Traffic Girl - Katie Ch. 03

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and the incredible feedback so far with Katie, dear readers. I always appreciate it. Here's the third installment, the grand opening of Jess's fabulous Hollywood & Vine swingers club. We've had a lot of large events to start this book, and we've got one more to come in Chapter 4, but the longer format I think allows us to explore these group settings where our core is very comfortable and loves to explore their debauched sides while also having some more intimate moments between the main players. Always happy to hear what you think!

Also -- to the keen reader who suggested a Cast of Characters? It's in progress! I will try to get it published ASAP. You were right -- there are a LOT of people to keep track of!

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The Hollywood & Vine opening night felt both like it would never arrive and, at the same time, as if it had snuck up on us in an instant. Intentional sexual frustration, thanks to our forty-eight-hour celibacy pact, didn't help, on the one hand. Nor did the amount of work that went into planning our costumes, on the other. Jess was a big fan of theme parties, and the kickoff event was dedicated to the Great Gatsby and the Roaring Twenties. It was fitting. All thirty founding members had agreed to attend. With their guests, that pushed the total attendance to around fifty people. A swinger party of that size held a world of possibilities in any circumstance. But the identities of the club's membership packed it with even greater intrigue.

Jess was surprisingly relaxed the day of the party. That was, in part, because she outsourced most of the preparations. The club's incredible cash flow made that easily possible. She used a good chunk of it to allow herself to shift away stress, and it allowed her to bring in people to prepare for the party and leave without any hint as to what would transpire at the club. There would be no staff at the event, and there would only be two security guards, trusted professionals we had roped in from Riley and Henry's tour and could be counted on for their discretion. So that enabled us to make it the same as any other Saturday, going to the farmers market and stopping in at the beach for a little while. But there was nothing normal about this Saturday. At eight o'clock that evening, we would kick off a new era, one that would help redefine us once more.

For the big event, my wives all opted for short flapper dresses, which hugged them and left no curves to the imagination. I wore a suit with bold pinstripes, like something out of a gangster movie, and a panama fedora with a red feather. We went to the Hollywood & Vine houses early to start the party. We couldn't help it. The anticipation had been building for a long time, and two days without sex made us desperate to get the ball rolling.

A question that hovered over us was how we should mingle among the guests. To date, most of our swinging had taken place in an environment we controlled. We had loosened up our usual practices a bit at a couple of the after-parties on Riley and Henry's tour. But this party, on the sprawling property spanning two houses, would include dozens of people, many of whom we didn't know, but all of whom were coming to enjoy an atmosphere premised on permissiveness. And all of them had paid handsomely for the privilege of belonging and attending.

At the same time, the core rule at Hollywood & Vine was consent. It was understood that nothing would happen without express consent, and anyone who had participated even casually in a lifestyle environment knew there would be some people who preferred to play voyeur or, at least, might have barriers up. The cost of the club didn't buy you access to anyone's body. It bought you the privilege of the scene and the tantalizing possibilities of what might happen.

There were going to be some tempting and very powerful people in attendance, so we also had to acknowledge the possibility that we might get carried away in the moment. We agreed that none of us would play with someone the others hadn't met, not without an introduction that would act as a form of screening. One of our fundamental swapping rules was that any one of the five of us had veto power over someone's choice of playmate. About half the attendees we had met before and knew, so it wasn't a huge issue. But we were also allowed to get pre-approval for one playmate in advance. It was like a hall pass. Anything else? We figured it wouldn't be terribly awkward to have a spouse introduction.

Jess was nervous. She kept touching the peacock feather that stood up from the headband of her costume as she paced back and forth, trying to stave off the urge to take another bump of cocaine. Hollywood & Vine was a great concept. She knew it. She had poured over every detail of the club, its ambiance, and its membership. This was a passion project for her. And she wanted it to succeed. It was an anxiety-inducing wait to find out if her vision would translate into something people -- very powerful and exacting, particular people -- would be interested in.

"I just don't want to flop," she told me.

"No chance," I said, putting my hands on her shoulders and rubbing them up and down lightly.

