Friends & Enemies

Hiroki sat in the dimly lit corner nursing a gin & tonic. He kept his distance from the strip joint veterans, this was not his usual scene. Since being let go, it had been a struggle to find work & with nothing better to do, he decided to take a chance on the anonymous invitation that arrived on his phone.

A few tables away Max had a much closer seat to the stage. He too had received an anonymous invite, but was right at home here in the seedy strip club. The invite was not the only thing the two men had in common, Max too was unemployed. In fact, at one time the two men each worked at the same office. This is where the similarities ended however.

While Hiroki had been dismissed for performance reasons, his bitch of a boss constantly berating him, until finally letting him go, no one could argue against Max’s dismissal. Max couldn’t keep his hands to himself, or inappropriate comments not falling from his mouth, when he set his sights on his teasing young tart of a boss, that was the final straw. His female superior had gone straight to HR, and the next day Max was in the unemployment line, the black mark on his record ensuring a long stay.

Two seats to his left, Gilbert had a job, the elderly man was day time security guard at a technological firm. The very company that once employed both Max and Hiroki. A remarkable coincidence, Gilbert had received no special invite, the old lecher was simply a regular in this establishment. His sights currently set on two customers who were far from regular, quite out of place in fact.

Jackie & Sarah’s skin crawled. Under normal circumstances they wouldn’t be caught dead in a sexist shit hole like this. These however were not normal circumstances, the cryptic message both women had received had promised an old college frenemy would be making an appearance they wouldn’t want to miss. Curiosity had been too much and now the two women sat under the lecherous gazes of perverted strip joint patrons, praying someone would take the stage and remove the unwanted attention.

At the very back center of the room Diane sat alone, cell phone camera trained on the empty stage, expectantly waiting to capture what was sure to be an unforgettable debut.