by Croix, Ada
23
“How long does it take to get there?”
“It should be about an hour.”
Allie didn’t know why she asked. Apparently, everything took about an hour to get to in the Los Angeles area. And it wasn’t like knowing how much time they had left would make Kelsey apply her fake lashes any faster. All the training and recovery protocols Allie had been a party to, and it still looked like one of the most torturously annoying processes ever as far as she could tell.
In a search for patience, she reminded herself that it was her choice to wait and go with her roommate straight to the club. She could have jammed in with the bigger caravan chartered to take their group out on the town for Vince’s birthday. Because of Kelsey’s work hours it had been a given that they’d miss the dinner, but Allie wasn’t sure if she were ready to face Marc at a social gathering without a good friend by her side. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to him alone since the night Adam interrupted them. Maybe Allie had been deliberately avoiding a chance, afraid of what might happen.
Unlike the house party, Allie let Kelsey convince her to get properly dressed up into a bindingly tight scrap of stretchy dress. Violet would be proud of her shoes but Allie was worried she might turn an ankle. Her hair smelled like the product her roommate had helped her pick out and while she didn’t have fake lashes, she did finish off her makeup with extra length mascara.
In truth, it hadn’t taken much convincing. The voice that she worked so hard to ignore yearned for an excuse to touch him again. To kiss him again. Allie felt silly for wanting it so much, when surely it meant so little to him. How many clubs had he been to over the years, how many girls eagerly waiting for his hands to swarm over their bodies and his lips to claim theirs? The way his touch had slid over her as they stood in his kitchen …
“Allie.” It didn’t sound like the first time Kelsey had said her name, and yet it was the first time Allie heard her. She blushed as she blinked out of her daydreaming. “Are you ready?” Kelsey asked as if Allie was the one that had been holding them up for the last half hour.
“Yes.” Allie slipped off Kelsey’s bed to the unfamiliar wobble of her feet. “My clutch is by the front door. Do you think we’re going to have any trouble getting in, if we’re late?”
“Oh honey.” Kelsey wiggled her way across the room to pluck up her bag from the bed, the exposed squeeze of her boobs rippling. “The only trouble is the kind we’ll be bringing.” She winked at Allie and swept towards the door. “Besides, all we have to do is flash that message I have from Blake’s number and they’ll let us in with a quickness.”
It did take them about an hour before they reached their exit. From the freeway it was hard for Allie to tell where they were going since there were multiple sky-scraping clusters of buildings which made up the disconnected centers of Los Angeles. But this was definitely Hollywood, even if it wasn’t quite as glamorous as she might have imagined. When the car turned onto traffic-dense surface streets she could see pink stars marching along grimy sidewalks in the dark.
Allie let Kelsey handle the Uber with her app. The driver pulled up to the curb beside a tall building where men who looked like linebackers tended ropes and guarded a street-level door. A shoulder-packed mass of hopeful clubgoers stretched back farther than Allie could see to one side while the guest-list line took up half the block in the other direction. Kelsey laced her fingers through Allie’s and headed straight for the entrance.
“Hi.” Kelsey beamed at the dour-faced doorman as she walked up, ignoring the death stares from the impacted lines. “We’re with Blake Ellsley. We should be on his list?” She held up her phone so that the man could lean over and see.
He gave a single nod, watching the street instead of them as he reached back to unhook the rope. “Please have your IDs out ladies.” He lifted a hand to squeeze the button of the radio snapped to his shoulder. “Two arriving for the Ellsley party.”
Allie paused, looking up to him in uncertainty of what they were supposed to do as she fumbled with her free hand to unsnap her clutch.
Kelsey was more familiar with the procedure for entry. The pull of her hand dragged Allie along towards the box office by the door. Standing beside the window was a man who looked like he had spent longer on his hair than Allie had on hers.
“Good evening, ladies.” He flashed a snake smile when they walked up. “If you’ll just check in with Rhonda, I have someone coming down to escort you to your table.”
“Good evening,” Kelsey chimed happily back. She slid her ID over to the woman behind the counter. Rhonda clicked a few buttons on her computer with one hand as she got out a pair of silver wristbands with the other.
“If I may have your wrists please?”
Allie felt a weird sense of déjà vu as she mimicked Kelsey, showing her ID and offering her arm so that she could be banded. Light sparkled from the plastic strip when she slid the cuff of it against her skin.
“Are we ready?” Fancy hair guy was beckoning them onward towards the bump of music and flickering strobe light. “This is Tina,” he indicated the cocktail waitress who had appeared. She dipped her head as she smiled. “She’ll show you to your party and can help you with anything you need. I am Stephan, and will do likewise. I hope you enjoy your evening.”
“Thank you,” Allie echoed Kelsey as the two of them left the lobby behind to follow the girl whose work uniform seemed to be little more than lingerie. There were already people milling on the stairs, and then they were swallowed into the belly of the club.
