UNLIKE WHEN MARCUS DIED, Daniel had his affairs in order. He was, of course, being buried beside Marcus. But Marcus’ parents had long since passed away and were buried in the plot next to theirs. Daniel would be with the ones who’d loved him without question. Did I have yet to believe in Heaven or Hell? Not to the proverbial sense of the pearly gates, but I did believe our souls moved on. Where? I had no idea, but it was the only thought that kept me going. Once again, we found ourselves closing the bar and burying another member of our family, my brother.
“Butch,” I turned, curling up in his arms in bed that night. “I can’t take this anymore. Losing the people that I love. When does it end?” Even the mere thought of Daniel reduced me to tears.
He kissed my forehead. “Not until your dead I’m afraid, morbid as that may sound. With as bad as you feel right now, imagine how horrible Greyson feels.” His words put things into perspective for me, grim as it may be but I still couldn’t get past my own pain. Selfish? Probably so, but with every loss, the demons came back ten-fold and I found myself back in my therapist’s office.
Though, unlike how Daniel handled things after Marcus death, Greyson did the exact opposite and completely submerged himself in business dealings. He seemed to have some sort of a rebirth of sorts after talking with Daniel’s lawyer. Next thing I knew he was meeting with contractors and drawing up plans to have not only our building renovated, but several others Daniel had left to him that he didn’t know anything about beforehand. Outside of the stoic outlook he’d taken on, he seemed to be handling things rather well. Or so I thought…
About a year after Daniel’s death, Greyson was sitting up at the bar one night going over a set of blueprints, having a beer, and minding his own business. I was up on stage with the new dance applicants, interviewing them. I’d asked each to put together a brief routine to perform and bring their music with them as part of their interview. We were just about to start when in walked bad news Tyler. It had been some time since that jackass dared show his face, yet there he was, walking through the place like he owned it. Butch was tracking his every move, and when he caught my watchful eye, he gave me his signature wink letting me know he was on it. So, I returned my attention to the hopeful new recruits.
They spoke for a few minutes, but not long after, Tyler stood, extending his hand to Greyson who ignored it, storming past him and disappearing down the hall. I assumed to his office, and my assumption was confirmed when I saw Tyler follow moments later and heard the familiar sound of the office door closing behind them. Twenty or so minutes later, a half-naked Tyler sprinted through the bar and out the front door.
“What the fuck?” Butch mouthed to me as a loud crash sounded in the hallway behind the stage. We both took off towards it to find Greyson’s desk chair sitting askew against the opposite hall wall, surrounded by chunks of drywall. His childish behavior had to stop. The new recruits bailed when they heard the crash, so I found myself back at square one, which pissed me off to no end.
Throwing his office door open I yelled, “What the fuck Greyson? Have you lost your mind?” Butch came barreling in right behind me, hands tightened into fists readying for battle. This was gonna get ugly fast if I didn’t take the helm. “It’s okay babe,” I told him, placing my palms against his chest. The rapid beating of his heart expanded and contracted beneath them. “Greyson won’t hurt me.” I looked at Greyson, my eyes pleading with him to take the high road and agree with me before Butch took him out once and for all. If he even thought for one second that I was in danger, he’d stop at nothing to protect me.
It was pretty much written on what was left of the walls what had taken place inside the office between Greyson and Tyler. All that time I spent thinking he was handling things well when in reality he really wasn’t. He was just skilled at masking his emotions. Once he’d calmed down and came back down to earth, he confirmed what had happened and how he felt that he’d betrayed Daniel’s memory. I understood where he was coming from, having had a similar conversation with Daniel when he first started dating Greyson. I chose to keep that memory to myself, but I was still reeling over the loss of my honorary big brother.That which doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger.Why did I feel the overwhelming urge to scream the word bullshit at the top of my lungs every time I heard someone sputter that nonsense?
When we’d both moved past the issue at hand, he proceeded to tell me he wanted me to be his right-hand man and offered me a promotion. I knew he’d been looking to renovate the building, but I didn’t know he wanted my input on it as well until he brought it up. His offer meant more to me than he knew, and we made plans to meet the next afternoon to discuss my new duties as well as to determine what my new salary would be.
When I left Greyson’s office, I told Butch what we’d discussed. He congratulated me before shaking his head and mutteringjackassunder his breath as he walked back to his station by the door.
The next day, Greyson and I decided my focus would be on the dancers and the Seattle location employees as he was currently looking at opening two new sites and rebrandingThe NooktoInto the Greylifestyle clubs. He was renovating the floor above us, turning half of it into his personal residence and the other into our offices. Downstairs, we were finally getting the dancers changing room added in, and the bar area itself was being refreshed. The empty space behind it would be where the lifestyle club was housed.
TheInto the Greyclubs were going to be cutting edge for those in the sex-positive culture or living the swinger lifestyle. LGBT rights were moving into a positive direction leading me to suggest we make them gender neutral and Greyson loved the idea. The more forward progress we made, the heavier the gay influence on the bar side became. At one point I had an even mixture of male and female dancers on my team, but more recently it had shifted to predominantly male entertainment at our client’s requests.
Once the club was up and running, we’d be implementing strict rules with regard to what was allowed in the bar as opposed to what would be allowed in the club side and there’d be no cross over. The fees the club members paid were steep, but it seemed that was something they’d been longing for as they didn’t bat an eye at the cost nor at signing the massive contract that was a contingency of their membership. All of that would take some time to implement and plans needed to be put in place. Not to mention lots of city wheels needed to be greased in order to obtain the necessary permitting and licenses required to operate such a place.
Greyson wasn’t one to back down, I’d never met a more driven man, and I knew without a doubt he’d find a way to make it happen. I was working on a new design for the dancer’s uniforms with Sierra and having a blast doing it. I had a total of five guys, plus myself to make them for. Butch and I still worked the same shifts, but with the additional responsibilities I was taking on, I had to integrate office time into mine.