Chapter 3

Alec made himself a coffee and sat down at the table, sipping it cautiously. The flat was eerily quiet, the neighbours above, below and either side still abed. The silence was strangely oppressive. The lack of noise kept bringing him back to the continual noise of the wings. He knew that would fade with time, the same way that he had felt that he would never get used to the continual noise when he had first been incarcerated.

A thrush, or a pigeon, tweeted on the window sill. He didn’t know what and cared even less. He had never been the remotest bit interested in birds of the feathered variety. Turkey at Christmas was about as far as his bird knowledge stretched. He finished his coffee and rinsed his mug out in the sink, upending it to dry out on the drainer.

Alec walked into Amy’s; Izzy’s, its Izzy now remember ... bedroom. The musky odour of arousal was still strong. It became even stronger when he pulled the duvet back. There was a noticeable damp patch. Alec placed his palm flat on it. Cold, moist. He pulled his hand away, sniffed his palm, licked a finger. He hardened at the thought of the two girls sixty nineing, cuming over each other’s faces.

Alec wanted to pull out the photo’s and relieve himself there and then. He fought the desire and started to strip the bed. Turning over the mattress, he put on new sheets and duvet cover. Sounds of life were starting to emanate through the walls from the surrounding flats. So they were up, time to make some noise. Alec loaded the washing machine. There were a pair of knickers inside. He pulled them out, smelt the gusset. His pulse sped up again. He put them back inside and turned on the washer. Staying in the flat was not going to help things, so he grabbed his coat and phone, locked the door and headed into town. He hadn’t much money so skipped taking the bus, walking instead. It wasn’t as if he was constrained for time.

Alec spent another several fruitless hours at the job centre looking for and being turned down for work. The business card was still in his pocket. He pulled it out. Looked at it for a moment, and then turned it over to look at the address.

As it turned out, it wasn’t what he was expecting. Not that he knew what to expect. It was in a side alley just off the high street, nestled in between a solicitor and a dentist. There were no bright neon signs, pictures of half naked women, just a plain brick wall, solid door with a simple sign on it with the street number and a sign prohibiting entry to anyone under the age of eighteen. He tried the door, it opened. There was another set of doors a few steps after. Darkened glass with the outline of a poll dancing female with the logo “Private Eyes” in bright letters above.

The doors opened to his experimental shove. Alec stepped inside. The air was heavy with the smell of body odour and stale beer. It wasn’t a very pleasant smell. There was a tinkling of either bottles or glasses from the bar. A nondescript man looked up from a table where he was jotting down some figures.

“We’re not open till eight pal.”

“One of your girls, Kerry I think she said her name was, said you were looking for staff.”

The man looked him up and down slowly. “I know we have to be politically correct these days. But I’m not sure my poles would hold your weight.”

“Huh? I’m not here to dance. I’m here to...” Alec heard a laugh from the bar area and noticed the edges of the man’s mouth start to curl up. He trailed off. “Ah, right.”

“The job is holiday cover for a couple of weeks, then it will be part time weekend work after that. There may be a vacancy for a full time position. We will see how you get on. Do you have door accreditation?”

Alec wasn’t sure what that was, so he doubted he had it. “Err, no.”

“Can you handle a fight?”

Alec had no idea what or how much to say. It was going to come out eventually might as well get it out of the way. “Ten years inside. I can handle myself.”

Another appraising look up and down “killed anyone?”

“No.”

“GBH? ABH?”

“No and No”

“Assaults against women, domestic or otherwise?”

“No”

“Steroid use?”

“No. Everything I have is from hard work.”

“Drug habit, recreational drug use?”

“No, and No.”

“Alcohol use?”

Alec smiled “Ten years sober. No interest in starting again.”

The man flicked the end of his pencil against the front of his teeth.

“For fucks sake Tony! When are you going to fix those fucking lights above the mirrors? It’s been a week now.”

Alec looked over at the new speaker. It was the girl. Kerry, from the job centre. She spotted him. “Oh. Hi.” She said with a smile.” You took me up on the offer then?”

