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hellour, play the song when u see the (!) xxxo
If the link doesn't work, the song is Ginuwine - Pony (slowed)
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It's 7:02 p.m. and I'm sitting on my couch, trying to stop myself from leaving right now to pick up Brinna. I've been ready for an hour already. I'm excited to take her out tonight, I had to make a few calls, but I've got something good planned and I hope it makes her laugh. I honestly feel like a giddy teenage girl going to prom.
I really hope it makes her laugh..
This could be the stupidest thing I've ever done, and I might blow any chance I have at seeing her ever again, but she deserves fun and I couldn't think of anything better than this. It doesn't require drinking, there won't be any drugs, and she still gets to dance which I know she loves to do. We even get to take a nice walk past some pretty lights before we get there.
My knee is bouncing and I can't stop glancing at my phone to check the time. It's pretty much dark outside, but the city lights keep it illuminated. I have a nice view from my livingroom, if the clouds are away I can see a little bit of Brinna's work too.
I decided to just wear a plain black T-shirt and a pair of jeans. We're probably going to get hot, so I didn't feel like my usual work button-up. All of my rings are on and I even put some type of cream shit in my hair to make my curls look better.
I don't do things like that usually, but the woman at the salon wouldn't shut the fuck up about my hair when I was getting a trim, so I bought all of the products she recommended so she would stop talking. They work, though. My hair has never looked better.
I wonder if Brinna will like it.
I check my phone again, the screen lighting up the dark space around me. 7:10. I groan and throw my head back to the back of the couch. Is it that bad to show up early? I could walk her around the longer way and we could people watch. That's almost as fun as the place we're going, there are so many crazy things to see on the strip.
Maybe we can catch the Bellagio show if I leave now.
Fuck it, I'm leaving. Who cares if I show up half an hour early? Maybe she likes punctual men.
I jump up from the couch, hopping lightly on my feet. I walk toward my front door where the entry table is and give myself one more look over before grabbing all of my things.
Phone, keys, wallet- oh shit, right. The check.
I wrote a check for the host tonight, I felt bad calling with such short notice but he was so chill about the whole ordeal. I can't believe he let me do this, he gave us front-row seats and promised that he would have everything set in place by the time we got there.
I wrote him a check as a thank you, and as an apology because he had to cancel someone else's reservations in order to get us the best seats. I'm sure they're going to leave him a nasty review after that.
I fold the paper and put it in one of the pockets of my wallet so I can give it to him later. Maybe I'll send him a bottle of champagne too, if this goes well he'll have to be the best man at our wedding for making our date go smoothly.
Hold up. Take it back there, Harry. There will be no wedding. One day at a time, don't think about tomorrow. It'll hurt less that way.
I open my front door and lock it behind me. I'm the only one on this floor, so I have a small lobby outside of my door with a couch and coffee table. The elevator is out here too, I liked the design of this rather than it being in my house. On the off chance anyone gets access to the elevator, they can't get into my house.
I tap the button and step in once the silver door opens. I move to the corner and pull out my phone as the door shuts, taking me down to the lobby. Maggie is probably working tonight and I just know she'll be asking a million questions about where I'm going.
I scroll through apps before clicking on Instagram and pulling up the search bar. I don't have to type in the full name, because I've been looking at this page all day already. Not in a creepy way, I just have a lot of time on my hands.
Brinna doesn't have an Instagram page, but Grace happens to have one that she updates every single day. A girl like her has an audience to maintain, and she does it well. Her whole feed is full of whatever meal she's eating, every faux workout session, random pictures of the city, and every party she attends.
It's perfectly crafted, every photo is made to look totally in the moment but her perfectly timed facial expressions tell me that not a single one is. She's good at making her followers see her authenticity. The type of authenticity that's entirely fabricated, that is. None of those pictures are anything more than who Grace wants others to believe she is.
Most importantly though, every so often you'll find a picture of the real Grace. They don't happen very often, but with the amount she documents, there are plenty of them scattered through her media page.
