The address that was both on the website that Holly found and the card was a match and, surprisingly, it wasn’t that far away. The Friday night streets were busy with people coming and going for their weekend partying, so, as we swerved between crowds, we finally came to the street. Holly guessed that it might be in the middle of the street, given the number, and how long the road is. I have no idea how she knew how long the road was, but I always left her to it. To absolutely no one's surprise, Holly was right.

There, tucked in between some buildings, was the nightclub in question. Maybe, in the light, the building could be a dark purple, but under the night sky? The building looked like the purest of black. Aside from the neon white letters that said ‘Nox’.

“Well, I guess we found the Box.” Christie mused as she came up in between me and Holly. 

I did wonder if she was purposely getting the name wrong, since we convinced her to change bars that, for god knows why, she actually liked. Or perhaps it was purely because it wasn’t a bar that we were going to, it was a nightclub.

“No queue, and just one bouncer… Guess we can go straight on through…” Holly murmured as she started to walk.

I followed along, with Christie bringing up the rear.

As we approached, I had to stop myself from staring. The bouncer was HUGE, in both height and build. Honestly, he was like a tank, dressed in a smart suit. However, the dark glasses were a bit much, considering it was evening.

“Hello.” Holly put on her business voice. “May we go in?”

The bouncer eyed us up, took in Holly first, then me, then he had to tilt his head slightly to see Christie, who was hanging behind me. After taking us in, he moved his hand to his ear and spoke.

“Three coming in.” 

With a slight bop of his head, he grabbed the door handle and opened it for us.

“Thank you.” Me and Holly both said, and I heard Christie murmur a ‘thanks’ behind me as she followed along.

“Interesting security…” Holly pointed out as we started to walk down a corridor towards a door on the other side.

“Probably to keep the riff raff out…” Christie muttered behind me.

Yep. I now knew the reason behind her attitude, she was annoyed that Holly called her non classy. I had to admit that it was a bit true, Christie always stood out in our trio. A bit like a lynx between two Persian cats.

As we approached the second set of doors, they opened for us, as two more bouncers, dressed in black, opened it for us. Unsurprisingly, they also wore those black glasses. 

But, as we stepped beyond those doors, we were hit by an atmosphere that I had never experienced before. Considering the way the other two acted, it was the same for them too. 

We had walked into what felt like magic. We were standing just above a staircase that led down to a dance floor filled with people, dancing to the music that seemed to soothe your soul and get you hyped. I think the music genre was a type of synthwave, but it had a gothic tone to it. As I peered beyond the dance floor, I saw a DJ in their booth, playing and hyping up the crowd. But as I veered around to look at everything, I realised that there was much more going on. On the level that we were standing on, that looped around encasing the dance floor, was a horde of tables and chairs. I saw people eating and drinking, people coming and going from the dance floor from various stairwells that led down. This floor also seemed to have all the bars too. I took a peek, since I realised that there was an upstairs, but it seemed to be off limits or something else entirely, since there was just a box up there. An open box with, what I could just make out was, a sofa that overlooked everything. I saw people up there and, as I was staring up, I noticed that one of the people looked directly at me. I tore my eyes away and turned to look at the girls. Both of them seemed to be just as amazed as I was. Christie was the first to speak.

“Damn… This place is so sensual.”

“I have to admit…” Holly seemed to have collected herself. “This is better than what I imagined.”

“So far? This is way better than the stingy bar I led you to.” Christie admitted, and Holly eyed her up. “That one had cheap booze, so sue me.”

I stifled a laugh. “She found a place to sit?”

“I eyed a free booth.” Holly pointed out as she marched off.

Booths? Wait, I didn't see any booths.

But, sure enough, there were booths. They were hidden away, like little privacy booths, scattered all along the dark walls. Holly slid in first, and Christie took the opposite seat, and I slid in after Holly. But, as my backside touched those plump red cushioned seats, I felt like I was going to melt. Melt right into these glorious seats, and my girls also noticed how these seats were too.

“Before…” Christie held up a hand and shimmied out the booth. “I get way too comfortable in those, I’m gonna get drinks. Shall we share cocktails?”

“No Godfather.” Holly pointed out.

“Duly noted.”

With that, she turned on her heel and went over to the nearest bar.

“You always give her… What's the word…” I trailed off.

“If she insists on taking us to a sleazy bar, I will voice my thoughts.” Holly admitted, hardly blinking when she said it. “I don’t approve of her methods, but considering this place? I hope she upgrades her nightly activities.”

