TRANCE, Inc. 11

I grinned, scooted to one side, and patted the red booth cushion next to me. "You're welcome over here any time."

She narrowed her eyes. "Too dangerous," she said. "If you want this to be a regular date, I should stay at a safe distance."

My cave man brain reveled in her words, but I was pleased with myself that I agreed. "Well, then," I said. "What should we talk about on this regular date?"

For a very, very brief second, a flash of cold worry slithered down my back. What if Amber and I don't have anything to talk about once sex is off the table? But my girlfriend's face eased into that supermodel smile and she tucked some golden hair back behind one ear.

"So, how do you actually know this place?"

And then we were off to the races.

As we chatted, I realized that it had been too long since Amber and I had had a real conversation. Sure, we had talked. I came to her with problems and she'd helped counsel me on getting the other women to agree to move in with us. But all of those talks had revolved around worries, or other people, and sometimes both. This was something else.

I explained to her how I used to live in this area. It wasn't too long ago, in the grand scheme of things, but it felt like another lifetime. I told her about how I'd moved to the City from out of town, had gotten into university with a scholarship to study computer science. I explained that the housing costs and grown-up expenses and generally being an adult meant that I needed a job to make ends meet.

"I worked here," I admitted, and wondered if working at a burger joint was the sort of thing you usually admitted to on a date with a beautiful woman. "For almost two years, while I was studying at Bradford. I think I maybe, deep down, wanted to bring you here to show you why I'm not always fast to pick up on the things that you and the others are trying to teach me." I shrugged, tugged at the cuff of my jacket and huffed a laugh. "This isn't the outfit for someone who flips burgers. And I still can't tell if it feels like me or not, if that makes sense."

Amber was nodding slowly, and she looked around Tasker's like she was seeing the old burger joint with fresh eyes. "You worked here?" she asked.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah," I said. Definitely not the sort of thing you admit on a date with a beautiful woman, I thought. "I know it's not glamorous or anything..."

I trailed off as her hand closed over mine.

"Chance." Amber's fingers squeezed gently, and there was a moment of intensity between us as I met her clear blue eyes. It wasn't the kind of sexual intensity I was accustomed to with her, but it was powerful in a manner that was both profound and, somehow, deeply personal. "You can't think about yourself that way. That's the kind of thinking that keeps you stuck where you are and not moving on. We're all more than our pasts — the things we did or what happened to us." Her expression shifted ever so slightly, but I couldn't tell what it meant. She glanced away, with a hint of shyness. "I really liked what you said about being in the moment together, but I also want us to have a future. And that means moving on from... stuff. Whether that's still feeling like a fry cook or, well, anything else we might have to leave behind."

There were a few long heartbeats of silence after her little speech. They were full, though, of a companionship that made me feel relaxed and warm and comfortable. Then I grinned, and she smiled shyly back.

"What?" she asked.

"I like that you think about us having a future," I admitted. And I did. It was a good feeling. I shifted, and slipped my hand into hers. Our fingers twined together. "So," I asked, "since we're sharing. What do you need to move on from?"

I saw the troubled expression that touched Amber's face. It flashed across in an instant, like the shadow of a bird passing quickly across a window before it disappears, but then she was shrugging and snorting. "I mean, your girlfriend is a pornstar," she said. "You don't think that has baggage of its own?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but at that moment I was interrupted.

"Thirty-seven!" the voice called. "Number thirty-seven!"

"Hold that thought," I said.

But when I returned, balancing our orders on a tray, Amber was lifting her phone up under her sheet of blonde hair and to her ear. "... Yeah, babe," she was saying. "... Nooo, don't start without us." She pouted at the screen and then gave me a glance. "I'll ask."

I responded with an uncertain look. "What's up?"

"It's Victoria," Amber explained. "She says the twins are getting antsy, they'll be done eating soon and they want to get the pregame going."

"Ah."

I felt a moment of shock, like I'd walked into an invisible wall. Nothing was wrong, but it was as if I'd suddenly remembered me and Amber weren't the only ones to think about. It jarred me out of the moment, the space that had felt so intimate and insolated.