That happens to be every time she's with Brinna, which is also conveniently captured and turned into content. The only difference is that there are no filters on these pictures, no crazy strobe light backgrounds, and no aesthetics. Just them.
It's not like I'm doing anything wrong.. the page is public and she likes the views. I'm just helping her engagement. I don't save pictures of Brinna, I just look at them until they're etched into my memory.
Listen, I never claimed to be a well-adjusted person. I hyperfixate. I study my new obsessions until they're mapped out in my brain like a Van Gogh painting.
Okay, maybe that's a bad example. That fucker cut his ear off, and I'm not that crazy. It's totally normal to return a wallet by finding someone's address on their license. It's also very normal to show up to their work every day until they agree to go out with you.
I'm on a time crunch here, I can't wait for her to fall into my arms by chance. I have to be the one to trip her, and that's exactly what I'm doing. Just giving her a little bit of a shove in the right direction so I can sweep her off her feet.
It's me. I'm the right direction. Our date is the shove, and I'm very excited to give her a push.
The elevator door opens with a ding, breaking my entirely normal thoughts. I lock my phone screen and shove it into my pocket, pushing myself off of the wall and walking out toward the lobby. I keep my eyes on the glass doors, seeing that my car has already been pulled up by the valet.
"Harry!" Maggie jumps up from her seat behind the desk. "Harry?"
"Not tonight, Magnolia." I use her full government name like she hates. I like to get under her skin, but tonight I just really don't have the time for her.
"Excuse me?" She squawks.
I turn to her, ready to tell her to get bent but something on her desk catches my eyes. "What're those?" I point to the vase of flowers with a card hanging from them.
She furrows her brows. "They're flowers for some resident in the building. They got delivered a few minutes ago. Why, are you jealous thinking someone sent them for me?" She perks up.
"God, no." I nearly laugh at her assumption, walking toward the vase. "Tell whoever these are for that my date is going to love them." I pluck the card off of them, flinging it in her direction. I pick up the flowers by the stems, making the water splash out all over her desk and leave a trail behind me.
She gasps and pulls out a roll of paper towels as I stroll toward the front door with a beautiful arrangement of white and pink roses. I push open the doors and let the hot air hit my face. Even at night here it's blazing balls. Maybe I should have kept them in water, I hope they don't wilt before I can give them to her.
I nod at the valet and take my keys from him, hopping into the front seat and putting the flowers down delicately on the passenger seat. Maybe I should buckle them in so they don't fly all over the place..
It's a ten-minute drive, what am I doing?
I roll my eyes with a sigh, buckling my own seatbelt and turning on the vehicle. It's now 7:19 p.m. and for a Saturday night, the streets are awfully quiet. It's nice that she lives in the outer part of the city where the attractions stop.
I like getting to the normal part of my hometown. I always forget that normal people casually live here, why would anyone choose this place to settle down?
My nerves start to rise as I pull up to the familiar apartment building, making my palms lightly sweat on the steering wheel. My eyes dart to the mirror to make sure I don't look crazy or have a booger or something. That would be my luck, get the girl to come out with me and embarrass myself before we even leave.
I puff out a breath, grab the flowers, and open the car door. My feet hit the pavement and my heart drops to my ass.
This is going to go great, Harry. You have flowers, a fun night planned that she won't regret, and she'll want to see you again. You won't be rejected. She agreed to come out for a reason, she wants to be here, so stop being a nervous prick and just knock on her door.
My hand raises to the wood, flowers trembling slightly behind my back.
I can't, this was stupid. I don't do dates. This was a bad idea..
No, knock you idiot. You're fine. Don't think about tomorrow.
I knock three times and wait for her to answer. I don't hear any movement behind her door, and I'm kind of worried she's standing me up. I look around, checking to ensure I'm in the right place.
I raise my hand to knock again, not ready to give up on what I had planned for us.
Right as my knuckles tap the wood, she opens the door wide-eyed with a toothbrush in her mouth. She's wearing jean shorts and a white corset-type shirt tucked into her bottoms. The top is outlining her boobs and pushing them out.