"This place is perfect, Jess!" Kat said.

"There is nowhere like this in the whole world," Rita added. "What these people want is a clubhouse, a safe space to come get down and dirty."

"You have total privacy," Katie added. "It means everyone has total permission to get as weird as they fucking want."

"I hear what you're saying," Jess said, "and I get it. And you're so sweet and supportive, all of you. But what if Stephen, for example, is like, this place sucks, and I want my money back."

"Then I'll let him fuck me one more time to change his mind!" Kat said with a laugh.

"I know, I know," Jess said, touching the feather again. "I'm just nervous. I'm sorry."

I looked at my watch. It was seven forty-five. There was a knock on the door. It was two short raps, followed by one long one and three more short ones. The club's secret knock. Jess thought it would add to the air of exclusivity, but it was unnecessary. Each entrant was screened by the two security guards for their credentials -- a custom invitation made just for that party -- before being allowed inside the automated gate. There was also a password, written on the invitation, which was meant to evoke a speakeasy vibe.

I knew who was behind the door. It was Juliet and Melanie. They were positively giddy with excitement. Two minutes later, the secret knock came again, this time from Jason, Crystal, and Bianka. A moment after that, Riley and Henry arrived, and they immediately gushed at the finished club. Petey and Alix arrived just before eight, completing the early arrivals. Now we just had to wait for people outside our usual group.

Carly showed up on-time with Jeff Stone, the male lead in her new movie. He was as charismatic as I remembered, and he leered at every girl in the place with the same unquenchable desire I knew so well. Ryan, the action movie star, came in with Cecily. Our other action star friend, Chris, who we hadn't seen in too long because he was off on back-to-back shoots, arrived alone. Stephen and his girlfriend, Francesca, showed up just on the cusp of fashionably late, giving them a solo and featured entrance. Even in a crowd like this, they stopped the party dead in its tracks just by showing up.

And now Jess got really nervous. The people we knew were here. The rest? They were unknown quantities, essentially complete strangers who had ponied up a meaningful chunk of case based on word-of-mouth from friends. Jess hoped it would go well. She indulged her desire for a couple bumps. The party was already getting into gear. Booze flowed. Cocaine disappeared as fast as lines got cut. Conversation was easy, and there wasn't any tension in the air because everyone knew each other. We had all partied together and in similar circumstances. So there was no uncertainty about expectations or what might happen. People were content to talk and relax and catch up, knowing the fun would come. It felt like a mixture of one of our swinger parties and a weekend at Stephen's ranch in Texas.

My biggest concern -- well, that might have been too strong a word; maybe it was more accurately curiosity -- was whether the members would treat the evening as a business networking event. Was this just going to be a place to see and be seen? Or would they embrace the spirit of what Jess was trying to do? From my perspective, I loved the idea of being a part of this. And I finally understood why. Something Kat, Jess, and I shared in common had always been the love of a dirty secret. It had created problems in our relationship in the past because we were prone to use cheating as the way to fulfill that desire. Even as we became permissive in our sexual activities, incorporating others and indulging our fantasies, each of us at different times continued to embrace the dirty secret, to our detriment.

So my greatest hope for Hollywood & Vine was that it would become our dirty little secret. One all of us could share. The swingers group had been wonderful for breaking down our desires to stray, to seek out something new and fresh and exciting. And our fidelity to open communication and transparency had helped us move away from destructive behavior that had imperiled us in the past. But the club? The club could become a reservoir where all five of us could embrace the desire for forbidden fruit while remaining true to the commitments we had made to one another.

Simply put, Hollywood & Vine was a chance for us to have our cake and eat it, too. In a way more expansive than we had ever dreamed.

