“I- um- well…” Joannie stammered. She reached up and adjusted her mask with her free hand and glanced around the club. “I have no idea where the back rooms are at all. I… I really thought I would never had a reason to use them.”

“You thought you would never have to use them?” I asked with a soft laugh. “You are dressed up so gorgeously and you thought you would just end up going home alone and frustrated?”

“I mean, that is exactly what happened last night,” she replied sheepishly.

Her hand was already sweating in mine, nerves running overtime, I could feel her heartbeat in the meaty part of her palm between her thumb and index finger. Though we had stood and I had made it clear that I intended to take her up on her playful offer to go to a back room it was obvious that she was a ball of anxious nerves about the prospect of actually acting on her desires.

“We don’t have to do this if it’s too soon for you. I am down if you end up really wanting to, but I know I kind of just sprung pulling you to the back kind of suddenly. I want you to be very certain that it’s what you want and not something you’ll wake up tomorrow and regret.”

“Oh I don’t think I would regret it at all, just took me off guard I think. I really want to, but I am terrified that I’m going to make a fool out of myself somehow and won’t be able to look you in the eye anymore. Maybe just go grab us more drinks and let me chill on the idea for a little bit until I’m ready?” She reluctantly let go of my hand and sat back at our table on slightly shaky legs, giving me a smile much more shy than I had ever seen her before.

“Sure,” I said, not able to help the giggle escaping my lips from how cute she was being, “would you like the same thing?”

Her head nodded and her face flushed. “Make it a double, I’m going to need it I think.”

I crossed the club floor with much more confidence this time, though I couldn’t tell if that was due to the fact that I had a lot more confidence now that I knew Joannie was into me or if my eyes had finally adjusted to the point where I could see a lot better. I suspected it wasn’t really the latter seeing as the mask was really starting to annoy me, the limited peripheral vision made me have to wildly turn my head side to side as I stepped through the seating area to make sure I wasn’t accidentally bumping anything and sending drinks flying. Even in just the few minutes it had taken for the two of us to confess that our good-natured joking about a sexual attraction had been way more real than either of us wanted to admit, the club had started to fill up, many of the tables that had been empty on our way in were now populated with couples and groups of people chatting and drinking, eagerly looking around the club trying to find someone who might catch their eye. There seemed to be a distinct lack of lone wolves there on their own which made perfect sense to me, I was willing to bet that a lot of people lacked the confidence needed to show up to a known sex club on their own and most women would want safety in numbers.

One lone wolf in particular caught my eye on my way through the growing crowd. He was set up at a small table next to the wall and I felt instant butterflies in my stomach when we accidentally met eyes and his lips cracked into the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. He raised his whisky glass in a gesture of greeting and I gave a nervous wave back along with a wide smile of my own. I felt bad feeling any effect at all from some random person given that I had just sort of started a trial relationship of some sort with Joannie, but it wasn’t like I could help it and I hadn’t done anything more than give a friendly wave. I felt both exhilarated and guilty when he stood from his seat and followed me up to the bar. There was now a line to order which I didn’t mind, but it did mean that I would not have an excuse to avoid talking to the man approaching me.

“Hello,” he said, his smile even more beautiful up close, “hope this isn’t too weird coming up to talk to you at random. I just came alone and I saw you walking alone and thought maybe we could team up for a confidence boost.” He let a nervous, airy laugh out through his teeth as he ran a hand through his hair. It was hard to tell in the low light just what color it was other than not a light blonde, same with his eyes, I could tell they were dark but not much more than that.

“Oh, well I’m not actually here alone, I came with my… uh…” I hesitated as I struggled to logic through what exactly to call Joannie now. It felt extremely weird to flat out call her my girlfriend, we hadn’t even worked up the nerve in the past five minutes to kiss each other, but calling her just a friend was just as weird to me now.

“It’s complicated?” he guessed.

“Yeah, very, but if you want people to sit with I don’t see why you couldn’t join us. In fact, it might even be a good idea for us, having two women alone in a club can invite unwanted trouble.”

“Got it, I will threaten anyone who gets too handsy that you don’t want to be all over either of you.” He smiled again and felt myself melt a little more, this was shaping up to be a very complicated and confusing evening.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asked once we made it to the front of the line. It looked like his chest had been freshly oiled at some point recently, it glistened brightly reflecting the pink and green neon lights set up behind the display of available liquor.

“Another whisky sour for me,” he said, then turned to me, “what would the ladies like?”

“Double vodka soda and a gin and pineapple,” I answered.

