A Night To Remember
As I pull into the visitor parking, I see her. Laura’s dressed in a white spaghetti strap dress that leaves a tasteful amount of cleavage exposed and goes down to her knees. She appears to be a bit taller than usual, due to the tall, black heels she’s wearing. Her features are completely obscured by the white mask that she’s wearing, assuaging my fears of us being discovered.
I pull up alongside her and roll down the window, “Hey there beautiful. You ready for the night of your life?” That was supposed to be a little more ‘suave mysterious guy,’ and a little less ‘gross catcaller,’ but I kinda fucked that up. Oops.
Laura seems to catch on to my roleplaying immediately, “So you’re my ever-so-handsome-and-mysterious benefactor?”
“Ye— ehrm— Indubitably.” I don’t think I’m very good at this whole roleplaying thing.
Laura takes a second, then lets out a giggle. I guess it’s fine as long as she thinks it’s funny.
I put the car in park, step out of the driver’s side door, and hold open the passenger door, waving her into her seat. After she’s inside, I close the door, hop back in, and we begin our journey to the aptly named “Masquerade Night.”
I had to borrow my mom’s car for tonight, as showing up at Laura’s apartment after all of my prep just to say “Also, you’re driving!” would be a little anticlimactic. I think that I need to get my own car at some point, but I’m also not exactly in a position to do that. I’m not flat broke, but I don't have the cash on hand to outright buy a car that isn’t a complete shitbox. Maybe sometime in the future?
From the passenger’s seat, I hear, “So… where are you taking me?”
“A masquerade ball, if you hadn’t guessed.”
“And there will be other people there?”
“Quite a few, I would imagine.” I think I see where she’s going with this.
“And… you’re not worried about us being seen together?”
Honestly, I am a little. The restaurant is pretty close to Harris-Hyde, so there’s a chance that we’ll run into people that we know, but the masks should help. Although they’re not foolproof, I very deliberately had them made to obscure our faces almost completely. It would take somebody very familiar with either me or Laura to be able to tell who we are, and for them to be familiar with both of us to have a chance at exposing our relationship.
I respond to her, “Not at all.”
She leans back in her seat, “As long as you don’t mind.”
I don’t know why I would mind? She’d be the one who would get in trouble.
I make a right turn into a parking lot. There are several people, all wearing masks, walking towards a large opulent building. Whoever designed this had a thing for brass. The whole thing is inlaid with the metal, in an almost off-putting fashion. Two large, solid brass doors are swung open, revealing an equally rich interior. It’s definitely a little more traditional, as well as a little gaudier than many of the surrounding buildings, but that’s for a good reason.
It’s an old religious temple that the current owners bought up and turned into a themed restaurant. There was apparently a pretty large religious sect in this area up until like 15~ish years ago, but they went insolvent for one reason or another and lost all their property. This was a meeting place for their higher-ups and was designed to match their status. I found all of this out in a single Google search, so it’s not exactly secret or anything.
Laura and I step out of the car and walk toward the building. The air outside is cold, so we pick up the pace a little and walk toward the building. Laura looks a little uncomfortable as we walk towards the building, and clings to my arm. Neither of us are dressed for the cold weather, so I can understand where she's coming from. As we get closer to the building feeling the blast of heat from the open doors is a welcome reprieve from the cold. There’s a well-dressed man in a simple white mask standing behind a lectern. His dark hair is slicked back, giving him a professional vibe. As we step toward the door, he simply asks, “Name?”
“Sam Williams.”
He flips through a few pages and says, “Here you are. Party of two. Do you have ID?”
I pull out my wallet and hand him my driver’s license. I didn’t expect to get carded, I wonder what gives?
“Hm. Under 21. Is the young lady next to you also–”
Laura already has her ID in hand, and he grabs it, giving it a brief glance. There’s a moment where I wonder if he’s gonna ask about our relationship, but instead, he reaches into a bin by his feet, and pulls out a green plastic bracelet, handing it to me.
“That’s to let the servers know you’re under 21.”
“For… what reason?”
“So they don’t accidentally serve you alcohol. Gotta cover our asses from the state somehow.”
I guess that makes sense, but couldn’t I just not wear it?
He looks at me for a moment, looks around, then says, “Most of the under-21s just toss it once they’re inside. You definitely shouldn’t do that, since we can’t track you and could serve you something we’re not supposed to.”
“Uh… thanks?”
He gives me an obvious wink, then waves us inside.
Laura and I walk past him, with our hands firmly clasped in each other. We are about to step foot into the building when Laura catches sight of something on the inlay in the brass door. There’s an unpleasant jerking in my arm as Laura unconsciously pulls me to the door, to get a closer look at something. She gets down on her knees, carefully examining the inlay, then running her finger over it.
“This…” is the only word out of Laura’s mouth before she goes silent.
“Laura? Is something wrong?”
“No… it’s… it’s nothing.”
I don’t think it’s nothing. What’s up with her?
The couple behind us in line say sorry as they step past to get into the building. We definitely need to talk about this, but I don’t think the doorway is the place to do it.
I slowly pull Laura to her feet, and she slowly, almost begrudgingly, stands up.
“Let’s go inside, alright?”
She gives me a small nod but is mostly contemplative as we step through the doors, into one of the grandest, largest rooms I’ve ever been in. It’s a large dining hall with enough tables and seats to comfortably seat 150~ish people, with plenty of room for servers and other people to get around. At the far end, there are 2 large staircases that curve together to form a U-shape, at their joining, there’s a large raised platform, where performers will be while we eat. The brass theme is still very apparent on the inside, but it’s definitely toned down a bit. There’s a bit of bronze inlay on the front of the stage, as well as framing the windows, but other than that it’s mostly smooth white stone and rich red fabrics adorning everything.
“Let’s find a place to sit, alright?”
Laura just clings more harshly to my arm.
She’s acting kinda weird, and I’m gonna find out what’s up, but for now, we just need to find a table and settle in for what will hopefully be a night to remember.