005. PURPLE DOOR

The last thing Rory wanted to do was put on something nice and tight for Harry's pleasure.

She had contemplated showing up in sweatpants and a sweater, no make-up, and her hair in a messy bun just to make a statement. But she knew that would lead to non-stop questions and pestering over her choice of attire from Benny and Mia.

There was only so much Rory was willing to put up with tonight.

And so, she decided to suck it up and put on her shortest, tightest strapless dress and tossed on a pair of heels. After Mia's helpful suggestion, she decided on a winged eye make-up look and coated her lips with a shin of gloss.

"Hot," Mia commented the moment Rory walked into the room. Moving behind her, Mia ran her fingers through Rory's hair to loosen the curls into soft waves. "Whoever this Harry guy is will be on his knees the moment he sees you."

"It's not like that."

Benny rolled his eyes. "Please, Amber wouldn't shut up about how you stole him from her. Obviously, it's something like that."

"And what guy goes out of his way to randomly invite someone and all her friends out for free bottle service? News flash, Rory. You've got another one smitten!" Mia walked over to her kitchen counter and poured the concoction she had come up with for the night into three cups. "Is he hot?"

"No-"

"Very!" Benny interjected.

"How the fuck do you know?" Rory questioned. "You weren't even working that night!"

"I checked the cameras!" Benny took a sip from his cup. "Oh, don't give me that look, Rory. You were barely spilling any details and Amber wouldn't shut up so I took a look! You should be lucky the cameras in the back stopped working again, otherwise, I would've seen you two fucking!"

Rory swatted his chest with the back of her hand. "You're such a perv."

"Oh my god!" The dark red-haired girl was giddy over the new information. "What does he look like?"

"Please stop!" Rory cried out, shielding her face.

"Okay, definitely over six feet. Maybe like six-two, six-three. Muscles, but not like, scary gym bro. More like well defined and you know, definitely works out," Benny explained. "Tattoos. Definitely down at least one arm... Chiselled jaw... Oh and the best part. Wait for it," he paused for dramatic effect. "Long hair."

Mia's eyes widened. "Shut up!" she squealed, turning to Rory. "Long hair? Long fucking hair? Are you joking? You didn't tell me?"

Ignoring her friend's yelling over his hair length, Rory reached right for the bottle of hard liquor and unscrewed the top. 

This was going to be a long fucking night.

After finally being able to calm down Mia and Benny, Rory made a few things very clear to her friends. Although the two had sex during her work shift and he invited them to his club for free, she had no idea what any of it meant.

She played up the "woe is me, I don't know what's going on between us so please don't embarrass me," crap... and avoided all mentions of how they technically met by her stealing from him, expressing his desire to kill her after finishing inside her, having his goons stalk her all week, threatening her before and after inviting them all out for the night, and his demands for them to show up at a very specific time. And, how she had been sexually frustrated all afternoon from him denying her a very needed orgasm in his office earlier.

Rory and Harry. The definition of a romance for the ages.

What a load of crap.

"Would you hurry up?"

Mia rolled her eyes, throwing her lipstick into her purse. "Calm down, babe. I'm sure if we're there one second after eleven he'll still let us in."

"Are you okay?"

Rory looked over at Benny and nodded. "Yeah. Just a bit..."

"Nervous? Shit, Rory, are you actually nervous about tonight?"

"I mean, I guess?" Technically, she wasn't lying because she was nervous. Just not over what her friend thought.

"I've never seen you get nervous over a guy before," he said, "You must actually like this one!"

That's a bit of a stretch, she thought to herself.

Looking down at her phone, Rory let out an anxious breath.

10:58 PM.

It would take them exactly one minute to walk down the block to reach the entrance and abide by Harry's stupid, not a minute sooner, not a minute later bullshit. Rory hated to admit it, but she was worried about what would happen if she wasn't there at exactly eleven o'clock.

One minute for Mia to finish touching up her make-up. One minute to walk down the street. Everything would be okay - they would make it on time.

God - she needed a drink.

Or a line.

Or both.

Thankful that Benny corralled Mia away from her reflection in the storefront window, the three made their way down the street.

Her two friends spoke in hushed voices that were not at a low enough volume to go unheard.

"What? She's nervous?" Mia whispered. "Why?"

Rory turned her head. "Benny!"

