Taking It

I met Jade when I started working as a bar tender at Venue 2. Just like any restaurant, rumors go around and gossip spreads like wildfire and the Venue is a small establishment. It has a slow lunch business, but we have live music almost every night and that’s when the crowd pours in. Our uniforms are made to be suggestive and quaint all at once. Management prefers miniskirts and we girls are given spaghetti strap tank tops in shades of pink or solid black. I think Jade stood out because she always preferred the black shirts. Sometimes she’d even defy management and wear a simple black wife-beater tank top and jeans. She always looked great. Her short black hair was gelled sleekly away from her face and fluffed a little in the back and quite stylish without being fussy. She was a fan of large silver hoop earrings and a deep red lipstick. Her skin was naturally dark and she was tall. At first I thought it strange that I was always seeking her out in the crowd, always wanting to see what she was wearing, if she was smiling. Then I learned I was not the only one compelled to look at her.

From the bits and pieces that came to me I learned that she was gay and that over half the girls who worked there had made out with her at one time or another. Some had gone a little further. By all accounts, Jade didn’t mind being the first “girl kiss” for whoever was interested. Men at the bar hit on her as well. Apparently men see a challenge in gay women and they mistakenly think that they have what it takes to set her straight, no pun intended.

The bar stays open pretty late and depending on the music and mood of the crowd, things can get a little wild. Sometimes some of the girls would jump up on the bar and dance. They have a unique way of putting ass to crotch and moving as one even if two or three or even four of them are in a line together. Once I saw Jade pour a bit of grenadine down the exposed part of another girl’s chest and lick it off. I felt a tightening sensation between my legs when I saw that, but nothing got to me half so bad as when I saw her kiss someone out on the floor. She was behind the bar one minute and the next she was in front of a well shaped brunette, holding her face and kissing her in the most extraordinary way. My God, I remember thinking. It was intense just to watch, I could not imagine being the recipient of such attention.

I was confused by my curiosity. I’ve never been attracted to girls and I’ve been married for eleven years. She is nine years younger than me. I’m used to men trying to pick me up when I wait on them or work behind the bar, but I was unsure of myself when it came to Jade. Was she really smiling at me a little more than usual? Were her eyes lingering on mine? Was she looking at my legs? I began to wonder and doubt. Soon I was thinking of her as I got dressed to go to work. Would this shade of lipstick get her attention or that one? Would she notice these earrings or those?

It went on like this for some time. I was too shy to do anything outright about my girl crush, but I wanted her. I knew it. Then everything seemed to crash in on me one day and I got more than I bargained for.

Jade was always fun and ready with a joke, but she was very quiet about life outside of work. One Tuesday I had to go in and cover for a server who was ill. It was very slow and Jade was working a double that day. Her black tank top was tight on her chest and curved in alluringly at her waist. We were the only employees working the front of the house and one manager was on duty, a long time friend of Jade’s, Terri. I was at the bar picking up two Miller Lights when I heard Terri ask when Jade was leaving for Guatemala. My head turned immediately. What?! I openly stared at them, the beer and my customers forgotten.