Chapter 159 The Grey Nightclub

Chapter 159 The Grey Nightclub
Veronica's POV:

I don't know where the idea came from exactly.

One minute I was sitting on the edge of Theo's bed watching two brothers argue about the philosophical relationship between coolness and intelligence, and the next minute the thought arrived fully formed and I said it before I had properly evaluated whether I should.

"Why don't we go to Grey," I said. "The nightclub."

The argument stopped.

Both of them looked at me with the specific expression of people who have been caught mid-sentence by something that required complete reorientation.

"The nightclub," Theo repeated.

"Grey, yes. You know it?"

"I know of it," Theo said, in the tone of someone choosing their words carefully. "I know of it the way one knows of things that exist at a considerable distance from one's usual radius."

"It has exclusive lounges," I said. "Private areas. Good music. An experience that is genuinely unlike anything either of you have probably done recently." I looked at Theo specifically. "It would be fun."

"Fun," Theo said. "You are describing Grey nightclub as fun."

"That is generally what nightclubs are for."

"Grey specifically is..." he paused, "...you are being more scandalous than Max right now. Do you understand that? You are out-scandaling Maximilian Ashford, which I did not have on my list of things that would happen this week."

"I love this idea," Max said, from the chair, with the immediate enthusiasm of someone who had already decided and was simply waiting for logistics.

He was grinning in the way he grinned when something had bypassed his usual calculations and landed directly in the part of him that just wanted to enjoy being alive. "I love this idea completely."

"Of course you do," Theo said.

"Grey is exactly where we should be tonight."

"Of course you think that."

"Theo." Max looked at his brother with the expression of someone settling in for a familiar argument. "Here comes the morality police."

"I am not the morality police..."

"Badge and everything."

"I am expressing a reasonable..."

"Siren going," Max said. "Little lights on top."

"Max..."

"Pulling people over for having fun without filing the appropriate paperwork..."

"I was going to say," Theo said, with the patience of someone waiting for a gap in traffic, "that I accept."

Max stopped.

I stopped.

Theo looked at both of us with the composed expression of someone who had made a decision and was comfortable with it.

"I accept the challenge," he said. "I am capable of going to a nightclub. I am capable of having an experience that exists outside my usual radius. I am, despite significant evidence to the contrary being presented in this room, a person who can do cool things." He stood up with the deliberate energy of someone committing to a direction. "What time?"

Grey was exactly what its reputation suggested and then several things beyond that.

The entrance was unmarked in the way of places that didn't need to advertise... a dark door on a street that looked ordinary until you were close enough to hear the bass moving through the walls like something with a pulse.

The queue outside was long and entirely irrelevant to us because Max had called ahead with the ease of a man for whom calling ahead was simply how the world worked.

Inside, the lower level opened into a space that was larger than the exterior suggested... dark and warm and layered with light that moved rather than stayed, the kind of lighting designed to make everyone look like a better version of themselves.

The bar ran the full length of one wall, and the floor in front of it was already populated with people who had arrived early and committed fully to the evening.

Music that you felt before you heard it.

The smell of good drinks and expensive perfume and the particular electricity of a room full of people who had decided, collectively, to be present.

I stood between Max and Theo just inside the entrance and felt the bass in my sternum and thought that this had been a very good idea.

We moved toward the bar, Theo navigating the crowd with the slightly careful energy of someone recalibrating their comfort zone in real time, Max moving through it with the absolute ease of a man in his natural habitat, and me between them feeling the particular lightness of a night that had no agenda beyond itself.

We had just reached the edge of the bar when the voice cut through the music from somewhere to my right.

A girl... dark hair, sequined dress, drink raised above her head with the confidence of someone who had already had two of them and was feeling magnificently unconcerned about what happened next.

"Anybody up for a foursome?" she announced, to no one specifically and everyone in general, with the cheerful energy of someone suggesting they split an appetizer.

The people immediately around her responded with the casual variety of reactions that suggested this was not, in this particular room, a remarkable statement.

I stood very still.

Then I turned slowly to look at Max.

Max was already looking at me with the expression of someone working very hard to keep their face neutral and not succeeding completely.

Then I looked at Theo.

Theo was looking at the girl. Then at the bar. Then at a point somewhere above the bar that appeared to contain nothing but air and the memory of the life he had been living before this evening.

"I..." he started.

"Don't," Max said.

"I was just going to say..."

"Theo."

"That this establishment has a very..."

"Don't finish that sentence."

Theo closed his mouth.

I looked at both of them.

And then, for the second time that day, I laughed until I couldn't stop.

Then Theo couldn't take it anymore. "Foursome? Really? Is that girl mad or what?" Theo cursed under his breath.

And Max said, "You are a loser."

I went in between them, squeezing two brothers to my sides. "Chill guy, let us come up with a cool activity to do here," I said to them. "How about we go to the upstairs lounge."