"Rory, don't be fucking nervous! We're going to go, get free drinks, and dance our asses off. And if he's an asshole or doesn't look that good with long hair, well, hopefully, I can get you drunk enough to finally get your tattoo!"

Instinctively, she touched the mark behind her ear. "I have a tattoo!"

"Babe, the tiny heart doesn't count. It looks like a freckle." Taking her hand as they walked down the alleyway towards the entrance, she gave it a comforting squeeze. "Come on. Let's have some fun!"

"A lot of fucking fun!" Benny chimed in, standing on the other side of Rory and tossing his arm over her shoulder.

Rory was thankful she had her two friends with her. Without them, she would have walked up to the front a nervous wreck - a feeling she wasn't familiar with nor enjoyed.

Benny had the carefree energy Rory always desired. No matter the situation, he was already the one to call if you wanted a good time or someone to make you laugh. Mia brought Rory a sense of familiarity with her tattoos and dyed hair - she reminded her of someone she used to know. And Mia always knew the right thing to say to put a smile on her face.

Rory never thought of herself as one to keep friendships. But the moment she met them, it was like she found her two missing puzzle pieces. With an instant bond over their disgust of their boss and annoyance of Amber, Rory was glad the two had taken her under their wing on her first day.

Although they both worked part-time, as Benny's main passion was the promotional work he did on the weekends for various clubs around the city, and Mia only worked to support herself through beauty school, they weaselled their way to have most of their shifts together. And when they weren't working and serving drinks, they were out, getting the drinks served to them.

"I can't believe he owns this place. It's crazy exclusive," Mia commented.

Apparently, the first rule in something being deemed "crazy exclusive" was to not have the door at the front of the building. Because, of course, who in their right mind would find anything exclusive about that. 

An entrance at the front? How absurd.

Aside from a small group of men dressed head to toe in leather off to the side, deep in discussion, no other patrons roamed the alley. Not a single sound was heard from where they stood.

This was nothing like how it was on that night she had come here. She could distinctly remember barely being able to walk down the alley due to the crowd of drunken bodies that waited to get in. The music poured out from the building, vibrating the stone path underneath her.

She couldn't tell her friends why something felt weird because Rory never mentioned to them she had been here before. The version of the story they knew was that Harry and Rory had met at the bar during her shift. Which, although technically true, removed the reasoning behind why he showed up in the first place.

Forcing down the lump in her throat, she checked the time.

11:00 PM.

"Name?" A large gentleman wearing all black asked, looking down at his clipboard.

Stationed out front of a large metal door that was painted a dark lilac colour, Rory couldn't help but wonder two things. First, did he get lonely from standing by himself out here all night long? And two, was that door always painted that colour? She could have sworn it was a more vibrant shade when she was last here.

"Rory," she said. Noticing her answer wasn't enough for the big man, she added, "Rory Young."

He flipped through a few of the pages and became distracted by whoever was speaking into his earpiece. Rory impatiently tapped her foot against the pavement. Could this man not focus on one task at a time? If he caused her to be late, Rory wouldn't hold her tongue with-

The large metal door slid open.

"Rory," Colson's voice chimed in an unusually chipper tone, "Glad you made it. Come on in." His attention turned to the large guard. "Thanks, Big Mike."

Something was off about him, Rory was quick to note. It wasn't his attire - that was the same as always. A pair of dark jeans and combat boots, matched with a plain white long sleeve top that was slightly sheer under the lighting and allowed for his numerous ink marks to show under the material.

"It's so nice to finally meet Rory's friends," Colson gave them both a grin. "Mia and Benny... right? I'm Colson."

Wow - finally some of their stalking had been successful. Cheese found the names of the only two people Rory bothered to talk to outside of work. Did he want a gold star for that?

Mia practically had hearts in her eyes as she shook his hand. "So, you work here too?"

"Yes - I manage our clients and VIP guests. And since you three are part of that tonight, I'll be taking you to your table."

While Rory stewed over her hatred of Cheese, Mia and Benny were instantly smitten by him. It was probably the tattoos. And the height. She could tell Benny was trying to mentally calculate how tall he was.

Did it matter? He was the worst. Whether he was one foot tall or ten, it wouldn't change Rory's hatred towards him. No height or number of tattoos could make Cheese bearable. 

After the three were searched by another guard in what Colson called a standard safety procedure, they followed him to another steel door.

