Porn Again, A Novel-Part Thirteen

CONTINUED FROM PART TWELVE...

Another night of amazing sales, he thought to himself as he looked over the numbers so far. Aside from the usual setback of customers looking to return items and drunken bums groping the mannequins, Happy had to admit it was a great night so far. Still, he was looking forward to getting off in a few minutes.

“So does this mean you’ll be putting in a good word for me when you head out to L.A. for that meeting?”

Starscream’s exuberance was more than evident, judging from that beaming smile and the girlish flash of her eyelashes. He had to admit, she was indeed one of the best staff members he had in the store. She was smart, funny and most of all, reliable.

“Perhaps. Just continue to work on training your team and boosting numbers. You’ve got a great track record as far as attendance goes-“

“Unlike Cruella?”

“Be nice. Danielle is a bit of a work in progress. We all know she’s a little rough around the edges, so you’ll have to give me time. Besides, where is she anyway?”

“Where do you think Hap?”

“Late again?”

“Well she’s here now, but she was over a half hour late. And she’s spent most of her shift in the office. I can barely get her to help out upstairs.”

“Is she sick again?”

“Sick in the head maybe. She’s so ‘emo’ and ‘broken’ and all that dark, depressing shit, probably dealing with an asshole boyfriend. Why anyone in the world would want to date the wicked witch of Bourbon, I sure don’t know. I tried to call Barabbas in to cover for her but he was down at the club getting shitfaced over some girl. Dickhead came staggering in here a while ago. I let him into the restroom.”

Enough was enough at this point. For someone who had a reputation for gunning for the top spot in the store, their little chat hadn’t seemed to sink in. Other measures would have to be taken now.

“Tell me something Starscream, how come you don’t seem to have relationship issues like anyone else in here?”

She flashed him a wink and a smile. “Because all my bitches know better. Sometimes you just gotta keep your pimp hand strong boss.”

***

Happy entered the back area, noticing the door to the Assistant Manager’s office was closed. This was getting weird.

“Danielle?”

There was no response.

He knocked again. “Danielle?”

Still nothing. He took his chances, unsure of what he might find, and entered. Danielle sat at the desk, staring at the wall while fidgeting with what appeared to be tablets on the table. This was not good. Not good at all.

“Is there something going on here that you want to tell me about?” he asked, taking a seat on the desk.

Visibly making a poor attempt to hold back tears, she said nothing.

“Ok, well let’s take a shot in the dark here. You’ve been gunning for the top spot here in the store, but you don’t push yourself hard enough to earn it. You bring a condescending attitude to work, often to the displeasure of the staff and myself included. Now you’re coming to work late and spending more time back here in this office instead of out on the sales floor.”

She remained silent.

“Now I come back here and I find this-“

“I’m not on drugs if that’s what you’re thinking. They’re prescribed.”

“Okay. That’s a start as far as answers go. Now it’s time to tell me the rest before we get into disciplinary actions because this is not the behavior I would expect from someone who talked up such a good game when I first met her.”

Danielle turned to him suddenly, tears beginning to stream down her face. This wasn’t good.

***

“Well we certainly can’t fire her,” Christopher said over the phone. “Something like this is extremely unfortunate and needs to be handled with the utmost caution and accommodations.”

The call wasn’t a pleasant one to have, the first of its kind for Happy. Despite all the crazy ups and downs he’d been through with his marriage and moving to a new city with all its surprises, the biggest one was right under his nose the entire time. Now it all made sense. Everything from the attitude to the trips to the doctor came crashing in on him at once. Danielle was HIV positive. Just when you think you’ve got it bad, someone else has it much worse.

“According to her, she tested positive several months ago,” Happy continued. “Chris I’m going to level with you here. When I first agreed to this position, my brother wasn’t exactly the most forthcoming person in the world with what this place was. I’m in the middle of a bit of a crisis myself, and now this? I don’t know and can’t even imagine where to begin to deal with this.”

“I understand that Hap, but try to calm down. Believe me, I’m just as shocked as you are.”