He shrugged. “I’m applying.” Alec said noncommittedly

“For fucks sake Tony. Stop wasting his time and give him the fucking job.” It was Tony’s turn to shrug.

“Can you start at seven tonight?” Tony enquired.

“Err.” Alec wasn’t sure if he should speak it over with Izzy first. “sure.”

“Where do you live?” Kerry asked.

Alec gave Izzy’s address.

“Alice is out that way isn’t she Tony? I’ll get her to stop by and pick you up.” Tony didn’t even get the chance to say if Alice did or didn’t live out Alecs way.

“Is there a dress code?” Asked Alec.

“Sturdy, comfortable footwear. Black trousers. Tony should have a T-shirt somewhere.” Tony grunted.

Alec glanced down at the paperwork. He couldn’t help himself. “You made a mistake there.” He pointed out the error with a finger.

“Fucking accountant are you?” Grumbled Tony.

“Actually yes...”

“Not a very good one if you ended up inside.”

Alec let it drop.

Izzy texted him to say she was on her way and he had their tea ready for them on her arrival. He waited till she had sat down before he spoke.

“I got a job today.”

“You did! That’s great! When do you start?”

“Um tonight...”

“Tonight?” Izzy paused, fork halfway to her mouth. “You didn’t ... You didn’t get a job at Private Eyes did you...”

“Yeah, I kinda did...” He wasn’t sure how she would take it. She burst out Laughing “And no, I’m not on a pole before you say it”

Izzy placed the fork and its contents in her mouth. “How are you getting there? What time do you start?”

“Seven. One of the girls, Mary or something, is picking me up.”

Izzy checked the time. “That doesn’t give us much time...”

“Time for what?”

“Time for you to drag me into the bedroom and fuck my brains out...” There was a moment of pause as he wondered if she was joking. There was an impish glint in her eye and he quickly stood. She was faster and ran squealing towards her bedroom, Alec hot on her heels. He ‘caught’ her just before she reached the bed, turned her around and kissed her deeply. She hungrily kissed him back. Their
lips parted.

“Did you change the sheets?” She asked.

“I sure did. Washed them as well.”

“You really are a keeper.”

“I am...”

She kissed him again as he unzipped her fleece, dropping it to the floor. They stopped kissing long enough for him to pull her T-shirt over her head.

“Were they smelly?”

Alec pushed her onto the bed. “They Sure were...” He started on the belt of her jeans.

“What did they smell of?”

He pulled her jeans and panties off in one.

“Arousal. Pleasure. Pussy.”

“Did you lift them to your nose and smell them?”

Alec spread her legs and lowered his face to her pussy. “I sure did.” She moaned in pleasure as he ran his tongue along her pussy lips.

Izzy ran her fingers through his hair. “Did it make you hard?”

“Mmh hmm.”

“Did it make you want to touch yourself?”

Alec stopped licking and looked up. “It made me want to fuck you.”

Izzy smiled. “What’s stopping you?”

He undid his own belt, pushed his pants and trousers to his knees. His entrance was quick, forceful, a little bit rough. He pulled her hands above her head, holding them there as his hips pushed hers hard into the mattress. He expected to cum before she was even half aroused, but she surprised him by moaning and he felt the sudden wet warmth between them. The wetness creating a very loud ‘slap’ every time his hips hit hers. She must have been just as aroused all day as he had been. It didn’t take him long to reach his peak after that, and he came inside her.

“Mmmm.” Izzy purred as she felt his seed spurt inside.

He glanced at the time. He was going to be late if he wasn’t careful. He pulled out, wiping a tissue around his groin. Izzy watched him languidly, making no move to cover her wet glistening pussy. “That was ... alright.” she purred. He buckled his belt, raising an eyebrow. She looked so wanton lying there, legs spread, his cum slowly leaking out of her brazenly exposed pussy, her bra still in place. Alec headed for the bedroom door.

