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She shouldn’t flirt with Raul. He was here for work, doing her a big favor, actually. This wasn’t fun, an encounter with an attractive man. This was a mystery he was volunteering to help her with.
But oh. If this had been a chance meeting with an attractive man, it would have been fun. The nicest thing to happen to her this year.
Last year, too.
They’d left the super funky part of the Castro and were walking along a recently gentrified street, with fancy coffee shops and expensive boutiques. The lights were bright and fun, some actually beautiful. The art galleries had art works that were stunning. One shop specialized in cowboy boots and had an array in the front window that reached out and grabbed you. The etched leatherwork was exquisite, some boots brightly colored. She leaned in to see one intricate design and laughed. It was a perfect replica of Van Gogh’s Starry Sky.
“Great, isn’t it?” Raul said.
“Fabulous.” She looked up at him. “Can you see yourself wearing them?”
“Cowboy boots are for riding horses and I don’t do that. And I’d be scared of ruining the artwork. But I would buy them and frame them. Or maybe buy them and give them to a cousin who’d love them.”
He was serious.
The next shop was something else. They both instinctively stopped and stared. It was a decorating shop and was perfect if you were the Sun King and had just dropped acid.
“Wow,” she said finally. Even in the evening light, you’d need to wear sunglasses to fight the glare from thousand-bulb chandeliers and shiny brocades and a billion mirrored surfaces. “Some people really like their glitz.”
“Speechless,” Raul said. “Though I’m tempted to go inside and see what other wonders there are.”
“My glitz quota just maxed out,” Emma said firmly, and tugged at his arm. “And we’re close to Heaven, right?”
Raul gave another deep look at the window. “Yeah, close to Heaven for Liberace. But we’re also close to the other Heaven, too. Let’s go.”
Heaven was on a very short side street, basically taking up one whole side of the street. They stopped and took in a long, low structure made of concrete that seemed to stretch forever. In the middle was a wide entrance with two bruisers standing on either side in that ‘at ease, men’ stance, hands covering genitals. Satin cords forming a corridor for when the line got long, but it was early and there were only a few people lined up.
The crowd was young, well-dressed, hip and happy. Mostly men, some women. She and Raul lined up and moved to the head of the line in under ten minutes. Emma had fun listening to the chatter of the people around her. She learned about two awesome hairdressers and an ace asshole bleacher and was almost sorry when it was their turn to approach the bouncers. The bouncers took one look at them, then turned their heads forward and stared straight ahead again.
They’d passed the chic test.
There was a sort of antechamber, a big room where another loose line waited to pass by a guy with neon green hair sitting at a plexiglass table. When they got to the table, he smiled brightly at them.
“Well, hello!” He looked Emma up and down and then Raul, lingering over Raul. “Entrance for two?”
Raul had his credit card out. “Yeah. Two, thanks.”
The green haired guy passed a cellphone-like device over the card and it beeped.
It showed a sale of two hundred bucks. They each received light blue bracelets.
Emma turned to Raul. “Are you sure …” she began uneasily.
“Hey.” Raul snaked an arm around her waist and bent to kiss her. It was brief but hard and left her completely shaken. He walked to the door keeping his arm around her waist, bending to speak directly in her ear. “We’re a couple, remember? And I don’t want to hear another word about money.”
He stopped at the door, one hand clasping her waist, the other on the door, about to open it. He looked down at her and at her nod, opened the door.
They walked through and Emma forgot everything.
“Oh my God,” she breathed.
It was – it wasamazing.The huge space, an ugly squat concrete box on the outside, was magically transformed into a beach on the inside. Not just any beach, either. A beach on some magical tropical isle, the kind of beach that was on tourist brochures and never corresponded to reality.
The lighting somehow recreated the effect of sunlight on rippling water, light blue evanescent lights on the walls and ceiling. There were seating pods everywhere, the couches like on a chic beach, with lightweight cotton canopies and walls. You could arrange some privacy for yourself by pulling the curtains closed. It was early in the evening and the pods were all open. Very handsome waiters with amazing hair, dressed in lightweight trousers and aloha shirts and sandals, circulated with drinks. At the end of the huge space was a plexiglass wall forming a bright blue pool. Two young guys frolicked in the pool in tiny little swimsuits that left nothing to the imagination. They were gorgeous and had tiny breathers allowing then to spend time underwater.
Heaven was a day at the beach. And not just any beach. Bali-Maldives quality beach. No wonder Toby came often.
Toby. Their reason for being here. Emma turned to Raul to find him looking at her, not at the amazing décor of Heaven.