She looks like an angel standing in front of me, somehow not a single hair is out of place and the lamp behind her makes her look like she has a golden aura. I wouldn't be surprised if wings grew out of her back and took her to heaven right now, that's where she belongs after all.
"What are you staring at?" she grumbles at me, her voice muffled by her foaming toothpaste and brush.
I close my mouth and clear my throat before smiling at her already pissed-off attitude. "You look nice."
She rolls her eyes and turns around, leaving the door open for me to step in. She walks to her bathroom and I hear her spit out the toothpaste before rinsing it down the sink. "You're early," she calls out.
My eyes wander around her apartment, taking in all of the things covering it. I looked for only a minute the first time I was here, but it seems like a completely new room now that I have the chance to really take it in.
Nothing in here seems to match but it all flows together, if that makes sense. I can't find a single inch of her walls that isn't covered by something, whether that be vinyl records, posters, shelves with knickknacks or plants. She even has framed bugs and old-timey pictures with tattered edges.
Her furniture is a mixture of deep greens and woods, with some cream pillows and blankets strewn across the couch.
"What's behind your back?" She startles me, now standing in the short hallway in front of me.
"Oh, uh..." I look around, suddenly embarrassed. I pull the bouquet of flowers out from behind my back, gesturing them toward her. "I stole these for you."
Dammit. Why did I tell her that? I meant to tell her that I hand-picked them fresh from the farmer's market especially for our date. That's believable, right? I think they have those here, fuck if I know, I've been high or drunk pretty much the entire time I've lived here.
She bites her lip to hide her grin and takes them from my hand, inspecting the delicate little white flowers. "You stole these?" She laughs through her nose and starts walking toward the kitchen. I follow her like the lost puppy I am and watch as she bends down to the cabinet below the sink and retrieves a vase.
She starts filling it up with water, glancing over at the flowers while it fills. I try to look at more of her kitchen but one space in particular keeps my attention. The same wall as last time, covered ceiling to floor in menus from different restaurants.
Some of them are fancy and covered with thin plastic casings, while others are laminated paper from burger joints. None of them are from the same place as far as I can tell.
"What is all of this?" I ask with my back to her, reading some names that I recognize on her wall.
"I stole them."
"You steal menus?" I look over my shoulder amused. "Why would you steal those?"
"It started a conversation, didn't it?" She shrugs and arranges the bouquet. "They're fun to look at. Sometimes when I can't think of what to make for dinner I look at the menus until I get hungry for something."
"It's really fun to look at, I haven't been able to keep my eyes off of it both times I've seen it," I agree with her. "But why menus?"
She ponders my question for a minute like she's debating on telling me the real answer.
"It started as a joke. One time Grace walked out of a bar with their drink menu and we were drunk so it was the funniest thing ever. And then the next time we went out for dinner, it made me think about the most difficult thing to take from a restaurant."
I turn fully around to face her, suddenly intrigued by her story. "Like okay, say I drop a fork, they're just going to bring me another one. But when they clear the dishes away at the end of the meal, they won't be counting the forks. And when they seat you, they ask you how many menus you need and then they take back that exact number. So we started seeing how many ways we could distract them to steal a menu." Her cheeks are tinted pink now.
"Weren't you just scolding me for stealing something out of your wallet?"
"That's different! You stalked me after stealing something from my wallet, I just get a little adrenaline rush after getting a new menu." She shrugs.
"So miss good girl Brinna is an adrenaline junkie?" I wiggle my eyebrows at her.
"If you call asking for a dessert menu and then leaving before we order being an adrenaline junkie, then yes." She laughs at the reality of it.
So she does have fun. She likes the rush she gets when she does something she isn't supposed to, even if it is something as small as taking a menu. I would have expected as much, seeing as how she ate up the attention she got on my dance floor. But that type of fun makes her feel bad, this seems to be a way she can get her fix without feeling guilty.
