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In looking around, I confirmed once again that it definitely wasn’t a wedding, because there were still no flowers in sight. The centerpieces were interesting, though: fresh pineapples.
A woman standing at what looked like a hostess station near the door asked, “Are you registered?”
“Yes,” Milo answered.
“What’s the name?”
“Milo Hooker.” He turned to me. “And this is my sister, Madeline. Or as I like to call her, Maddie.”
She pursed her lips as she checked the list. “Hmm. Hooker. I don’t see your names on here.”
Milo pretended to be outraged. “Well, there must be some kind of mistake then. I registered weeks ago.”
She seemed frustrated that she wasn’t able to find our information.
Leaning in she whispered, “Honestly, I don’t think any woman here is going to complain that I let you in. In fact, they might kill me if I let you walk out that door. So, how about I just add your names now?”
“That sounds excellent.” He smiled. “Thank you.”
She asked him to confirm the spelling of our names before she said, “It’s rare to see siblings coming to our events together. I have to say, that’s a new one.”
Hmm…
Was this a singles mixer?
“What’s the itinerary for tonight?” Milo asked her.
“Well, we have a cash bar. And everyone is ready to mingle. Should you decide you’ve made a match, we have a certain number of rooms blocked upstairs. You’ll come to me, and I can provide you with a key. If you decide to use one of our rooms, you’ll just need to provide a credit card to claim it. They’re on a first-come, first-served basis.”
She handed us each a badge to clip onto our clothing. They had a single pineapple on them.
Milo nodded. “Got it. Thank you.”
As we walked away, I clipped the badge to my chest and said, “You told her you got it? Way to play it cool. What the hell is this? Some kind of pineapple-lovers convention?”
Milo ducked his head in laughter. When he calmed down, his expression turned serious. “We’re at a fuck fest, Maddie.”
Huh? A fuck fest? My eyes went wide. “What?”
“This is a swingers event.”
“Oh my God. What?”
“The first dead giveaway was the goddamn pineapples.”
I wrinkled my forehead. “Pineapples?”
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “You didn’t know that?”
“No! What do pineapples have to do with swinging?”
“They’re a universal symbol to identify…like-minded people. I used to have neighbors who always had a pineapple flag hanging outside their house. I had no clue what the fuck it meant until the woman asked me to one of their parties. She seemed to think her husband would like Zoe, and she made it clear she wanted to fuck me. When I told her we weren’t into that kind of stuff, she made it sound like I should’ve known what they were insinuating—because of the pineapple. So I never made that mistake again. I see a pineapple now? I know what’s up.”
Still trying to make sense of it all, I asked, “Wait… You noticed the pineapples on the way up to our rooms when we first got here? You knew about this when you asked me to crash it?”
He shook his head. “No. I swear. I didn’t notice the pineapples until we got down here just now.”
My jaw dropped as I looked around. “Holy shit.” So many eyes were on us—like almost every set of eyes in the room.
“You look like you want to flee,” he said. “Remember our promise. We said we’d follow this through until the end—no matter what.”
“This is a pretty big ‘no matter what’! And what exactly does ‘the end’ mean under these circumstances? My name might be hooker...but I’m not a hooker, if you get my drift.”
“We won’t be partaking, crazy girl.” He laughed. “But it will be fun to mess around with these people.” He tilted his head. “Come on.”
Milo went to the bar and got us a couple of drinks while I stayed a few feet behind and continued to peruse the room nervously. I was definitely going to need alcohol for this.
Not to boost my own ego, but we were the best-looking people here. I suspected it would be no time before we were approached.
Sure enough, soon after Milo returned with our drinks, a man and a woman who looked to be in their late thirties came over to where we were standing.
“Hello,” the man said.
Milo smiled, looking cool and confident. “Hi.”
The woman sounded kind of tense. “I’m Carolyn, and this is my husband, Troy.”
“Nice to meet you,” Milo said.
My pseudo-brother gave me a challenging look, like he wanted me to say something to them.
I cleared my throat. “So...do you do this often?”
“Actually, no,” the woman said. “This is my first time. It’s my fortieth birthday, and I told him I wanted to try this at least once.”
“Ahhh.” I breathed out. “Well, happy birthday.”
Her husband took a sip of his drink. “I’ve been many times before. My ex and I used to like to frequent these things. Carolyn is my second wife and not quite as adventurous. Probably why we’ve lasted, though.”
