All the Devils are Here

Birthday Boy

As the elevator doors open, we're presented with the lavish view of Sam's penthouse. The décor reminds me of something you'd see in a typical man cave; woody furniture, open spaces, loud music blasting from every corner and a well equipped open bar. It's filled with not less than 50 people and I recognize no one.

Trinity walks into the room making a loud woohoo noise as she approaches a tall, blonde guy who I would later learn is the birthday boy.

"Hera come meet the birthday boy!", she says and I follow her. Willow goes a separate way and Dothan walks with Trinity and I toward the hulking, blonde guy.

"Asher have you met Hera? She's one of our new bartenders', she says to him and to me;

"Hera this is Asher. He's one of Dothan's oldest friends and my favorite one out of all of them", she adds the last part in a whisper. She and Asher share a brief hug and I can tell their friendship is a strong one. Before she can say another word, Dothan picks her up causing her to squeal in excitement as they make their way farther away from us. Asher and I spend a few seconds looking towards the direction they left in before we look back at each other.

"Happy birthday! It's nice to meet you. And thanks for inviting me", I say cheerfully, surprising myself;

"Thanks. It's nice to meet you too. You should be thanking Samael for the invite though, not me", he says. I would have thought he sounded teasing but, this guy looks way too serious to be doing stuff like that. He was just stating a fact.

"Would you like something to drink?", he politely asks. I say yes and we head to the open bar together. It's located in the kitchen area and there is where I see him - Sam. or Samael apparently.

He seems to be having some conversation with two girls; one of them is Willow and as soon as Asher and I walk in, his eyes find mine. Magnetically; like the day at the bar. This time I look away even though I don't know why. After all, I've been trying to reach out to him all week.

"There's some vodka, whiskey and I think this is rum? I don't know", I shift my attention back to Asher who clearly doesn't know his drinks. I think of an idea;

"You know what? As a birthday gift, why don't I make you my special", the idea brings a little smile out of him. Shocking. I didn't know he was capable of the act.

"Okay, that sounds like a deal", he says. I smile and get around the counter to look through the ingredients available to me. The whole time I can feel Samael's eyes on me. He's not being obvious but, he wants me to know.

It takes me about to 10 minutes to make up a special for Asher. Danny informed me that every true bartender had to have a signature drink and I decide to use Asher as my lab monkey for mine.

He takes a tiny sip and it feels like a million years before he gives me some feedback; "Not bad", that's all he says. I'd take it.

We try two more signature drinks and Asher's feedback doesn't get better than ' Not bad'. In netween the drinks tassting, we share some small talk where I learn that he's turning 28 today, he works in real estate and in exchange I tell him 24 and just finding my feet in the city. It feels like it's been forever and even Sam has left this area now.

Just then Trinity and Dothan emerge again. She's more animated than I've ever seen her and Trinity is always animated.

"Hera", she says my name in that sing song manner as usual;

"Come dance with us. Asher you too!", she says and drags both of us with each arm. Dothan is laughing as he says;

"Just go along with it. This means she likes you". He joins us too and the four of us mix up with the crowd of people that have been dancing. Like I told Trinity before, I can't dance to save my life plus, I'm pretty sober right now so I'm having a difficult time loosening uo but, everyone else is in such a happy, chill mood, I don't want to be a debby downer. So I dance as much as I can. I dance and start to laugh at myself and that helps me loosen up. Asher is equally a bad dancer so we laugh at each other and it's not so bad afterall.

Dothan and Trinity soon move apart from Asher and I and I lowkey feel set up. When I look at the two of them though, I know it's not intentional. They don't seem to notice the rest of the world around them. I wonder what that must feel like; to be so in love.

Evidently, I'm oblivious of the world around me too because I distractedly bump into someone and spill their drink all over my outfit.

"s**t", I mutter then I correct myself and tell the person sorry. He doesn't seem too bothered by the collision.

"Want me to clean that off you?", he flashes his pierced tongue out as he asks. No thanks, creep.

"Back off, Jackson", Asher warns and the guy puts his hands up in surrender and dances away from us.

"Sorry about that. There's a bathroom upstairs, you can get cleaned up there", he adds. I nod and he walks me up the stairs and to the bathroom door. At the bathroom door, there is this brief moment where I wonder if he would want to follow me inside but, thankfully, he doesn't attempt escort me inside.

"Thanks", I say and head inside.

I enter the bathroom and it makes me think about the bathroom at Holiday and how tiny it was. This bathroom is an exact opposite of that. I turn on the tap and use the water to try to clean off the alcohol on my outfit. It's a pretty tiny lavender dress courtesy of the White Rabbit. There's a wardrobe available for the angels and bartenders as well and all the outfits are fancier than anything I currently own. This dress is probably not recovering from this red tinted stain so after 15 minutes of scrubbing, I give up.

As I head downstairs and back to the party scene, I look around for Trinity but, she's nowhere to be found. Neither is Dothan. Asher is who I find, seated on a couch and getting an elaborate lap dance from Willow while the rest of the party hoots and hollers. Good for him. He's still not smiling but, you'd have to be an eunuch to not be entertained by Willow's skills.

After another 15 minutes of wandering aimlessly and hoping Trinity or Dothan will show up, I cut my losses and accept that I've been ditched. And this was in fact not a set up. Just a shame that I didn't drive here. I guess I'd call a taxi to take me to the motel I'm staying at - Randy's. Even though the name sounds worse than Holiday, it's actually much nicer and close to my place of work.

I walk out of the main area and towards the elevator. Once I get in and the doors are about to shut close, a foot is placed and prevents it from closing. I look up to see it's owner - it's Sam. He gets in and the elevator doors shut close with the both of us inside.