The Test

Word Count: 850

Kevin read off the directions. My anxiety spiked when they took us outside the city’s familiar limits. The club looked like all other nondescript buildings around it, disappointing and dim. The windows were backed out and a neon 727 glowed in one dark pane. The door was locked but a sign indicated we should ring the bell for entry. Kevin had looked at me then, his eyes seemed to spark with doubt.

"You sure you want to do this?" He asked.

I had been asking myself that on the drive up, considering all the possible outcomes of us taking our relationship here. I thought about the distance between us and the stale, pedestrian way we'd made infrequent love in the past eight months. The embers between us had turned to ash, the passion dying out.

I leaned forward and pressed the bell.

The door was opened by a white-haired man with a kind face. He looked to be about 60, and did not seem at all put out by my obvious surprise. He was wearing a gray track suit and sneakers that were impossibly white. In all of fifteen seconds, I’d registered the retro-sleaze of the place with its wood-paneled walls, low ceilings and cheesy lighted dance floor. The tables and chairs looked like airline terminal furniture but the tunes pumped with a healthy aggressiveness, an enticing combination of throbbing hip hop and raucous southern rock.

Kevin and I grabbed the two nearest bar stools. The old man said someone would be by to give us a tour. Little clicks of couples had already begun filling the dance floor and collecting in pockets around the room. A middle-aged man and woman appeared. The man, who said his name was Steve, was tall and slender with dark hair and a neatly trimmed goatee. His partner Monique was a plump and pretty blond who smiled warmly. She invited us to follow them up a narrow, dimly lit staircase. My high heels sunk into the shag carpeting as I stumbled after them.

The upstairs was a collection of connected rooms. Some had king-sized beds and other rooms had sex chairs and swings. There was very little light spilling from the orange and red bulbs tucked behind shaded fixtures. There was a large, tiled roman shower with bench seats and multiple shower heads at the back. There was a space with a several rows of blue lockers against one wall and a narrow hallway terminated with a tiny bathroom. The toilet glowed white against the backdrop of seventies kaleidoscope wallpaper.

Steve said that some couples were content to stay at the bar but most ventured upstairs at least once, even just to watch. He stressed that this was a safe place with no pressure. Back downstairs, I had my wine refilled and we settled into a booth by the dance floor. After watching as couples gyrated in the dark, shedding inhibitions and bits of clothing, our guides made the first move and asked us to join them upstairs. I felt Kevin's eyes on me. I nodded without looking at him.

Upstairs there were people engaged in various sex acts. One young couple was testing the limits of a sex chair; the metal frame shook and groaned as they pounded away at each other. In another dark corner a muscular man, his arms covered in erotic ink, was spanking his partner. Her ass was fire red and her face was twisted in a grimace of ecstasy. I don’t remember getting undressed but we ended up next to each other on one of the beds already inhabited by several couples in full coital swing. I was on my back, clad in only a towel. At first, all I could see were moving shapes and shadows but the noises were unmistakable. Moans of pleasure and the dirty sex talk of strangers filled my ears in living stereo.

Stray hands ran over my exposed breasts. I gasped as random fingers explored my private spaces without invitation. I felt my towel tugged free and then the strange, hot lips of the blond on my sex, timid at first then she began to lick and suck until my moans joined the chorus. Kevin stepped between my legs. His first few thrusts were tentative but soon he was fucking me in a frenzied pace as the bodies shimmered and shook all around us. I closed my eyes. I felt the blond's teeth on my nipples, her roving hands on my body. I heard Kevin groaning and cursing and felt the sudden hot burst of him inside me.

By the time we stumbled out of the club, I was dizzy with wine. I had not bothered with my bra or underwear and the cold air ran up my sweaty thighs and over my still throbbing sex. Kevin reached over and opened my blouse. He slipped his fingers inside me as I reached for him. We drove home fondling each other, his erection straining against his jeans and my exposed breasts glowing white in headlights of passing cars.

Had we passed our test?