Steel World Inc. Chapter Five

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I

 

 

We’ve come too far

To give up who we are

So let’s raise the bar

And our cups to the stars

 

She’s up all night ‘til the sun

I’m up all night to get some

She’s up all night for good fun

I’m up all night to get lucky

 

Kissy was throwing herself around on the dance floor with wild abandon, waving her arms in the air and shaking her hips. She wore a classic ‘little black dress’ and sheer 10 denier tights that made her legs look natural but flawless. She had kicked off her high heel pumps and was dancing and laughing with James with the grace and ease of a nightclub veteran. 

 

James of course had his hands all over her body whenever the chance offered itself. As far as I could tell, Kissy didn’t mind in the slightest. Girls never did when James was doing the touching. 

 

I was dancing, too, with Miss Arabella Whitlock, who was dressed far more modestly, in a tasteful over the knee skirt and long sleeved tunic top. The song playing was ‘Get Lucky’ by the brilliant Daft Punk, which features the fabulous Nile Rodgers of Chic on guitar. It’s a wonderful song, really groovy and funky, and Arabella was enjoying it very much, as was I. From time to time we’d reach out our hands and I’d initiate a little Ceroc inspired dance twirl with her, which always made her laugh with delight. It turns out Arabella loved Ceroc dancing, and after our first two weeks of dating, we joined a local Ceroc class and began to practise together. 

 

“It’s Modern Jive,” Arabella had explained, breathless as we had run into the building through the pouring rain, holding hands. “Though we haven’t called it that for ages. It’s ever so funky and fun. Honestly, you’ll love it, Simon.” 

 

It was obvious enough that the club we were in wasn’t one typically frequented by Ceroc dancers, as we were the only ones dancing that way. Everyone else was probably high on ‘E’ and dancing like they were having sex.

 

James certainly was.

 

“Sure you don’t want one, mate?” He waved a small tablet before my nose as he tried to make himself heard over the thumping bass. “Get you all loved up with little Whitsie. She needs to loosen up a bit. She looks like a geography teacher at a school disco.” He nodded towards the dance floor where Arabella was doing a dance step forward and then a dance step backwards.

 

‘Whitsie.’ That’s what he often called Miss Arabella Whitlock. ‘Whitsie’. It was an annoying nickname he’d coined a few weeks ago, and I didn’t like it. It wasn’t respectful. 

 

“I don’t do drugs.”

 

“Yeah, and you don’t do fun, either, mate. Go on. You don’t know what you’re missing!”

 

James was now sleeping with Kissy Ryde. Seriously, that was her surname. Kissy Ryde.

 

“She’s called Kissy Ryde?” I’d asked when James had first told me he was dating her, nearly two weeks ago, at the office. “Really?

 

“Yeah, funny, right? Makes her sound like a Bond girl. She fucks like a Bond girl. Man, she has energy. Me and Kissy Ryde. Just dancing and fucking the night away. Ooh-lah-lah!” 

 

“Who on Earth calls their daughter, ‘Kissy’, anyway, especially if the surname is Ryde?”

 

“Who cares?” James had that self-satisfied smirk on his face. “I kind of like it.”

 

“Fuck, I’m royally wasted,” said Kissy as she launched herself down onto the curved alcove seats where we were sitting out the next dance. The hemline of her little black dress was now daringly high on her upper thighs, and I wished she’d pull it down a bit, because the sight of it was very distracting, and I think Arabella had caught me looking a few times already. 

 

“You seem to be having fun,” I said.

 

“Fuck, yeah, Simon.” She swept her long textured, perfect, hair, up with both hands, and then let it fall back down around her shoulders like a mane. “I’ve just taken another ‘E’. Sure you don’t want one?”

 

I could feel Arabella’s scowl from here.

 

“We don’t do drugs,” I explained.

 

“We respect our bodies too much,” snapped Arabella. 

 

“I respect my body,” said Kissy. “And you know what, James respects my body, too. In fact I’m going back on the dance floor right now, to let him respect my body a bit more with his hands. All… over… my… body. Later, peeps!” She air kissed in Arabella’s direction, before throwing herself back onto the dance floor, gyrating past various men, and fondling a few of them in the process.

 

“Does she have to do that?” said Arabella. “Every time?” She sat there with her arms folded. “It’s so… childish.” 

 

“Would you like another glass of white wine?” I asked.

