Velma Goes to Work

We were up against it. Credit card debt was eating us up and we always seemed to be on the verge of not being able to make the house payment. It was our own fault of course, I'd had a good paying job, the money coming in was more that enough to cover our bills and like a lot of people we lived at the level of our income. But my good job had disappeared when the company I worked for was bought out and 183 of us were let go. The only jobs I could find paid a good one third less than the one I'd had so we were automatically on the slippery slope toward bankruptcy. Finally Velma told me that she was going to get a job to get some extra money coming in. This was pretty much a kick in the teeth to me as I had been brought up to believe that the man supported the household and the woman took care of it, but that would be a moot point if we lost the house.

Velma had become a housewife without ever having had a job. Her parents had given her a good allowance and she went from high school to college to marriage so she had no saleable skills, but she was determined to try. After two months she had nothing to show for her efforts except several call backs from Burger King, McDonalds and the like, all wanting her to work 24 hour weeks with split shifts which of course she wasn't interested in. Then one of her girl friends told her about a lounge that was looking for a few good cocktail waitresses and the only job qualifications were the ability to be able to handle yourself around a bunch of rowdy men and woman and to look good in the uniform that was supplied. I wasn't too keen on the idea, but we did need the money so I told Velma that she could look into it.

Velma went to the lounge and applied for the job and when she came home that afternoon she said that the job was hers, but only on the condition that I would never come in to the lounge while she was working - any other time was okay, but never while she was on duty. The owner, a man named Cliff, told her that he did not like to hire married women because of all the trouble he'd had with jealous husbands. The uniform she would wear showed a lot of cleavage and the skirt was short and showed a lot of leg (I had a quick image of Velma in a uniform like that - slim, narrow waisted and with 38 C cup breasts she would be an attention getter). The whole marketing strategy was to hire good-looking waitresses to attract male customers who would then sit and drink while enjoying the scenery. The problems happened when a husband would come into the lounge and then get pissed at a customer who he thought was paying too much attention to his wife. It had happened so often that Cliff had just about made up his mind to not hire any more married women. I could see that getting this job meant a lot to Velma and I'd never been much for spending time in bars anyway so I told her she could tell Cliff I'd stay away unless invited by him.