“Well, my specialty is security. That’s what I did down in South America.” I nodded and looked at my future employer across the table.
“Do you know how to handle a gun—not that we anticipate it will be necessary.” He flipped through the resume I had put together.
“Yeah, I’ve had a lot of training with firearms.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “And I’ve had to use them more than once.”
“We might have a job for you, then. There’s a club that has been looking to beef up their security detail. I think you’d be a good fit.” He put my resume down. “Can you start tonight?”
“Absolutely!” I nodded quickly.
The company set me up with a gig as a security guard for a place called Club Infinite Fantasy. My job was to watch the parking lot, walk people to the door, and walk them to their cars when they had their fun. I didn’t know what exactly happened behind the large wooden doors, but I had a pretty good idea. The club seemed to cater to a rather upscale members only crowd. I didn’t really care what they were doing inside—my job was to keep them safe. It was quiet most of the time, and I didn’t even have to brandish my weapon. We had a little trouble with a group of Hispanic bikers, but they didn’t seem to do much more than stare and ask for admission. I settled into my job and things seemed to be going great. That’s when all hell broke loose.
I always worked at night and wasn’t part of the small crew that worked during the day. That turned out to be a good thing when the bikers that had been hanging around the club decided that they were coming in one way or another. I showed up as soon as I heard the story on the news, and was greeted by police tape covering the door of the club. The dried blood on the steps confirmed that what the news said was true. It appeared that I was out of a job, but the door was ajar, so I pushed it open and walked inside. The club was deserted except for a few people sitting at the bar.
“You’re one of the security guys, right?” The woman that owned the club, a ravishing blonde named Angelina, looked over at me.
“Yes.” I nodded. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help earlier.”
“You’d probably be in the morgue if you were.” She sighed and picked up her drink. “Join me, I’m just drowning my misery in alcohol.”
“Sure.” I nodded and walked over. “It doesn’t look like my services will be needed tonight.”
“No.” She shook her head back and forth. “The city didn’t waste any time letting us know they were shutting down the club. It’s probably for the best, anyway. We thrived on anonymity. Now we’re on the news.”
“Sorry to hear that.” I took a seat and ordered a beer. “I guess they can only turn a blind eye to prostitution for so long.”
“Prostitution?” Angelina scoffed and glared at me. “That isn’t what we offer—offered.”
“I apologize. I didn’t mean to offend you.” I took my beer and sipped it. “I honestly had no idea what you were doing in here, I just made assumptions based on what I saw.”
“Do you want to see? I might as well try to make one more dream come true before I shut this place down.” She tilted her head to the side.
“Um, sure.” I shrugged. “Why the fuck not?”
Angelina took me to her office and told me what Club Infinite Fantasy was really about. It wasn’t a fancy brothel or a high-end prostitution service. She helped people find what they truly desired, regardless of what direction it took them in. She spent some time with me, and we went over my life. She admitted that finding the right match for me might be difficult since I had lived off the grid most of my adult life. She asked a lot of questions, punched details into her tablet, and when then leaned back in her chair.
“Have you ever been in love?” She lifted her gin and tonic and swirled it for a moment before taking a drink.
“No.” I shook my head back and forth. “That’s kind of why I came back to the States. I wasn’t going to find what I really wanted in South America.”
“So, never?” She narrowed her eyes. “No girl has ever made you feel excited about anything but fucking her?”
“Well…” I sighed and sipped my beer. “There was one girl, but it was a lifetime ago.”
“Tell me about her.” She leaned forward and smiled. “Tell me everything.”
“Her name was Harmony Carmichael. She was amazing…” I put my beer down on the table and felt my eyes spacing out.
I haven’t thought about her since high school.
3
Harmony
Nate. I had completely forgotten that he even existed until Angelina pointed him out.
Nate sat beside me in Anthropology class. We kept each other entertained when the teacher was boring. Our brief friendship was unusual. I don’t think he would have even talked to me if we didn’t end up across the row from each other in class. He was a perpetual bad boy that had tempted more than one girl at the school out of her panties. One day he disappeared and left a few broken hearts in his wake. There were a lot of rumors, but I didn’t pay much attention to them. I missed him after he was gone, but he never showed any interest in me, so I assumed I wasn’t his type. I couldn’t even remember the last conversation we had.
He probably just remembers me from high school and wants to say hello.