 

“Please.” She tilted her lovely face and gave me an apologetic smile. “I’m so sorry. I’m being a bitch, aren’t I? It’s just… she doesn’t have an off button. Doesn’t she ever get tired?”

 

“I love you, Arabella,” I said.

 

“And I love you, too, Simon. Go on,” she laughed. “I’ll have another Pinot Grigio.”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OXDRuQYBtk

 

 

You got me singing ooh

Singing ooh

Singing ooh

Singing, oh

I'm so in love with you

Singing, ooh

Singing, ooh

Singing oh

I'm so in love with you

 

And I feel love

Do you feel love?

And I feel love

 

Fifteen minutes later I was still standing at the bar, waiting to be served, waiting to be heard. I hate night clubs. Or rather, I hate the self-satisfied barmen who work there, who always leave me to last when it comes to serving drinks. 

 

“Can I have a white wine, please!” I called out, with a ten pound note in my hand, but the barman pretended he couldn’t see me, as he mixed some cocktails for two giggling girls with more skin on show than not. 

 

A couple of rugby lads in tight black trousers and cheap white shirts pushed in beside me, and I just knew they would get served before I would.

 

“A white wine, please! Pinot Grigio, if you have it!”

 

The barman looked straight past me and took the order from one of the rugby lads. 

 

Another twelve minutes later and I was back at the alcove table with Arabella’s white wine. To my dismay, James and Kissy were back on the curved sofa, basically indulging in the sort of foreplay that was a hair’s breadth away from actual sex. 

 

“James!” I nudged him. 

 

“Not now, Rogers.” He came up for air, covered in Kissy’s scarlet lipstick. “What?”

 

“Can you go somewhere if you’re going to do that,” I said. “It’s making Arabella uncomfortable.”

 

“It’s a fucking nightclub, Rogers, not a public library,” said James as he sunk back down to enjoy Kissy. 

 

“They’ve been doing that for the last ten minutes,” Arabella said, as I sat down beside her. “The girl is insufferable. I’m sure she’s just acting up like this to tease me.” She sipped her white wine and wrinkled her nose at what she was watching. “Oh, for God’s sake, Simon, I can see her panties now!”

 

So could I. The little black dress was barely covering them at all. They were a delicate shade of petal pink.

 

“Can we leave please?” asked Arabella. “This is all a bit too much for me. I’ve had enough.”

 

“I’m sorry.” And I really was. James and Kissy were really out of order tonight. “I’ll get us a taxi and see you get home safely.”

 

“I’m sorry, too, Simon. I know you don’t get to see your friend very often, and I feel guilty now for dragging you away.”

 

“It’s really okay.” I glanced back down at Kissy’s legs as she squirmed alongside James. He had his hands all over her breasts as they kissed. I of course had never felt Arabella’s breasts. Such a thing was unthinkable. “Let’s collect your coat.”

 

I made my excuses to James and Kissy, but I really don’t think they heard me at all, nor did they care, and then I led Arabella by her hand out and around the dance floor, heading past the roped off VIP area to reach the cloak room. We were half way past the VIP area when I suddenly felt tension in Arabella’s hand. Looking round I saw her gazing up at one of the private tables that were always reserved for important clients. The area was on a raised section of flooring that looked down on the dance floor, and was accessible only by a short set of steps. A club bouncer guarded the access to the podium. Up there you didn’t need to queue at the bar for drinks. Table service was swiftly provided.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt_myLDSdsY&t=118s

 

 

I can't believe what I did for love

I can't believe what I did for us, oh

Crash and we're burning to flames

Stitch myself up, then I do it again

I can't believe what I did for love

 

What I did for love

(What I did for love)

What I did for love

(What I did for love)

What I did for love

(What I did for love)

What I did for love

(What I did for love)

 

Arabella was gazing up at the seats there and she seemed startled, with her left hand touching her lips. I followed her gaze and saw a powerful looking man in a dark suit holding court with two others. My first thought was they were gangsters, but if so, then obvious gangsters – the kind you see in glossy crime dramas involving the Russian mafia, for that was what the central man reminded me of – an Eastern European gangster, well dressed, with very short receding hair, deep set eyes that rarely blinked, and expensive gold jewellery on his fingers and wrists. 

 

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

 

“That’s… him.”

 

I froze and then looked up again. Him? She could only mean… but no, surely that man wasn’t a Senior Partner of Steel World Inc? She must mean something, someone else.  

