Chapter 1
I was a voyeur by nature. So when the opportunity to work at Fire & Ice came to me by way of my buddy, Felix, I jumped at the chance. Not only was the pay decent enough that I could keep my little hovel of a place down in the meatpacking district, but it also held the promise of adding at least a little excitement in my otherwise monotonous life. Even though my experience as a bouncer was limited to working a few private parties as a favor to some friends, it seemed Felix’s recommendation had some weight, scoring me a rather in-depth interview with Edward Masen, the general manager, and Aro Vivenzio, the owner of the club. It wouldn’t have taken a genius to ace that interview – I mean really, what more did one need then common sense and a lot of muscle – but I found the most challenging questions to be about my code of ethics, loyalty, and commitment to the job. They must have liked what they heard, because within a couple of days the job was mine.
Now perhaps you’re asking why exactly my being a voyeur would be pertinent to this story, well if you know anything it’s that being a bouncer, bodyguard, and the like, all require finely tuned people watching skills. You need to know what to look for, who has an itchy trigger finger, or fist as the case may be. Who’s been stumbling around for the last ten minutes and will need to be carried out sooner rather than later because a stupid bartender failed to cut them off. But most off all, it also gives you hours and hours of entertainment. Wearing all black and standing on the periphery of the crowd makes you almost invisible. People forget that you’re even there and the things they do and say when they don’t think they’re being watched, are priceless.
After hitting the gym to clear away my first day jitters, I made my way to the club. Technically I would be following Felix around for the next two nights and my first official shift wouldn’t be until Saturday, but I knew I’d be under scrutiny from the various other people who worked there. Everyone from the bartenders to the fire dancers that stood high atop various platforms downstairs would be watching my every move to see if I screwed up or was worthy of the position. Jobs at well run and popular clubs were difficult to come by, and I was lucky to have nabbed this one when I did. I thanked Felix profusely over a multitude of beers at our local dive bar after I’d gotten the job, knowing that I could have just as easily been forced into manual labor, or worse, fast food.
Pausing at the entrance, I looked up at LED illuminated sign, The Fire and Ice appearing to float off the screen. Flames licked over the word Fire on top, while Ice appeared to be melting below. It was truly magnificent. Tugging the heavy, black door open, the smell of bleach, ammonia, and stale beer was overwhelming. My eyes slowly acclimated to the dimly lit, expansive room as I walked inside to talk to Gianna, Edward’s assistant, who would have some necessary paperwork for me along with my new, spiffy uniform. I’d met Gianna briefly when I’d interviewed and found her to be a rather plain woman with eyes too large and close together for her face, along with tiny, pursed lips, giving her the appearance not unlike a fish out of water. She seemed pleasant enough and I really tried to generally not judge a book by its cover.
“Ah, Emmett, good, you’re right on time. Nice to see you again,” she said, extending her hand out. I closed my large, calloused hand around her tiny, smooth one, surprised at her firm handshake.
“Good to see you too, Gianna. ”
She ushered me into the back to sit at a conference table nestled between the sleek, glass walls of Edward and Aro’s private offices. It felt like being in a fishbowl, though I wasn’t sure who was the fish; me or them.
“Here are the papers you need to fill out. These are the forms for the tax man, this is the emergency contact data sheet, and there’s also a bunch of other documents. Fire and Ice does provide some basic health and dental insurance, so look over those and return them within 30 days. Lastly is the confidentiality agreement. It basically says that what happens in Fire and Ice stays in Fire and Ice.” She chucked at her lame joke, but I knew that it was the one document that I needed to read very, very carefully. Even though I was only educated through community college, I still has some street smarts about these sorts of things.
“Okay, I’m going to leave you to it. The security shirts are hanging in the closet, just pick out the right size. You should take another one before you go home tonight too. The first two are free, the rest you gotta buy.” With a nod of her head and a click of her tongue she walked out and left me staring at the pile of paperwork I now had to fill out.
Thumbing through the pages, I flipped immediately to the confidentiality agreement, curious to see what they were protecting. Wading through all the legalese, I got the gist that with the long list of celebrities that came through the door; we couldn’t sell them out to the tabloids or call the paps to let them know that someone was in fact hanging out in our fine establishment. The document was pages long, but I signed it, knowing that I was a stand-up guy and wouldn’t do that sort of thing anyways.
I hadn’t realized how long I’d been sitting filling in my name and address on countless forms until Edward walked into the room wearing a sleek black suit with what appeared to be a very expensive silk tie.