As the party got moving, we broke into smaller groups. It felt very natural. Juliet and Melanie brought around Carly and Jeff, a kind of victory lap about their recently completed production. But it was obvious that Jeff was taken by Bianka, who looked stunning in a sparkling, all-black flapper dress and elbow-length black gloves. I had been talking to her, Crystal, and Jason with Kat when the movie stars came around, and it was a moment that remained burnt in my memory after the fact. Jeff had an easy, relaxed manner. It was striking and very similar to Stephen -- both of them approached a situation with a friendly eagerness that completely ignored the fact that everyone was instantly drawn to them. They commanded attention but had a boyish way of ignoring that, even though you could tell they relished the attention. But while Stephen came off as slightly aloof, Jeff was more down-to-earth. And more aggressive. He immediately called Bianka enchanting. Within a minute, his arm slid around her waist, and he whispered something in her ear, which made her giggle.

Jeff was an operator. He was audacious in such a smooth way that you hardly even noticed. When Melanie and Juliet moved on with Carly to keep making the rounds, it took a moment for us to realize that Jeff had peeled off with Bianka to somewhere private. It was like magic. It amused me and encouraged me. I viewed it as an endorsement that Jeff, someone whose example others would follow given how much juice he had, was embracing what Hollywood & Vine was about.

Then the unfamiliar members started to show up in droves by nine o'clock. They were unfamiliar, but almost every single one of them was utterly recognizable. A nervousness accompanied the new arrivals, which wasn't surprising. Jess, however, proved to be the consummate hostess. She seemed to float around the room, greeting everyone, introducing herself, and pouring drinks. As we had become accustomed to at these Hollywood gatherings, nearly all the guests gravitated toward the bar for an early line or two. It was almost like doing cocaine was a signal that you belonged there.

The alcohol and drugs eased the natural tension that accompanied the scene, but the thing that broke down any hesitancy most effectively was something else Jess had done in advance of the event. She had poured her heart and soul into this club, and she went to exceptional lengths to ensure its success. That success, however, was far from a sure thing, simply because measuring it depended largely on things beyond her control. How could you be sure that people who simply had the money to pay the initiation fee would get along sexually? You couldn't, really, but Jess went the extra mile. She had a team of three exceptional private investigators, who had long worked with Petey and his company, to do exhaustive background checks on every member.

It wasn't just a normal background check. And it wasn't even a background check like you'd have if you wanted to work for the CIA. Jess got the PIs working on what she called a lifestyle background check. She wanted to know dating histories, favorite restaurants, rumors that flew through the gossip mills, and more. A lot of that was easy to cultivate for high-profile people like this, but the real goods came from the darker sources of information that took discreet, knowing inquiries directed to the proper sources. Jess got all of that.

But that wasn't enough on its own. The information alone amounted to nothing more than a gossip sheet. That didn't interest Jess. What did interest her, though, was analyzing similarities and habits that she could glean from the dossier she assembled on each member. She looked for potential symbiosis between and among people. I admit, I hadn't been sure it was worth the effort she put into it, but I was the first person to tell Jess I was wrong when I saw how it played out that first night at Hollywood & Vine.

Even with people she had never met, Jess was able to speak to them with familiarity. She knew how to flatter them. She pretended like she could simply size them up and assess their deepest desires and secret treats. All you had to do was count the number of times someone's jaw dropped after Jess spoke to them to understand just what a special talent she was.

I made a game for a while out of standing beside her, dutiful husband, as she greeted her guests and introduced herself, to eavesdrop on how things transpired. A legendary director, with no Oscar despite three nominations in the category, who was in his seventies seemed skeptical of the scene when he walked in and was greeted by Jess. But he didn't know Jess, who recognized him immediately, was fully aware that despite his lovely wife, an actress in her early forties, he had liaisons with large-breasted, twenty-something blondes at least twice a week. So as soon as the introductions were done, Jess conveniently brought him to meet Katie, whose dress was probably off-theme because it was so low cut, but the director didn't seem to care as he leered at her and right away whisked Katie off to the bar.

That was the level of detail Jess had poured into her mind to prepare for Hollywood & Vine. As the madame who ran the Infinity escort agency, she could pick from a menu of options to pair a client with a girl. It was like a matching game. But the club was like a game of chess. She couldn't just populate it with whores. That would undermine the exclusivity, the authenticity of the concept. Jess had to pull different levels here. She was given the pieces of the game and had to figure out how to move them around the room to help them hit it off. And she was masterful at it.

