North & West

Twenty-One

Instead, I did the best I could, reaching a hand out to West and almost sighing in relief when his fingers curled around mine. It was nice, sitting in the car with him, our heads leaning back against the headrests as we blew smoke from our mouths at the roof of the car, our hands hanging between us like a rope keeping us tethered together.

When he finished his third cigarette since we'd been parked, he released my hand and turned to look at me with another one of those small smiles, this one looking at least a little less forced than the last. “You ready?”

“I was born ready.” I answered, pushing the car door open and stomping out my cigarette butt against the blacktop.

I grabbed two golf clubs from the backseat, keeping one in my hand and handing the other to West.

We walked to the door, West holding the door open for me as I walked in. As soon as I stepped into the country club, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. The building was posh down to the very last drop of paint upon the walls.

A man with gelled hair and a tie positioned so perfectly around his neck it looked as though it had been painted on stood behind a podium in the corner of the room, his attention on a big booklet in front of him. I pulled West aside for a moment, my fingers grasping at the material of his jacket.

“Go ahead without me,” I told him, gesturing to one of the doors slightly off to the side. “Knock his book to the ground for a long enough time for me to get in that door. Then wait around five minutes and leave. I'll unlock the back door for you and then we'll be in.”

He grinned despite the situation. “Since when were you a master schemer?”

“Since I decided I wanted to fuck shit up with this.” I replied, holding up the golf club and nudging West a bit with my shoulder.

I stood out of sight, right along the wall and waited for West to knock the man's book down. When he did, the man swore – which was probably against employee conduct – and scrambled to pick the papers up as they flew from the book. I almost felt bad, watching as the man got on his knees and tried to pick up all the papers that I hadn't known to be in the book, but I quickly turned my attention to getting to the door when West turned back to glance at me for a moment, a few of the loose papers in his hand.

I carefully slid along the wall, thankful that West had knocked the booklet behind the podium and not in front. I yanked open the door handle, glancing back to see West and the man still picking papers up.

I shut the door behind me, leaning back against it a bit and sighing. That little sneaking plan had caused more adrenaline to run through my body than I thought, which made me wonder for a moment if I was some sort of adrenaline junkie, what with the way I threw myself into dangerous activities such as cliff diving and breaking into a country club without even a second thought.

The door I'd chosen opened into a room that looked to be empty save for a coffee table and a few pieces of furniture, another door situated in the far end of it.

I opened the door, stepping inside to find only about half a dozen people, some ranging from early thirties to late fifties. It was like a ballroom, the floors wooden with tables of food sat around the room. All of it looked expensive and I wondered if it was really all that healthy to eat something that looked so carefully put together.

I was just beginning to panic when I realized that I had no idea where the back door was when West stepped through the door, the one that the man at the podium had been standing by. I raised my eyebrows, to which he simply smiled.

“He got angry and told me to just go in, apparently he couldn't find the reservation list for today.” He shrugged, following me as I headed for the next door.