“I’m nervous too! I’m doing my best not to fuck anything up this time and just be myself—at a sex club, with the hottest woman in New Orleans. Open it.” I nodded toward the box.
She reached inside and pulled out a diamond necklace charm in the shape of the phantom mask. Her hands shook while she cradled it in her palm, running her fingertip over the charm.
“Here. I’ll put it on you.”
She held the necklace out for me and turned her neck. I brushed her hair to the side, watching the goose bumps rise at the nape of her hairline.
“I want you to have my mask. I don’t want to wear it anymore with you. I want to be yours, and you, mine. No masks allowed. Keep it there, and don’t let me wear it. It can be a reminder to both of us.” I clasped the chain and kissed her cheek.
“I don’t … I don’t even know what to say. It’s gorgeous and like nothing I’ve ever seen. Only you could have pulled that off. No more masks, promise?”
“Well, that’s a problem. No more masks between us, but tonight, we do have to wear a mask. My order somehow got screwed up, and”—I handed her a much larger box—“these are the masks they sent. It’s all I have.”
Samantha opened the box and pulled out two neon-green Mexican wrestling masks. “Are you kidding me?” She dropped the masks in her lap.
“I wish I were,” I sighed. “But, hey! Remember that awesome necklace hanging around your neck? Yeah! Let’s focus on that baby! She’s shiny and different and—”
“And will be glowing underneath this neon head condom.” She pinched the mask between her fingers and held it up to my face.
I pressed my palms to my forehead.
“Do you want to cancel? I didn’t even know about these masks until I opened them on my way to you. I’m so sorry, Samantha.”
“Nope. We’re not canceling. We’re going to wear our wrestling masks and wrestle onstage, giving the performance you told me you wanted to give. At least with this latex nightmare, no one will know who we are or give us a second glance. In fact, we’ll probably scare them all off.”
“Good. I don’t share, and neither do you.” I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled into my fake microphone, “Let’s get ready to ruuuumble!”
We entered the building through a sketchy back alley. The smell of cheap cologne and cat piss hung heavy in the air. For a quick moment, I wanted to turn away and run back to more familiar territory. Music thumped through the walls, bouncing off the bricks and down the alley. I didn’t know if my bubbly feeling was the bassline in my soul or a nervous stomach. I swallowed hard and let Samantha lead the way.
“I feel like the circulation to my brain is getting cut off in this thing,” I whispered to her as she gave a secret knock on the back door. I assumed it was a secret knock anyway. I might be making this adventure more dramatic than it was.
“Pipe down, Throat-Punch Jones, or I’ll deliver a pile driver you’ll never forget,” she hissed at me. Her mask pulled tight around her face, making her head look two times too small.
“You’re really getting into character, aren’t you?” I put my arm around her and squeezed.
Samantha slipped the doorman her ID through a mail slot.
“Adam.” She nodded as he opened the door and let us inside.
“Long time no see, Sam. Those are quite the masks you two are wearing tonight. I’m sure you’ll get lots of interesting conversations out of it at least. But probably just that and nothing more.” He handed Samantha her ID and backed away from us.
“Oh, you know, trying something new. Don’t shame the kink community, right? Latex … wrestling … it’s just another day for us swingers.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me through a dark hallway, toward flashing lights.
The bass from the music thumped harder in my veins. It was all I could hear—until I reached an open room the size of a small warehouse. Moaning and grunts grew louder than the tunes vibrating off of the walls. It sounded like a bunch of farm animals at a rave. I was positive I heard a donkey in here somewhere.
Samantha led me to a bar in the back where we ordered drinks right beside a man getting a blow job. He looked at me, shook his head, and took a sip of his whiskey as if everything were normal. As if his dick wasn’t hanging out with not one, but two blondies playing with it. And as if standing next to a pro wrestler in the middle of it all wasn’t absurd.
My cock thickened as I tried to discreetly watch the blondies work. I had never seen such a place before in my life. I’d been to strip clubs in the past, but this was no strip club. I glanced around the room at people fucking everywhere. I noticed couch after couch crawling with couples. I couldn’t figure out where one person ended and another began.
“This is the wildest thing I’ve ever seen!” I said to Samantha as she handed me my drink and threw her own back.
Her eyes darted around from under her mask.
“Hey, are you okay? Is it okay we’re here?” I reached out and rubbed between her shoulder blades.
“It’s wild because it’s the main room. Show-offs. There are other rooms if you want to find someplace quieter.” Her body stiffened. She hadn’t answered my question.
“Show me. Take me somewhere we can be alone.”
We grabbed our drinks and headed down another hallway with doors on either side. We walked by an open room with the biggest bed I’d ever seen. A jumble of hands, feet, penises, and butts rolled around the bed like a giant creature from out of space.
Nope. Not that room.
We kept walking until we reached the end of the hall where a dim red light shone through the doorway.
“Let’s talk here. I need to get myself together before I go back in there,” she whispered.
It was much quieter on this side of the building.
We walked toward an empty corner table and sat down.
“It’s the noob room for pre-show jitters.” She nodded toward the two couples who were sitting, talking and fully dressed.
“Aha! Good. You looked like you could use some quiet.”
She sighed and rolled her mask up to her forehead so that I could see her face. “This is the place where my life changed forever. It’s where I walked in and saw my husband and best friend.”
“Oh shit. Why didn’t you tell me? I’m sorry, Samantha. I thought it was just a place y’all came to. I didn’t know it was the place that was burned forever in your brain. Come on; let’s go.”
I stood up to leave, but she grabbed my hand and pulled me back into my chair.
“No. No more masks. No more past life.” She clutched her necklace. “I can get through this. I want to do this … for you and me.”
“I don’t want you to do anything for me. I want you to do it all for you. So, if you think you can’t handle it—”
“Excuse me? Can’t handle it? Do you even know me?”
I rolled my mask up so that she could see my face too. “I do know you … very well. I’ve not stopped thinking about you since Halloween. I want to do this with you, too, but not at your expense. I care for you, and … well, I think I love you.”
“Victor! You can’t tell me that in the back room of a sex club, wearing a neon-green Mexican wrestling mask! What the hell is wrong with you?”