“Emmett, welcome aboard. I see Gianna’s put you to work already,” he commented, chuckling as he walked to his office, unlocking it and turning to shake my hand. “I’ll be with you in a few minutes to show you around and introduce you to a few people before your shift actually starts. Just need to check on a few things first.” Turning away, he closed his door and left me to finish the tedium of paperwork.
I was just closing my locker after having changed into my new shirt when Edward walked in with a short, burly man who appeared a few years older than I was.
“Emmett, this is Royce. He’s one of our floor managers. He’s in charge of the wait staff and bartenders. Victoria is our other floor manager, but she has Wednesday and Thursdays off, so you’ll meet her tomorrow.” Royce firmly shook my hand, eyeing me up and down before grunting out a hello and leaving the locker room.
“Everyone here has an earpiece, so if there is a problem, or the main bar needs more Red Bull, we can act quickly and efficiently.” He handed me a black earpiece and a receiver that I assumed clipped to my pants. “All bouncers need to have this turned on whenever they are on duty. You need to be able to respond to a request or issue quickly. Failure to do so can be grounds for termination. I know I’ve already spoken to you about our policies, but as a reminder, no drinking while on duty, and if you are off duty, you can only drink if you are not wearing your uniform. Aro or my requests supersede anyone else’s, do you understand?”
Given his commanding tone, only one kind of reply was appropriate. “Yes, sir.”
“Good. I think we’re going to get along quite well, Emmett. I have a sixth sense about these things”
We spent the next thirty minutes touring the vast club, including the four bars spaced out between the two floors of the old warehouse building. The main floor, aptly named Fire, was a visual circus. High top, black tables dotted the floor, each etched with the club’s logo in the center and a series of flames on the outer edges, with barstools trimmed in red and orange leather. Couches surrounded the main bar and the dance floor, each sleek black leather with hotrod flames stitched into the armrests, making me think that Xzibit had been here to pimp their ride…or couch, whatever. Shiny black tables sat in front of the couches, each housing some high tech glass cylinder built into the center that surrounded dancing flames.
Large platforms hung from the ceiling, high above the floor. Edward explained that once every hour, fire dancers would climb up and perform a variety of stunning acrobatics and visual feats using various objects on fire. I’d never been witness to something so extravagant, especially for a club whose main purpose was to get your groove on while drinking copious amounts of alcohol.
Upstairs was the complete opposite, catering to the clubs other theme, Ice. The center bar gave off the illusion of being carved entirely out of ice blocks and lit from within, casting a bluish tint around the immediate area. Large glass chandeliers hung over the bar and seating area, looking like icicles carefully suspended in air. Comfy looking white couches and white oversized ottomans were strategically clumped together, dotted with alternating blue and white cushions. White tables sat in the middle of the seating area with tall, glass lamps, small candles in glass blocks and a single bud of some bushy looking flower. The entire room felt like it should be colder than it was, like that Ice Castle place in Finland I’d seen once on the Discovery Channel. It was extraordinary.
Both floors had a raised roped off area for the VIPs with a dedicated bar and seating area. The entire club was astonishing, even for a dive bar connoisseur like myself and I couldn’t help but be impressed and told Edward as much.
“Someone needs to be stationed in front of each of the VIP sections at all times. This is a coveted job because you generally have your pick of the clingers when the lights come up. Easy pickings,” Edward casually commented, continuing to walk towards the main bar where a beautiful blond was busy cutting up limes.
“Last, but certainly not least, is our head bartender, Rose. She’s been working here for a couple of years. The clients sometimes get a little pushy, so don’t be alarmed if you see her hop over the counter to put them in their place. She’s a pit bull this one.” Smiling broadly, he approached where she was standing and raised his voice over the music playing. “Rose, meet Emmett. He’s our newest muscle.”
She looked up to eye me skeptically and just nodded her head and went back to work. No hello, no howdy, just a bro nod and on she went. I could spot an uptight bitch a mile away, and she was one that I had no intention of getting to know further.
“Nice to meet you,” I replied, not needing Edward to see me as being a match to her rudeness.
“Okay, well that was the ten cent tour. Felix is probably up front already setting up the line. Why don’t you go up there with him? Hopefully I’ll catch up with you before you leave. Otherwise I’ll talk to you about your how your shift went tomorrow.” With another handshake he was gone, striding off to the back offices where I was sure more pressing matters needed his attention.
Darkness had overtaken the city since I’d been inside, but from the bright glow of the sign above my head, I could still see just fine. Felix’s hulking frame was highlighted in a cool blue as he finished setting up the rope for the soon to be teeming queue of clubbers wanting inside.