I check the time again, the clock reading 8:23 p.m. She sets her new decoration on the kitchen counter and picks up a small white purse next to it. She digs around in it for a minute before pulling out a pair of sunglasses and putting them on her face. "Ready to go?" She grins at me.
"You know it's dark outside, right?" I follow her out of the small apartment. "You look like a raccoon."
She chuckles and locks the door. "Adds to the mystery. You can't let anyone know your next move."
I hum out a breath, walking side by side with her. "Sunglasses at night and stealing things for fun. You're like a little raccoon bandit."
Bandit.
__
The drive was quiet, I didn't know what type of music she listened to so I just played my usual playlist that consisted of Gym Class Heros, Arctic Monkeys, Hozier, and other songs of that nature. She didn't seem to mind it, she even tapped along to some of the music.
I pulled the car into a parking garage just a few minutes from where we were going. I really hope she doesn't mind walking to get there, I want to be able to show her some of the pretty lights on the way. And if she hates me afterward, she'll have to cool down during the walk back to the car so she doesn't kill me.
My stomach is swirling with nerves thinking about this. I don't know a lot of things, but I'm banking on my limited knowledge of her to make sure she wants to see me again. Maybe that sounds delusional, she very clearly didn't want to go out, and maybe I did practically beg her until she told me yes, but if she really didn't want to be here, she could have just told me to fuck off. Right?
She debated it, and even that split moment of apprehension let me know that she was probably telling me no initially because of how she thought she was going to feel after our date. But this is the whole reason I chose this place, we don't have to get intoxicated to enjoy this experience and I'll make sure we don't use anything that would make her upset.
I just hope I didn't do too much for this being the first time she's gone out with me, or on the strip at all. Maybe it was a bit much, but when I tell you that I couldn't think of a single other thing that checked the boxes it needed to, I really couldn't.
Not based on the few days I had seen her, anyway. Maybe if she wants to do more things like this together, I can learn more about her and really be a good tour guide.
I put the car in park and sit still for a moment, debating if I should even take her to the place or if I should just walk until I find something more tame. I blow out a deep breath and tap the steering wheel, glancing around at the sea of cars parked around us.
"This is a wild first date," Brinna jokes, face glowing from the orange lights illuminating the concrete building. "Are we gonna...?"
"Right, yeah. We can go now, we probably should before it starts." I avoid eye contact with her. "You don't mind walking a few minutes, right?"
"I wore my comfy shoes for a reason, curly." She taps the toes of her beat-up vans together and opens the car door. I follow her lead, getting out and walking around the SUV to catch up. "I'm excited," she admits.
"Well, if you don't hate me after this is over, I have a lot of exciting things I can show you." I nudge her arm, "But save your excitement for after the show, I'm practically sweating bullets over here. You might strangle me."
We walk out of the garage and onto the busy street of the Las Vegas strip. Cars are honking, inching down the street as people run across crosswalks and stumble into the road on drunken adventures. Hotels are lit up in all different colors, making it seem like we're standing here at noon instead of nearly nine at night.
"Shit," I mumble, looking at one of the huge lit-up screens displaying the time. "We've got five minutes before the door closes. We've gotta hurry this up, you up for that?" I give her a smile and hold out my hand.
"That's fine but why are you-?" She gestures to my hand, slightly confused.
"No time!" I shout, grabbing her hand and pulling her behind me as I start jogging through crowds of people along the sidewalk. My grip on her hand is tight as I keep her close to me, knocking into shoulders and backs to make sure we get to the hotel on time.
"Harry! Oh god, I'm sorry! He's an asshole!" Brinna apologizes over and over to people we pass which makes me laugh and give her hand a squeeze. There's a breeze flowing through my loose hair and a thin coat of sweat on my forehead.
When I turn back to look at her, her beautiful brown hair is flying behind her and even though her eyes are trained on the ground, I can see the huge smile across her face.
She likes this too, this rush. This urgency is giving her a little taste of the high she wants. She doesn't even know what we're doing and she's already enjoying it.
