by Sally Laces
Trevor’s red face turned nearly white. “First names will work. Harrow.”
“Great. So, we heading up to our table?”
“That’s just the thing, Mister - Harrow. We seem to have forgotten to book one…”
Trevor glanced back at Amanda, whose lower lip quivered with fear. I’d seen a similar look the night before, with a different employee. At Friday’s dinner an admin from Public Relations had ordered a white wine instead of my preferred red. The VP laughed it off at the time and ensured me she’d be fired.
Not everything has to be perfect all the time, I’d insisted. I made sure she maintained her positions, reminding the department head that continuity was important during a merger. After we got the bill, I thanked her for the drink - the finest Riesling I’d ever tasted. Sometimes the unexpected is better than what we thought we wanted.
“I appreciate you putting our names on the list, Amanda,” I said over the din of the bass track. “Oh, and thanks for letting me book the table.”
This was a little white lie. Amanda had no idea I’d taken the liberty of buying us a table for the night. A smart girl, she picked up on my ruse immediately. “Of course Harrow!” She said, relief evident in her voice.
“Which one’s ours?” Asked Trevor suspiciously.
I pointed to the upper deck. Trent actually gasped - a humorous sound coming from a man standing about 6’6.
“I hear the VIP rooms are just lovely this time of year.”
Chapter 3
CHRISTINA
“VIP!” Ella was near to hyperventilating as she stared at the gold-plated sign on the door. “Chris, we cannot do this.”
“No shit we can’t,” I grumbled.
“Oh thank God,” she said, laughing and exhaling at the same time.
“The door is locked. We need to find a way in.”
Ella groaned, her eyes darting up and down the narrow hallway. There were three ebony leather doors before us and a black wall behind, the ladder we ascended in the far corner of the dead-end hall.
“I could kick it down,” offered Andrew, who couldn’t kick down a screen door if he used both feet.
“Very nice of you to offer, Andy, but it’s double-bolted. Plus this model has an auto-alarm if the bolts are tampered with.”
“How do you know all that?” Asked Ella.
The name Inverness was engraved on the front of the door handle. My last name, and the name of the company my great-grandfather founded. Locks were our first manufactured product, and door locks - for hotels, apartments, and apparently club VIP rooms - were a major sub-market. Nowadays we made everything from chairs to TVs, however locks were the one thing my whole family made sure I knew inside and out. For tradition, as most things in Femnos are.
“Um, I broke into one of these before.” A lie. Inverness locks are unbreakable. My two friends knew that, although they probably thought it was just advertising hype.
“Wow. You’re so cool, Chris.”
I squinted up at Andrew, trying to read his expression in the darkness. Was he flirting with me? He knew I was a guy, but his voice had that complimentary tone men take when they’re trying to get into a girl’s panties.
“Uh, yeah,” I murmured, sinking deeper into my crouch as I ran my hands over the electronic lock built into the silver door handle.
“You guys didn’t know this was up here, right?”
“Nope. Nobody told me Amber’s had a second floor.” Ella glanced around the hall. “This seems like a storage area. I bet they built this really recently - and quickly. Creatio ex nihilo right?”
I groaned a bit. Latin, Femnos’ ancient language, was pounded into our heads from Kindergarten onward. Most people weren’t completely fluent in the language, but the more phrases you knew, the more ‘Femnos’ you were. Like ‘creatio ex nihilo,’ or ‘creation out of nothing.’ Not one of my favorites, but Ella had made a good point. This VIP area came out of nowhere.
“We really shouldn’t be up here,” added Ella.
“Aw, C’mon Els. Don’t you remember what they used to say? Fortes Fortuna adjuvant.”
Ella quirked her lips at me when I stood up and smiled at her.
“Fortune favors the bold!” Boomed Andrew.
“Correct! And we’re nothing if not bold.”
I turned back to the lock. There had to be some way inside.
Part of me wanted to just try random numbers on the keypad and leave our fate to chance. I stared at those opaque glass buttons, willing them to speak.
Then I smiled and punched in the code.
The door beeped happily and unlocked, letting us inside the private room.
“How did you…”
I turned the handle and pushed the door wide open.
“Looks like God was willing - deo volente, right Ms. Lawyer?”
Ella snorted at me with a smarmy grin before storming inside. I let Andrew follow in afterward before entering on my own.
“Do you guys see the light switch? Oh!”