“Try to calm down? Chris, I’m running a sex store here. How can I possibly have an Assistant Manager working here who’s HIV positive?”

“Well consider the alternative Hap. If we terminate her employment, it’s a lawsuit pure and simple. She’ll have our ass for it and you can’t blame her. The company has sunk a lot of money into that store to get it ready for everything that’s coming up. If this gets out and we handle it the wrong way, it could blow up in our faces.”

“So what do we do?” Happy was thrown for a loop on this one. That nervous tick resurfacing, he fidgeted with his prized Twizzlers and frantically gnawed on them.

“Make sure all her medical paperwork is taken care of and on file at the store. Keep this purely confidential-absolutely no one finds out about it. We want to make her feel as comfortable as possible. Since she doesn’t feel comfortable working upstairs with toys, keep her on the first floor, managing departments in that area. Everyone knows she doesn’t like working up there so they won’t suspect anything. If she has any other health concerns, needs an extra break, anything like that, we need to grant her that as well.”

“Keep it confidential? Chris, I have other staff and management to worry about here as well. Don’t you think they have the right to know about this?”

“If she wants to divulge that information, then that’s her concern and her concern only. Danielle always was a little rough around the edges, and if the staff found out, who knows how far the gossip would go? We just need to deal with this situation as rationally as possible.”

He’d been hit with shot after shot from the beginning. Wondering exactly how much he could take, he could almost certainly hear his father’s words in his head, chastising him. For all that was going well, there had to be something bad happen eventually.

“So am I fired now?” she asked as he entered the Assistant Manager’s office.

He took a seat next to her, gathering his thoughts.

“It’s not contagious you know. You won’t get it if I touch you.” “Thanks for the concern, but that wasn’t what I was thinking.”

He struggled to find something, anything decent to say. Just as he was about to find the words, the phone rang. “Yeah?”

It was Starscream on the line. “Sorry, but we have a problem.”

“Well handle it. I’m in the middle of something right now.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Well aside from feeling bloated right now and not getting any ketchup, I feel fine. Why is it that every time you go to McDonald’s you have to practically beg them for ketchup? Is there like a fucking shortage of-“

“Danielle.”

“It’s a bitch, what do you expect?” she said with more tears emerging.

“Does your family know?”

She laughed. “You mean the family who ran out on me years ago Hap? That family? No, I don’t think they ever cared about a little podunk, white trash weirdo like me. ‘Danielle, you’re nothing but a little podunk, white trash weirdo piece of shit,’ she said, imitating a man’s voice. “Yep, my dad was a regular fucking humanitarian, a real man of the year.”

“And your mother?”

He handed her a tissue. She dabbed at her eyes, leaving trails of mascara smearing.

“Mom died when I was sixteen. We were never really close. Never had any sisters or brothers. Was never really close to anyone in my family back home.”

“Where’s home?”

“Boise, Idaho. Yeah, one day I just said ‘fuck it’, packed my bags, and came on down to this wonderful land of Oz to be around people just like me. Aside from the flack I get in the store, nobody stares at me and points fingers in this city. They don’t mock you and come running with torches and pitchforks. Here, we’re all freaks and misfits...and that’s just fine with me.”

“How did you get it?”

She laughed. “Well, this little care package would come courtesy of my piece of shit ex-boyfriend. We moved down here together a few years ago, just looking to get away from home. Ain’t exactly like there’s much in Boise anyway.”

“And where is he now?”

“Mr. Wonderful ran off to Utah with some slut he was screwing behind my back. It wasn’t until about a month after he left that I got tested. That’s when I found out.”

Happy continued to struggle to find some answer, some solution that could help but found nothing. This truly was a situation he was a stranger to.

“You know what the kicker is? It’s the waiting, that inevitable ticking of the time clock...or time bomb depending on what your disposition is. Every single day, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...every single day you spend wondering when your number’s up. At least that’s what I keep thinking. You want to know what’s even worse?”

He shook his head.

