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On Thursday night, I joined some co-workers in a trendy district. We entered a club that reminded me of a tacky perfume commercial. White leather seats, fur carpets, and glass chandeliers adorned the interior.
After an hour, we switched to a different club filled with a sea of tables covered in colored lights and whiskey glasses. We grabbed a table with bottle service while Harold Frost, a guy from the office, told jokes. When the discussion shifted from office politics to local prostitution, I got up to dance. It wasn’t long before I started receiving text messages.
Daniel: Hey Batman take a taxi to Huai Huai Lu cross the intersection walk a few blocks meet me in front of the 7-11 about a hundred feet around the corner
Me: No thanks
Daniel: Don’t you want free booze?
Me: Thanks, but we’ve got that
Daniel: Your loss, this is a great house party
I didn’t bother to respond.
Daniel: Batman you win – I’ll meet you
I left the dance floor to visit the restroom, which was down a dark corridor. When I returned, I stopped to recheck my makeup in the nightclub’s mirrored walls.
As I leaned toward the mirror, I heard someone joke, “Are you trying to pee?”
“What?” I spun around and was surprised to see Daniel.
“Lana, c’mon, let’s dance up here,” he said, as he took my hand and pulled me up on to the stage, where we observed a group of drunken expats below.
“Do you think they’ve known each other for very long?” I asked while observing two couples, in opposite corners of the room, furiously making out.
Daniel shook his head, “Nope, they probably met tonight.”
He then snapped a photo, posted it on Flickr and wrote, True love in Shanghai.
“They should get a room,” I suggested.
“They won’t be going home together,” Daniel predicted.
“How do you know?”
“The women will break it off. That’s when someone like me walks in and applies plausible deniability.”
“Plausible deniability?”
“I’ll say, ‘Do you want to go back to my place and watch The Lion King? But of course we won’t.”
“Um, okay,” I said skeptically.
“C’mon Batman, let’s follow them, so I can prove I’m right.”
Daniel helped me down, seized me by the waist and whispered, “Careful not to stare at them, keep your eyes focused on mine.”
He then spun me around while giving me kisses on the cheek. We were turning around and around, dancing cheek-to-cheek while watching the strangers leave the club. We followed them as they headed to the street.
In the middle of our frolic, the two blonde women suddenly cut ties with their make out buddies, hailed a taxi, and jumped in. As the taxi sped away, the men looked puzzled.
I stopped dancing, walked a few steps to the side and said, “Gosh, you were right. What a strange encounter.”
“Not really,” Daniel remarked. “Now I have to take off unless you want to come home with me and watch The Lion King.”
“Thanks, but I need to get home.”
“Alright, Batman, your loss.”