QJ Productions

When my fiancé and I graduated from college, times were tough. There wasn't a single employer that was hiring. For a while I waited tables as we struggled to pay basic bills. After putting in hundreds of applications, I finally received an invitation for an interview from a company called QJ Productions.

I had never heard of this company before so prior to the interview I did some research. The first startling thing I discovered was that QJ Productions was a company that was involved in the porn industry and maintained several pornographic websites. Fearing I may have fell for some sort of scam, I called the person who I set the interview with and she assured me that the position they were looking to fill was a business management related position and although the company was involved in pornography, the job would in no way relate to filming / creating pornography. She said that QJ Productions serves as a middle man and does not create its own content.

When I was in college, I never would have even considered working for anything related to the pornography industry. I have always considered myself a feminist and I felt that pornography was disgusting and degrading to women. However, the reality was that I badly needed work and this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

I discussed the position with my fiancé. He was concerned that it was a scam and they would try to pressure me into appearing in films. I had to explain to him that it was a strictly business position. After I explained this to him and showed him the job description, he was supportive but warned me to watch out for "anything creepy" during the interview.

On the day of the interview, I dressed in my most formal clothing and drove to the address I was provided. As I gripped the steering wheel and navigated through traffic, I noticed my hands were trembling slightly. I was nervous and did not know what to expect. When I arrived at the address, I was pleasantly surprised to see the place that I was interviewing at was a nice glass office building. I turned off the engine to the car, took a deep breath, and headed for the entrance.

I walked inside and looked around. The office was pristine and very clean looking. There were doors leading to the left and right and a c-shaped desk manned by a young woman working as a receptionist. I approached her slowly and in a tone of voice as polite as I could muster, I reached out to her, "Good morning, I am here for the 10:00 interview."

The young women looked at me with a beaming smile that showed confidence. "Hello, I'm Becky," she said. "You must be Judith. Ms. Belcher will be right with you." She directed my attention to two black leather couches across from her desk.

I sat down and waited nervously. Eventually I was directed to an officer to my right. When I opened the door and stepped inside I was surprised to see such a large, swanky office. There was artwork all over the office of the avant garde variety and the office was lush with expensive looking plants. As alluring as the décor was, it was ultimately overshadowed by the large and, once again, pristine looking desk in the center of the room. Behind the desk stood an attractive older woman in a yellow designed suit with platinum blond hair.

"You must be Judith," the woman said as she walked from behind her desk and extended her hand in my direction. "My name is Charlotte Belcher and I am the owner of QJ Productions. I'm looking forward to interviewing you," Ms. Belcher spoke authoritatively as she looked me over.

"Hello," I said as I took a hold of her hand and shook it. I noticed her grip was very firm and confident. "You have such a nice office. I am very excited about this opportunity..."

"Have a seat," Ms. Belcher cut me off as she went back and sat down at her own desk. "I am surprised such a young attractive girl such as yourself is interested in working for my company."

I could feel a lump form in the back of my throat. "Well," I said. "Honestly, I never expected to work somewhere involved in... uhm... adult entertainment."

Ms. Belcher nodded her head at me. "When I first started out, the only women I know who worked in this industry were the performers," Ms. Belcher explained. "Now don't get me wrong, I know some adult actresses that are great business women and who are very wealthy, but I could never imagine exposing myself in a dirty movie for the pleasure of a bunch of skeezy men. That being said, starting this company and leading it as a strong woman, I have done very well for myself and shown that women can be just as a competent on the business side of things, perhaps even superior to men."

"I can tell you have done well... just by looking at your office," I responded respectfully. "I am new to this whole... adult thing but I have studied business and I... would certainly appreciate the chance to learn from someone experienced..."

"I like that you are eager to learn," Ms. Belcher responded warmly. "And I will tell you that what is most important in this position is business skills. You will at times need to be a saleswoman. We do not film anything ourselves. I have always had little interest in being involved in the production side of things. So everything we sell to our customers, we buy from someone else. This is a clean, professional position although we do sell pornography so you can't be too squeamish about these sorts of things. I also saw on your resume that you have experience with computers which is one of the reasons I chose you for an interview."

