Suggest to Jordan that you could film original content yourselves

After Hours Video, back storage room, at 2:52 PM on Monday, May 13th, 2024

The words form on your lips before you can fully think through what you're about to suggest. Your heart hammers against your ribs as you speak, the sound of your own voice seeming to come from somewhere outside yourself.

"What if we... filmed something ourselves?" you say quietly, and the moment the words leave your mouth, you feel heat crawl up the back of your neck. "Original content. It would be way cheaper than buying replacement inventory. We wouldn't have to spend anything, really."

Jordan stops mid-breath. For a long moment—a moment that stretches and distorts in your awareness—they simply stare at you. You can see them processing this, their mind working through the implications, and you know the exact moment understanding lands because their eyes widen slightly.

"You mean like... porn? Like, actually producing it? Here?" Jordan's voice cracks on the last word, uncertainty and something else—something that might be interest—threading through it.

You nod slowly, unable to meet their gaze directly. "I mean, yes. We have the store. We have equipment we could probably figure out how to use. And if we made content that was actually good, your dad wouldn't have to know it was us. He'd just see inventory that replaced what was lost."

Jordan starts pacing again, but it's a different kind of pacing now—energized, thoughtful, rather than purely panicked. They move past you toward one of the shelves, running their fingers along the spine of a DVD case as they think out loud.

"The equipment in the back—there's a camera. Dad bought it years ago for cataloging inventory, but we could definitely make it work for actual filming." They turn back to face you, and there's something shifting in their expression, a calculation happening behind their eyes. "We'd need a setup. Lighting. And we'd need..." They trail off, and you watch understanding bloom across their face again, this time with a different quality entirely. "We'd need people."

The words hang there between you, heavy with unspoken meaning. You both know exactly what people they're talking about. Female performers, male performers—the store sees both, though the men vastly outnumber the women.

"The thing is," Jordan continues, leaning back against the shelving unit with their arms crossed, "nobody's going to do this for free just out of the goodness of their hearts. And we definitely can't pay them—that defeats the whole purpose of cutting costs." They're quiet for a moment, then: "Unless... unless we found people who didn't need to be paid. People who'd jump at the chance for a different reason."

You know what they mean. You've worked retail long enough in this place to understand the psychology. Some customers come in with specific fantasies, specific desires. Some of them would probably agree to almost anything if the right person asked, if the setup was right.

"So what are you saying?" you ask, though you're afraid you already know.

Jordan's expression settles into something cooler, more calculating. "I'm saying that if you're willing to be the bait—the draw—I bet we could get volunteers lining up. Men who come in here, they'd probably do practically anything if it meant getting with someone like you. Someone young, shy, desperate enough to ask. We could film whatever they wanted and sell it, and boom—inventory problem solved."

The suggestion lands like cold water in your stomach. You can feel what Jordan is really asking underneath the casual way they're framing it. They're not suggesting you stand behind the camera. They're suggesting something far more immediate, far more exposing. And the worst part is, you can see how it might actually work. You can picture desperate men agreeing to this, can picture the cash flow, can picture your job being saved.

But you can also picture yourself.

"There's another angle," Jordan adds, their voice dropping slightly. "We could approach some of the female customers too. Some of them come in here looking for specific products, specific performers. We could ask if they'd be interested in being in something. With compensation, probably, but we could work out the numbers."

They're laying out options now, strategizing, and you realize that Jordan's natural problem-solving instincts have kicked in. The panic has transformed into something more focused, more dangerous in its clarity. Jordan is smart, you're realizing. And right now, that intelligence is being directed at solving a problem by any means necessary—with you as the primary asset.