24
Allie’s pulse was in her throat and she could hardly hear herself think as they squeezed their way past the crowd. The press of bodies was not much deterred by the flashlight Tina wielded to help guide their way through the club. Tables dotted the edges of the floor, full of people who lounged as spectators or swayed with the music. A DJ booth was at the back wall where a wash of abstract images projected on a huge screen. Allie hadn’t yet had a drink but already her vision swam. She tucked her arms protectively up against her chest as she stumbled after Kelsey and the cocktail waitress, shaking her head with an uncomfortable smile when hands reached towards her and voices offered to buy her a drink.
It was already overwhelming, and then they were led up out of the sea of bodies to a balcony overlooking it all.
“They made it!” Familiar faces smiled and voices cheered.
“The party can start now!” Kelsey proclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air and striking a pose.
Laughter ricocheted around the group which quite obviously had the loose edges of well-progressed festivities. Candace batted Troy’s hands away from their possession of her ass so she could prance up and kiss Kelsey on the cheek.
“You have perfect timing, they just brought another bottle of champagne!”
“Well fill me up,” Kelsey said eagerly.
Kelsey swept forward to collect the first glass that their waitress Tina had started to pour out for the group. Candace took Allie’s hand with a friendly squeeze, taking Kelsey’s place and pulling her into the circle. “You look like you could use a drink.”
“Maybe a little one,” Allie smiled self-conscious and held up a pinching measure of her fingers.
There were no little ones. Tina topped off the flutes with a strawberry slice wedged onto each rim. It was too pretty for Allie to refuse when it was handed to her.
“To the guys going for gold,” Kelsey proposed once all the girls had their glasses.
“Going for gold,” they echoed. The rims of their glasses chimed together in a slosh of bubbles before they took sips that weren’t exactly dainty.
Allie swiped a dribble off her chin with a discreet knuckle while she cast a glance around the couches. She saw most of the guys she knew, as well as a number of girls that had been at Blake’s house party. Missing was the one towering figure she most hoped to find.
Kelsey interrupted Allie’s searching with a hook of elbows. “Come see the view with m
e.”
“This is amazing,” Allie shouted over the music as they tottered towards the balcony railing. She leaned over while she took more nervous sips of champagne, hoping it would obliterate her anxiety. Never before had she witnessed such a spectacle. The sheer number of people and the displays of fashion and flesh were amazing.
So much to see, but what she was really looking for was Marc.
Gradually the champagne worked into her system. Allie was ready to dance when Kelsey started scream-singing over their favorite song as the DJ began to mix its opening beat into his set. Candace dragged Troy over so she could join them. They bounced up and down in their ridiculous heels, colliding together as they crooned along into the cacophony of the club.
“You can take your shoes off and go on the couches,” Tina the waitress encouraged them as she came by to top off their champagne.
Allie giggled and shook her head at the preposterousness of it all.
“Come on, Allie.” Kelsey beckoned her to join them on the couch. “Loosen up!”
Blake was sitting on Kelsey’s intended dance floor, relaxed like a king and watching them while he worked slowly through something in a highball glass. He got up when they came to claim the cushions. Like a perfect gentleman, he even offered a hand to help them step up.
“Thank you,” Allie said as she balanced off his palm.
“My pleasure.”
Allie ran her hand down the shortness of her skirt, but by the time the next song came on she forgot to be self-conscious. Even Candace’s perfect hair and makeup was getting smudged from the happy gleam of their exertions. When Tina came through again to brandish the liquor bottles, Allie begged off in favor of a glass of water. She eased herself down to sit on a quieter leg of the couch while she drank it, fanning at her face as Kelsey and Candace danced on.
Blake had been talking to Troy, but he scooted over to lay his arm along the cushion behind Allie’s shoulders so he could lean in and speak to her. “Are you having fun?”
Allie hadn’t been so near to him outside of work since she ran away from his house. Her skin tingled, feeling too exposed. She left off sucking down her water from the little black straw to nod politely. “I’ve never been anywhere like this. Thank you for inviting us.”
Blake shrugged like it was nothing. To him, maybe it was just another day. “It’s good company that makes the evening.”
Allie wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. She dropped her gaze down to her knees with an uncertain smile. “It is good company.” It wasn’t like she hated Blake. He just wasn’t who she had been excited to see. When she lifted her chin, she sent another scan around the VIP balcony before looking back to her host. “Did some people leave? I thought … more people came with you.”
Blake hummed knowingly and scanned his view over the cluster of tables they’d claimed. “It looks like Simon is back. Have you met him? He used to be the team captain. Some of the older guys got into it before you arrived. Digging up ancient history. I thought Natalie was about to break a bottle to use as a weapon. I haven’t been informed of a police call by any of the staff, so I suppose it’s all been sorted.” He seemed content to dismiss it all with another sip of his drink.
Allie felt her stomach sink. Her head was spinning, fizzy with champagne and thick with the scents of cologne and sweat and the funny sweetness of the fog machine. If Marc’s ex was mad, then it surely meant that he was involved. She remembered how it looked when Natalie’s legs wrapped around him on the beach like he’d held her a thousand times.
She was determined to put it out of her mind. She should probably try to put Marc out of her mind altogether. Allie sucked her straw until it dragged air at the bottom of her glass.
“Ready for something else?”
She blinked owlishly at Blake.