I pull her up a set of stairs and across a bridge that overlooks the busy street below, waving at a few flapper girls as we pass. "I love your feathers!" Brinna belts out between her giggle fit, trying to catch her breath whilst being polite to the annoyed people around us.
I let go of her hand so we can run down the staircase on the opposite side, turning back slightly so I know she's still behind me. I jump down the last stair and drop my hands to my knees, smiling and trying to catch my breath. I glance up at the clock again. 8:58 p.m.
This was probably a horrible idea, Peter told me to keep it calm, and running like that knocked the wind straight out of me. I used to be so good at running, I used to love it. I stand back up, turning to see Brinna adjusting her top. I didn't even think about that, she might have given more of a show than we're about to see. Oops.
"Look at me, Brinna," I pant, not wanting her to read any advertisements around us.
"Where are we going?"
"We're here, but you can't look at what's around us until we get inside, okay? I don't want you trying to guess before we get there."
"You made us run like madmen across one street?" She laughs, trying to focus on me but the lights around us blink and twinkle like stars. Her eyes are glistening with them, whispering to me like subtle waves crashing to the shore.
When I was a kid, my parents took me to the beach, I wasn't excited about it, because they wouldn't let me play in the water. They made me wear jeans instead of swimming trunks and we only went at night. We sat in silence on the sand, and I didn't understand their fascination with it until I finally stopped pouting about not getting the sunshine and sandcastles I wanted.
The air was sharp and it smelled like salt and sea life. My toes were buried in the earth, wiggling in the coolness below. The waves fizzled out before us and when they settled, the water glowed with blue algae. The tide pulled it back into the ocean, scattering the organisms around on the sand.
Her eyes remind me of the hypnotic way the water crashed and waved. The fierce glow they have is captivating me. Sometimes in life, the experiences we want aren't what we get, but we do end up with something better. The calmness of the beach is behind me and her eyes are in front of me, dragging me into her nature like water returning to the sea.
"It's more exciting that way, pretty girl." My voice is hushed like I'm talking more to myself than to her. "Let's go inside." My gaze drops back to her hand, lacing her fingers with mine to feel close to her again. I don't know if she held my hand because she didn't know where to go, or if it was because in that moment, she needed the feeling too.
She stayed slightly behind me the entire walk through the hotel until we wound up in the casino. I guided her through it, the scent of coconut and cigarettes burning into my nose. These places always smell weird, but they pump shit through the vents to make customers come back. Isn't that strange? Blame your gambling addiction on the oxygen next time.
We went up a small three-step staircase that led into a curtained theatre. The man at the door nodded us through, not even bothering to check any list. The owner probably told him about us and was expecting us tonight.
I tug her hand so she stands next to me instead of behind me, letting her take in the room before us. The entire room is a deep oak, the floor patterned into V shapes with different shades of wood. There's a raised stage in the middle of the room with a metal light box pouring down blue lights. A red couch sits on each side of the square stage, metal chairs lining behind the couches for a few rows.
The whole room is full of seating, some at small tables, and some stools at bars along the walls. There's even a second story with theatre chairs in different colors of reds and greens. Stage lights are set up all over the ceiling, pointing at different props like the pipes hanging along the railing and metal fireman ladders.
The show hasn't started yet luckily, but the lights are off and the stage is lit up, so I know it will soon. I usher her down the staircase and toward the stage. I glance around until I find the open spot the owner was telling me about, seeing the empty leather couch on the opposite side of the stage. He was not kidding when he said he got us good seats, I could literally touch the edge of the railing if I wanted to. I sit down on the cushion and pat the seat next to mine.
Brinna sits down a little ways away from me, looking around at the room full of women buzzing with excited chatter. Some of them are dressed head to toe in "Bride-To-Be" gear, while others look like they just got done working with Lola.
She looks increasingly confused the longer we sit here and I can't help but pick at my nails watching her try to figure it out. I was hoping she wouldn't see the giant "magic" sign where we walked in from now that we were facing it.
