Club Delirium

Carmen immediately stomped off into the bedroom and closed the door.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The planetarium was...well, it was awkward as hell. Carmen, wearing black, six-inch fuck me pumps, black dress pants and an off-one-shoulder red sweater, barely spoke to me, though I didn't have much to say back to her. How she managed to teeter-totter around the planetarium in those shoes was beyond me.

We looked at some meteorites, moon dust, and saw two short films on the huge domed screen. As the movie showed us the criss-crossing trajectories of every US manned spacecraft ever launched, my mind couldn't help but bring up memories of last night.

Six, when we first met, and his haughty attitude. The surprise in his eyes at first when I aggressively approached and touched him on the dance floor. The reluctant grin he got when, yeah...when he realized that it wasn't just a mercy dance, that we were pretty good out there on the floor together. Would we go out dancing again tonight if he wasn't already leaving later today? Would it be the same, or was the night before just a one-off?

I wasn't sure, but I wished I could find out. Hell, I wanted to find out.

Just then the lights came back on and I blinked at the brightness. I couldn't have said what the film had been about, but my mind felt a little more settled. That and the fact that I kept getting those little "he likes me!" tingles all morning and afternoon. It was like a delicious hidden secret I carried around with me.

We grabbed an early lunch in the planetarium's cafeteria. Carmen still wasn't saying much.

"Look," I said, smoothing down my white t-shirt and letting my hands continue down my jeans-clad thighs. The knees of my jeans were ripped and my kneecaps were cold. I pushed my ponytail back off of of one shoulder. "Can we just table this silent argument we're having and talk about something?" I said, taking a drink of my diet soda. "I hate eating alone and that's what it feels like."

Carmen sighed. "Um, yeah. I guess," as she poked at her salad. "I just don't have anything to say."

I sat back in my chair and leveled a piercing gaze at her. "Bullshit. You always have your mouth open talking about something."

"Aren't they supposed to have an exhibit about dinosaurs in here?" She asked abruptly.

I blinked, taken off guard. "Dinosaurs? In a planetarium? No. Because I don't think there were ever dinosaurs in space."

Carmen sent me a withering glare. "No. Because of the big asteroid impact that killed them. I thought I read somewhere where there was something like that here."

"If there is, it's news to me," I said to her. "But we can't stay too much longer because I'm going to head out to see the photo shoot," I said, glancing at my watch.

"Oh. Yeah," Carmen frowned. "That," She said flatly.

"Hell, if you can be good you can come. If not, don't worry about it."

Carmen stared at me, her hands laced together on the table. "Why would I want to see Six nearly naked?" She said.

My heartbeat sped up. "Nearly naked?"

"Uh, yeah. He's an underwear model. Didn't you know that? He'll be wearing tiny little undies."

"An underwear model?" I squeaked. I would be mortified if a bunch of strangers saw me in my underwear. But he did it on purpose? For money?

"I thought he modeled glasses or...shoes or something," I mumbled.

"Yeah, no," Carmen laughed. "I'm surprised he didn't tell you," she said.

I probably should have said some sort of rebuttal to that, but we sure as hell hadn't talked about it and I wasn't about to bring that up with Carmen.

An underwear model?

"Actually," Carmen said, straightening up in her seat, "I just might go with you. He probably won't be the only model there. There might be a chance for me to do some networking. And maybe there will be some other eye candy for me to look at," she said a little brighter.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I gave our cab driver the address, which turned out to be what looked like an abandoned warehouse. It was already a good half hour after the shoot was scheduled to begin, and when we walked inside, there were lots of people at work. They were everywhere, scurrying around a harried looking but very focused photographer. He currently was giving direction and taking photos of a girl and a guy draped over each other, both scantily clad, but neither were Six.

Several other models walked by wearing robes, and then Six, biting into an apple, nearly walked into me.

"Kiki! Hey! You came!" He said. He looked pleased, and I was happy to see him. He wasn't wearing a robe like some of the other models walking around were, and my eyes scanned down his body until they landed on a pair of teeny tiny white bikini briefs.

"Jesus!" I breathed. "What are you wearing?" I gasped.

He glanced down. "Yeah, I know," he chuckled. "These are kind of see-through, though I've probably worn worse before," he said.

"I can...uh," I said, hiding my eyes. "Well, I can see your...the outline..."

"She means if she was your tailor she wouldn't need to ask you which way you dress because we can actually see your dick through those," Carmen said with a snort.