“Regret. It’s the regret of not knowing what you could’ve done with your life. It’s the regret of not living up to your full potential on account of making bad choices. You start to think about all those things you wish you could’ve done...if you just hadn’t been so stupid and blind.”

“Like?”

“Well like traveling for one. Rome. London. Brazil. Any of those places would’ve been awesome to see.”

“You can still see those places. This doesn’t have to be a death sentence.”

“Doesn’t have to be so fucking hard either does it? You know what I’ve always wanted to do? This will probably make you laugh but don’t judge me. Every year in Jackson Square, these couples get together on Valentine’s Day and dance. A Jazz band plays for hours on end, and they just dance. I often wondered what it would be like to do that. Pretty silly don’t you think? Fat chance of that ever happening.”

The phone rang again. Happy just picked it up and slammed it back down.

“Danielle, I’m not going to pretend I understand what you’re going through, but you have to know that you have people here for you. I may not be the best option, but we’ll figure something out. Whatever you need, I’m here...and I’ll be praying for you.”

She laughed. “I don’t know if you noticed this Hap, but take a good look at me. I’m not exactly the most pious woman on the planet. I don’t even believe in God. No offense.”

“None taken. Well, I do believe in God, and if you don’t believe in Him, then at least believe in something.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

“Like yourself. You’re much stronger than you think and you can beat this.”

“What if I can’t?”

He rose from his seat.

“As your boss, I don’t allow quitters on my team. I expect you to not miss any appointments you have with your doctor. I expect you to take your meds as scheduled. I expect you to show up to work with a better attitude and help make this store as successful as I know it can be. Because if you quit on me, I’ll fire your ass on the spot before you even know what hit you. Is that clear?”

For the first time, a beautiful smile flashed across her face. Coupled with a sense of relief, more tears surfaced as Happy gave her a warm hug. At that moment, he felt something powerful and unexpected. The energy emanating from her was the first time since Candy that he’d hugged another woman. He hadn’t even hugged or kissed Delphine yet. This wasn’t a romantic urge though. It was a tender, sweet, and gentle embrace, tugging at Happy’s heartstrings much in the way a father would enjoy the embrace of his daughter. As much as she needed that reassuring hug, what Danielle didn’t know...was the fact that he needed it just as much, if not more.

The phone rang again. It was Starscream.

“Hap I’m sorry, but we’ve got a serious problem here.”

Happy burst out of the office onto the sales floor. “What is it this time?”

“It’s Barabbas. He’s in the restroom.”

“And that’s the emergency? That’s what you called me out here for?”

“Hap, he’s been in there for over an hour and we’ve got irate customers walking out. The last time somebody got pissed that they couldn’t use the restroom, they pissed on the sales floor instead.”

The remark seemed ridiculous at first, but then again, this was Bourbon St. Antics like that were pretty normal.

“Is he sick?”

“No, he’s drunk. The bouncer at the club called the store saying that he passed out on the balcony over there and they had to kick him out. He came here to use the restroom and he’s been in there ever since.”

Well, I’ll be damned, Happy thought to himself. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.

“Barabbas?” Happy called as he knocked on the restroom door.

There was no response. He knocked again.

“Barabbas? Come on dude, we got customers looking to get into the restroom. This is not cool.”

He knocked a third time. “Barabbas?”

Nothing more than an awful murmur was heard from inside.

“Alright, I’m opening the door. I better not see anything I’m not supposed to.”

He slowly opened the door, seeing something that he could have gone without seeing for the rest of his life. Firmly planted on the toilet seat was Barabbas. His pants pulled down around his ankles, and he sat motionless and staring off into space.

“Barabbas? What the hell dude? Barabbas!”

“Leave me alone Happy,” he mumbled. “I’m trying to pay for this lap dance.”

Oh hell no...

Even Happy had to laugh a bit. “Dude, you are not at the strip club right now. You’re at the store. We have customers who need to use this restroom.”

Barabbas slowly turned to him. He said no words, only rocking back and forth a bit before slamming his head up against the wall and staring off into space.

Oh fuck...

***

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART FOURTEEN...