#11 Club Happenings

A tall dark man dressed in the suit of the Gun Bearer walked into the Damsel. His stride across the thick red carpet was smooth and graceful.

The bouncers looked up and then looked past him like he wasn't even there. His sharply toned muscles were clear through the layers of cloth that made up his suit.

"Mr. Lucius Martin," said Jacquie looking in the reflection of his room temperature scotch.

"Mr. Jacqueline Bloom," replied Lucius taking a seat next to Jacquie at the bar and ordering a Cosmopolitan extra shot of lime.

"Glad you could come out."

"Oh really? I can already tell you've got an excessively grim demeanor about you. Did a witch boil your dog or somethin'?"

"Wouldn't surprise me."

"What?"

"Things are becoming strange, Lucius."

"Like this conversation 'strange,' or really strange?"

"Fucked up," Jacquie paused as Lucius' drink arrived. They made a soft ching of their glasses that was only audible because the DJ was in between songs. "Look I'm sorry for the grave talk but things tonight have gotten me really fucked up, like I'm talking distorting my sense of reality fucked up."

"Has Cherry already been on stage?"

"I'm not ready to change the topic."

"Who's changin' the damn topic, I figure this fucking non-sense coming out of your mouth is from Cherry bein' on stage and wagging that perfect ass of hers in your not-so-perfect face."

"Cherry's been here and gone, we had a scuffle earlier today and then another here just a few hours ago."

"I see it didn't injure business too badly."

"You know how the Damsel is."

"Yeah and I know how that drunk bastard's leg is too."

"You know about that?"

"Fuck yeah. I know about Simon's fuck up too."

"Yeah he fucked up, but Gillingham is losing his mind. I'm afraid because of his fuck up and Gillingham's decaying brain juice Simon's been put on a fucking suicide mission."

Lucius took a big gulp of his cocktail, "You probably right about that. I agree Gillingham's lost the ability to play the sharp notes, but Simon's dealings are his own, my friend."

"I know that but he's my partner and we're supposed to have each other's backs."

"Oh I get it, so he's keeping you out of the loop to protect you and you think that if he trusted you and had more faith in your abilities he'd let you in on his mission. Then the two of you could blaze a hole in a few motherfuckers and put everything head's side up again?"

"Like putting a nut back in its shell."

"That's some down home bullshit, Jacquie."   

"Simon is protecting you, it's cute when you really think about it, but this is his bag, not yours. You guys aren't partners out of necessity, you guys are partners because you want to be and Gillingham lets it slide. Simon helped you early on, and you keep him cool...most of the time... but the symbiosis fucking ends there. I don't have a partner, sure part of it is because I have a legitimate business by day, but most GB's don't have partners. Pretty soon man, you'll have a separate assignment away from Simon and that will be that. You gotta face the facts man; this ain't the old west, Sherriff and Deputy, bullshit. This is Grimland. You walk your own path.