I half smiled at Holly. Christie was notorious for having a different man candy nearly every week. I guess it stemmed all the way back to when we were kids and she always, and I mean ALWAYS, got bored with her toys after a short while. I think the longest relationship she's had was a year and a half, and that was with her pet hamster. But, if we don’t count that, I think it might’ve been the one who lasted two months, but that was only because he was moving. Holly played doctor and said that it was because Christie has commitment issues, and maybe she's right. We do worry about her short term flings, but we have also noticed that whenever she ends up having a fling, and it's always her ending them, she never has a sad face. We’ve known her for a long while, and her emotions are always plastered on her face. So we just leave her to it, she knows what she's doing, and she’s a smart girl. 

Holly, on the other hand, is a long commitment type. But she was also VERY hard to please. Whenever someone asked her out, she always said that she would get back to them, then she investigated them. She’d look into their families, what they do, and then investigate the poor sod who asked her out. I guess that she was looking for a specific type of person? There had been some who fit that bill, and she of course dated them but, Holly being Holly, dumped them because they put a HAIR out of place. After a while, she just stopped and stuck her entire attention on her studies. In truth, she scared me. But she always had our backs, even if some of her words were harsh.

But me? Yeah, I’ve dated. Through high school, it was mostly the jocks, since they wanted that pretty blonde girl on their arm. I felt like I was degrading myself each time, but I never dumped anyone. Instead, they dumped me for being ‘too boring’. If I had to be honest, I think my longest relationship was the kid in primary school, even if Christie states that it doesn't count. 

Christie joined back up with us shortly after she left, carrying two jugs of a mystery cocktail. I wasn’t familiar with them, so I couldn’t tell what it was by the colour. But it was a red liquid, with swirling black in it.

“What, pray tell, is that?” Holly asked as Christie placed them on the table, with glasses in tow. 

“The trademark one here, apparently...” Christie slid back into the booth. “I think it’s Black Widow?”

“What is in it?” I questioned as I took the straw that was poking out from one of the jugs, and started stirring it.

“Cranberry juice and vodka. It’s actually quite nice.”

From the corner of my vision, I saw the other two pour their own cocktails with the other jug, but I was rather fixed on the jug that was in front of me. There was something pretty about how these two colours meshed together. 

From then, all three of us got to talking. It wasn’t anything overly important, we just spoke about anything and everything. I did, however, notice that both of them avoided the subject of college. But, apparently, according to Christie, the cocktail jugs were cheap. They were two for a set price and, before I even knew it, there were already four empty jugs on the table, and it was now me at the bar getting the next two. Christie had darted off to use the loo, whilst Holly was keeping our booth. As I was waiting in line, I felt someone come up to my side and in a smooth buttery voice spoke.

“Enjoying it so far?”

There was something familiar about the voice, but I pushed that thought away, and spoke without even looking at who they were.

“Oh, yes.”

“Better than some sleazy bar, right?”

“Oh, most definitely.”

Wait a minute, sleazy bar?

“Then it’s a good thing that you took the card then.”

It then all dawned on me, this stranger now talking to me must be the one who gave me the card. As I turned to face the stranger, and see for myself who they really were, I was lost for words. 

There, standing to the side of me, was the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.

He was dressed in a sharp dark suit, and he was the truest definition of tall, dark and handsome. His dark hair was surprisingly long, and it was tied back in a ponytail, but some strands of his hair framed a perfectly sculpted face. I lingered a little too much on certain parts of his face as, in this light, there were no imperfections, but my eyes eventually rested on his eyes. They were vibrant green, with a tinge of something else in them. The best way that I could describe what that something else was…

It was danger.

But it wasn’t the type of ‘danger’ where I should run away, it was the type of ‘danger’ that if I kept looking into them, I would explode. So I tore my eyes away from those eyes and looked at something else, it didn’t take long to notice that there was definitely some sort of muscled frame under that suit. Eventually, when I stopped gawking at him, I spoke.

“You were the one I bumped into?”

“A lucky turn of events for you, it seems.” And just like last time, his voice really did seem to caress me like a lover would, and I bet it didn’t help at all that I was under the influence of four cocktail jugs.

“I… Hmm…” I tried to gather my emotions, as I stood firm and looked at him again. It took a lot of effort to not get winded by those eyes. “Thank you.”

“Pleasure is all mine, my dear.”

The handsome stranger gave me a slight bow of his head and pushed off from where he was leaning on the bar and walked away. I stood there blinking at what I just witnessed. Are there seriously people who look like that? I mean people called me pretty, but that man who I had just seen? There really was no way to describe that.