Chapter One
Giselle
.
Sexy, confident, daring…
That is what I will be tonight.
I’m going to be this sexy, confident woman and leave the me of the past behind.
Tonight I will be wild and daring.
Not Miss. Goodie Two Shoes Giselle St. John, who spent her life buried in law books.
It’s my birthday, and this is the new me. I look like a million dollars and I feel like a new woman doing something different and unknown.
Tonight is about me and I’m living it, especially with the big day that awaits me tomorrow as I start my new job as a junior associate at Tanners.
What is the point of being en route to a successful legal career if you have no life?
Or, if your me, watching your ex-boyfriend inform the world how badly I sucked the life out of him, and his newfound happiness with his host of Victoria’s Secret models is because he kicked his boring as shit ex-girlfriend, a.k.a, me, to the curb.
That is how Kirk described me on national tv days ago for all to hear.
Bastard.
I wish someone could have told me years ago to stay away from him. It would have saved me years of stress and the heartache of a bad breakup where yes, he did indeed kick me to the curb.
I do wish though that he could see me tonight.
I may be nervous as hell dressed in a violet baby doll negligee under a matching silk robe and heels to match, but I’d gladly inform his ass I’m anything but boring and I don’t drain the life out of people. I know how to have fun and I can be wild.
That’s why I’m here tonight, at the Dark Odyssey, a sex club.
I’m here with Rachel and Jia, my two best friends, who often frequent the place. We’re third in the line to get our masks for the masquerade themed lingerie parties they hold here every night. The two are dressed alike in blood red slips with sheer netted robes.
Rachel turns to me and giggles, tucking a lock of her dark hair behind her ear. Of the three of us she’s the most wild. I’ve known her since I was five and I swear my first lesson on sex was taught by her. Over the years she’s kept up to date on everything, so this is the norm to her.
“Can you look a little less stiff?” she says to me and shakes her head.
Jia gives me a smile. “Yes dear, it’s not you who’s supposed to be stiff, save that for your guy.”
They both start laughing.
Rachel leans into me and gives me a pointed stare. “You always get this stiff look when you’re thinking about Kirk. Tonight is about leaving all the shit outside.”
She points out the doors where a couple has just walked in. You can tell they’re VIP because they walk on ahead past the line and carryon down the corridor, strolling along like they come here on the regular.
I return my attention to Rachel and nod. She’s right. I’m leaving the shit outside. All of it.
“Believe me I am,” I say, looking from her to Jia. “There’s no shit on my mind. I’m just nervous… but it’s the excited kind.”
I groan inwardly when they exchange disbelieving glances, confirming the suspicion I’ve had since Rachel came up with the idea to come here. Pure and simple, she didn’t expect me to say yes.
They’re both excited for me to join them in the wildness they usually get up to, but they’re expecting me to flake out, freak, then leave.
The shit happened with Kirk days ago, not only embarrassing me but crushing me because it felt like the last blow. When I declared I would go wild for my birthday and bring in my twenty-sixth year doing something different, she didn’t expect me to say yes when she came up with the idea to come here.
I did though, much to their shock, and that’s how w
e ended up here.
“Well, just know there’s nothing to be nervous of,” says Jia, the girl who’s been coming here since she was eighteen even though you have to be twenty-one to get in. “It’s fantasy and adventure.”
“Yes, but if it gets too much… we’ll understand if you leave,” Rachel imparts with a crude accusatory look that’s telling me she’s thinking back to when I left her cousin’s bachelorette party because there were too many strippers.
I felt it was disrespectful to Kirk to have some guy up in my face with his cock hanging out wanting to show me a good time.
They thought I was being too good. Turns out they were right. That was the first time I felt Kirk cheated on me, although I had no real proof.
“I’m not leaving,” I tell them with a nod of my head and a lift in my shoulders that makes my long brown hair drift around my elbows.
“You sure?” Rachel quirks a brow.
“Yes,” I answer with more insistence and again they look at each other.
“Okay, Giselle… it’ll be good if you stay. I think you’ll find it different and you may surprise yourself.”
“I’ll be fine.” I smile because it’s all I can do.
To be honest, I’m just thinking this is the wildest thing I’ve ever done and I have no other thoughts past that. Except the fact that I’m still wound up about all the negative things Kirk said about me. As if it wasn’t hard enough to move on from a three-year relationship, and the fact that he’s the only man I’ve ever been with. After being broken up for the last six months, his words were like salt on a wound opened that had been healing.
We get to the head of the line, and the receptionist greets us. She’s beautiful with bright auburn hair and large green eyes.
“Welcome to the Dark Odyssey, ladies,” she beams. “Are you here by yourselves looking for an adventure, or are you meeting someone?”
“We’re here for an adventure,” Rachel answers for the three of us and the receptionist smiles.
“Fantastic, here are your masks and bags,” she says and hands us each a black mask and a little sheer bag that reminds me of the sort you’d get at a wedding with a party favor. It’s smaller though, with a silver coin inside.
She sees me looking at mine and smiles wider.
“The coin is to give to the person you want to spend the night with, or have an adventure with.”
“I would just give it to them?” I ask. I can’t imagine it. What would I do? Just walk up to a guy and hand him the coin?
I’m going for this wild thing, but that borders more on bravery.