Page 13 of Tops
Actual grunts sounded through the apartment now. I grabbed my speaker to take with me into the shower, since it shared a wall with Hannah’s room. Holding my phone to control the music, I noticed Tanner had replied.
Tanner:Was he not your type? Or do you not like threesomes?
Nessa:I don’t think you get to ask me questions like that.
A rush of heat flooded me as I hit send. Something about the way we bickered started my heart like jumper cables. It probably wasn’t healthy.
Tanner:You started the conversation. You said it was a funny story. I’m just trying to get the facts.
I sighed, knowing that I didn’t need to explain anything to him. But I wanted to. I wanted more of this twisted little bit of excitement I felt messaging him. The anticipation of his returned text. Waiting to see his response. There was something I could immediately sense as addictive in our little exchange.
Nessa:He was handsome. But I think I’m too much to handle for him to also have another woman to attend to.
Spun it in a way that kept things mysterious, just like Hannah taught me.
Tanner:You need a devil’s three-way then.
I looked at his message, then tilted my head to the side. Nope. It wasn’t any clearer from that angle. I decided googling was better than texting him back for an explanation. And I was right. My mouth instantly felt dry. My hands slightly trembled as I typed out my reply.
Nessa:Just need one more man in the house then. Too bad. I’m off to get into the shower to get ready for the appointment thrust upon me today. Consider this my confirmation. I’ll drag Hannah along with me if I must.
I quickly swiped to bring up my favorite playlist, sending the first song into the speaker in my hand. I felt its slight vibrations as the music started to pour out the heavy beat of the drum. Walking to the bathroom, I almost felt like dancing. There was nervous energy inside me, and I wasn’t terrified of it for once.
I received a text message via a loud and sudden beep through not my phone speaker but my handheld speaker, causing me to jump and drop it. The song resumed a second later, but I left the speaker on the ground as I flipped open my text screen.
Tanner:Good.
As I stepped out into the whipping winds and pelting rain, I was thankful for my warm shower and attire. Of course, Tanner ruined my perfect rainy day in bed. Men these days just don’t appreciate a good rainy day.
Hannah, however, was not coming with me. She left the apartment while I was taking a shower. I didn’t even hear her leave because of how loud my music was. She left me a note on the table that said, “Go get him, tiger,” with a crude drawing of a dick and balls. Hannah never had any artistic skills. She usually left that up to me.
I left her a note sitting next to the one she left for me. This was a more detailed sketch of a penis with vein shading. Mine was captioned, “Go suck on it.”
I turned out from under the awning of our building, umbrella extended. As I pushed it up to the sky, I heard someone calling my name. Squinting into the sheets of rain, I saw a black car stationed at the entrance to my building. A giant of a man stood on the sidewalk.
“Nessa,” he said, with that deep low rumble of a voice. It mixed in with the next roll of thunder.
“You’re the bouncer from Tops, right?” I asked, stepping into the rain toward him.
“Boss sent me to pick the two of you up,” the bouncer grumbled before opening the rear door. It looked like there were leather seats inside.
“Hannah’s not coming. Just me tonight, and I think I’ll gladly accept a ride, considering your boss dragged me out of bed and into the rain on my day off.” I wasn’t sure how much of my grumbling the bouncer could hear over the sound of the rain. I ducked into the car anyway, the door closing shut once I was inside.
I watched through the fogged glass as the massive shadow of the bouncer came around and opened the driver’s door. I wasn’t even discreet as I watched in fascination as he got into the car quickly, despite having nearly no headroom once he was seated. He drove us in silence, not bothering to turn on the radio for our trip. It wasn’t even faster going the short distance in a car, but at least I wasn’t sludging in the rain.
The rain moved slowly down the window. I resumed my game of watching the drops race each other for the finish line. Gobbling up other globs of water along the way. Fattening themselves up to fall the fastest. I let the rest of the noisy world slip away for a few moments while focusing on this one moment of calm. A little bit of the quiet before the storm that was Tanner.
The bouncer drove into an alley as we approached the familiar building. Neon-white lights pierced through the darkness. Tops. There was no sign for Bottoms. Maybe that was where Tanner kept his real secrets. Inside his literal sex dungeon.
With the press of a button, a garage door opened in front of us. The bouncer drove the car in, coming to a stop amid the other fancy black cars that looked identical to the one I was sitting in. I watched his shadow move around the outside of the vehicle as he came to open the door for me.
I blushed slightly, grabbing my umbrella from the floor and getting out of the car. It had been a while since I’d had someone open a door for me like that. My dad used to insist on always opening the door for my mom and me before he died. Killed in the line of duty.
“This way Nessa,” the bodyguard said in his deep voice, pulling me out of memories that should have been left buried.
5
Not a Fairy Tale