Six grinned tightly at Carmen. "Ha, ha. You are hilarious," he said, in a tone that meant she was anything but. "I just wear what I'm told," he added.

I scratched my forehead, and my eyebrows were jacked up high. "I mean, you look great. But...man..." I said. I could not stop looking at him.

Six purposely bumped his shoulder against mine. "Eyes up, Kiki. You're gonna give me a complex," he chuckled.

Several minutes later it was Six's turn. The photographer sat him on a gray couch with a bright red and yellow geometric pillow. He was told to put both arms over the back of the couch, slouch down, and to spread his legs, keeping his knees bent and his bare feet flat on the floor.

He, though settled back into the couch's cushions, reminded me of a huge spider about to pounce. And when he leveled a model glare in my direction, well, I almost peed my pants.

"Jesus," Carmen breathed. "And he was in your bed last night," she mumbled. "I hope you tapped that," she added.

I looked over at her in disbelief. "What?" God, Carmen was giving me Six whiplash. "When was that supposed to have happened? Between you asking to come in to use the bathroom twice? Or when you asked to borrow a tampon? Or maybe while you glared at him at breakfast?"

Carmen slowly turned her head towards me. "It's not my fault. You have to figure that shit out for yourselves," she said.

I grabbed two handfuls of my own hair, pulled, and walked away from her. I didn't even care that I completely screwed up my ponytail. Distance. That's what I needed. Distance.

But no matter where I walked, Six's eyes seemed to follow me. And I still couldn't stop looking at Little Six all tucked in nice and safe behind the patented horizontal fly.

"Excuse...um, what are you...eyes up here, pretty boy," the photographer called out. "Lookie at me, not at girl walking around."

Six shot me a smirk with a single raised eyebrow, but then looked back at the photographer.

I finger-combed my hair and fixed my ponytail. I walked around a little more when the photographer actually approached me and grabbed my arm. "Excuse, Miss Kiki, is it?"

I nodded.

"Please...help."

I looked around quizzically but let the photographer lead me back to where he'd been standing.

"Six...Six," He said. I wasn't sure what accent the photographer had, but whenever he said Six's name it sounded like he was saying the word sex.

God, Six oozed sex. Even from his mispronounced name.

"I want that sexy look you keep pointing to her," he said, nodding towards me, "but send it into the camera, please can you?"

Six laughed easily. "Yeah, okay. Sure."

"You, stand behind, please?" He then said to me. "He can look at you, but I can catch the look," the photographer said.

And so for the next hour and a half, I was put to work, standing behind Hanz the photographer so Six could look at me but still do his job.

"He looks...I never saw him look this way," Hanz eventually said to me. "Did he marry? I wasn't told?"

I was silent, putting two and two and his odd accent together before I got what he was insinuating. "You mean did he marry me?" I nearly screeched. "Fuck, no! We met at a club last night," I added hastily.

Hanz froze, then turned around slowly to look at me. With his camera resting against his chest he took several rapid shots of me, the flashes making me back up slightly and blink furiously.

"I never see him look like this," Hanz said after staring at me for several more seconds. "Huh," he added, just before he went back to taking more shots.

Several hours later Six was finally done. Carmen was cuddled up with another model on the other side of the room, thank god. Six walked out of the dressing area carrying a ginormous duffel bag.

"Ready?"

"You got all your stuff there?" I joked.

"Real funny. You know, sometimes I get to keep the clothes, like today. Gotta have someplace to put them."

"You get to keep the underwear?" I asked incredulously.

Six shrugged a shoulder. "Hell yeah. Pretty sweet, right? Nobody wants used underwear," he added.

And all I could think was how much I'd gladly keep that worn pair of see-through tightie-whities.

But I just cleared my throat instead.

Six grinned. "Hey, I'm starving. Wanna grab a burger?" He asked.

I blinked. "Sure. But you really eat burgers? Not like...tofu veggie meat?"

He shrugged. "Only if I wanna eat food that tastes like crap," he laughed. "I don't really watch what I eat. I work out a lot, and I mean a lot. I swim too, keep busy. I eat a fair amount of salads. Someday it'll probably be an issue, but not now."

I just nodded, my head spinning. "Burgers it is," I said.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We basically ditched Carmen at the shoot. But she knew my number, and since she'd been canoodling with a model with a huge floppy Mohawk and one colorfully tattooed side of his shaved head, we figured she wouldn't remember me in such circumstances, and I was right, considering she'd neither called or texted me one time since we'd left.