“Would you like more champagne?” he clarified.
“Oh.” Allie stared at her set-aside flute. It rested on the center tray along with the bounty of bottles and dishes of garnishes. “Maybe a little. Mostly, I’d like strawberries,” she admitted with a tentative grin.
“Champagne.” Blake beamed at her readily and scooted forward on the cushion. His repositioning dropped the wrap of his arm down around her hips. “Extra strawberries.” He used the tongs to practically fill her glass with the cheery red slivers, splashing champagne over the top.
Allie sat frozen, unsure whether or not she should ask him to stop touching her. He made it seem so comfortably natural for him to sit wrapped around her. Like they were a part of some glamorous magazine advertisement. He offered the flute’s stem into her fingers.
She smiled thankfully but kept her knees pressed self-consciously together. The strawberries bumped her nose when she took a sip. Allie started to fish them out with her fingers as daintily as she could.
Blake watched her for a second before picking up his own drink again. “Do you know yet if you’ll be traveling with us?”
“To the tournament?” Allie asked around a cleaning suck of her finger.
“The one in April,” Blake confirmed with a nod. “None of us know yet if we’ll be going to Rio,” he added with a skewed smile.
Allie smiled back and crawled her fingers into her flute for another sliver of fruit. “I think Everett and Lindsey are still deciding whether they need me. That, and whether a travel stipend could be applied from my internship.”
Blake made a noise that sounded a little distracted. His gaze was bouncing from her lips to her fingers. “Can I have one?”
Allie paused as she collected a strawberry between her fingertips.
He must have seen the wariness cloud into her eyes. The flash of his billion-dollar smile didn’t exactly reassure her. “Do I make you nervous?” Blake wondered as he released her hip to brush his hand at her hair. He eased the cascade back from its fall across her neck.
She shook her head. Her deep breath didn’t really settle the effervescence of her stomach much at all. Allie made herself meet the impossible blue of his eyes. “I’m not a good luck charm.” She was proud of how matter of fact she sounded.
Blake blinked. It looked a little like surprise, but he didn’t seem particularly deterred. He did sit back. The shift let him flick a quirked look up towards where Kelsey was still dancing, like he could guess where she’d heard the rumor. “Are you cursed or something?” he asked in jest.
“Maybe.” Allie grinned out her nerves. “I’m not lucky like you.” She only had to take another look at the club to be sure of that fact. For some reason, Blake’s smile seemed to have gone a little funny. She fought her instinct to apologize by focusing on her most logical of arguments. “I need this job. I can’t risk it to be part of your game.” She tried not to think about how hypocritical it felt to say after the night in Marc’s kitchen.
“You worry too much,” Blake said. That reminded her of Marc, too.
“I worry a lot,” Allie agreed with a laugh.
“Don’t overthink it,” Blake recommended. “Have a little more champagne, a little dancing. Just focus on having a good time tonight.”
Allie looked at him skeptically, pretty sure her idea of a good time stopped short of what he might be thinking. “All right,” she agreed after a moment’s consideration. “But I think first I’m going to powder my nose.”
“As long as you’re not running away from me again.” Blake was already relaxing his hold.
Allie paused. She didn’t want to encourage him, but it wasn’t like there was anywhere for her to go. “I’ll be back.” Marc might not be there, but when she glanced at the group she saw the friends she’d made in the past weeks. “It’s not like I’m going to wander out into Los Angeles on my own.”
Blake chuckled at her logic and kicked back against the cushion. Allie stepped over his legs to get out, trying out a friendly tap of fingers at his knee as she stepped over. She didn’t know what to think of herself. Was she having fun? Or was she just putting a band-aid over something that hurt?
Before she could finish putting her shoes on and make her way to the restroom available on their balcony, Allie saw Candace and Troy duck in together. She stuttered to a stand-still, looking at the door indecisively. That’s when Kelsey pounced on her, claiming Allie with a link of arms that may have been as much about catching her swaying balance as it was an unthinking gesture of friendship. “There’s another one downstairs.” Her roommate tugged her towards the end of the balcony where a bouncer was guarding the entrance.
“We’ll be back in a bit,” Kelsey told the man while they scampered past in a precariousness of heels.
“Will we be able to get back in?” Allie asked the bouncer.
“Do you have a wrist band?”
Allie lifted her arm so the light would catch in silver spangles.
“Show us that and we’ll let you through,” the bouncer informed her.
Kelsey was already dragging her down the stairs. “Come on Allie, I want to find some guys who aren’t on the team with my brother.”
“Thanks,” Allie said with a grin to the bouncer before she clattered down to the main floor with her roommate.
25
It may have been faster to wait for Troy and Candace to come out of the restroom upstairs. There was a line once Allie got into the ladies’ room with its funky mosaic tile and piped-in music. Kelsey decided that she just had to go out and dance to the next song, but she promised she would be right outside and left Allie alone to wait.
Allie kept her focus aimed down at her toes and watched all the stilettos prance by. She felt like she was in the middle of a music video. A year ago she would never have imagined that she’d be standing in a Hollywood club worrying more about men whose standard uniforms were speedos than her MCAT score.