I gestured with my head back toward the front counter. "Should I ask if I can get these to-go?" I asked.

"He'll get them to-go and we'll be back soon," Amber said into the phone, nodding at me.

I began to turn, stopped, and glanced back. I felt like there was something important... "Do you want a soda refill?"

Amber shook her head at me. "Yeah, he's doing that right now," she told Victoria.

I refilled my two-flavored soda, got the burgers and the fries in a white paper bag with the big red Tasker's 'T', and by then my girlfriend was waiting for me by the front door.

"The family calls," she joked, laughing as I walked up. "I guess this is how it feels to have teenagers. Always in a hurry trying to party."

I squinted in mock disgust. "Those damn kids," I said in a crotchety old man voice. But I was chuckling by the time we got to the car.

On the drive back to Starside I asked Amber why she hadn't had any soda, and was treated to a long discourse on the dangers of processed sugar.

***

"I think you should do it!"

Daisy, leaning back with her elbows on the bar, had to raise her voice to be heard over the clamor of voices and the powerful strains of bouncy dance music. Next to her, Victoria shrugged her shoulders in response and sipped an orange cocktail from a tall, cylindrical glass.

The gorgeous brunette flicked her eyes to me as I joined them.

"What should she do?" I asked. My voice was also louder than normal. I bent forward and kissed Daisy on the cheek, grinning as I stood next to her. It was a quick, thoughtless gesture of affection.

"Nothing!" Victoria protested, laughing and shaking her head at me. She was tall enough in her heels that she could share a self-conscious grin with me over Daisy's head. "Just a conversation from earlier!"

Of all of us, Victoria had probably drunk the least. The twins and I, the most. I'd had three or four shots back at the apartment — Or was it a couple more? I remembered justifying that drinks at home were cheaper than drinks at a club... — and then at least one drink at each of the clubs we'd visited.

We were on our third.

A conversation from earlier... I mused, closing my eyes as I sagged against the bar and cast my mind back. When Amber and I had arrived back at the twins' place, we'd found our three companions sipping wine over the remains of a Chinese takeout meal and discussing...

Huh, I thought.

I wasn't sure what they'd been talking about, though they had all been so interested in it that they hadn't immediately seen Amber's texts about us staying out for dinner. It wasn't that they'd clammed up when we returned, but rather that my outfit and then the story of my brief date with Amber had shifted the object of conversation.

I've got to try not to do that, I resolved. The girls all need their own time in the spotlight.

"Chance?" Victoria asked, raising her eyebrows at me.

I realized I'd spaced out. I shook my head and wiped hair back from my face. I felt a light sheen of sweat. It was hot out on the dance floor. I felt like I'd just run half a dozen sprints, but instead of being tired and slumped I was as energized as ever. I wasn't sure if it was my recent fitness training giving me more stamina or the alcohol blunting my fatigue, but I enjoyed it. A lot.

"This..." I said, breathing slowly and deeply. "Is nothing like college."

"Having fun?" Daisy leaned up and put her mouth right by my ear to ask, and I felt her perky breasts press against my arm.

I squinted down at the young woman, then turned my head theatrically to look through the crowd onto the dance floor. Carmen was there, dancing with Amber. The lithe young redhead and the busty blonde made quite a pair: slinky, clinging dresses hugged their bouncy tits and rolling hips, hands lifted up over their heads and feet moved in time with the beat. I swiveled back to the teenager by my side. My hand slipped around her waist and I pulled her closer.

"Daisy..." I said slowly, as though identifying her for the first time.

The young woman melted, green eyes shining up at me. "Yes, sir...?" she murmured, and she bit her ruby lips with the kind of self-consciousness that made the words strike even harder against the reverberating heat in my center.

I smiled broadly. "I am having so much fun."

The teenager flashed a grin that was both delighted and satisfied. "You should tell Amber!" she said. "She mentioned how worried you were about this. It would make her happy to know you're happy."