Ella raised her hands to her face when the lights turned on automatically. The room had sort of an aqua theme, and the bulbs were cerulean blue. Sky blue couches were arranged in a corner of the room, brand new and facing each other. A wet bar with unopened bottles and glimmering glasses stood by the door. Even the ebony bar top looked like it hadn’t been used.
Everything was brand new, including the lock. Whoever had set up the VIP section had neglected to reset the code from its factory preset, despite the numerous warnings on the instruction booklet and front of the box. A very common error that only someone in the company would remember.
Sometimes, it paid to be the heir.
“This place is… Fancy.”
“Look at the floor! It’s like a fishbowl!”
Andrew was right, in a way. The floor below us was made of glass. We could see all the bobbing heads and waving arms of the patrons down below. The regular people who couldn’t get up into VIP.
“Kinda creepy. They don’t even know we’re here.”
I felt my heart beat a bit faster. What was it about having secrets that made me so excited?
“C’mon. Let’s get a drink.”
“Alright, one drink,” Ella relented. “I have to use the bathroom first.” The door to the WC sat half-open, the aquamarine walls inviting around a porcelain toilet and stainless steel sink. Ella shut the door behind her. I looked over at Andrew.
“I can pour one if you want,” he offered.
“That’d be great.”
“Okay! What do you like, Chris?”
I frowned a bit as Andrew eagerly ran over to the rack of bottles. Maybe it was the low lighting in here, or maybe he’d pregamed a little bit more than I expected. Surely all the excitement of sneaking in and climbing ladders and breaking into VIP rooms had put him in a certain kind of mood.
“Andrew,” I said softly. “You know I’m not -”
A banging sounded at the door.
“SOMEONE IN THERE?”
The handle rattled. I stood stock-still. Andrew dropped a glass, letting it shatter to the floor.
“What happened?” Ella’s muffled voice came from inside the bathroom. The sound of her flushing was simultaneous with the beep of the door’s code on the outside.
Harsh yellow rays from the bouncer’s flashlight shone onto my body. I squinted and raised my palms, trying to block it from my view. All I could see was the bouncer and 5 or 6 other people all standing outside the door.
“Did somebody else book this room?” Asked a confused female voice.
“No one else is supposed to be up here,” said the bouncer, slowly lowering his flashlight. “These VIP rooms aren’t even technically available yet.”
Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck.
I glanced over at Andrew just in time to see him slip past the bouncer with a yelp. The crowd glanced at him briefly as the young man went barreling down the hallway toward the ladder, dead-set on a pathetic escape.
There’d be no running for me. The door was crowded with staring figures.
“Oh, it’s you!”
One of the men stepped forward. I cringed a bit, my dazed eyes assuming the bouncer was coming to grab me. Instead, a man in an expensive charcoal suit put his warm hand on my shoulder. I blinked rapidly and glanced up at the most intriguing grey eyes I’d ever seen, set into a sharp-cheeked face. His lantern jaw worked into a broad smile.
“You were supposed to wait for us!” The man wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to his chest. I still had no idea what was going on, who he was, or what he was doing, but I knew it was either go along with this mix-up or end up being held by security. The latter choice would inevitably lead to my exposure and a very bad day at Inverness Headquarters.
If I played along, I just might get out with my secret in tact.
Plus I didn’t much mind having his muscled arm around my shoulder.
He could probably break down the door, I thought to myself, stifling a laugh.
“You know her, Harrow?” Asked one of the men. The bouncer waved his flashlight back at me. I raised my palm to block the light, but my savior held his broader, calloused hand out first. The bouncer shut the flashlight off completely, letting the cool blue glow of the room lights envelope us.
“Well of course. How else would she have gotten up here?” He rubbed my back with his hand, relieving a good deal of the tension bunched up on my bare shoulders.
“Yup! I’m a friend of Harrow’s!” This was the story I had to roll with. “Sorry Harrow, I guess I just wanted to see you really bad, Harrow! When you didn’t show up when you said, I just got a little too eager. You know how I am, Harrow! ”
I sounded insane, babbling in my highest-pitched voice, trying to pass for this guy’s girlfriend or mistress or whatever the hell everyone thought of me. I kept repeating his name to try and drive home the ‘fact’ that we knew each other.