“Dad?”

“Hmm?”

“When you get back after work. Don’t use the couch...”

He had to run down the stairs and across the carpark in order to be at the bus-stop at the required time. Alec reached it as a pale blue Fiat five hundred pulled up. The passenger window rolled down.

“Alec?”

He suddenly remembered her name. “Alice?”

“Hop in!’

The Fiat was not a good ride for him. The seat didn’t go back far enough for his height and he had to hunch just to stop his head banging off the roof. Which it did anyway.

Alice also seemed to have missed her calling as a getaway driver. She weaved in and out of traffic streams with seemingly careless abandon. Alec learned more about the city and it’s backstreets in that one twenty minute trip than he had in the entirety of his stay so far.

Alice parked in the carpark for the solicitors. There were a few other cars parked there. A Nissan Micra, a Prius, two Fiestas’ and a moped. Alec squeezed out, his spine and self-preservation both grateful.

Slapping a key card against a box next to the door to the accompaniment of a buzz and a click, Alice pushed open the door and Alec followed her in. Metal beer kegs were lined up along one side of the corridor. The sound of female laughter echoed from somewhere further in the building. Tony was still sat at a table. Still doing paperwork. Three other men were quietly putting out tables and chairs around the podiums. The floor still damp from a washing.

“You turned up. On time. That’s a good start.”

“Yes um ... boss.” That sounded a bit naff to Alec’s ears. “What do I do?”

“For a start, you can give the other three lads a hand. At the end of the day. You stack em back up and help with the cleaning. Then you go home. Follow Richie and do what he says, when he says, and there will be no drama’s.”

Tony turned his attention back to his paperwork. Alec moved over to join the other three. All three wore black t-shirts with ‘security’ emblazoned in white across the front and back. Two had ID badges pinned above their left breasts. Alec glanced at the ID, catching something about door accreditation. That meant the one without must be “Richie. You the new lad?”

“Alec.” Alec confirmed. He resisted the urge to look down at his own security emblazoned t-shirt and make some smart assed comment about being the new dancer. He joined in with the setting up.

Just before the doors opened Richie handed him a glass of lemonade, and pulled out a chair. Alec pulled out the one opposite. Richie took a sip of his. “Ground rules. No alcohol consumption on shift. At all. Is that clear?”

“Crystal.”

“If there is trouble and the police are called, you may be breathalysed. If you are deemed to be under the influence, it weakens your side of events to the pigs and court-should anything go that far. Just don’t. There is CCTV on at all times. This is for the girl’s protection. Not yours and certainly not for the punters. So be aware of that in your actions. Don’t incriminate yourself. Likewise, there is CCTV outside front and back, so don’t think you can just take someone out back and smash their teeth in. The licencing board are stricter on us than they are with other drinking establishments. They have wriggle room. We have next to none. We run a ‘look but don’t touch policy’. That applies to us as well, so don’t think you can get smart with the girls or think that you have or are entitled to staff ‘privileges.’ You don’t. Don’t land Tony in the shit. He’ll back you to the hilt if he can, but fuck up and he’ll drop you faster than a shit covered dumb-bell. Comprende?”

“Yip!”

“If you encounter any trouble, let me know. I’ll handle it. Don’t try to be a hero on your first shift.”

Alec nodded as Richie explained the details of the job. Eventually he finished off the last of his drink and hooked an earpiece over his ear. “Showtime.” The other two headed for the main doors as Richie leaned over the bar and switched on the music system. On hearing the music, a couple of girls appeared from the back and swiped themselves into the tills. While the barman was casually dressed, the three girls wore as little as it appeared they could, and still leave their ‘assets’ covered.

The doors opened and the clientele raced in, making a beeline straight for the bar. Richie had informed him that things were generally quiet until midnight, when other bars started closing and the influx of already drunk punters came in. It’s was a balancing act, Richie had said. Drunk, they were more inclined to cause trouble, however, their very inebriateness, meant that they were more likely to tip the girls and tip them well. The alcohol leading them to spend more than their sober selves would ever have allowed.