“Hey, man,” Felix called, nodding his head for me to join him where he stood. “Finished getting the corporate spiel from Masen?” he asked, clicking last of the rope onto the pole before approaching me.
“Yeah, he gave me the tour and introduced me to the staff that’d already made it in.”
“Well, for the next six hours or so, I’ll be giving you the DL on everybody else.” Felix’s smiled mischievously, and knowing is penchant for gossip, I figured I’d be getting an earful before the night was through.
We worked side by side to finish setting up the area just outside the door. Thirty minutes before the club opened, we walked back inside for the nightly pre-shift meeting that the floor manager always gave.
Royce stood in front of the group with his slicked back hair, black silk shirt, and too shiny black pants, looking even more Guido than I think anyone from the Jersey Shore did.
“Okay, tonight we’ll be hosting two bachelorette parties and one bachelor party. Bouncers, please be on the lookout for any overly drunk members of these parties. I don’t want another lawsuit on our hands, so please keep your eyes and ears open for any signs of harassment, etcetera.
“There is also a promotion for Stoli Cherri tonight. We’ll be having a contest to see who can sell the most. Cocktails you can offer include the Cherry Smash or the Cherry Lime Ricky, along with the usual vodka cocktails. Remember to select the special button when ordering so that the item is tracked for the contest. The winner gets an hour massage at the Uptown Spa and Salon. So let’s see you sell some!” I cringed at his overly fake enthusiasm. Glancing around the room, I could see the others in the group already fidgeting and impatient for the meeting to conclude. He continued to rattle on about where the bartenders and cocktail waitresses were going to be located, but I tuned out the nasally whine of his voice until my ears perked up at the mention of my name.
“I would also like to introduce our newest team member, Emmett McCarty. He will be manning the door with Felix tonight and tomorrow before starting his first solo shift on Saturday. Please take a moment later to introduce yourselves. Remember, we are all part of the same team. It’s looking to be a busy one, so please go get yourselves ready for a wild night.” With a clap of his hands he dismissed the group, but yelled for me to stay for a moment. Telling Felix I’d meet him outside, I strode over to the short, stocky man to find out what he needed.
“So, Emmett. You ready? From what Edward told me, you haven’t really done this type of work before. I just want to make sure you’re on the ball. Things can get out of hand quickly, and you guys are our main line of defense.”
Bristling slightly at his comment I replied, “While I haven’t worked in a club before, I have done this type of work before. I’ll have my earpiece on and will handle whatever happens efficiently and with as little commotion as possible.”
Nodding at my words, he told me to have a good night and that he’d catch up with me later.
By the time I made my way back up front, Felix was standing guard at the door while a smattering of people already stood, waiting to be let in.
“Everything good?” Felix inquired, quirking his eyebrow in question.
“Yeah, just checking to make sure I’m up for the job.”
“Well, you’ll soon find out that Royce is a twofaced, cheating clown with short man’s complex,” he muttered under his breath. I couldn’t help the half snort, half laugh that tumbled out of my mouth.
“I can see that but thanks for the heads up. Got any more words of wisdom? Beats me finding out the hard way.”
“You want deets? Well, for one thing, Royce is Aro’s nephew and still pretty ticked off that Edward got the GM job and not him. So while he carries an air of entitlement, he’s a total douche who couldn’t’ manage his way out of a paper bag. Edward almost never schedules him here without himself, if that tells you anything.” He shrugged while yelling to the people in line that we’d be opening up in fifteen.
“Oh, and one more thing. For some ungodly reason, Rose, the bitchy bartender with the stick up her ass, is dating him.”
“Hot Blondie is dating him?” I couldn’t comprehend why beautiful women subjected themselves to men who were clearly not worthy of them. However, if Rose truly was a bitch, maybe it was a match made in heaven. I once again tried to reserve my opinion until, well, at least the second night I worked here.
Felix continued to fill me in on the dos and don’ts of handling the door; who not to let in, whom to always let in, and the regular legal mumbo jumbo I needed to know to keep the cops from giving us the sting. The club was strictly over twenty-one, and Aro would fire any bouncer for letting in someone underage. VIP or not, it didn’t matter. After hearing all of this, we started to let the people enter the club. Every now and then we paused and would stop our ID checking when Edward or Royce would squawk in our ears to halt the line, allowing only VIPS in until they gave the go ahead.
“It’s line padding. They do it so the club appears really busy to anyone driving by and makes them want to come in. Some kind of marketing strategy. I think it’s stupid to make people wait out here in the cold, but I just work here, right?” Nudging my elbow he glanced down the line until he got to a limo that had just pulled up to the curb.
