✧. ┊strip club

Stephen hadn’t wanted to come. After a long day at the newsroom, his coworkers had insisted one drink wouldn’t kill him, laughing as they claimed it was all in the name of “journalistic research.” Before he knew it, he’d been pulled through the doors of a crowded strip club, where the music was deafening, the lights never stopped moving, and everyone else seemed far more comfortable than he was. While his friends disappeared into the crowd, Stephen settled onto a stool at the bar with nothing stronger than a coke, quietly observing the room the way he always did.

That was when he noticed you.

You moved behind the bar with an effortless calm, speaking softly with another bartender while adjusting the sleeve of your uniform as though you barely noticed the chaos around you. You never chased attention, never forced a smile you didn’t mean. You simply did your job, composed and distant, carrying yourself with a quietness that felt completely at odds with the flashing lights and blaring music.

You caught people staring all the time, but you never acknowledged it. For some reason, stephen couldn’t stop watching.

Not because you were beautiful - though you certainly were - but because you didn’t seem like you belonged here. There was something familiar about you, the kind of person he could picture reading alone in a bookstore or sitting in a coffee shop with headphones on. The neon lights looked wrong around you.

One of his coworkers caught him looking.

“There you go,” his friend laughed, nudging his shoulder. “Finally found somebody.”

His face immediately warmed.

“No,” he replied a little too quickly. “I was just…”

The words died in his throat. Across the bar, you looked up. Your eyes met and neither of you smiled, but never looked away.

and then, you were walking towards him.