It’s supposed to be a request, right?
I’m supposed to be nice and?—
“Which member recommended you?” she asks, this time frowning at me briefly then looking down at what I suppose is a computer screen.
Her eyes shift from side to side and she clicks away for a good minute while I just stand there, completely frozen in place. Then she looks back up at me, eyebrows raised expectantly, and how the fuck am I supposed to answer?
“Your ad?” I ask weakly, and she frowns again, only the creases in her forehead are deeper this time.
“I don’t know of any ads Provoke has. We rely solely on word-of-mouth. You need to be brought in by an existing member who vouches for you,” she tells me like I’m slow—I fucking feel like I’m slow. “I can’t let you in otherwise. We won’t even consider you for a membership if a member doesn’t bring you personally.”
I gulp at the fierceness in her eyes. There’s no way I’m gonna be able to talk myself out of this mess. I can feel the sweat starting to pop on my temples and then I hear the door behind me open and I just know the security guard is here to boot me the fuck out.
“I don’t?—”
Whatever I was going to say—which I still don’t fucking know—gets cut off by the ringing of a phone I can’t see.
The receptionist picks up immediately and listens with that same focus from before. She makes a face, one where her mouth twists to one side, but then nods a few times and I see her mouth move, saying, “Okay.” But I don’t hear it so she has to have whispered it.
She hangs up the phone and keeps looking down in that direction for a long second, then her face transforms into the beauty from before and she smiles at me.
“Please wait here. Someone is coming down to help you.”
That doesn’t fill me with confidence.
Fuck, what did I get myself into?
4
Jake
“Boss, we got a situation in reception two,” Dylan says when she opens my office door without knocking.
I’m out of my chair in a second.
There’s only one woman working in the “front” of Provoke, and if some asshole thinks I’m gonna letanyonemake trouble with Jo, then they have another thing coming.
“Who’s out front tonight?” I ask her, as we step into the hallway and make an immediate right to go to the security office.
“Louis,” she says without hesitation—which is good. Part of Dylan’s job is coordinating all the security guards. “I’ve already told him to get his ass inside. But here, look.” She slides back into her chair and points to the screen on the left of her desk. “He’s a beast of a man, and I could tell Jo tensed up just a minute ago. He hasn’t made a move, but I thought?—”
“What the fuck,” I mumble when the man—mountain of a man—in question moves his head slightly and suddenly I can see his face.
I also see him tense and Louis come into frame behind him.
“Get me on the phone with Jo,” I say, speaking faster than I ever have.
I guess Dylan isn’t a huge hockey fan.
Or maybe she doesn’t recognize Timmy without his helmet like I didn’t four months ago.
I shake my head and get into fix-it mode.
“Jo, don’t worry, I know who he is and he’s a good guy,” I say as soon as I see her pick up the phone on the screen. I don’t actually know if he’s a good guy but well... if he’s still good friends with Benny after all these years—who I do know is a good guy—then he has to at least be decent, right?
Besides, he looks beyond scared right now.
“I’ll come now and help out, but I know this isn’t how we do things, and your skepticism is great,” I assure her. If this happens when I’m not here to recognize the stranger at the door, then Dylan, Jo, and Louis’s reactions are exactly what the club needs.