“Ah… the usuals. These ladies are ones you always let in. Alice, Izzy, Tanya, and Kate. They are the celebutant crowd,” Felix informed me, nodding in the direction of two women making their way down the sidewalk. “Did you ever watch Real Life with Alice and Izzy? It was some sort of reality show where they sent them to different exotic locations to see how they would react? I only caught it a couple of times, but seeing Alice try and hike through the Amazon in high heels and her ginormous purse, quite entertaining,” He smirked, wrapping up the story just as they approached the front of the line.
“Felix, good to see you,” the petite brunette said, her voice seductively breathy.
“Hey, Izz, Alice. Where are the other two?”
“Oh, Kate & T will be along later. Couldn’t be bothered to wait, I needed to get my drink on. Who’s in Ice tonight?” Alice asked as she strode past us with her head thrown back. Her black hair was spiked into a halo around her tiny head while the tiny red dress she wore left very little to my imagination. Looking behind her, I much preferred Izzy’s curves and more modest silvery grey dress to the boyish figure of Alice.
“I think Demitri is.”
“Cool.” Her reply was barely heard as the door shut behind the two women who barely acknowledged us.
“Yeah, Alice is really a piece of work. I think she’s either drunk or on E every single night she’s here. Izzy’s pretty nice actually, but she puts on this air whenever Alice is around. Tanya and Kate are purely hangers on. They’re famous by association only. While I’m sure their families have money in their own right, it’s nothing compared to Alice’s family fortune in oil, or Izzy’s in consumer products. Ever hear of Brandon oil?” Felix asked and I nodded. “Yeah, that’d be Alice. Swan & Swan products? You know, the makers of everything from toilet paper, dish soap to Band-Aids?” I nodded again, both were well known companies. “Yeah, that’s Izzy’s.” I whistled in appreciation. While I knew of the famous surnames, I wasn’t much for TV that wasn’t on ESPN and didn’t have a clue who they were.
“Never seen ‘em before.” I admitted, shrugging off my lack of starry eyes in the presence of people who were supposedly famous.
“Well, you’ll see them a lot.”
The rest of the night ran smoothly. Felix introduced me to quite a few regulars along with those that had been booted out on more than one occasion and were not allowed in anymore.
We closed the doors for entry at three, knowing we’d only have an hour until lights up. We both headed to the locker room to change and have a beer before heading home.
“You did well tonight. Granted we didn’t have any fights or anything to breakup, but don’t worry, Friday is always our best night for drunken fights,” he said, smirking. Pushing the locker room door open, we both stopped in our tracks.
Across the room, Royce had some drunken brunette bent over one of the locker benches, awkwardly fucking her from behind; his pasty white ass thrusting wildly as he grunted out in pleasure. Stepping back, we allowed the door to shut silently and turned to each other and laughed.
“Yeah, that happens a lot. Let’s go wander for a minute and I’m sure he’ll be done in a sec. The guy isn’t known for his stamina,” Felix whispered conspiratorially.
“Does Rose know this?”
“Oh, we all assume she does, but no one ever talks about it. Royce kind of rules with an iron fist…if you get my drift.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe that people would allow something like that to happen knowingly. My mother had raised me to respect women, and the thought of someone hitting a girl made my blood boil.
“Oh, no man. I just mean he’s really controlling. Tells her where she can go, who to see, who to talk to. You know. I don’t think he hits her.”
I could only grunt and vow to keep my eye on that little shit. I had seen women be mistreated before and wouldn’t stand for it.
We wandered aimlessly around the club for a few minutes, watching as the roll of bodies danced to the wave of the beat, like a swarm of bees all moving to the same rhythm. My eyes strayed upwards and I spotted Izzy standing by the rail, overlooking the dance floor, while Alice gyrated all over some blond dude with a ponytail, his hands grabbing her ass from under her miniscule dress. Once the song ended, they made their way back up the stairs only to continue groping in one of the dark corner booths that was partially visible from where I stood.
“Hey, man, let’s see if Royce has closed the deal. I need a beer before going home to catch some sleep.”
Discovering the locker room to be empty now, we got dressed and drank a quick beer before heading home.
“See you later, man. Get some sleep. Friday’s are when all the crazies come out,” He bumped my fist with his and walked off for the metro while I waited for the bus to take me back to my apartment, anxious to see what my next night at Fire and Ice would hold.
Reference Pics if anyone's interested
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| Sign above door Except Fire appears to be burning while Ice appears to be melting |
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| Ice Bar Inspiration |
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| Fire Bar Inspiration |
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