Alec found a dark corner to stand in that was the farthest point away from any of the speakers. He resolved to pick up some ear plugs tomorrow. Richie had moved behind the bar to help out. It was quite a fast operation at the bar. From what Alec remembered of his drinking days before incarceration, the bottleneck had always been the tills, sorting out the change-checking large denomination notes for possible forgeries. Now it appeared to consist of a few button presses on the till and the drinkers tapping their bank cards against little black boxes secured to the bar top.

The club slowly filled, the crush at the bar easing. As the workload at the bar eased one of the girls signed off from her till and climbed onto one of the podiums. The lights dimmed and a couple of spots switched on, their focus on the podium. A series of small screens lit up around the base. Alec was too far away, the room too crowded for him to make out what was on them. Many had now finished their first drinks and Alec pushed himself away from the wall. Richie had explained that one of his roles was to collect the empties. It was a fourfold role. It kept the supply of potential missiles down, it allowed security to wander the room and keep an eye out for potential troublemakers, whilst not opening too confrontational about it, all at the same time as keeping their presence visible to the punters so that they were less inclined to try and get too personal with the dancers. The job was new and novel enough that the time flew by.

Richie stayed mostly behind the bar, helping out the barman as the girls slipped away and took up positions on the podiums. Alec had his eye on a few that were getting a little boisterous, but the girls were handling things themselves. Whenever one of the punters tried to reach out and cop a feel, they would deftly spin out of reach, incorporating the move into their routine. After a while he spotted a trend amongst the girls, where they courted, dared even, the men to break the rules. Always swinging out of the way or climbing the pole at the last moment. The dancing itself was impressive. He had always had the view that pole dancing clubs were just some girls in scanty bikinis shaking their tits or ass as they held onto a pole. Watching them in action blew all his pre-conceived ideas out of the water. The moves the girls were carrying out and carrying out effortlessly were mind blowing. Alec didn’t even know how most of the moves were even physically possible.

The girls rotated in and out to an order that they knew. Time on the poles, a stint behind the bar; some time in the back, doing heaven knows what. It was a machine and it worked. Alec dumped his collection of glasses in the washer. It was nearly full, so he shut the door and hit the ‘go’ button.

“Can I just get these for you?” Alec reached between a group of lads and picked up the empties. Some punters took their empties back when they went for refills, some didn’t. The girl on the pole, upside down, smiled at him. He nodded and smiled back. It would have been rude and dickish not too. Occasionally Richie would step out and relieve one of the guys on the door for a break.

The last customer was politely ushered out the door at four am sharp. The staff leaving shortly after.

Alecs ears were still ringing when he stepped out of Alice’s Fiat. The streets were deceptively quiet. He ran up the blocks stairs to Izzy’s flat, desperate to get to bed. In the cool fresh air, the smell of alcohol on his body was pronounced. He had a quick shower and slipped into bed next to Izzy. He tried not to wake her but she rolled over and snuggled into him. Her bare breasts pushing into his back.

Somebody shouting and screaming in another flat woke him up. Alec picked up his phone and looked at the displayed time. It was almost twelve. He swiped it open and touched the message icon.

: I Missed seeing you this morning :( :

: I missed you last night. How did it go? :

: Alright. It’s easy enough. A bit loud though. Those girls have some moves. :

: Oh aye? :

: Err, not like that. I was meaning that the strength required for their routines is pretty impressive, from the professional view of someone who works out. :

: Uh-huh. :

: Okay I get it, hole deeper and all that. Miss and love you. :

: I love you too xxx :

Somebody was still being murdered upstairs. They weren’t going easily. Or quietly for that matter.

Alec slipped out of bed and padded in to the living room. His clothes from the previous evening were lying dumped in a corner, doing a very good impression of a brewery, by the smell. He picked them up and carried them at arm’s length into the kitchen where he stuffed them into the washing machine.