Rory was starting to wonder if she was the one that had too much to drink when she was last here - because she didn't remember any of this. Not the guards or metal detectors... the painted steel doors were definitely not coming to mind. And the eerie silence was starting to cause the hairs on the back of her neck to rise.

But the moment the doors opened, it was like a sensory overload. Music boomed throughout the venue and lights flashed across the darkness of the packed crowd. The space was packed from wall to wall, leaving Rory amazed by how many people were there.  

"You guys came on a good night," Colson called out over the music, surveying the sea of people.

"Why's that?" Benny asked.

His head turned over his shoulder. "The best nights always happen when the door is purple."

Rory, about to question how stupid his sentence sounded out loud, was interrupted mid-thought due to the steel door shutting loudly behind them, causing her to jump out of surprise.

"Come on. I'll show you to the table."

Eyes looking back to the crowd, Rory's mouth ran dry. "Do we have to go through all those people?"

"No, we're walking around." Colson raised a brow at her sudden change in demeanour. He wasn't used to seeing Rory scared without a weapon in her face or someone's hand around her neck. "Is that a problem?"

Her eyes darted to the tattooed man in front of her. "I- uh-"

"I'm not a fan of crowds," Mia quickly interjected. "Not unless I've had a couple of drinks in me first."

Colson, unconvinced by the answer, decided not to push his questioning further. Mostly because he didn't care, but also because that meant he would be stuck longer in this position, pretending to enjoy the company of Rory and her friends.

Following his lead along the roped-off area on the side where they were protected from the crowds, Rory looked over at Colson. "Since when do you smile so much?" she huffed under her breath to him, knowing Mia and Benny were too engrossed by the sights around them to be listening. "I was starting to think it was impossible for your mouth to move into anything but a frown."

Colson chuckled, placing his hand on the small of her back as they walked inside the venue. "Oh, Rory. Always the charmer you are."

"Is this what you're like when you drink?" Rory raised a brow. "Oh my god. Are you a nice drunk?"

His narrow glance and slight snarl told her she was incorrect with her train of thought. But not one to give up, Rory added, "You know, one day when you and I are best friends, we are going to think back to this time and laugh."

"I highly fucking doubt that."

"Enemies to best friends, Cheese. I'm telling you right now!"

Seeing his obvious look of disgust, Rory remained quiet. Not because she felt bad for teasing him, but because the blaring music was making it hard for her to think properly. Was it always this loud here?

Following his lead, they walked in front of other booths full of customers drinking their weight in alcohol. That's what Rory wanted to do. And thankfully, her chance to do just that appeared to be coming soon as Colson stopped to speak to get another guard.

Jeez, do they just have a bunch of carbon copies of the same guy? Rory thought to herself, eyeing yet another large man dressed in all black and sporting an earpiece. Did they produce them in a factory or something?

The large man looked at Rory and her two friends before slowly stepping aside and allowing them to walk up the short flight of stairs.

A large black leather sofa in a half-circle surrounded a glass table that had various bottles of hard alcohol. There was nothing else to it - but what else was one to expect? It's not like people came here to marvel at the decor.

"Shit, this is big!" Benny commented, collapsing down on the couch.

"This is the owner's booth," Colson said, looking down at his phone. "Harry wanted to make sure you were well taken care of this evening."

Of-fucking-course this was his space. Nothing said I'm more powerful compared to all of you than having your private VIP booth on a raised platform and being slightly higher than everyone else. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the ego rush Harry probably got from it.

Rory forced a smile. "How nice of him," she said, trying to limit the amount of sarcasm that begged to seep through her tone.

"Would you like to stay for a drink?" Mia asked, picking up one of the various bottles of her choosing.

"Unfortunately, I can't right now."

"Aw," Rory audibly let out, pouting her bottom lip mockingly as she poured herself a drink.

"But I'll gladly take you up on that in a little while."

Hearing that caused an actual groan of sadness to escape from her, which only got worse when Colson noticed her reaction.

Rory knocked back a shot - her first of many for the night. A sense of relief flowed through her as the harsh liquid burned down the back of her throat. And for once, looking out to the sea of people dancing, the packed crowd didn't appear so daunting for her.

"Fuck you, Rory!" Mia yelled once Colson had left.

"What did I do?"

"You could've told me they were all fucking hot! Jesus!"