I inclined my head. "I bow to your wisdom, young lady," I told her. "And I shall do so, if you will just accompany me to the dance floor." I offered my arm gallantly. "I was sent by those ladies out there to rope you two into joining us. I think your sister's words were, 'Tell her to stop being a nerdy wall flower and bust some moves!'"

Daisy giggled, then shot a glance at the brunette beside her. "Well?" she asked.

Victoria lifted her glass, as if to gauge the contents remaining, then tilted it back in one long movement. I watched her throat as she swallowed and imagined kissing up the smooth skin and across her jaw.

I met her eyes when she set the glass down. "Coming, darling?"

The dark-haired beauty rolled her eyes, then blew me a kiss and strutted off into the undulating mass.

I shared a glance with Daisy, smirked, and we followed.

"Miss me?" I asked of Carmen as I slipped back into the small circle the women had made. Daisy joined me on the other side, so I was surrounded by the bodies of limber, writhing teens.

The young, crimson-haired woman turned to look up at me. Carmen's eyes were unfocused, like she was lost in the music, and then she grinned. "Of course I missed you, hottie!" Her voice broke through the music and there was a youthful ease to it.

I spread my hands, including Victoria and Daisy in the movement. "After much convincing," I declared. "I brought back friends! And now... I expect my reward." I leaned toward her and teasingly offered my cheek for a kiss. I couldn't say if the confidence came from the drinks, or my outfit, or something I'd learned today, but I knew that it was the kind of smooth, flirty move that would drive her wild.

I wasn't wrong.

The teen's lips pressed hot to my skin, and then her fingers were in my hair and turning my face toward hers. Her body writhed against mine, and I felt my own body responding. My hands went to the small of her back. We were moving in time with the music and our kisses were heavy and I pulled her closer to me as my manhood hardened against her stomach.

Wow, I thought. I was dizzy. I was in a daze. For the first time in my life, I was making out with a gorgeous babe on the dance floor of a trendy nightclub. It was like something out of a movie, or out of my fantasies. Either way, one thing was for sure.

It's nothing like what I expected, I thought. Somehow, in the moment, the fears and worries I'd had about my own social ineptness had melted away. No sense of isolation, or some vague idea that everyone else knows what they're doing and I'm the odd one out.

I surrendered to the kiss, deepening it and bending Carmen back. I felt her surrender to me, trusting her weight in my hands as I lowered her in a sort of swaying dip. I heard a whoop from somewhere nearby, and a whistle, but I couldn't tell they came from my companions or from strangers. Then, after a brief pause that felt like it was so much longer, the music swelled and I lifted the teen back up to her feet. With a flourish, I raised our entwined hands and spun her in a circle underneath. It ended with us chest to chest, her face staring up into mine with the wide eyes and open features of total trust.

The music was loud and there were dozens of people bouncing up and down all around us. For a second, though, I felt quiet and still.

And then the song changed, and Carmen's eyes widened with excitement, and she glanced away from me as a smile broke out over her face. "Day!" she squealed with the kind of exuberance that only young women can really pull off. "This is our song!"

I met Amber's eyes across the circle as the twins started to dance. Her blue gaze was pleased and warm, the smile on her lips was seductive and enticing.

I don't need to tell her I'm happy, I thought. Amber's my girl. She already knows. And she knows that she made it possible.

***

Victoria had let her hair down, so to speak, and was grinning and shimmying with Amber and Daisy when Carmen touched my shoulder and brushed past. The teenager was pulling her phone out of her bra, and I saw that the screen had lit up with a call.

Dad, I read, and it took me an extra second to process what that meant. By then, the young woman was halfway off the dance floor and I wasn't sure what to do. I checked the rest of our group, didn't want to interrupt them, and looked after the vanishing redhead.

Squaring my shoulders, I followed her.

Carmen had the phone to her ear and was walking down the hallway toward the coat check. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but she paused and leaned against the wall with hunched shoulders. Her free hand was wrapped around her stomach, like she was cold. As I approached her from behind, though, she straightened abruptly.

