Ava Adore

She & Me & the Barback Makes 3.

So I’ve talked a little bit about strippercrushes… And I talked a little bit about Lo., who was turning from strippercrush into legit-crush, but she had to change clubs before I could care or make a move, really. But now… Now there’s Ch.

I have no designs or expectations, but I will say the attraction is mutual. She started about three weeks ago, give or take, and it went from me kinda looking out for her and loaning her clothes and giving her tips to being intrigued and kissing her.

It was last Friday that put it in that direction, but it wasn’t weird the next day; in fact, we exchanged numbers and flirted all through last night. We performed on stage together and kissed for customers.

And then, when her shift was over at midnight, we kissed for ourselves, in the locker room.

But just as we’re breaking up our embrace for her to leave, the barback enters the locker room without knocking, and wide-eyed, just dumbfounded looking, is like, ‘You can’t do that here.’

I just looked at him flatly and said, ‘…Excuse me?’

He repeated himself, ‘You can’t do that here. It makes people uncomfortable.’

And because I was on a tear from earlier and in no mood to take shit, I squeezed Ch.’s hand and walked toward the barback real close and said, ‘We can do this here. And if you want me to get started on lgbt politics, I’ll be glad to give you a crash course.’

Because it’s nonsense that girls can do worse with men and I get shit for just kissing a girl while we’re fully clothed. Now, knowing the barback, it was any of three reasons for that reaction:

1) He is threatened by two women because he doesn’t understand it. He considers himself a bit of a stud—and perhaps rightfully so, I wouldn’t know, but I do know he has no trouble getting women—and the shock on his face could indicate that.

2) He is surprised by who I picked. I’ve been working there for 8 months now and this is the first and only time I’ve ever kissed a girl that hasn’t been for a degree of performance value.* Which is to say, I’ve never kissed a girl ‘in private.’

3) Which is to say, I visually outed myself. It’s one thing when you know a person is gay, another to see it firsthand. I lean toward his own discomfort in the situation more than anything else, which is probably rooted in the other two. He’s made comments before.

In short, to make sure I wasn’t in the wrong, or perhaps I had overstepped some boundaries in the locker room, I went and checked with my manager, who was there with one of the owners, laughing their asses off about it.

Apparently I did nothing wrong, in their eyes. They thought it was funny that they had to deal with it at all, and that the barback thought it was an issue to begin with. “As long as you’re not making out with customers, I don’t care!” Oh, the House.

_{*I’ve kissed Dy. and Ry. and Jo., but that was half-friendship half-show, as strippers go.}