Rory looked over her shoulder before meeting her friend's glance with a confused expression. "Who?"

"Colson!"

"Oh," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "I guess I didn't think of him that way. You think he's hot?"

"Uh, fuck yeah he is!" Benny chimed in. "This Harry guy must have you really dick-whipped if you can't see how-"

Rory covered her ears. "Oh my god!" she cried out over the music. "Please shut up."

In an attempt to ignore them, she continued to focus her attention on the large group of tightly packed bodies dancing. With her hands still pressed against her ears, Rory swung her hips from side to side, not caring about the handful of looks she got over what she was doing.

"Rory!" Benny's voice called out. "Rory!" he repeated, tugging on her arm to gain her attention. "Okay, freak. We're done. Here."

He handed her a drink which she instantly accepted - a peace offering that always fared well amongst their group. 

The more Rory drank, the more relaxed she became which led her to forget why she was even here in the first place and enjoy her night - funny how alcohol worked like that.

Mia's eyes widened as her attention looked past Rory. An audible gasp was heard as she whispered, "Holy shit."

Rory didn't have to turn around to know who was the owner of the lingering presence that stood behind her. She did everything possible to stop herself from doing just that, not wanting to have to face him. She was actually enjoying herself - seeing him would ruin that.

Benny leaned forward and discreetly swatted her arm, signalling that she should turn around. Unfortunately for Rory, Benny couldn't read her mind to know that facing him was exactly what she was trying to avoid.

Slowly turning her head to the side, she was aware ignoring him forever wasn't a possibility - no matter how hard she wished. Harry wasn't directly behind her as she had thought. He was near the front of the booth, talking to someone she had never seen before. But his proximity alone consumed her and made her feel like he was hovering over her. She hated that.

Mia tugged on Rory's arm. "Is that Harry?"

Hearing his name out loud reminded her of why she was here - a thought that instantly sobered her drunken mind. Rory looked to the side once again to catch a glance at him. When his green eyes met hers, she noticed his glance leave her momentarily to scan over the outfit she had on. A shudder ran up her spine as she saw a grin curve across his expression. Someone clearly approved.

Pig.

Licking her lips to provide her dry mouth with relief, she felt her chest tighten as he walked toward her. Her eyes roamed his outfit. A loose-fitting black button-down dress shirt was paired with black jeans and boots. The top few buttons were undone - an apparent staple for him, she had quickly learned - exposing the tops of the ink marks on his chest and she noticed he accessorized with a cross pendant that hung from a silver chain around his neck.

She hated that she thought he looked good.

Harry ran a hand through his hair as he approached, snaking his arm around her waist.

"You look beautiful tonight, Rory."

The sound of her name was still an odd thing to hear coming from his lips - which her eyes couldn't help but focus on.

Damn that fucking alcohol, she mentally cursed at herself.

"Thanks," she replied, clearing her throat. "You look... normal."

Harry didn't reply with the usual sour expression and harsh tone Rory was expecting - he laughed. "Always a charmer you are," he said, repeating the phrase Colson had said earlier. "Where are my manners. You two must be Rory's friends."

Rory was stunned. First Colson acted weird and now Harry? It was as if both of them had been replaced with normal versions of themselves; ones that smiled, were polite and greeted her friends.

"The bar is set really low these days," Rory accidentally murmured out loud.

"What was that?" Harry asked.

Rory turned her head. "I asked you what you're doing down here?"

"I wanted to stop by and meet Rory's lovely friends that I've heard so much about," he said. Leaning forward, his lips went to her ear to whisper, "Plus, I hear my little Bambi is quite dick-whipped for me."

Her cheeks reddened with embarrassment over his words, realizing he somehow overheard what Benny had said. Did he have this place fucking bugged? Of course he fucking did. Or, maybe Mr. Grumpy Pants guarding the stairs had supersonic hearing. If they were all built in a lab, it would surprise her if they had been programmed with that function

"Rory," his voice said softly.

She was amazed she could hear him over the music. Although his extreme proximity was probably the reason for that. Watching his eyes flicker from hers down to her lips, her chest tightened.

And just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, Harry did something that truly pissed off every bone in her body.

He kissed her.

sorry if this is a bit stinky I don't feel well but didn't want to miss posting today 

anyway, time to go be a proper adult that cares about my health and make some frozen chicken nuggets <3 yum