"I do have some experience working IT..." I explained. "I know how to maintain a website, I did that for my school."

"Excellent," Ms. Belcher stated enthusiastically. "One more thing," she said. "As I have proven, it is absolutely possible for a woman to succeed and even prosper in this industry. But there are parts of this industry that still operate like an old boy's club and there are men out there who will try to push you around. If you listen to what I say and call people out whenever they cross the line, you will be fine. I am just warning you; you will need to grow some thick skin. If you are smart, you can use this to your advantage."

"You seem to know a whole lot Ms. Belcher," I responded as I looked into her eyes with great interest. My voice was tinged with a hint of emotion as I felt I was finally close to officially being offered a real job.

"By the way dear," Ms. Belcher began. "Are you married?"

"Well," I stammered. "I am engaged to be married, so... sort of. I mean, I have a fiancé named Kyle."

"Oh," Ms. Belcher responded with a hint of disappointment in her voice. "You seemed like the type of young women who would not be tied down by a man. Well, I expect you will be spending a lot of hours here working, sometimes on the weekend so I hope that will not be a problem."

"Oh no," I said emphatically. "I am very eager to start my career, Ms. Belcher. Whatever you need, I will do it."

"Fantastic," Ms. Belcher responded. "You start tomorrow."

The next day I officially started working for QJ Productions. For the first few months, Ms. Belcher provided me a lot of smaller projects to work on. There were a few other girls employed at the office with the same job title as me but it seems like we all ended up working various miscellaneous projects. The hours were long but I was happy to finally have a paycheck. Still, I wasn't living as comfortably as I would have liked. My fiancé still was struggling to find work and we both had school debts to pay. Things did not improve until I received my first big break.

It had been a few months since I started working at QJ Productions and I was sitting at my neatly organized cubicle. I was reading emails when my office phone rang. When I picked up the receiver, I heard Ms. Belcher's voice inviting me into her office. I put the phone down and promptly walked down the hall and into the office I had interviewed at.

"Good morning Judith, my you look lovely today," Ms. Belcher spoke to me as she admired me with her eyes. I was dressed in a formal outfit befitting a professional, conservatively dressed woman. I had been trying to dress more and more like Ms. Belcher as she had become somewhat of a mentor to me. It was not easy to do on a shoe string budget.

"Thank you," I uttered while my cheeks blushed a light shade of pink. "You're always well dressed, Ms. Belcher."

"Why thank you dear," Ms. Belcher responded. "I called you in here today to give you an opportunity to help with a deal that I will believe make me quite a bit of money. If you can succeed in this endeavor, you will be compensated above and beyond what I am paying you now."

"Wow," I said. "I have only been here a few months. I am surprised you would ask me. I promise Ms. Belcher, I will not let you down!"

Ms. Belcher smiled at me and spoke further, "You're so enthusiastic. That is why I hired you. Anyways, this is a tricky project, are you sure you can handle it?"

"Yes, please, leave it to me," I said desperately. I truly was eager to please her.

"Ok," Ms. Belcher began. "A man I have done business with before, his name is Maxwell Morgan. In the past, I have distributed his product and made quite a bit of money for the both of us. He is good at what he does; one of the most experienced there is. I need for you to setup a business deal between us. We will make a lot of money if we can get him to sign a favorable contract with us. It is guaranteed money, or at least could be."

"Is that all?" I asked. "Our websites are beautifully designed and run flawlessly. We get so many new visitors each month; I am sure I can convince him that we are the best company..."

"It's not that simple," Ms. Belcher quickly interrupted me. "Max, like many in this industry, has... an abrasive personality. He is an attractive man but one with many vices. In order to get him to sign anything, he will expect us to show him a good time. I recommend you get him drunk and make sure he is properly... ahem... stimulated. I trust you to set this up. I will be there to help make the sale but you will responsible for everything else. Can I trust you with this?"

"I will do everything that can be done to make this deal go through," I said as I approached Ms. Belcher. I extended my hand and gently touched her arm. "Don't worry, you can trust me."

