Page 528 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B
People are melted into the deep leather couches, boots kicked up, enjoying the view, each other—the calm before the midnight rush.
“So what the hell is this place?” I ask.
Ty pulls Kate in by the hip. “It’s hers.”
Kate elbows him. “Technically yours.”
“I bought this building for her,” he explains. “In four months, she’s opening a sex museum.”
“It’s not a sex museum,” she argues.
Ty rests his chin on her shoulder.
“She says that every time.”
Kate turns on him, lifting her chin. “It’s an erotic archive, with an aphrodisiac restaurant, and an immersive intimacy experience.”
“Wait,” I say, eyes sliding back to Kate.
“That’s, like, really cool.”
Kate knocks her hip into Ty.
“See? She gets it.”
I look behind me at the building.
The exposed brick.
The unfinished floors. Black steel.
“An erotic archive in an old industrial building? Fuck—sensual art, nude photography, sculpture, old letters, private rooms, aphrodisiac food—the hunger.”
“Yes!” Kate’s eyes light up. “Bodies are art. Intimacy, a language. You can be with someone for years and not even know how deep sex actually goes. How it can be healing, rough, quiet, playful, ugly-cry emotional. Whatever—”
“Kate, I’m serious,” I say, shaking my head. “I want to marry whatever part of your brain built this. This is insane. A whole religion.”
Kate presses a hand to her chest.
“No, I mean it,” I say.
“When’s the opening?”
// 10:00 PM //
By the time my paranoia gets comfortable, I’m pressed to walk the catwalk again.
The main rooftop kept reaching for the birthday boys, chanting their names, teasing with the bet-you-won’ts. Ty points at his friends on the roof as he crosses. “Aight. And I’m sober. So I’mma remember every second of everyone embarrassin’ themselves.”
For half an hour there’s:
girls kissing cheeks,
cameras flashing,
Linc getting dragged into lap dances,
laughter.