"What is this?" All of the lights in the room shut off, making the crowd of women cheer and holler at what they know is coming. Brinna reaches out for my arm in the dark, squeezing it and whispering things I can't understand through all of the shouting.
Sirens start, red lights glowing with them in sync. Smoke machines fill the top of the room with clouds, and the red lights turn to flashing rays of white. I see her confused face each time the room is lit up momentarily. Pony starts playing through the speakers, vibrating through the floor boards and up through the cushions we're sitting on.
(!)
I smile at the chaos and lean back on the couch, crossing my arms over my chest as I observe Brinna's face. She turns to me once she realizes what the song is and her eyes nearly pop out of her head when huge, muscular, body-glittered men start climbing down the ladders and make their way through the crowd and up onto the stage.
"You fucking did not." She looks at me as it suddenly clicks: I've taken her to watch Magic Mike Live on our first date. I can't contain my smile at her horrified expression.
"You love dancing!" I shout, blowing a whistle out for the men unbuttoning their shirts on stage. "Watch the dancers, Brin!" The nickname seemed to just flow out of my mouth, but she didn't notice.
If you're horny, let's do it, ride it, my pony
The man in front of us throws his white shirt directly at Brinna's face, making her shriek and whip it off to the floor. I throw my head back with a loud laugh, clapping at the man humping the floor. He's got some fucking skill, I'll give him that.
He's on his hands and knees, humping and grinding into the stage. He jumps onto his back, holding on to the edge of the stage and bucking his hips up into the air. Every side of the stage has a man doing the same moves, like an erotic synchronized swim routine.
The four of them stand up and rip their pants off, throwing them to the side and grabbing their crotches through their tight black underwear. The one in front of us jumps off the stage in front of us, eyes locked on Brinna practically shaking on the couch. She's so tense she might actually explode from the nerves.
He jumps up, feet landing on either side of her thighs as he swivels his hips around in her face. "Oh my god! Oh god, oh my god, oh my god-" She covers her eyes, but he grabs her wrists and puts her hands on his thighs as he humps to the beat of the music.
She falls back onto the couch, jaw practically on the floor. Her legs are clenched together so hard that her ankles are wrapped around each other. My arms are relaxed on the back of the couch now, head bopping to the music as she freaks out.
The stripper jumps back off the couch, sliding onto the stage with a seductive smirk on his face. "HOO, HOO, HOO!" I practically bark at the man, Brinna snapping her head to me. Her perplexed face looks like she has about a million things to say, but she can't get a single thing out.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special woman in the house tonight!" An announcer speaks somewhere in the club, lights start circling the room. Her eyes widen on mine as she starts shaking her head, to which I can only start nodding mine with a huge smile on my face.
"Harry you didn't-" She grips onto the edge of the couch.
"Please give it up for the lady of the night, Briiiiiinnaaaaaaa!" A large circular white light stops directly on her, the audience cheering a string of woos and get-it-girl-s! I cheer along with them, completely infatuated by her nervousness. I have no doubt by the time this is over, she'll be on the high she craves.
A large man with a few tattoos on his chest stands in front of her in his briefs, crotch level with her head. His hair is to his shoulders, dark and curly.
"I requested you the most handsome one! Take her away, baby!" I clap and watch her eyes dart between the two of us.
He kneels down in front of her, gripping her thighs and prying them apart. She unwraps her ankles, allowing him to move his hands up her thighs. In the blink of an eye, he scoops her up with his hands under her legs and stands, hoisting her up to sit around his hips.
"AHH! Oh fuck!" She grips onto his shoulders and tightens her legs so she doesn't fall off this fuckin' tree of a man. I wave my fingers at her as he walks her up the stage steps.
"Ride that pony, Brinna!" I shout over the crowd, feeling like one of the horny girls cheering on their best friend behind me. My head bops to the song and I genuinely don't remember the last time I felt this happy, I haven't been this way without some type of drug for as long as I can remember.