"Just stop it, okay?!" Her voice was raised, and she sounded frustrated. "I don't care what Miranda and James said, they don't know him..." Her free hand rubbed at her face, pressing back her upset. Her shoulders tightened. "No, I've not been drinking! ... And so what if I have? That doesn't make it okay for you to just snoop on our lives!"

I felt like I was the one snooping, but I was too close now. I hesitated behind her, waiting for her to notice me.

You shouldn't be listening to this, Angel Chance echoed from far away. It's personal.

Family drama! Devil Chance crowed. Probably your fault, too.

"... Don't you dare do that! He's not like that. You don't know anything!"

See? the shoulder demon sneered.

Carmen spun, suddenly, like she'd realized I was behind her. Before I could react, though, beyond opening my mouth to say goodness knows what, the teenager had taken several swift steps and hugged me tightly. Her exuberance of a few moments before was broken, turned into frustrated sobs that made her shoulders shake. Her fingers gripped the lapels of my jacket and her face was buried in the front of my shirt.

Instinctively, my hands wrapped around her shoulders and rubbed her back soothingly. "Hush now..." I managed to murmur. "It's... it's okay. I promise everything is okay..."

Mutely, without looking up, Carmen lifted the phone. Her arm was uncomfortably bent between us, but seeing the screen I realized the call was still going. Gently, I took the device from her hand and ended it. Now was not the time to deal with that.

Your fault, Devil Chance taunted, but somehow I was beyond even his distraction.

I kissed the top of Carmen's head. "We're going to go home," I murmured into her hair. "It's all okay..."

A couple minutes later, the five of us were trooping out of the club and onto the sidewalk. Victoria's arm was around Carmen's slim shoulders, and even though the teen was no longer crying Daisy held her sister's hand supportively.

Despite the hour, the street was fairly busy. The night had gotten cold, though, and I was glad Victoria had suggested the girls each bring some sort of jacket.

"I'll call us an Uber," I said, taking several steps away.

I slipped my hand into my inner jacket pocket, thinking fuzzily that I was glad whoever invented jackets also invented inside pockets for putting things in. I swiped to open, tapped my passcode, fumbled it with clumsy fingers, and got the thing working. I started to push through screens, trying to remember what folder I'd used to store the app, when a red notification bubble caught my attention.

It tagged my texting app, and I clicked instinctively to open it.

Sir. I know it's late, but—

I stopped reading, checked the name at the top of the conversation: Mike Lassiter. What the hell? I thought. I blinked, then refocused and reread.

Sir. I know it's late, but something came up. We need to talk. As soon as you can.

A jolt of adrenaline bumped my heartrate up a notch, and my thumbs were moving before I knew what they were doing. I'd received the message more than an hour ago, but when I replied — What od you meann? — the app let me know immediately that Lassiter was typing a response.

When are you available? It is probably something we should discuss in person.

I checked the time, and was astonished to realize it was just passing 2am.

Wht do we need to takl abot? I sent.

"Babe? Do you know when the Uber's going to be here?" It was Amber's voice, breaking my concentration. I glanced up, registering her worry for Carmen in her tone. She had walked closer to me, but looked back at the others with an expression of concern on her pretty face.

I glanced back down at my phone, rereading Lassiter's message. For some reason, I thought of the highway, and of a car swerving wildly to one side to dodge an incoming danger.

We need to talk about Amber.

***

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Thank you so much for reading the eleventh chapter in this series — TRANCE, Inc.

I really hope you enjoyed it, and if you did then please rate it and leave a comment. It means the world to me and even if I don't respond to all my comments, please know that I read every one. When I feel like my work doesn't matter, I come back and am reminded that wonderful people out there really are reading what I publish.

If you're going to be spending a lot of time alone this coming month (what with the virus and all) I hope that reading these stories gives you a little entertainment during long, boring stretches of time.

Lots of love, and I'll see you soon for my next publication!!!

JC