"So, Kiki. I'm guessing that's a nickname?" Six asked. He took a big bite of his loaded burger and frowned when a glob of mustard fell onto his black shirt. He tried to get it off with a finger but was unsuccessful. But the stain immediately blended in. Even his clothes were perfect and beautiful.

"Yes. I have twin little sisters. When they both were babies they couldn't say Katherine, and Kiki was what came out."

"Why would they ever want to call you Katherine?" Six asked with a dopey grin.

"Because it's my real...Oh, ha, ha. You know, if the modeling calls ever stop coming...comedy is not an option for you," I said sweetly.

Six leaned back in his chair and laughed long and loud.

"And what kind of a name is Six anyway?" I asked, for the second time in so many days.

"Well, the other five were taken, sort of, as you suggested last night," He snickered. "I come from a huge family. And I'm -"

"You're the sixth kid," I blurted out, getting it.

"Bingo," He said, sucking down a huge gulp of water.

"Are you Catholic?" I asked.

"No. Mormon, though we aren't really. My mom was raised Mormon and came from a big family herself so I guess that's why there were so many kids. I mean, they're my parents. I don't ask them the sex questions, you know?" He shuddered.

I did too.

"But they don't go to church, nobody wears the special underwear, et. cetera," he said.

I nodded. I didn't know any Mormons so I didn't really understand, but was trying to.

"We lived just outside of Las Vegas when I was born. But then we moved to California. I moved to L.A. after a couple years of college. I've been modeling ever since."

"Do you have a 'day job' or is modeling it?" I asked. I even used the finger quotes.

Six shook his head. "Nah. Well at first I was a waiter at Olive Garden. I got kind of chubby on their breadsticks so I had to eat the minestrone soup more," he said with a laugh. "But then things took off. I'm in a real good agency now. Photographers talk. I work with Hanz a lot here in Chicago, and names get passed around. I've been really lucky," he said.

I nodded. It was so much more glamorous than my boring life as an administrative assistant. He asked and I told him a little about it. Scheduling meetings. Photocopying and putting together presentation binders. Booking flights. Securing rental cars. Answering phones. Ordering pens. Fascinating stuff.

"I think I would have gotten my paralegal license - or whatever it's called - and I might like to work with lawyers if I didn't model. I think that would be interesting," he told me.

I wasn't positive since we had a few lawyers as clients at work and they were all giant jerk faces, but I was almost sure not all lawyers were that bad.

Probably.

Suddenly my eyes widened. "I just realized something. You probably missed your flight!" I gasped.

"Relax," He said, grabbing my hands where they fidgeted on the table. "I wanted to spend more time with you. So I changed it to tomorrow."

I was...gobsmacked. "You changed it...for me?" I asked.

He gently smacked one of my hands before his fingers curled around mine. "I did."

^^^^^^^^^^^

We ended up back at my apartment to find Carmen and her new friend sitting on the floor outside of my apartment door. I smacked my forehead. "You didn't have a key," I said.

Carmen cuddled closer into the arms of tattooed Mohawk guy and grinned. "No biggie. We haven't been here long. I was going to text you in a little while," she said. "Are we going out in a little bit?" She asked.

I put my key in the lock. "If that's what everybody wants to do," I said.

Six cuddled up behind me. My hand trembled as I turned the key. "I do," he whispered hotly in my ear. I shuddered as I pushed the door open.

Carmen and Mohawk man immediately sat on the couch and flipped the tv on. Six headed into the kitchen to get a water bottle.

"Carmen, who's your friend?" I finally asked, when no introduction ever came. They were busy sucking face and I wasn't sure that they weren't going to start ripping off clothes any second from now. I figured if I didn't ask his name now, I'd never find out what it was once any boning began.

"I'm Billy," he said, offering me his hand. We shook, then Carmen grabbed his hand and wrapped both of hers around it. Like I was going to hold his hand too long? I glanced at her and snorted.

"Nice to meet you," I said. "I like your..." I waved my hand around my head, indicating his Mohawk-shaved-tattooed head combination. The tattoo was of a Chinese dragon and it wound around the side of his head from behind his ear.

