PART 15: RUBY
February 2020, Melbourne
I've just woken up and I worked all weekend. My work weekend starts on Friday. Friday mornings I get up quite late, like 11 o'clock. Then I tan for a few hours. Because yeah like most strip clubs, or at least any of the strip clubs I've worked at, require you to have fake tan on. It’s a really bizarre thing because I never used to use it. I'd like never even considered tanning before I started working at strip clubs. Now, if there's a week I don't work, so I don't tan, I like can't look at my body. I feel really dysmorphic. It's like this bizarre thing that it's done to me.
But anyway, I tanned, watched some shows and did my nails and then my partner came home. He made me some dinner. He made me salmon because he's lovely. So yeah, we had dinner together, I did my makeup, and then at around 8:30, headed into work.
So, Friday night was white night, which is like a big event in the city of Melbourne. And so in the club, we all had to wear white on Friday night. And I felt like I was gonna get my period. So, I was just so anxious the whole night that I was gonna like bleed through white lingerie. Just not ideal. But anyway, I didn't. It was fine. But yeah, the night got started off to like a bumpy start for me.
At my club, I’m a showgirl. So, I do two shows. Any night that I do my show, I don't pay house fee, but you get rostered depending on whether you're doing a show or not. So, I've done a show every night I've worked for the last year and a half, essentially. And for some reason, on white night, I didn't get rostered to do a show. So, I had to pay the $120 house fee. I got to work not really expecting to pay that money, and then also not getting to do a show.
That's normally a really big confidence booster for me and my go-to hustle if I'm struggling is like, I’ll do my show and then I make money after that. So, I think the night Just got off to a rough start. I was just kind of down and my confidence had taken a bit of a hit. Like I still made okay money. It was only a couple of $100 under my target. But it was just such an exhausting night. I was there from like 9pm through till 6am and I had no long bookings in that time. They were all short bookings. So, it was just like constant hustling.
I called my partner at 6am and he came and picked me up. We sort of like to have a little debrief in the car every night after work , or, morning after work. We normally go and get Maccas and yeah.
I injured myself late last year. So, my quad, my glute and my hamstring on my right side is quite badly damaged. And, as a result, My QL and my lower back, and my ankle on that side, after like, you know, eight hours in seven-inch heels, start getting pretty painful too. So, I'm really fortunate that my partner is really good masseuse and he's happy to rub Voltaren on me and look after me really well. So yeah, anyway, that was my Friday night.
Saturday night was a lot better than Friday night. I had one of my favourite regulars come in. He booked me for an hour, which he normally does and he's just like, he's a really sweet guy. He is really nice to chat to he'll give me backrubs sometimes. He's just like, really respectful of boundaries and never oversteps boundaries, whether they’re emotional boundaries, or physical boundaries, and it's just, yeah… he's nice to be around.
I felt like I was really busy throughout Saturday, but honestly, it was last night and I don't actually remember, really any of them. But I do remember my last customer of the night. He booked me for like, maybe three hours… like two or three hours leading up till 6am and he wasn't really interested in getting a lap dance but like somehow I talked him into it.
And he’d just gotten married, I think it was a nurse. I think him and his partner were both nurses. And yeah, like, we just started chatting. I was talking to him about my partner, and he was telling me about his partner. And, you know, pretty quickly 10 minutes was up. And I was like, ‘Oh, do you want to stay longer? Like I'm having fun chatting’. Anyway, he ended up staying longer. And we stayed there for like, yeah, maybe two and a half hours. And it was just like, really, really nice. Like, it sounds weird to be like, ‘oh, he restored my faith in men’ because you know, obviously, he was married and in the strip club, but I don't really see that as a problem. But also, he's there, and he's just talking about his partner, and showing me photos from their wedding. It was just a really, really nice interaction.
I feel like often I have those interactions with men at work where, maybe it's not always a partner, but like, we're getting along really well and they're being really respectful of my job and my time. And then, the thing they'll normally do is be like, ‘Oh, so what are you doing after this? Like, do you want to come back to my hotel?’ And like, not because of the service or anything, I’d never service shame anyone, but more like, it's always at, like, 5am. And they're like, ‘So what are you doing after this?’ And it's like, “At 6am at like, 6:30am I'm going home and going to bed. Like I might eat some food. Maybe my partner will massage me. And then I'm gonna go to sleep.’
Like, I just always find it really funny. It's like, what do you think I'm doing? It's so early in the morning, like, unless you're inviting me out to brunch. Even then, I don't want to go to brunch. I wanna go to sleep. Anyway, the point is, this guy didn't do that, which is really nice. Um, but we ended up falling asleep and then it was like 6:30am so I got up and I went home, but yeah, like it was a really nice, chill end to my night.