Within a couple hours, as jazz music played softly in the background and the dim light created a mood of permissiveness, conversation flowed naturally, and more and more guests peeled off to explore the grounds or find a private nook to duck into. There was a light haze of smoke, mostly from weed, and a steady beat of snorts as cocaine proved its mettle as Hollywood's drug of choice.

There were a few public displays, with Melanie and Juliet pulling Riley, Cecily, Carly, and a young, pale actress who had hit it big with an HBO series into a cuddle zone in a pile of pillows on the floor. They were all high on molly, and performing what you might call a slow-motion striptease and group hug dance.

It also wasn't lost on me that Kat and Rita were riveted on Ryan, the superhero, and Chris, the action movie star, as they drank Champagne adjacent to the bar. I had presumed Kat would try to make a move on Ryan. There was no denying they shared an intense physical connection. But I didn't obsess over it too much. That's because Crystal had attached herself to my side. She could still be a bit intimidated in the settings where there were famous people around. She held my hand, and it felt good. I hadn't spent enough time with her in the past couple months. We'd both been busy, but like Kat and Ryan, there was a connection between Crystal and me that smoldered all the time.

"Where's Jason?" I asked her.

"He disappeared a little bit ago," Crystal said. "I'm not sure."

"Well, I know who you want to meet," I said.

"Who?" she asked.

"Come on," I said and pulled her toward the far side of the great room, near the French doors that opened onto the patio.

"Is that?" Crystal asked quietly as we approached.

I simply turned at her and grinned.

"Stephen!" I said. "How are you, my friend?"

Stephen, flanked by his girlfriend Francesca, was catching up with Jeff. They had been on-screen partners in six movies, five of them unforgettable hits. He was smoking a cigar, and Jeff was just puffing on one to light it.

"Hey, buddy," Stephen said, and pulled me in for a one-armed hug. "Been too long. You remember Francesca, don't you?"

"Of course," I said and nodded at her. "Delighted, as always."

She smiled back. She was refined, poised, and very European. The height of elegance, I was curious to see if she would let down her bemused guard in the Hollywood & Vine setting. So far, she was the same as ever.

"Thank you," she said. "Likewise. And who is your friend?"

"Crystal, this is Stephen and Francesca, and this is Jeff," I introduced her.

Crystal was chewing gum and smoking a joint from a long cigarette holder.

"Nice to meet you," Jeff said with a presumptive nod, always the cool kid.

"I adore your costume," Francesca said. "The cigarette holder is perfection."

"Absolute perfection," Stephen said, taking her hand and letting it linger for a barely perceptible extra moment.

"Oh my god," Crystal said, "it's so great to meet you. Do you want a hit?"

She looked at Francesca.

"Why not?" she said in her Italian accent.

Maybe she was going to let her hair down. Francesca accepted the black metal tube, which measured thirteen inches. The attractive smell of Kat's homegrown marijuana permeated the circle as wisps of smoke curled off the joint. Francesca took a long hit, obviously luxuriating in the smoke. She noticed me looking at her and didn't shy away from commenting on it.

"It is glamorous, no?" she said to me, exhaling in an elegant plume high into the air.

"It depends who's smoking it," I said.

I caught Stephen staring at Crystal's tits and smiled.

"John, you know, Jeff and I were just chatting here," Stephen said. "Believe it or not, we've got a new movie. We're going to co-produce it together, with our respective production companies."

"Well, that's a sure-fire hit if I've ever heard of one," I said.

"Do you wanna finance it?" Stephen asked bluntly.

It took me by surprise, and I simply blurted out my answer.

"Fuck me, are you serious?" I said. "I'd be insane to say no. Of course. Yes. Hell yes!"

"Glad to have you on board," Jeff said with his famous, toothy grin.

We shook hands.

"You just tell me what you need, and Jason and I will make it happen," I said.

It had caught me by surprise, and I was stunned. In a really, really good way. This was going to be easy money. Maybe the easiest I'd made to date in Hollywood. And, if you asked me, Hollywood & Vine had just paid for itself.