"No. I'm good for right now.” I nod my head. "This has been quite an adventure and I need to get some rest now."
"Wore you out, huh?" he jokes and I roll my eyes, suddenly hating the real personality that he has let slip through past his Dante persona.
"Thanks for everything." He shakes my hand and I walk out.
Cassandra, one of the organizers of tonight's party, meets up with me when I get to the coat check.
"How was everything?" she asks.
She's dressed in similarly unisex black slacks, bell bottomed and covering her shoes.
She's wearing a vest underneath her matching suit jacket with a starched collar buttoned all the way to her neck. Despite this severe look, she still looks incredibly beautiful.
"It was great,” I say, handing her my ticket.
"Everything to your satisfaction?" she asks, looking for my jacket.
I nod.
"I know this is your first time, Jacqueline, and I just want to make sure that you were fully satisfied, not uncomfortable or pressed in any way. Please tell me how it went and hold nothing back. I mean, I don't need the details, but just your reactions and impressions. We want this to be a very inclusive and comfortable place for all women where they can explore and have fun and play and not fear that anything bad will happen."
"Well, actually, you've achieved that perfectly. I had a good time."
"You did?" Her face lights up.
"Yeah, I danced, I met Dante, and we went to one of the red rooms in the back."
"Oh, yes. And how was your private time? Was he respectful? Unless of course, you didn't want him to be.” She smiles mischievously.
"Everything was great. He was a gentleman.” I smile.
"Good, that's exactly what we like to hear."
I'm about to walk away when she takes another step closer to me and says, "We've really enjoyed having you. I'm really glad you had a good time tonight. I would like to personally invite you to a masquerade party that we're having next Saturday if you're interested and available."
I nod. "Let me think about it," I say.
"Of course, I'll send you all the details over email."
I walk out of Redemption and feel… I don't know… It’s hard to describe what I feel.
It was definitely better than going to a bar and having some sloppy sex with a stranger who doesn't care about where I am on the whole thing and my needs.
Dante was sexy as hell, I won't deny that and we definitely had a lot of chemistry. I look down at a small card that Cassandra handed me, black with little gold fleur-de-lis in the corners.
Masquerade Party
555-456-7890
RSVP: [email protected]
* * *
There’s nothing else on the card. No name, no location. They operate in secrecy and privacy is of the utmost importance.
I walk back to my car and I smile thinking back to tonight. Dante knew what he was doing and he knew exactly how to do it. He was so smooth, romantic, powerful and yet, shy just at the right times. If it’s an act, it’s a really good one.
There's still snow on the ground and my feet make a loud squishing sound when I step through the slush.
I climb into my used Toyota Corolla and start the engine and more importantly, the heat, and suddenly, tears start to stream down my face.
This wave of emotions is so strong, I just cry and cry and bury my head in the steering wheel.
It has nothing to do with what happened tonight. It’s something else completely, and it's the reason I was there in the first place.
5
Jacqueline
My twin brother died three months ago.
Every day after I received that call, I have lived in a daze. There is no morning, day, or night. There’re just minutes and hours without my brother.
We grew up doing everything together. We were inseparable. We read each other's minds, and no one penetrated our circle of trust or love. When we were teenagers, he told me about the girls he dated and kissed, and I told him about the boys I liked.
Nothing was forbidden or wrong to talk about. He was my best friend for years. And then, after we graduated from college, he moved away. He got a job, traveled a lot.
We still talked almost every day but, of course, things were different.
Michael fired people for a living. It was an awful job, but he did it with care and dedication. Large companies employed his company to come in as an outside consultant and do major layoffs of many employees at a time.
As he advanced up the ranks and became an assistant manager and then a manager and then the director, I stayed behind. I got lost. He helped me get a job in a currency trading company, but it didn't last more than six months. I didn't like it.
So that's how I ended up going to graduate school for journalism. I was still looking to do something that I really cared about passionately. Everyone made fun of my career prospects, everyone except Michael.
Michael believed in me even when I didn’t. He said newspapers and the old style of reporting might be dead, but there’re so many online news outlets now and they constantly need stories. The truth was that I didn't know what I wanted to do. Graduate school postponed that decision and that was good enough.
And then he died.
I was supposed to graduate this semester. This was going to be my last one. I was going to be filling out job applications and sending out resumes and cover letters this whole time and he was going to help me.
He knew what employers were looking for. He knew the language that they wanted, especially if the employee was like me, without much experience.
But when that car hit him, the world stopped spinning on its axis. I couldn't go to class, let alone fill out job applications.
I couldn't sleep.
I couldn't leave the house.
I took a leave from school. And the only thing I have now is a part-time job at a bar that his friend owns. And I have a suspicion that the only reason I still have that job is because I am Michael's sister.
When I get home, I walk carefully on my tiptoes to make sure not to wake anyone up. It's a small three bedroom 1970s ranch style home with paper-thin walls and my niece is a light sleeper despite the fact that she's a toddler.
This is where I live now and where I've lived for the last six months after I had a fight with my roommate because her boyfriend was staying over too much. It was originally her apartment and after I complained, she kicked me out. So I moved back in with my mom.
I spent a week at Michael's apartment about a month before his death and he asked me to move in with him after I complained about our mom and Alexa.
"I know they need my help," I say, "but I can't be there all the time. Alexa wants me to take care of Sadie because she's twenty years old and she wants to party. I totally get that but I wish that she hadn’t brought someone into this world that she didn’t want to take care of."
Michael listened and offered to pay for a babysitter to help Alexa, but mainly to help our mom. He was always good like that, kind, loving. He was too good for this world. I said that at his funeral with tears streaming down my face and I still say that now.