by Chloe Garner
“She is full of those,” she said. “That’s why she’s so much fun.”
“She’s gotten you into some stuff, hasn’t she?” Troy asked.
Olivia wrinkled her nose.
“I’ve gone out the window in the bathroom at a bar fight,” she said. Troy snorted.
“That sounds like you.”
She laughed with her hand over her mouth.
“She keeps me young.”
“She keeps you one hop ahead of the police,” Troy said.
“Are the places you go really that much better?” she asked.
“Everyone has all their teeth, and the worst thing that’s happened to me was that someone spilled a drink on my shirt.”
“Yeah, but everyone’s always on the prowl,” she said. Troy smiled to himself, and they moved on to the next painting.
“It’s a game,” he said. “It’s just a game.”
“And you’re really good at it,” she said. He put his hands in his pockets and turned to look at her, frowning. She shrugged. “We’ve been a couple of times. Celeste likes to get dressed up and have guys buy her drinks all night. You’re really good.” She nodded.
“I’ve never seen you,” he said.
“No, you wouldn’t,” she said. She shrugged quickly and her hands fluttered to either side. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me,” he said. He struggled to remember, but he knew that he would have noticed her quite clearly, if he’d ever seen her. Trying to page through memories wasn’t going to turn up anything new.
“It’s okay,” she said. “You were on the prowl.” She tried to turn it into a joke again, but it didn’t quite get liftoff. He turned back to look at the painting they were in front of, Cassie’s, ‘not that kind of girl’ popping into his head.
“Maybe that’s not who I’m going to be, anymore,” he said.
“I know you’re not supposed to point out when things are awkward on a date, because it just makes it worse, but…” Olivia said. Troy laughed softly.
“We’re here to see the nightclub that Earl was talking about. We’ll go out, we’ll drink, we’ll dance, we’ll have a good time. We don’t have to have everything figured out this weekend,” Troy answered. Something caught Olivia’s attention and she weaved away from him.
“Oh, wow,” she said, crossing a hallway into the next section of artwork. “Isn’t she beautiful? It’s so peaceful.”
Troy laughed.
“Boy, is he going to get it.”
“What?” she asked, tipping her head to the side as she looked up at the painting. “She’s lovely. With all the gold around her like that? It’s just a nice day.”
“I know that stance,” Troy said. “He’s late, and he’d better have a darn good reason why.”
She laughed.
“You think?”
“I know.”
“You’ve seen that a lot, then?” she teased.
“Definitely,” he said. He could see what Olivia was looking at, but he knew that elbow, the hand planted on the hip. That was a feisty woman, and she was going to give someone an earful when he finally turned up.
“I think you’re wrong,” Olivia said after a minute. “I think she’s just enjoying the breeze.”
He shrugged.
“I’m glad that’s what you think,” he said. She looked at him funny, then a smile broke across her face and they moved on.
*********
Celeste turned up in the lobby wearing chains on a short leather skirt and a blouse that only buttoned once.
“Whoa,” Troy said. “I didn’t know I signed up for that kind of a club.”
“You’re fine,” Earl grunted, putting an arm around Celeste. “She’s just showing off.”
Troy raised an eyebrow at Olivia, who ducked behind her hand.
“I just go along,” she said.
Olivia, for her part, was wearing a well-cut red dress that came down to her knees, much more what Troy had been expecting. Celeste bounced once, rattling.
“Let’s go. I want to make Earl jealous with all my free drinks.”
“So tell me about this DJ,” Troy said as they crammed into a taxi. Earl gave the driver the name of the club, then settled in with his arm around Celeste again.
“New guy,” Earl said. “Just started spinning about a year ago, first in New York, then he came here.”
“Why?” Celeste asked, wrinkling her nose. “When you could stay in New York?”
Earl shrugged.
“Chicago is good, too. He headlines, here. I bet he wasn’t that big in New York.”
Earl shot Celeste a look and she smirked. Troy had gathered that Earl was from Chicago.
“Anyway,” Earl went on, “he does a set every Friday and Saturday night, two hours Friday, four hours Saturday. My buddy was telling me about him, how there are chicks who won’t miss a set for anything, how the party gets really crazy by the end of the night on Saturday, so I came up a few weeks ago.” He shook his head. “Dude, it’s like being high.”
Troy blinked at him, then glanced at Olivia. She put her hand in front of her mouth to hide her grin.
“Look, I don’t really go for that trancy stuff,” Troy said. “Just so you know.”
Earl shook his head.
“Nah, man. Trust me. Some people love him, some people don’t get him, but Whisper knows how to party.”
“Whisper,” Troy said.
“Shut up, Troy,” Celeste said. “It’s going to be awesome.”
“Uh huh,” Troy said, settling into his seat.
Chicago rolled by outside his window, all lights and glass and people, and for an instant he felt like the small-town kid he was, but then they were at the club, going to stand in line.
“What’s the count, man?” Earl asked as one of the staff went by with a clipboard.
“You guys here to see Whisper?” the guy asked. Earl jerked his head in acknowledgment and the guy looked down at his clipboard.
