line of bartenders or bringing it over, he got the vermouth, vodka, and gin and juggled them as he moved closer and closer to Cosmo. That made the crowd go insane. “This is Cosmo, everyone! He’s the newest of us, so give him some love!”
The crowd chanted, “Cosmo, Cosmo!” Hippy flipped and tossed the three bottles into the air, and while two were still high above his head, he’d take one bottle and pour it into the shaker.
While juggling, Hippy made the three martinis, and the crowd continued to chant Cosmo’s new name while applause thundered in the entire bar. It was incredible and something Liam knew he’d never forget.
Sure enough, by the time he was taking the last box of empties to the trash, worn through, feet aching like he’d just run twenty miles, and he figured he had in just ten feet of space, he had almost thirty phone numbers from all kinds of hot men.
The others were sitting at one of the long tables near the kitchen, counting their cash tips, laughing and relaxing. “How many?” Abs asked.
“Numbers?”
“Yeah.”
They were all watching him, waiting for his number, so he pulled out the scraps of paper and receipts to count them. “Twenty-nine.”
They gave him some applause, and Goldie threw his crumpled pieces of paper to the center of the table. “Forty-three.”
Mims laughed and threw his. “Ten. Ten! I’m losing my looks the closer I get to thirty.”
Haze groaned, “You’re twenty-four, Mims.”
“Exactly,” he said as if Haze had made Mims’s point for him.
“Okay, okay,” Goldie said, waving over the papers. “Who won tonight?”
“Is this a contest?” Liam asked.
Murphy came across to the table with a tray of drinks. “Everything is a contest with this crew, Cosmo. Everything.”
“Speaking of Cosmos, I didn’t make even one of those tonight.”
Everyone laughed until Abs bragged, “Anyone who’s a regular here knows to come to me. That is my specialty.”
“Well, then, shouldn’t that be your name?”
Goldie answered for him. “He says red makes his face too pink, and you can see he likes it milky white. He had the option of red or green, jumped on green and named himself Absinthe.”
“You got to name yourself?” Cosmo asked, but stared at Murphy with his brows high.
“You had the option, but you just took Cosmo because I said it. Gotta be more assertive to get ahead around here, Cosmo.”
While they all laughed, Cosmo laughed with them. It felt good.
Just then, however, Tally, Murphy’s sister, came into the room from the back. They all greeted her warmly, but she seemed in a hurry. Still, she stopped and set her eyes on Cosmo, smiling broader, then patting him on the shoulder. To the room, she asked, “Can I steal Mims and Murphy, please?”
“I don’t want to know what that threesome looks like,” Abs teased.
“That’s just all kinds of wrong, Abs,” Goldie scolded.
As the two left with her, Hippy mused, “Wonder what’s going on with them?”
Goldie threw him a scathing look that Cosmo caught, and Hippy hushed immediately. Cosmo feared it had something to do with him…