CORINNA
There was no signage, or lighting. It looked like a typical bar building.
"Is this it?" I murmured awkwardly to Millie who was parking her bike.
"This? Of course not babes, this is a front, a pretense for the real thing."
Oh. That made sense.
"You're going to ruin the dress if you keep pulling at it like that."
I dropped my hands. "It's too low."
"It is perfect."
"My chest is —"
"Perfect," she repeated firmly. She looked at me the way she sometimes did, like she was seeing something I refused to see in myself. "Cori. You look gorgeous. I need you to accept that and move your feet."
I looked down at myself.
I was wearing a fitted black dress with a low necklace. My cleavages were packed up and visible. I wasn't so sure if I was comfortable with that.
My hair was in a bun. She was trying to talk me out of that too.
"At least let it down —"
"The bun stays, Millie."
"You have beautiful hair—"
"The bun stays."
She rolled her eyes but accepted it nonetheless. Within minutes we turned out back and before I realized it we were standing in front of another place.
I understood why the card had read, "haven of sin" at its bottom. It was almost like I could smell the masochism this place emitted. I could almost imagine the dark, loud things that happened here. Things that would change me.
"I shouldn't have come," I bit my fingernails. "This was a mistake. I'm going to go home and—"
"You called me," Millie said. "You choose to come on your own accord."
"I was in a vulnerable moment."
"You were in an honest moment. There's a difference." She linked her arm through mine before I could argue and half-dragged me through the door without another word.
When she let go of my arm, my lips parted as I looked around.
"Strange, I expected…"
"To see people humping around on the walls? No, Cori. They have private rooms for that, this is the lounge for socializing and stuff."
There was a drink and snack section with warm lighting and people around it engaging in conversation.
Dorian— Millie's step brother who she was hooking up with, was waiting near the far end against the purple and white walls. He approached us, kissed Millie's cheek and turned to me with a grin.
"Corinna. I didn't think you'd actually come."
I didn't think I would either.
I held my lips together in a forced smile as he gestured to a nearby sofa.
A waitress appeared and Millie ordered calmly without asking me, which was fine because I couldn't have made a decision at that moment if my life depended on it. I looked around the room, trying to seem like someone who did this regularly.
Dorian leaned forward sipping on his own cocktail. He was wearing a full cowboy's outfit. I didn't know why but I had that feeling that Millie was into that kind of stuff.
"I know this feels like a lot. But I want you to know that there are rules here, contrary to popular belief. Everyone is safe here and everything is consensual. Nobody does anything they haven't agreed to." He held my gaze. "You can leave at any point too, like the moment you decide you want to."
That gave me some relief.
"But my unsolicited advice? Give it a shot and you wouldn't want to."
Millie squeezed my hand under the table.
Dorian excused himself and disappeared toward the back. Millie and I sat with our drinks and she talked about something. I didn't think I was even listening because I was too busy watching the room and trying to decide whether the low hum of anxiety in my chest was fear or something else.
Then the waitress came back again, specifically for me.
"I... I didn't order anything."
"No." She set a glass down in front of me. "Someone ordered it for you."
I stared at it. "Who?"
She smiled and left without answering.
I looked at Millie wondering what this was. I barely knew anyone here aside from her and Dorian, why would anyone order a drink for me. I refused to touch the cup. Maybe it contained poison?
Some strange aphrodisiac?
She swatted my head.
"Ow— what was that for?"
"I can see the gears turning in your head, babes. Relax. That is how things work here, if someone sends a drink your way then it's an expression of interest."
I looked around the room. No one in particular was looking at me.
"But who? I haven't even held a conversation with anybody else."
Dorian chooses the exact moment to reappear. His eyes fixated on the glass of amber coloured liquid. It seemed like he knew something we didn't because he leaned into Millie's ears and said something that made her eyes widen.
"Dorian… tell me you're not fucking with me?" She half-slapped his chest.
He chuckled and intertwined his fingers with her.
"I'm equally surprised. He hasn't expressed interest in anyone, not in a while."
"Uh… guys…" I looked between them. "Who is this 'he' you both are talking about?"
Millie looked like she was about to burst out confetti rolls from her throat in excitement.
"The owner. He told Dorian that he wants you babes."
I looked between them like alien heads had replaced their real ones.
"W-want me? But—"
She grabbed my hand, ignoring my protest. I nearly stumbled over the heels as I wore as Mille dragged me out of the lounge and towards a hallway. I hadn't even grabbed my purse.
"Millie! My purse—"
"Dorian will keep it safe for you. Shush."
She hurled me past a corridor into a sequence of doors, each had gold-plated numbers on them. She stopped in front of one that had no numbers. Just a "keep out" sign.
I stuttered and wanted to ask what we were doing here but her palm clamped over my mouth.
"Listen carefully, Corinna. No one who has had an experience with this person has ever walked out of here with regrets. I want you to relax, open this door when I'm gone and enter inside for the craziest experience of your life." She shook on my shoulders. "You'll thank me for this."
And then she was gone.
"Millie!"
She flipped her ponytail over her shoulders and disappeared down the hallway.
"Great." One person orders me a drink, and the next my friend abandons me in front of this… steel door.
I took a deep breath and placed my hand on the handle.
What was the worst that could happen?