“Depending on how many VIPs show up, you guys are probably in when the door opens,” he said. Troy raised an eyebrow.
“That popular?” he asked.
“I told you, the people who get hooked, they come back every week,” Earl said as the staff member moved on.
“Wow,” Troy said. He’d been ready to grumble about having to eat such an early dinner for this, but apparently Earl knew his stuff.
They stood outside in line for several hours, making small talk while Olivia and Celeste tried not to talk about anything about work that Earl shouldn’t hear.
“What was it like to grow up here?” Troy asked at one point.
“Crazy, man,” Earl answered. “We got into so much trouble.”
Troy glanced at Celeste and she rolled her eyes.
“Don’t give me that look,” she said. “He’s straight-edge, now. I know the rules.”
Earl laughed.
“You people and your rules.” He shook his head as Celeste gave him a stern expression. He shrugged and leaned against the wall. “I went straight when my brother went to jail,” he told Troy. “Six years ago. He robbed a gas station out in the suburbs, and someone recognized his picture from the security camera. I got my GED and moved to Kansas with a construction company during one of the building booms.” He paused. “Good enough for you?”
“He’s not my dad,” Celeste said. Troy wished he had more time. He wanted to be cool, but he had an obligation to his office and to his career to evaluate whether Earl was a security threat as Celeste’s boyfriend.
“You put us together,” he told Celeste carefully, aware of Olivia watching him. “And you know it’s my job to protect the lab. It’s not like a normal job, and you know that. I do get to have an opinion about the people you’re close to.”
“But you don’t get to interrogate them or run background checks,” she said. He laughed, letting the tension break.
“No. You’re right. I don’t get to run a background check, just because you’re d
ating. But I can ask him a couple more questions.”
Earl shrugged.
“Shoot, bro.”
“You like your job?” Troy asked. He shrugged.
“It pays the bills. I guess I’m pretty good at it.”
“You married?” Troy asked. Earl’s nose wrinkled.
“You think I’d risk it with her?” he asked, motioning to Celeste. Troy smiled.
“Fair enough.”
Celeste was glaring at him. He shuffled his shoulders in an imitation of Earl.
“What?” he asked. “I’m done. Friendly conversation, that’s all.”
She glared harder.
Troy shrugged again and went to lean against the wall next to Earl.
Earl jerked his head at Troy.
Troy jerked his head back at Earl.
Celeste made an exasperated noise, then she turned to talk to Olivia again. Troy turned his head to watch the other people in line.
*********
Eventually the line started to move. As the staffer predicted, a number of women in small, tight dresses pranced by, giggling as someone talked them past the bouncer at the door, and a few of the people ahead of them got turned away because their IDs weren’t convincing enough.
“We’re in,” Earl said calmly as the line stopped and the door closed half a dozen people away. “Don’t worry about it.”
Another pair of women in tall heels trotted by, scolding each other like chickens. A man met them in front of the door and kissed one of them quickly, then knocked on the door. The bouncer opened it and nodded, letting them in.
Troy kept his opinions to himself, but this exclusivity thing as a selling point for a club had never appealed to him. Sure, you’ve got to keep your standards high, but being so trendy that it was cool enough to be turned away meant that you gave up a shot at going anywhere else, and that had never quite settled for him.
A few minutes later the door opened and they started letting people in again. Earl eased off the wall and handed his ID to the bouncer a few minutes later.
“Hey, man,” he said.
“Chollah,” the bouncer answered.
Troy followed Celeste with his driver’s license out.
“Ya news?” the man asked.
“First time here,” Troy answered, hoping he’d translated the question correctly. His implant would catch on soon enough, but the first few times he got exposed to new jargon it would be a guess.
“Soldier, huh?” the man asked, giving him his ID back. Troy nodded.
“Air force.”
The man nodded and motioned him through. Troy waited for Olivia, then followed after Earl and Celeste, finding a table upstairs and ordering drinks from a harried waitress. Troy looked skeptically around the room, what he would have considered to be a halfway-finished renovation of a former parking lot. Earl noticed and laughed.
“It’s cool, man. It’s ambiance.”
“It’s bare cement,” Troy answered. Earl shrugged.
“Did it used to be a parking garage?” Olivia asked.
“Yeah, for the hotel upstairs,” Earl said. “Haven’t got a clue how much it cost them to buy this place and get the permits to do it.”
Olivia nodded, looking around.
“It’s interesting,” she said.
The first DJ was getting started and Earl stretched.
“I’m going to go see who’s here,” he said, raising his voice over the music. “Do you want to come?” he asked Celeste.
Celeste stood, and Troy re-settled in his chair as they left.
“Do you want to dance?” he asked Olivia.
“I need more to drink first,” she said, ducking her head over her glass. He laughed and sat back to watch the people around them.
It was an active crowd, he had to give it that. And the DJ was good. Good dance mix, kind of an easy tempo to start with, to give people a chance to ease into it. On the wide cement floor, there was plenty of open space, but not so much that the people dancing would feel self-conscious about it. The room was full of bright colors, both in clothing and in lighting, but it wasn’t obnoxious and strobe-y.