"I always knew you could," Ms. Belcher said as she smiled at me. "Here," Ms. Belcher spoke as she opened up one of the drawers behind her desk. She removed a wad of bills tied together with a red rubber band and handed it to me. "This is your budget and you will have to make it work."

"Thank you, Ms. Belcher," I said sincerely. "I will work on this right away!"

True to my word, I right away started to try to plan some sort of business party. I was immediately frustrated though. My first thought was to arrange something at a strip club but after calling every club in town I realized that Ms. Belcher had not given nearly enough money to pay for something like that. I ended up staying up late that night, slumped over the computer at my home. That was until I was suddenly interrupted by my fiancé.

"Honey, it's late," Kyle complained to me. "Aren't you going to come to bed?" he asked in a concerned voice.

"Damnit Kyle," I responded angrily. "Can't you see I am trying to work? I am supposed to setup this business meeting but Ms. Belcher did not give me nearly enough money to pay for it. When you factor in the drinks, the venue, the strippers..."

"Wait, you said strippers?" Kyle responded in a clearly amused tone. "That sounds like my kind of meeting. Why don't you have it at the house?"

"Quit joking," I snapped back at him quickly before ponding what he said. I then stopped and thought about it for a second. If I used the money that Ms. Belcher provided me to hire some strippers, buy drinks, and just had the meeting over at our place; I could make this work. "You're a genius, Kyle!" I said excitedly. "That would work, we just do the meeting here!"

Kyle scratched his head in confusion. "I was just kidding," he remarked. "But I guess if you are going to hire a bunch of strippers to dance at our place... it's not like I am going to object!"

From that point on, I made all the arrangements to do the business meeting at our place. I looked up several businesses that advertised "escorts" and I hired a few from the one that was the least sleazy sounding. I bought alcohol and ordered some hors d'oeuvres. Everything was coming together perfectly.

Finally the night of the business meeting arrived. The first person to arrive was Ms. Belcher. I greeted her at our front door. "Hello, Ms. Belcher," I said to her. She was wearing a beautiful, expensive blue dress. I was glad I had opted for a yellow dress myself. "You look so pretty, Ms. Belcher."

"Thank you my dear," Ms. Belcher said as she stepped into our home. She immediately caught the gaze of my fiancé, Kyle. "You must be Kyle. Judith has told me so much about you. It is nice to finally meet you." Ms. Belcher extended her hand toward Kyle.

"Wow," Kyle remarked as he gently took a hold of Ms. Belcher's hand. "Judith never told me she worked for such an elegant woman."

Ms. Belcher laughed. "Ahh, now I can see why she keeps you around!" she joked.

I heard a knock on the door and so I went and opened it up. Standing there were two scantily dressed busty women who I could only assume were the strippers I had hired. "Uhm, hello," I remarked.

"Hi," she responded curtly. "We still need to get ready. Do you like have a bathroom nearby we could use?"

"Uh, that way..." I said pointing to the bathroom which was down the hall. As the two busty women walked by I complained, "Ugh.. I told them to be discrete when they showed up. I hope none of our neighbors saw that!"

"How dreadful," Ms. Belcher commented. "This is why I would never hold one of these meetings at my own home. You must be so embarrassed. If I were you; I would make sure you remind the rest of the entertainment to make sure you do not create a scene."

"I only hired two of the... uhm... dancers," I responded. "That is enough right? I mean, that should be plenty."

Ms. Belcher looked at me incredulously. "Well, that is all good and fine but you did bring a male entertainer, did you not?" Ms. Belcher asked, her voice overwrought with concern.

"A male entertainer?" I asked aloud. "You mean... a male stripper? I didn't think..."

"Oh my god," Ms. Belcher gasped. "Those bimbos doing god knows what in your bathroom right now might be good enough for the riff raff but Max... he prefers the company of other men!"

"I didn't know!" I insisted. "You never told me that!"

"I would expect a liberal woman such as yourself not to make these sorts of assumptions," Ms. Belcher chided me. "Even cursory research would have shown you that Max prefers men to women. And in this day and age for you to just assume, it's so... so... heteronormative of you. I am disappointed."

"Well," I said, "Maybe I can get someone to come short notice. Just let me..."

