“No,” Salvi agreed. “We can’t.” Chaney’s staff carouseled through her mind; Dante, Jennifer and Jaime from The Dream Bar, the androgynous woman in the suit, Anamatrix, and the neural device-wearing bartenders on the Ceiling, and Erica in Diabolique. She thought then of Chaney’s longtime clients too; the little old man, Hillier, with his virtual ‘pets’, the woman in the digital mask, the young, handsome Tom. There were so many possibilities.
They saw the video walls of the club lighting up the street before them.
Salvi turned to Bronte. “Ok, get in the middle of us and act like King Cock.”
“King Cock?” Bronte looked at her. “You should’ve brought a white man here, Salv. You’d stand a better chance getting in with these guys.”
She shook her head and hooked her arm around his. “It doesn’t matter. Your one penis is still worth more than our two vaginas.”
“I doubt that,” he laughed.
Kara looked at Bronte as she hooked her arm through his other. “How many Presidents of color have we had now?”
“Two,” he answered. “And Collins is looking good for the third.”
“Yeah,” Kara nodded, “all men. Now how many female Presidents we had?”
Bronte looked at her and didn’t answer.
“See?” Salvi said. “So strut your stuff, King Cock.”
Salvi, Kara and Bronte had no problems accessing the Ceiling, and Salvi made a mental note to thank Chaney’s lawyer for that. They made their way to the bar, where Bronte bought them drinks from the neural device-wearing bar staff. Salvi noted the staff tonight were different from the others she’d been served by on previous nights. They took their drinks and made their way over to the couch area. They sat together, fake laughing and hanging off Bronte, doing their best to make him look like ‘the man’.
Two hours had passed before a young man entered the Ceiling that Salvi recognized. He was tall and lean with angular features, strawberry blond hair styled modestly and his suit expensive yet understated. This was a guy who had a distinct presence, a confidence about him, and didn’t need flashy clothes to stand out.
“Two o’clock,” she said to Bronte and Kara. “It’s not Tom Bradley, but that guy was definitely in the photo with Caine.”
“Who’d he come with?” Kara said, checking her reflection in her mirrored compact.
“He looks to be alone,” Salvi said, watching him make his way to the bar. “I feel the sudden need to get a drink.”
Salvi stood and made her way to the bar. She left a small distance between her and the young man as she ordered. They locked eyes while each waited, and she smiled at him. He smiled back and when he received his drink, he raised it in a toast to her, then departed. She smiled wider. When her drink was ready, she took it back to Kara and Bronte.
“Maybe we should invite him to drink with us?” Salvi said. “Use him being alone as our angle in.”
“You want King Cock to do it?” Bronte asked.
Salvi looked at the guy, then nodded to Bronte. “Yeah. Give it ten, then go.”
They waited their ten minutes, drinking, laughing, drawing the man’s eye on occasion. Eventually Bronte stood and walked over to the guy. They spoke, shook hands, then Bronte sat down for a few minutes, before motioning over to Salvi and Kara. They both smiled at the guy. He smiled back, then stood and followed Bronte back to them.
“Ladies, this is Kelvin,” Bronte said. “Kelvin, this Sarah and Kim.”
“Ladies,” Kelvin said, offering his hand with a slight bow. “It’s lovely to meet you. I haven’t seen you around here before.”
“I haven’t seen you here either,” Salvi smiled, then motioned to Bronte. “But we’re new to town. We’ve only been coming here for a few weeks now. This is fast becoming our new home, though.”
“It’s a great place,” Kelvin said, taking a seat beside Kara.
“You come here often?” Kara said, giving him a sexy smile.
“I do,” he smiled. “It’s like my second home. Or maybe my third.”
“What’s your first and second?” Salvi asked.
Kelvin looked at her and smiled. “Well, that would be my house and my apartment. Oh, but wait, I also forgot my holiday house.”
Kara and Salvi exchanged a glance and a laugh. Salvi had to fight not to roll her eyes at his blatant property listing.
“Well, now, you have me intrigued,” Salvi said. “What business are you in to afford such a portfolio?”
“A lucrative one,” he smiled.
“Oooh, we have a coy one here,” Kara said. “One hundred dollars says I get that secret out of you before the night is through.”
“A hundred dollars?” he smiled. “Is that all?”
“Name your price?” Kara said.
“Hmm,” he said, eyeing her. “Tell you what, if you’re still around at the end of the night, I’ll name my price then.”
Kara leaned toward him. “You don’t think I have the staying power?”
He went to say something, but his eyes diverted to the door. “Oh. My party has just arrived.”
Salvi looked over to the entrance and saw Tom Bradley walking in with the other two guys from the photo with Caine.
“There’s plenty of room if they want to join us,” Salvi said, then looked to Bronte. “The more the merrier, isn’t that our motto?” she smiled.
Bronte smiled. “Absolutely.”
Kelvin stood and moved to greet the others. They gathered close and spoke, the other three sets of eyes glancing over to them.
“We need more women,” Bronte said quietly to Kara and Bronte. “There’s not enough of you to go around.”
Kara looked at him. “How do you know that isn’t exactly what these guys go for?”
“They’re coming,” Salvi said, sipping her drink.
They watched as the group approached them and introductions were made. Tom introduced himself to Bronte, kissed Salvi’s hand, then greeted Kara. The stocky guy beside him with a closely cropped head of dark hair was called Travis, and the chestnut-haired one wearing data-enabled glasses, with the long fringe but