He nodded with a huge grin. "Thanks," He said. He'd changed into clothes instead of the skimpy pair of black underpants he had been wearing at the shoot, and now he had on a pair of dark skinny blue jeans and a black cable knit sweater. It was the right amount of preppy that, combined with his unusual hairdo and scalp art, made him look almost normal.

Six came back from the kitchen. He handed me a water bottle and took a big drink from his. "So? We going out tonight?"

I looked at him and grinned. "Definitely."

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Six changed into a white t-shirt similar to mine that he had with him in his bag. He and I looked like twins almost, except his jeans were skinny jeans and they were black. He wore some kind of brand new fancy sneakers, and I changed into a pair of black ballet flats. I wasn't going to worry about dressing up much tonight.

Billy and Carmen didn't change either, mostly because Billy's clothes were back at his hotel room, and Carmen already looked dressed up. She insisted on doing some makeup on me, and I emerged to a whistle from Six with a smokey eye, glitter eyeliner, and one of Carmen's scarves that actually made my white t-shirt look a little more put together.

We all took the same cab, Carmen and Billy climbing in first so that Six and I had to split up. He ended up riding up front with the cab driver. I tried to ignore Carmen and Billy sitting beside me, but the kissing sounds they were making were grating and embarrassing.

We exited the cab right outside of Club Delirium this time, and hurried through the cold night right up to the entrance. ID's looked at, cover charges paid and coats checked, we made our way into the club and to a table that was only a couple away from where we'd hung out last night. I was suffering from some serious deja vu.

Six took drink orders and then took Billy with him because he didn't have enough hands.

"So," I said. "Billy, huh?"

Carmen grinned. "Yeah. Cute, isn't he?" She said.

"Yeah. In a kind of scary way," I grinned.

"Oh, pshaw," Carmen said. "He's harmless."

I nodded. No doubt he wasn't, but Carmen could take care of herself. She always had.

The boys returned from the bar just when a new song began. The sounds of a hard-strummed guitar filled the club. The singer sang about how his his life was colorless until somebody came into it, turned it around, and made it explode with color.

Six slid my apple martini my way and I grinned my thanks at him.

He held a secretive smile and his eyes were hot as he looked down at me. He shot a nod quickly towards the dance floor. "Dance with me," he said.

"Absolutely," I grinned.

We moved to the dance floor and I reached up high to lace my fingers around his neck. His hands found the small of my back and he plastered my body to his.

~Violets and purples

~Diamonds and circles

~You're my kaleidoscope

I couldn't help but grin as he spun me around on the dance floor.

We danced through the song until the beat dropped out and the singer's voice held the song together between simple, long piano chords. Six looked down at me. "What is it about you?" He asked with a small head shake.

"I'm just...me," I said. I gave him a half smile and a one shouldered shrug.

He shook his head and looked at me quizzically. "No. You're much, much more," he murmured.

He slowly leaned down, his full lips stopping just before they touched mine. His green eyes seemed to spark and flash fire. "Come home with me," he whispered.

I understood home to be his hotel room. I nodded frantically and quickly closed the gap between us, kissing him hard. He smiled through the kiss, chuckling. Whatever it was about me that drew him in was making me feel the same exact pull.

The beat picked up again but we weren't dancing anymore. Six had grabbed my hand and was pulling me towards our table. Carmen's eyes were wide as Six bore down on her and Billy. Billy just watched with curiosity as Six never stopped, just gave them a two-fingered salute as we passed the table, our drinks unfinished, and closed in on the steps to the door.

I met Carmen's eyes with a huge grin.

But we were forgetting something in our haste. "Coats?" I breathed.

"Fuck," Six murmured.

We collected them from the coat check and then we were up the stairs and out into a cold Chicago night. I barely felt the cold, though, because Six's grin and the heated promise in his eyes warmed me.

Six grabbed us a cab, told the driver which hotel to go to, and we settled into the back seat. As the driver turned into traffic, I felt a big hand slide up my inner thigh.

I grabbed his hand, my face flushing. "How about we wait?" I murmured.

He leaned down and stole a hot kiss. "How about I can't fucking wait anymore? There's nobody here but us -"

"And a cab driver!" I hissed.

But Six only slid his hand up higher. "He doesn't care. I've got you alone and I'm taking advantage," he muttered.

I collapsed into the seat when his hand slid so far up my thigh it couldn't physically go any higher. Six cupped my sex, his thumb rubbing over where he thought my clit was - and he was correct - and I closed my eyes, grunting softly at the pleasure of it.