nearly enough. But three different kind of women gives every man some variety. Give him a chance for a little variety while he’s browsing. Have you ever worked a pole before, Harley?”
I shook my head. She was taken back a bit, a devious grin on her face.
“Wow. You are inexperienced. You don’t need to worry about the pole right away. It’s nice but it isn’t necessary. Not everybody’s watching what’s on stage.”
“ What else are they watching?”
“ The other women, of course. There’s no need to show how flexible you are to get a man interested. Which brings me to the next most important part of the main floor.”
I followed Sage past the three stages and toward the back of the room. There were small sections up against the wall. They were like private rooms covered in small curtains. You could see everything that was going on but still had a place to yourself in t hese small booths.
“ This is the VIP section,” she said. “These curtains… They’re adjustable so that when they’re down, everybody knows not to bother them. Not every man wants to see a woman naked. Sometimes he just enjoys her company. Here he can have some privacy and just talk to her.”
“ Isn’t every client here a VIP?” I asked.
She smiled at me then nodded her head.
“You’re right,” she said. “Every client is a VIP. But some are more important others. Some men have the five-thousand dollars it costs to reserve this spot.”
“ Five-thousand?”
“ Special clients get very special privileges.”
“ And how long do they get this spot? Is it there’s to own?”
“ You’re really funny,” she laughed. “I told you that Platinum wasn’t like any other club you’ve been to. You have to understand that the men who come here have more money than they know what to do with. This isn’t anything significant to them. Five-thousand gets them this spot for one hour. That’s dollars, not pounds. So it’s not that bad.”
She snickered at my disbelief. I was still in shock about just how much money was being tossed around. She said the number so nonchalantly that it was clear she wasn’t joking. I thought about all of the men I had seen sitting in these booths and there were several of them. It made sense that a man like Landon Schrader would spend his time here.
“ That’s it for the main floor,” Sage finished explaining to me. “Waitresses get the men drinks or they get them for themselves at the bar. They see all of the merchandise on display while they sit back in the VIP area. These are the men that you want to target but the men near the stages have money just as well. Which brings me to the next part of the club.”
I followed Sage toward the back where the door to Franklin ’s office was. We kept walking past it until we eventually ran into a black curtain. She stopped me, one hand resting on the curtain.
“ Are you ready to see what’s back here?” she asked me.
I nodded to her, full of anticipation. The smirk on her face told me that I probably wasn ’t prepared for whatever was behind it. When she pulled back the curtain, I felt a sense of awe wash over me. I stepped through the curtain just behind her and looked around.
“ This is the place where you’re going to make all of your money,” she said. “This place is referred to as Paradise.”
The first thing that struck me was the ceiling. I looked up and saw a painting above me. It was like something out of the Renaissance. Angels and other heavenly beings resting upon clouds without a care in the world. The lighting w as pointed upward toward the canvas so that I could see it clearly. It was the only illumination in the room.
To the sides, there were smaller individual booths. Inside of each of the small booths was a small, seemingly comfortable chair that was only big enough for a single person.
I followed Sage to one of the booths and she pointed everything out to me.
“Take a guy back here and show him the time of his