Jane followed the man with the black suit and security earpiece into the bowels of the Soho Grand hotel. She was just about to ask if he was taking her to an actual broom closet when he stopped at what looked like a small freight elevator.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” she began, as the elevator door slid open.

The man reached in and pressed the only button: PH.

“Enjoy your evening, Ms. Smith.”

She threw him one last questioning glance before stepping into the elevator, and it sprang into motion as she stepped gingerly inside. When it stopped, she found herself in a narrow hallway with one unmarked door.  She stood still and listened for a moment, hoping to gauge the size of the crowd inside, but she heard nothing but silence. Must be sound-proofed, she decided, taking one last deep breath for courage.

She knocked and the door swung open.

Adam was standing there in an unbuttoned grey collared shirt rolled up to his elbows, with a plain white t-shirt underneath, and a faded pair of jeans. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Jane shifted her eyes past him for a moment, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else in the room. Oh God, she thought, blushing to the roots of her hair. It was only 9 PM. She must be way too early.

Adam caught her glance over his shoulder into the empty room behind him. “Just me,” he said, with a little half-smile bringing out the dimple in one cheek. “Is that OK?”

She gave him a surprised look. “OK,” was all she answered as he whisked her into the room.

It took her a minute to take in exactly what she was looking at. She was standing in the foyer of what had to be the biggest hotel suite she’d ever seen. Was it the entire penthouse floor?

“This is a hotel room?” she asked.  

“Just the living room,” Adam replied, his face serious. Jane stared at him blankly for a moment, until he broke into a sudden grin. “A little step up from the old shithole on Avenue C.”

Avenue C. How funny that she had just been thinking about it that morning.

“It really was a shithole, wasn’t it?” she slowly smiled back.

***

September 1997

After the party in the East Village, Jane had spent the next two weeks with a hopeless crush on the skinny boy she would probably never see again. It lasted until the next party rolled around. This time the party was in one of the NYU dorms. This time she knew what clothes to wear. She met an older guy, a senior. What was his name? Evan? Ethan? Nice, cute, and best of all, interested in her. She ended up making out with him that night, and he called her up the next day to ask her out to dinner. She and Marcy had spent the better part of the afternoon planning the perfect outfit.

“Where is he taking you?” Marcy asked again.

“I don’t know,” Jane replied. “Something Italian, I think. He said it too fast. He’s picking me up in his car.”

“He has a car,” Marcy sighed.

“Yeah, I don’t know why we can’t walk.”

“Because he’s classy, that’s why,” Marcy patiently explained. She was a little domineering, but Jane didn’t mind. She was totally in over her head when it came to boys. Her parents had been so overprotective, she wasn’t even allowed to date in high school. Her first date ever was the Senior prom. Tonight would be the second. 

Ethan pulled up outside her building at 7 PM and got out to open the car door for her. The restaurant was down in the East Village again, and he found a parking spot on Avenue C, just a block and a half down from the apartment where she’d gone to the party a few weeks before.

“I love this part of town,” Jane told him, feeling sophisticated.

He chuckled at that and put his hand on the small of her back as he guided her down the street. It ended up being more of a dive bar than a restaurant – the only food she saw on the other tables looked like saltine crackers and little cut up cubes of cheese. Ethan put her in a dimly lit booth and slid in next to her. The waitress seemed to know him because she came over with two cans of Pabst without even stopping to take their order.

“To getting to know each other,” Ethan said, raising his can.

“Are we going to eat?” Jane asked.

 “Um, sure. You want some cheese and crackers?”

“No, whatever,” Jane replied, feeling like she shouldn’t have said anything.  Maybe she was supposed to eat beforehand. She took a long gulp of beer to steady her nerves.

“You look pretty,” Ethan told her. Jane was relieved that he didn’t think she was a pain in the ass. She happily snuggled closer when he leaned in to kiss her. He had pleasant lips and his breath smelled nice. She was mostly aware of not knowing what to do with her hands. Ethan didn’t seem to have this problem. His left hand was making its slow way up under her blouse, finally landing heavily on her breast. Jane wasn’t quite sure how that made her feel, but finally decided it made her feel grown up. She tentatively pushed her breast further into his hand, and he moaned against her mouth, deepening the kiss.

“Let’s get out of here,” Ethan said breathlessly. He grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the booth, throwing some cash behind them on the table.

Oh good, Jane thought. They must be going to dinner now. That was just some pre-dinner drinks.

***

Adam jogged down the front steps of his building and was just turning to head uptown when a girl, running full speed down the block, came slamming into him.

 “Whoa there!” He reached out to catch her as the impact knocked them both off balance.

“Let me go! Let me go!” She was struggling to break away as he looked down and recognized her. It was the shy little college girl from the party. What was her name again?

“Hold on! Jane, right?”

The sound of her name seemed to bring her out of her blind panic for a second. She looked up.

“Are you OK? It’s OK. I’m Adam. You were at our party. Are you OK?”

The girl had started to cry.

“Hey, hey, it’s OK. What happened?”

“I have to get out of here. He has a car!” She said, nonsensically, looking back over her shoulder.

“It’s OK. You’re safe now. Why don’t you come up, and you can tell me what happened?”

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