He takes her to a single metal chair in the center of the stage and sets her in it gently. He walks behind the chair, his hand ghosting over her shoulder and around to her opposite arm. He takes her wrist and places it on his bare abs, her fingers gliding through each curve and dip.
He stands in front of her, gripping onto the sides of her chair as he grinds his body into her. He lowers himself to his knees, spreading her legs and kissing up her bare thighs. He grinds his hips seductively and touches his own abs. She watches him intently, her cheeks on fire and her eyes scanning over his body.
He loops his arms around her legs behind her back, lifting her up and spinning them in a half circle. His face is right in her crotch and her hands are in his hair while her thighs are over his shoulders. When she spins in my direction, I see her head is fallen back and she has a smile on her lips.
He lowers them to the floor, laying her out straight before grabbing her ankles and sliding her toward him until their centers meet. Her hands are on her chest, making sure her boobs don't spill out of her top at the angle. I can hear her laughter faintly over the thumping music and screams from the crowd.
I raise my hands in the air, cheering the two of them on. He starts humping into her with the music before crawling over the length of her body until he's right in the crook of her ear. Her hands find his sides as he keeps his dancing above her.
He leaps up to his feet, pulling her up with him to press into his chest. He drops her hands and grabs her hips, spinning her around fast and bending her slightly to pretend to spank her. The crowd goes wild at this, which makes Brinna lean over all the way and throw it back on him even more. The two of them dance against each other until the music starts to fade, making them both stand up straighter.
He turns her back around, taking her hand to kiss the back of it and thanking her for coming up on stage. He turns to the crowd and raises her arm, gesturing at her for the crowd to applaud. He bows and leads her off the stage and back to the couch next to me.
"It's getting hot in here, baby! Give it up one more time for our lady of the night!" The dancers and crowd go wild again as she's a giggling mess beside me, fixing her hair and fanning off her face. I notice she decided to sit slightly closer to me than she was before, seeming far more relaxed now.
I knew she would get a kick out of this.
Okay, I didn't know. I was actually shitting my pants hoping I didn't majorly fuck up by doing this.
The dancers wrap up their show, exiting through the crowd to wherever it is they came out from. The lights slowly turn on as the final applause fades, and I keep my eyes on hers to see if she's going to crash soon. I really fucking hope I didn't do too much.
I stand up, wanting to get out of this hot room and maybe go find something to eat. She jumps up with me, eyes focused on the exit and doesn't say a single thing as we walk out of the building and onto the street. She's making me kind of nervous with her fast pace and lack of emotion.
"You set all of that up?" She whips around to face me, no readable expression on her face.
I gulp and nod slightly. "I-If that was too much, I'm so-"
"Harry shut up, you did that?" she asks again, eyes flicking between mine.
"I thought you would like the experience of dancing for a crowd without all the other... stuff."
She looks at me for a minute, examining the worried look on my face, before she topples over and lets out a loud laugh, one that comes from deep in your belly and makes your muscles hurt from how hard they're straining. Her laughter echoes through my ears and leaves me with a confused grin.
She grabs onto my arm as she keeps cackling so she doesn't fall over. I hold her arm back, trying to figure out if this is a good thing or a bad thing. She finally slows down her laughing and stands up straight to look at me with watery eyes. "That was- that was so good!" She gets out between the last straying giggles.
"You liked it?"
I thought for sure she was about to kick my ass in front of this hotel for everyone on the strip to see. I thought I was going to have to explain to my associates why a five-foot woman beat me up after I took her to a male stripper show and asked them to practically fuck her with an audience watching.
But she liked it.
Maybe I do know everything.
"Harry that was the most fun I've ever had and I didn't have a drop of alcohol," she says seriously. She leans up on her tippy toes and moves her hands up my arms until they reach my shoulders. "But I think you should take me home," she whispers, looking at my lips.
Before I can even process what she's saying, she's grabbing my hand and pulling me across the street toward my parked car, not even caring about the traffic currently driving down the busy road. Horns honk at us, and this time I'm the one apologizing while the Bandit in front of me takes us back to my car.
***