“It’s going to be fun,” he said to Olivia. She held her glass like a mug of coffee. He laughed, leaning over to put his arm across the back of her chair.
“We’re just going to have fun,” he said. “No big deal.”
She laughed back, less convincingly.
“She always ditches me just like this,” she said. “I don’t know why I agree to this stuff.”
“She does not,” Troy said, sliding over so he could speak closer to her ear. Olivia frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Celeste is a ball of nonstop energy, but she’s a good friend. She doesn’t ditch you.”
She set her drink down, looking even more lost in the midst of the motion.
“What does it look like, now?” she asked. He looked at her for a moment, blinking, with a slow smile. At first it was manipulative, but as the grin broke, it just felt good.
“She’s leaving us alone,” he said. She put her face behind her hands and laughed, looking away over her shoulder. He let his arm drop, leaning back out over the table and sipping at his drink again.
“Finish that,” he said after a minute. “Come on. Let’s go dance.”
She looked at him with wide eyes, but downed her sherry in two swallows and stood.
“Good girl,” he said, draining his scotch and grabbing her hand. They found their way back down the stairs and out onto the dance floor, dancing awkwardly together through the end of the song. As the first song began to blend into the next one, the floor started to get a bit more crowded and they started bumping into people. Troy and Olivia were forced in against each other even more, and she put her arms up in front of her, forearms out, trying to brace herself from Troy and the increasing press of people.
He leaned over to speak into her ear.
“Look, I only know one way to do this,” he said, putting his arms around her and pulling her body against his. The transition ended and a thumping underbeat picked up as the next song started in force, and some people cheered at the familiar dance song. He smiled, feeling it through his body.
And they danced.
When she finally forgot the throngs of people and what they were thinking and where Celeste had gotten to, Olivia was a fine dancer, well-balanced on her feet and musical. She took his lead easily, relaxing into letting him keep people at the right distance, and soon enough neither of them were even paying attention to when they pressed against other dancers. The rhythm swept the crowd and the air grew hot, taking the smell of people in action, a healthy, heady smell that made the world feel small.
Olivia’s hips swung with his and her weight pressed against him the way it was supposed to. For a moment, her eyes met his, just wet gleams in a moment of shadow. Her lips were the same, the shape of moisture in dim light, and he wanted to kiss her, but she turned her head to the side and pushed it against his shoulder.
And they danced.
Some time later, his shirt sticking to his back and his throat getting sore from too much breath and too little liquid, Troy peeled away from Olivia.
“Do you want something to drink?” he asked. She nodded, and he grabbed her hand, splitting a path through the crowd until they hit the first of the concrete pillars that ringed the floor. He turned back to her.
“We should get our dancing in now. A celebrity DJ is just going to have a packed crowd jumping up and down out here. You’re really good. You get music.”
She caught up to stand with her shoulder against his ribs, continuing their way back toward the bar against the wall.
“Twelve years of ballet,” she said, looking over her shoulder. “I’ve never done that before.”
“Could have fooled me,” Troy lied. “What do you want?”
“Just water,” she said. He left her and waded through the loose crowd around the bar, catching the bartender’s attention.
/>
“Two waters,” he said, holding up a pair of fingers. He found cash in his back pocket and traded it for the waters, then made his way back through the layer of bystanders to find Olivia talking to Celeste.
“You actually got her to dance,” Celeste said, speaking from over a pink-colored martini. “I’m impressed.”
“She’s really good,” Troy said, handing Olivia her water.
“I can only ever get her into these places, then she just finds a stool to sit on all night.”
“In fairness, that’s all you do, too,” Olivia said.
“No,” Celeste said, raising a finger. “I drink.”
“And she does dance,” Earl said, appearing behind Celeste and putting his arms around her stomach. “You just have to concede that she could get a drink off of any guy in the room, first.”
“Ha ha,” Celeste said, sipping her drink again. “I want to see Olivia dance.”
“No,” Olivia said, cracking open her water and drinking half of it with her head tipped back. She gasped air and ran the back of her arm across her mouth. “No. I don’t want you to.”
“But you’re out there dancing in front of everyone, anyway,” Celeste argued.
“But no one’s watching,” Olivia said.
The song changed again and Celeste whooped.
“This,” she said, holding her drink over her head, “this I will dance to.”
Earl laughed, taking her drink carefully and handing it to Olivia before he followed Celeste through the crowd. Olivia made her way toward a pillar with an open spot and leaned against it, sniffing Celeste’s drink.
“What is it?” she asked, holding it out toward him. Troy took a sip and twisted his face.
“Peach,” he said. “And it’s strong, too.”
She laughed.
“That sounds like her.”
She took a small sip, then shrugged and poured a much larger swallow into her mouth, then held it out to him. He pulled his mouth to the side and she laughed.
“No, just hold it for a minute,” she said. He took the glass and she rested her back against the pillar, drinking the rest of her water.
“That was fun,” she said, holding out her had for the martini again. He gave it back, trading it for the water bottle and opening his own bottle.
