Neon

seven

Viktor had talked Harry into going out.

Harry got back to his hotel room with every intention of savoring his last night in the plush bed, watching game highlights on ESPN and enjoying the cheesecake Daphne had given him, but before he even had the chance to take his shoes off his phone was ringing.

"C'mon, we have tomorrow off, Styles. You have to give yourself one night out in New York City." Viktor tried to persuade him.

"Well, every night I go out to dinner is a night out in New York City, technically," Harry chided.

There was a long pause out of frustration. "Where we're going is a sit down vibe, you don't even have to stand up and pretend to be happy."

Harry didn't take much convincing.

And so, Viktor showed up to Harry's hotel in an Uber with the rest of his teammates at almost  11 PM. 

In the passenger seat sat Delly, who was happily chatting to the driver, an older man seemingly enthralled to have the Manhattan Phantoms in his Cadillac Escalade. Harry sat directly behind him, Henry de Haan and Viktor to his left. In the row behind him, Sven Tinordi sat next to Juuse Kupari, both of them speaking another language to each other that Harry didn't understand.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked aloud, trying to peek around Delly's shoulder to get a look at the GPS.

"A spot called the Velvet Curtain. It's a burlesque club," Viktor grinned, one side of his mouth curling up mischievously. "Ever been?"

The other guys in the car snickered, knowing the answer was most certainly 'no.' Harry went to bars fairly often during the offseason, and of course to pubs whenever he was back at home. But he often avoided places like strip clubs and burlesque clubs, not because he felt any particular way about the women themselves, he just found watching men say and do embarrassing things to women in a horny fog felt a little too depressing for him.

But Harry had seen Viktor interact with women before, and trusted he wasn't a bad enough person to hang around other creeps, so he sat back in his seat and went along with the plan. He sat the majority of the ride with his arms crossed over his chest, looking out the window and watching the city pass before him. The hum of conversation from his teammates and the lull of the car made him comfortable enough to feel like he wanted to sleep, so much so that he was disappointed when the vehicle came to a stop outside an inconspicuous looking building.

Harry looked up at the building first, the facade reminding him of a warehouse, and then down at both sides of the street while he waited for his teammates to get out of the uber, and for Delly to take one last photo with the driver. By what he assumed was the entrance, Harry spotted three women huddled together and sharing a cigarette amongst themselves, and as he walked in their direction the women looked him up and down. He pretended not to notice and avoided eye contact with them at all costs.

The bouncer let them pass without even a glance at their ID's, and they followed the smaller group in front of them down a long, dimly lit hallway. The floor was concrete and looked like a parking structure, which confused Harry even more. When they got closer to the end of the hallway he could make out a neon sign reading "GIRLS" in red letting, a yellow arrow flashing and pointing to their right hanging beneath it.

The look of the place was seedy, and smelled like tobacco and pungent brown liquor. Harry was beginning to wonder if his teammates had taken him somewhere to kill him, until he turned the corner and could see an opulent looking room on the other side of a set of black double doors.

The other side of the doors was like another world. The entire room was lit up with red uplighting, disguising everyone under a sultry, burgundy haze. The art deco flooring and gold fixtures made him feel transported back in time, like he had arrived for a party at Gatsby's house.