Time to Unwind, tag; open

[Carmen Eloisa Russo]

Tonight was one of those rare nights Carmen had off. With eight shows a week, she was glad to have at least two nights off. Of course, she wasn't going to spend her nights alone in her home. She was going to have fun and stop by one of the speakeasies for a drink. The coffee she had earlier was not cutting it for her. There was something about having a nice cold alcoholic drink that seem to relax her.

Carmen revealed a short baby blue flapper dress underneath her winter coat, which she checked at the door. She checked her hair in the mirror to make sure her hat hadn't ruined it. Carmen didn't mind coming here alone. More than half the time, she didn't leave here alone. Besides, this was the twenties! Women's independence was expected.

She made her way pass a few tables, which definitely caught the attention of the male patrons of this place, and took a seat at an empty table. "Dirty martini," she ordered when the waiter came by. He nodded and left. Carmen turned around to watch the entertainment on stage. This was a gentleman's club, after all. However, it wasn't rare to see women, especially prostitutes, to come in here for a nice stiff drink. A good drink had no boundary for gender. Carmen crossed her legs and relaxed as she watched the woman dance on stage.

[Leonardo Joseph Moretti]

It had been a pretty busy night. Leo looked around the club and nodded with approval with the amounts of patrons buying drinks. He walked over to the entrance to make sure the new guard understood his role. He was not to allow no cops or any suspicious people in. If they were cops or politicians, there was a list of who was approved to entered and who was not. Of course, a nice big tip was always welcomed. If there was any trouble at the door, the guard was supposed to send a secret password to a waiter or waitress and they would begin procedure to hide all the alcohol and appear as a normal dry club in New York.

When he was satisfied with the guard’s full understanding, Leo walked over to the bar. He ordered a scotch from the bartender and began to search the crowd for anyone familiar. Within a few seconds, he had spotted Carmen, sitting alone. He watched a waiter take her drink and return to the bar with the drink order. Leo walked over to the waiter. ”I’ll take Miss Russo’s drink to her,” he said as he picked up the two teacups, one for him and the other for Carmen.

Leo walked over and took a seat next to her, putting her drink order in front of her. ”You know, if you worked for me, you wouldn’t need to pay for this drink,” he said with a smirk as he took a drink of his scotch. ”What do you say? Perform here, twice a week. You’ll be the only performer that night.” Leo liked Carmen. Not only was she crazy talented, she was breathtakingly beautiful. If he had her perform at the club, there would be so many more men here right now. ”How much are they paying you at that small little theater of yours? Whatever it is, it’s not enough.” He took another drink and looked out to the group of women performing on stage. They were good, but not as good as Carmen.