Also, I didn’t mind the name on my tongue. Harrow. Kinda sexy. When I looked up, Harrow was smiling down at me, sympathetic, kind, and quite obviously knowing.
He doesn’t know everything, I reminded myself. What game was he playing, anyway?
Another flush sounded from the bathroom. I instinctively dug my nails into Harrow’s shirt and felt his abs flex when he turned his torso to face the door. Everyone watched as Ella stepped out of the bathroom, wiping her hands on her dress like she was at home.
She took a single step out, then stood awkwardly between main room and bathroom when she saw the assembled crowd.
“Uhhh….Chris?”
“Oh, Chris, you brought a friend! Wonderful! The more the merrier - after all, that’s why we rented the VIP room, isn’t it?”
Harrow tapped his fingers against my upper back, leaving behind goosebumps.
“Haha, sure is!” I confirmed, smiling tensely at Ella. “Look Ella, everyone’s here! Nothing to worry about!”
My friend gawked at the room.
“Where’d Andrew go?”
For fuck’s sake Ella…
“He had to dash,” said Harrow. “Drinks, guys?”
“That’d be lovely,” I confirmed, following Harrow into the bar area. The rest of his gang filtered in.
“I’m gonna… do a sweep of the hall,” said the bouncer, giving me a final hard look before tapping on his flashlight and peering down the VIP area. Something told me he’d be on duty the rest of the night.
“Alright, you do that!” Harrow pulled bottles off the counter while his friends peered at the decor and the glass flooring the same way Ella, Andrew and I had just minutes before.
“What the hell is going on?” asked Ella in a whisper-shout, grabbing my arm. “Who are all these people!?”
“They’re the VIPS. The real VIPs.”
I snatched Ella’s hand and squeezed tightly, doing my best to cut off her inchoate whine.
“I told you we shouldn’t do this!” She protested.
“And you can kick my ass about it later! For now, play along!”
“Ella, Chris, you two girls okay with gin and tonics?” Asked Harrow from the bar. He’d removed his blazer, his white shirt taut across his broad back as he mixed the drinks.
“You know it Harrow!”
“Who the hell is Harrow?!” Asked Ella in that same stage whisper.
“He’s Harrow!”
Ella pulled her hand away from mine slowly and put her finger against her lip.
“He’s…. Really sexy,” she noted, staring at him like a piece of man candy.
I crossed my arms.
Out of all the emotions I expected to feel, jealousy came as a surprise.
Chapter 4
HARROW
The new girls needed some coaxing to come join our little clique. The men didn’t ask any questions - since Amanda and Jenny were coworkers and therefore off-limits (at least with me around), having two 20-year-olds in club clothes heightened the men’s mood. As for my female employees, they were glad to have a bit more gender parity, especially with Ella, who warmed to compliments and free drinks quite quickly. Christina barely said a word to anyone, preferring to stand apart while the rest of the group made their way to the couches.
Ella and Marvin hit it off immediately. She was apparently a Junior at his alma mater and only a few years younger than him. They even had some of the same classes and professors.
“I was going to head to law school after my bachelor’s, but I opted for Business school instead,” said Marvin, manspreading on the couch.
“Why?” Asked Ella, facing him with her knees together on the other sofa.
Marvin raised his palms to the decor around him. “More money,” he noted with a sly smile, earning hard laughs from the rest of the crew.
I sucked in my breath. Marvin was young. He still had to learn the way to a woman’s heart wasn’t through your wallet. That kind of talk only earned the kind of girls who’d drain your bank account dry - no matter how much you thought you had.
To her credit, Ella waved off the joke. “I don’t really care about money. I just want to make a difference in the world. Law school is the place for me!”
There were problems with that kind of thinking as well, but at least her goals were more noble.
Ella I could figure out quickly. Smart, perceptive, a bit shy at first, but an open book once you get to know her. Her personality shone through the way she beamingly talked about her volunteer work with the nomads of Dominar, Femnos’ neighboring country with a famously huge desert. Marvin, who’d done a gap year in that country, nodded along and interjected when he could, although I was 100% sure he worked in the oil-rich capital, not the less-developed desert.
While those two hit it off, I looked over the rest of my employees. They were treating this outing more like an office party than a visit to the club. Granted, in the VIP room, that’s really what it was. We could watch the people dancing below us from the see-through floor or from out on the balcony, and we could hear the thumping Bass music, but we were separated from the rest of them, the way monied people prefer.