Hold Me Daylight, Kiss Me Night-time

[3] Cruel Dawn.

“How are you?” he asked.

“Well you have some competition, the old man on the subway proposed to me”

He moved his hands over his jacket “Well I don’t have a ring, but I have this” and that’s when the rose came into play, he held it up for me.

I took it thankful it was void of any turns, I silky blue ribbon with a gold tinge was neatly tied into a bow around.

I smiled. “Thank-you, so what are we doing tonight, Rapunzel?”

He shook his head, running a hand through the blonde lock of his hair that glowed in the light and stopped just short of his shoulders. “Well, no sorry to disappoint,”

I turned with him and as he lead me away from the Theatre, down a different path that didn’t have much light to it. “Then why the cryptic meeting place”

Hands in his pockets he shrugged “It’s my favorite place in central park”

“Oh, I see you get the girls to meet you at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, swoon her with a rose, soften her up, then lead her down a dark path…”

“Hey hey, the rose isn’t the only dramatic effect”

Luckily the walk to the outer-skirts of the park was short and before I knew it we were on West 77th, his hand found mine through the crowd and he lead me up the street.

“How was your day?” he asked.

Not allowing myself to blurt out that I meet his identical twin “It was okay” I said “I gave up my day off to serve literally impaired people” I gave a sighing laugh at my attempted joke.

Harper raised a perfect brow, “I work at West & Greer books in Brooklyn”

He smiled “Likes books. My kind of girl”

My heart suddenly fluttered and I felt like a girl out a of a cheesy romance novel who falls in love within the first three chapters.

“What about you, what do you do?”

“Well you will see”

“I will, will I?” I prompted.

What his occupation turned out to be was Cruel Dawn, an up and coming night club that just got excellent reviews in the New Yorker.

The establishment was four story’s high, one in which extended below ground level.

I suddenly like a commodity next to him as we walked down the line to the front door,  I was underdressed for the night club but over dressed for the diner that he had taken me to, I was appropriately dressed for the movie he had just taken me too.

When he said that he had to stop by the office to fix up something I was half-expecting something to do with money, or maybe law, I mean seriously who lives on the Upper East Side, dresses like that, and doesn’t have a high paying job.

Judging by the size of the queue alone I knew he didn’t have an issue with money. I partly wondered in the back of my mind how many girls had he bought here before me?

The club was sprawling with people of all shapes and sizes, literally. On the way up the line I swear I saw a guy wear six-inch pep toes. Only in New York.

The bouncer, un-clipped the rope and let Harper walk on in, me at his side I was allowed to go to, thanking that they didn’t check ID or check me for weapons or something.

Inside the club was covered in mirror extending the natural look of the room, dry ice smoke clung low to floor, colored lights played the dance floor and a thudding bass flowed through the air. Alcohol and sweat hung in air along with half a dozen girls by Ariel ropes.

The danced to the music intoxicated by the vibe of the club.

We moved bodies that packed the club, through a secret door that could have been mistaken for an ordinary mirror that lead to a secret staircase that wound its way up. Harper took me by the hand and lead me up the staircase, it shook beneath me to the rhythm of the music.

“That’s was insane” I said when we got to our destination that was his office, it was styled like something that you would normal see on the Upper East Side though something that more belonged to a lawyer. Dark oak furnishings and a larger book collection which instead of having titles like ‘Anatomy of Law’ was more like ‘Entrepreneur for Dummies’ and ‘Music for Manhattan’

A large window looked out onto one of the levels of the clubs that was more modern, gold and black tones, more chic I swear through the crowd I saw a Chiwawa that could have possible been attached to Paris Hilton.

“This is amazing” I said, leaning against the desk, looking out the window.

“That’s not all” he said, pushing open yet another door. That seemed to lead somewhere with a more natural pallet of light.

I followed him, to what turned out to be a balcony that expanded off the building facing outwards towards Ellis Island. The fact that he had been able to get the space in the first place to build and entirely new infrastructure  was one thing, but to actually have found visible space for what I believed to be one of the best views in Manhattan was another.

“Wow” I breathed, when I caught full sight of that big old lady standing out in the middle of the water all lit up, for some reason ‘Star Spangled Banner’ started planning in my subconscious. “That is amazing, it has got to be the best view in all of New York”

“And I get to look at it myself” when I turn to face him, he was already directing himself at me.

“Hmm” I said “good line, you use that on ever other girl you bring here”

“Why would you say that” he said seriously.

“Hot guy, hot club, killer view, I thought of seven pick up line as soon as I walked through the, one of them was about eggs”

“I hope you weren’t making a comment about the scent of the club? Claudia said that orange blossom was in”

I smiled, glad that he hadn’t taken to offence me picking up on him for the swoon worthy line.

“I love this place” he said, looking outwards “and I get it for myself it’s the greatest feeling, like I have everything”

“Yeah” I agreed. Understanding the feeling he meant. I was in Manhattan the most legally weird city on earth and I felt completely along with him, despite the possibly hundreds of people three floors below us.

“So why Cruel Dawn? Such a name has to have such a meaning”

He put his hands calmly on the rails of the balcony “I’m all for the night, what can I say, there nothing more than a sunrise to signal the end of a perfect night. That’s why it’s ‘cruel’, more people live for the daytime. Not me”

There was something deeper within the meaning and him, I could see it from the way he expressed himself about it, but I wasn’t in the mood for talking.

He had me at ‘Do you need any help?’

I moved in closer to him, hoping that the  questionable temperature of the night could be used as an excuse.

I titled my head, which gave him the right impression, he moved into to kiss me, but just before his lips were at mine, he said “I don’t kiss on the first date” the he slowly moved away again.

Me being intoxicated on his Armani after-shave, made me a little slowly on the up take…

…but I finally came around.

“I see. So there it to be a sequel to this night”

He smiled “There is hope for it yet, unless I turned to off with my egg-slash-orange blossom smelling club”

I shook my head “Hardly”

It was just before a Cruel  Dawn by the time he dropped me off in Brooklyn, I opted for a kiss on the cheek and he obliged, kissing me a little to softly and sweetly for a goodbye-where-just-friends-kiss. I think he realized that too.

And as he walked down the street, I could have sworn, in the distance, he disappeared into thin air.