Chapter 58

If Marc were to judge his happiness on a scale of one to ten, his face likely read somewhere in the seven range. Inside, he was at a two.

The lights, the loud music that felt more chaotic than rhythmic and either lacked a melody altogether or had a melody so repetitive it might as well be a droning. The crush of sweaty twenty-somethings and the smell of cheap liquor passed off as expensive.

Dance clubs were not his scene.

Unfortunately, they were included in Victor Barisha’s many evening haunts and Marc had to play along. He’d suffered through such things before for legitimate clients - older ones trying to feel young, using their money to attract young things. Twice it had been younger ones as well, one who had made too much money too quickly through a tech startup and didn’t understand what it did to people, and the other who had inherited his parents’ wealth and company after a sudden death.

None of those prior excursions had been ‘fun’ for Marc, but he’d put up with them. With Victor, he wasn’t even actually going to be paid if things worked out properly, and he was reaching his limit quickly of how much he would put up with.

“Bring us a bottle,” Victor half-shouted to the scantily clad waitress. She was pretty in that way that so many women in their twenties could be - especially in the flashing coloured lights of a dance club. Dark lipstick, bright eyes, and a dress that hugged her youthful curves and made promises she didn’t intend to fulfil. Those deep red lips cracked into a smile as she nodded to Victor, and he winked at her before she left.

“We don’t need a bottle,” Marc said as Victor turned back to him. It was just the two of them at the VIP table currently - when Marc had arrived there were two other men and five women at the table with Victor. Marc had been introduced and the two men had only given him a casual glance while most of the women had taken one quick look and turned back to the younger, flashier men. One of the women, a blonde with soft, pretty features and a sharp glint in her eye, had paid him more attention and Marc was still trying to decide if she was simply better at assessing the people around her and had identified him as the truly wealthy man in the mix, or if she was an escort hired by Victor to try and distract Marc or make him happy.

Marc had played along, flirting lightly with the woman in a friendly way. She’d had a sharp wit and claimed to be a business major attending her undergrad - he’d already decided to check into her story. If she was telling the truth, he’d check into her grades and coursework through a couple of his friends with connections to the department. A woman who could assess a man, adjust to his level of comfort and maintain the wit she had was going to go places. An internship offer might be in the offing.