"Nonsense!" Ms. Belcher interrupted me in a booming voice. "He is set to arrive in a half hour. It cannot be done!" Ms. Belcher looked around the room frantically. "Aha! You there!" Ms. Belcher pointed to my fiancé, Kyle. "You're an attractive young man... very boyish and slender. You will be our male dancer."

"Me?" Kyle said shocked. "I don't know how to dance. I have never done that before..."

"I am not sure that Kyle is really cut out for this thing," I interjected. "I think it'll be pretty obvious he doesn't know what he's doing..."

"Judith told me you're a theater major; I am asking for you to give a performance," Ms. Belcher argued with him. "You don't have to strip or put on a show. Just give him a lapdance. He will be drunk and will not notice or care if your performance is amateur."

"But..." Kyle objected. "You really want me to dance... for another man? If it was a woman ok but... this is strange."

"Look," Ms. Belcher began. "Max might be a perverted man but he is not some sort of ghoul. He knows you can't abuse the dancers. I will pay you $500 if this deal is negotiated on our terms. Now go and look at some videos on the internet and practice. I will get you in a few hours from now."

Kyle looked over at me, his jaw open wide.

"Kyle, just do this," I pleaded with him. "It's just for one night. We really need this deal to go well... both of us."

Kyle nodded his head slowly, almost in shock. He got up and turned his back to us and retreated into the bedroom.

"Don't worry about him, dear," Ms. Belcher remarked to me. "I forgot to mention it earlier but that dress looks exquisite on you. Now, remember what we discussed earlier. Do not discuss business until later in to the night. In fact, I should be the one who brings it up when the time is right. Yes, wait for me to mention it. Make sure Max and his associates are taken care of while they are here. At the same time, especially after they've been drinking, don't let Max's associates step out of line with you. You hired the strippers for a reason. There is no reason they should be touching you or making a pass at you."

"I'll be careful, Ms. Belcher," I responded sincerely. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there are a few other loose ends I need to attend to."

I finished my preparations for the meeting and not long afterwards; our guests arrived. Maxwell Morgan and three of his business associates arrived together. The men were all well-dressed in suits. With the exception of one of the men who was mostly quiet, they struck me as the obnoxious/overly arrogant type. This did not shock me as it was what Ms. Belcher had warned me about. After learning about Maxwell Morgan's sexuality a half hour ago, I did not know particularly what to expect about him. He ended up living up to my prior expectation: he was an older, tall, and handsome, and was very masculine and a smooth talker.

I served the men wine and could hardly keep up with how quickly they would finish what they had. The men mostly talked to each other. Their conversations were getting louder the more they drank. Occasionally Ms. Belcher would enter the conversation and bring up some story about a previous time they had worked together. Maxwell Morgan was clearly the leader of the bunch. He was louder and more vulgar than the other men.

A few hours into the night, I found myself in the kitchen opening up a fresh bottle of wine. Suddenly, I felt a hand gently grip my shoulder. I turned around and saw Ms. Belcher standing behind me.

"Make sure you have some yourself, dear," Ms. Belcher spoke to me as she grabbed the bottle of wine from my hand. She poured two glasses of wine and handed one of them to me. "Here, take this and drink with me. It's not all about the men. Us beautiful women must have some fun together as well."

"Thank you, Ms. Belcher," I said as my face blushed red. I took the glass of wine and raised to my lips and drank in unison with her. "Do you think everything is going well?"

"Oh, I think things are fantastic," Ms. Belcher responded emphatically as he drank her wine. "They're loosened up at this point. Serve them their drinks and I will get the entertainers. We give them all a lap dance and then get them to sign the contract." Ms. Belcher walked out of the kitchen and towards our bedroom where my fiancé was at.

I was impressed at just how devious Ms. Belcher could be. She was very much a proud feminist and it exuded from her but she had co-opted the old, male way of doing business. She was very much a contradiction; on one hand a self-avowed feminist, on the other a distributor of pornography. At the same time, I was worried about Kyle. If he got angry or choked during the meeting; it could ruin everything.

I poured our guests more wine and brought it out to them. Maxwell Morgan sat by himself in an armchair while the three other men sat side by side on a leather couch.