There was a button for quick rush, so he stabbed it. He would have to get more clothes. He wasn’t going to do washes every day. But first, he had to get paid.

Izzy sent him a warning text that she was on her way. Like usual, she came in, took off her boots and dumped her work laptop in the hallway. Alec watched her shovel the food into her mouth like a woman possessed.

“Where do you put it all? You eat for, like, two and yet you have the body of a model.”

“You think I have the body of a model?”

“Hell yes!”

“You say the nicest of things, or you after a shag?”

“I wasn’t, but if you are offering...”

He stripped her fully this time, running his hands over her bare breasts. Taking one nipple and its accompanying mound of flesh in his mouth then the other.

“Were you hard last night at work?” Izzy asked.

“No, not really.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It was an eye opener at first, but it wasn’t really that erotic.”

“No?”

“As weird as it sounds, you switch off after a few minutes. Too busy keeping an eye on the loud and the dunk, collecting empties, dodging/cleaning up puke on the floor. And the music is appallingly shit.”

“What? Weren’t they playing Simon and Garfunkel, or the Carpenters?” in response he lightly bit her nipple, making her yelp and smack the side of his head. “So what are the girls like?”

Alec shrugged. “They have amazing make up ability.”

“Ouch! That’s a bit harsh!”

“Wait till you see them sober...”

“So I don’t have to worry about competition then?” she teased.

“Never! There is only the one girl for me.”

“Aww you say such the sweetest things when you want your end away...”

“Uh-huh, about that...” He pushed her legs apart and positioned himself, pushing into her slowly.

“Mmm...”

Right... Alec checked that he had everything as he stood before the door.

“Dad?” Alec looked over. Izzy was standing in the doorway, still naked. She leaned against the door frame casually. “Here.” she tossed something at him. It was a small packet containing further smaller packets which contained two small yellow cylinders “For your ears.”

He nodded. “Thanks”. He pocketed the ear plugs.

The car journey was every bit as buttock, clenching as it had been the previous night. He wondered if other drivers saw the car approaching in their mirrors and cringed. After all it was probably the same drivers on their way home every night.

At the club he asked for, and received, some more T-shirts. The ear plugs made the music more bearable and stopped his ears ringing after. The girls seemed chattier with him as well. Though he reckoned that it would not be a good idea to mention that fact to Izzy.

Still a little damp from the shower, Alec slipped into bed beside Izzy. She was deep in sleep. He placed a hand on her hip, finding that she was naked but for a pair of panties. Alec slid his hand up her side and gently cupped a breast. He felt the nipple harden and she mumbled something unintelligible in her sleep. He was aroused and tempted to pull her panties aside and slip into her. He didn’t, just held her close instead.

The bed was empty when he awoke. It was moments like this that made him hate his new job, made the time between her coming home and him going to work all the more precious.

The week was quick to pass, and Alec was looking forward to having some money for a change. Not that he was sure what to spend it on. More clothes were definitely high on the list, along with decent boots.

Izzy drove them out to a retail park. She normally worked most Saturdays. However the forecast had been for rain and so far it was proving accurate. “Not much in the way of ground works can be done in the rain. You can try, but everything turns into one large mud bath and you spend the next few days recovering bogged in machinery” she had explained. So here they were, travelling through a downpour, windscreen wipers at full and threatening to depart company from the rest of the car.

Parked up in the carpark, they ran laughing towards the dry security of the shopping complex. By unspoken agreement, they avoided the more fashionable and expensive retailers. Izzy knew of a few smaller outfits in the complex, almost hidden away, that she frequented because they stocked workwear and boots. Alec bought several comfy and plain trousers, thick socks, some more plain t-shirts, a pair of decent boots and more underwear. He managed to pick up a decent outdoor jacket in the sale of an Outdoor shop. He had quite a collection of bags by the time they stopped for some lunch.

Alec watched the other shoppers walk past as they ate. “Do you not feel weird being in a shopping centre and being the only woman not to be carrying any bags?” He asked of Izzy.