The bartender must have had a lot of work experience under his leather belt, because before enough time had elapsed for the silence between myself and the guy I had just met to get awkward the drinks were done. The mystery man slipped a twenty dollar bill across the bar and handed me Joannie and I’s drinks before grabbing his own and waiting for me to direct us where to go. I led him back to Joannie who much to my relief had an amused look on her face instead of anger.

“I send you for fresh drinks and you return with a whole other person!” she laughed, shaking her head. “You have said over and over since I’ve first known you that you don’t like the clubbing scene and yet you’re so much better at it than I am. Every time I go out I just end up sitting alone or with who I went with, I almost never meet anyone new.”

“Look it wasn’t me,” I insisted while sitting her drink in front of her, “he insisted we band together since he’s alone and maybe we could use some masculine backup just in case.”

I settled into the chair next to her, wrapping my arm around her waist while I sipped my drink with the other. A flush immediately rose to my cheeks from the first time I showed affection with her with someone else present. Well… real, sincere affection, not something meant to be taken as a joke by all parties involved. It was going to be really awkward returning to work and having to keep up the charade of our playful sexual banter just being play and I didn’t even want to think of the repercussions that could happen for the both of us if it got out that were were an item. Technically it was not against company policy to date someone outside of your team, but after today I was going to have the eye of scrutiny on me forevermore when it came to any romantic involvement.

“That’s probably a good idea. My name’s Jenny, what’s yours?” She extended her hand across the table for a handshake.

“Joey,” he replied, shaking her hand.

Of course that was the mystery man’s fake name, the universe really had a sarcastic sense of humor.

“Oh and I’m Cici,” I said, trying very hard not to smirk at how ridiculous I thought my own fake name was. “Sorry, I probably should have led with that.”

“No worries, I should have too, we both were too awkward to do the whole basic human interaction thing.”

“So what are you doing here all on your own?” Joannie asked.

The alcohol from earlier must have kicked in a bit, because she leaned against me and was no longer shaking and her skin had cooled. Having the bare skin of her shoulders resting against me was driving me absolutely insane and for the first time I felt like maybe I kind of understood the antiquated thinking where bare shoulders or collar bones could be considered obscene. I found my hand migrating from her waist up to her shoulder where I could gently stroke my fingers along her upper arm.

“Well I heard about this place from the guys at my usual bar,” he explained. “They were all boasting about how much action they were getting with random chicks, even though they were still at the normal spot every night. I thought I’d come check it out and kind of call their bluff. I’m not attached to anyone and the whole point of going without my guy friends is to rub it in their face later, so no one to come with me. Which, by the way, would you mind if I took a selfie with the two of you as proof? I would just take it of me, but I think they would say I just put on a mask in a normal club to make it look like I went, but if I get you two in it with the whole get up they know I was definitely here.”

“Did you actually ask to hang out with us just for the purpose of the picture?” I asked with a smirk.

He gave his best shocked and appalled face, then broke into laughter. “Alright, you caught me, that was the original impetus, but hey, it worked out right?”

“You’ll get along with us just fine,” I said and squished closer to Joannie so that he could position his phone to get the two of us together behind him in the photo.

He lined up the best angle, holding his arm out far away to get all of us and some of the background of the club in the image for further proof. Right before he hit the button to snap the photo, I turned my head and planted a surprise kiss on Joannie’s neck, right below her jaw. The phone beeped having took the picture and she let out a soft, surprised gasp, turning towards me with a shocked expression. Feeling emboldened and thinking she looked absolutely adorable being so shocked by the fact I had kissed her neck, I leaned in and planted a kiss on her soft lips. Calling the kiss electric really fails to fully explain how amazing it was, it was better than any kiss I had ever had with my ex, even the very first ones where it’s brand new and exciting. I nearly lost all feeling in my body and fell off my seat when she pressed back into the kiss and let out a happy sigh. The phone beeped again and the both of us broke the kiss to look incredulously at a very guilty looking Joey.

“I couldn’t help it,” he said, “you both are just so beautiful and it was such a perfect picture. I can delete it if you want though.”

“I don’t think it’s a problem with me, not like anyone could really identify us,” Joannie said.

“Yeah, not like I’m going to throw a fit about someone having a random picture of me kissing my girlfriend even if people would recognize us,” I added.

“You called me your girlfriend,” Joannie said with a long, happy sigh. “That feels amazing.”

“Aww, brand new relationship?” Joey asked and put his phone back in his pocket.

“Very, it’s all of like fifteen minutes old. Though I suppose we’ve known each other for years, just worked up the nerve to actually act on things,” I explained.

“So you find this out after going to an anonymous sex club?” He let out a loud laugh. “You two seem like a lot of fun. I can already tell this is going to be a really fun night.”