Clara (Four of Twenty)

Zoo Club doubled as a restaurant in daytime. Bouncer up front looked like just another dumb slob, except for his sledgehammer fists. Bouncers are just overgrown slobs know they can outmuscle you. You can try fighting, but even if you stop one, another 15 are on you, ready to throw you out on the street. It's all part of the game. Doesn't meant I have to like it. Or them.

Dara fed him some stupid lines. Didn't matter what she said, slob couldn't take his eyes off her chest. Let her in with a smile, but glared at me when I followed, my hand on Dara's shoulder [Sometimes, I regret having two fathers. Then I realize that one of them employs me at the behest of the other, and I regret it even more. -Dara]

They show us to a table. She sits down, asks for a cosmo. I go to the bar, bring her back a diet coke, me a bourbon. Told her I wasn't getting any alcohol that didn't start with the letter “b” and end with me drunk. Besides, she had to drive us. I told her to drink fast.

Dara got a chicken parm. I had a rare burger. Burgers are good, but mostly it was there to coat my stomach so I could drink more. Each time I stumbled back to the bar, I left a little bigger tip, talked to the tender a little more. Turned out the bartender, his name was Benny, he was there every afternoon and night, including Mondays. I ask him what it's like being in a restaurant club. He says he likes it, except how you sometimes get a bunch of idiots at night.

I threw a few more dollars on the bar, nodded.

After 6 or 7 bourbons, I ask him what Mondays are like, say I can't see a lot of people showing up then. He says there's OK business. I ask him what kind of stuff he sees, anyone catch his eye. He says there's a lot, it's still a bar. I tell him I like brunettes, especially the wild ones. He mentions one, comes a lot with her friend. She's less drunk than she acts cause she wants to have more fun. Some guy comes up to her, complete stranger to her, whispers in her ear for 30 seconds, then they leave. Crazy, especially since the guy wasn't nothing to look at, and the girl was.

I tell him I'd like to know that guy's secret. Benny says the guy's in every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I slide a 20 to Benny, say it'd be great if he points out the guy when he comes in.

By this point, I give Dara a 20, tell her to catch a cab [I drove home to force Trace to take a taxi. However, I kept his money. How else would he learn? -Dara]. There might be some old fashioned fighting, and I don't like when she sees that.