“Molukti. And yes. Now guess where our date is.”
Grayson rolled his eyes. “How am I supposed to guess that?”
“I’ll give you a hint. Tara and Jenna will be there.”
Grayson stared at him, bewildered.
“The shibari workshop,” Aureli said impatiently. “Remember? We signed up for it weeks ago.”
A hazy memory of drinking in Tara’s living room resurfaced. “Oh yeah. I forgot.”
“You sure you don’t want to come?” Aureli grinned. “There’re still spots available.”
Grayson opened his mouth to refuse, but paused. Several days had passed since his drunken display at Vitor’s, and yet he couldn’t get Keld’s irritatingly handsome face out of his head.
“You know what?” he heard himself say. “Fuck it. Sure. I’ll go.” Maybe a different flavor of embarrassment would cancel out the first.
Aureli lit up. “Really? Awesome! It starts at eight, so we have some time to stop at home.”
“Sounds good.”
Grayson spent the rest of his shift alternating between shaking Keld’s face from his memory and imagining what a rope-tying class would even look like. He was already starting to regret agreeing to this.
“Did they bully you into going, too?” Grayson muttered to Jaeyong.
“Going where?” he said absently. He was filling out a digital form with his fingers in perfect typing position.
“That workshop. The rope one.”
Jaeyong’s hands froze and his face went pink. “Oh. That. Tara asked me again this morning, but I told her no.”
Grayson sighed. “I should have done the same thing.”
“You’re going?” Jaeyong twisted to look at him.
“I guess so.” Grayson slumped down in his desk chair. “I needed a distraction.”
“From?” Jaeyong returned to typing, though his high cheekbones remained rosy.
“That night at Vitor’s,” Grayson groaned. “That Alpha carrying me around like Prince Charming. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Jaeyong offered him a sympathetic look. “It wasn’t that bad. He was polite, and you didn’t puke or anything. Not like you’re going to talk to him again, right?”
“Hopefully not.” Grayson closed his eyes. “First the bad date, then the alley thing, then blacking out… God, I’m a mess.”
“Youwerea mess,” Jaeyong corrected. “You had two bad nights, that’s all.”
Grayson sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks Jaeyong.”
The younger man grinned. “Let me know how that shibari class goes.”
∞∞∞
The club was called Siren’s Rest, and it was packed. The patrons were mostly human, with a few Mer sprinkled here and there. An old-fashioned bar was tucked away in one corner, and another was dominated by a small stage. A tiny human woman was arranging a series of colorful ropes on a display rack to the stage’s left. The sign above it read “Shibari Workshop” in ornate, red lettering.
The entire space was lit with soft, dim yellow lighting, which was somehow comforting to Grayson. He felt less like everyonewas staring at him, though he was absolutely staring at all the Mer in attendance. He’d seen plenty of unclothed Mer, as clothes were simply a human habit adopted by the alien invaders for the comfort of Earth’s citizens. But even so, he got a little jolt of shock each time he saw one in full aquatic form.
“This place is so cool,” Tara said, her head on a swivel. “It looks like something out of an old movie.”