 

“Who do you mean?”

 

“Karl Magnus.”

 

The name meant nothing to me. “Who’s Karl Magnus?”

 

“The Senior Partner who spoke to me in my first week.”

 

“That’s a Senior Partner?” I still couldn’t believe it. He honestly looked dangerous, as did the two men he was speaking to. And then I saw two other figures that I hadn’t noticed immediately due to the raised angle of my line of sight. For the other two figures were kneeling, rather than sitting. They were both girls, and incredibly beautiful girls, wearing exquisite makeup. They seemed to be taking no part in the conversation of the men, but rather knelt either side of the table as if they were waiting on the table, offering service. Both girls wore incredibly short dresses, sleeveless, and they seemed to be kneeling in an unusual fashion, with their thighs apart and their hands resting on their thighs. And even more incredibly, both girls wore what looked like shiny steel collars around their necks. 

 

Who were these girls? They were breathtakingly beautiful. I defy any man to say otherwise. 

 

“Simon, please take me home.”

 

Arabella seemed distressed. I could see it in her eyes. And then, before I could say anything, she glanced back up at the raised podium, at the plush sofa seating there, and she looked straight into the cold eyes of Karl Magnus.

 

He blinked. 

 

And then he turned, to say something to a suited man who stood close by. The man nodded and spoke into what I presume was an earpiece radio.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqQY9UkGC_A

 

 

Give me your lovin', give some easy

Give me your kissin', give me a reason

To make me wanna stay

Wanna go back to the day I left you!

 

I loved you more (When you had no money)

More, but I say I loved you more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

I loved you more, every day was sunny

More, if I think about it more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

 

It all happened in slow motion in the night club strobe lighting. 

 

The club bouncer at the bottom of the steps moved in towards us. 

 

“Mr Magnus requests your company, Miss.”

 

Give me your lovin', give your mind

Give your kissin', give me some time

'Cause I can't live a lie if my heart walks out your life

Give me your lovin', give some easy

Give me your kissin', give me a reason

To make me wanna stay

Wanna go back to the day I left you!

 

I loved you more (When you had no money)

More, but I say I loved you more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

I loved you more, every day was sunny

More, if I think about it more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

 

In the strobe lighting, Arabella turned towards me, and shook her head.

 

She looked scared.

 

“Thank Mr Magnus, but…” was all I got to say as the bouncer suddenly took hold of Arabella’s left elbow and pushed her towards the steps.

 

“Hey!” The strobe lighting pulsed as I moved towards the bouncer.

 

I fell back. 

 

Something had hit me, hard, square in the face and I hadn’t even seen it coming. 

 

I reeled backwards, my eyesight blurred with shock, as I saw the staccato images of a scared Miss Arabella Whitlock being forced up the steps, her face imploring me to do something.

 

I could walk away, turn my back

But I can't do that,

Oh no I can't do that

I love you more than just what's in the bank

And that's a fact

And that's a fact

Let it go,

When you'll be home give me your heart

Give me your soul,

Like we used to be

You used to make me happy,

Give it all, give me your trust, give me your passion

Give me your love

To make me wanna stay,

I wanna go back to the day I loved you

 

More (When you had no money)

More, but I say I loved you more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

I loved you more, every day was sunny

More, if I think about it more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

 

I loved you more (When you had no money)

More, but I say I loved you more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

I loved you more, every day was sunny

More, if I think about it more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

 

I rushed up the steps, blood streaming down my nose.

 

“Simon!’

 

It was Arabella. I saw her frozen in the strobe lights., And then she was pushed in front of the table, in front of the sofas surrounding the table. Three male faces turned to regard her, but the two kneeling women didn’t.

 

They held position perfectly, kneeling, thighs spread, back straight, palms flat on their thighs. 

 

I loved you more (When you had no money)

More, but I say I loved you more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

I loved you more, every day was sunny

More, if I think about it more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

 

“Hey! You can’t do…”

 

I fell back, hit again. My head reeled. I was lying on the floor. I didn’t even see what had hit me. 

 

More (When you had no money)

More, but I say I loved you more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

I loved you more, every day was sunny

More, if I think about it more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

 

I loved you more (When you had no money)

More, but I say I loved you more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

I loved you more, every day was sunny

More, if I think about it more

Baby all I needed is more time and more money

 

“Simon!”

 

Arabella was crying as she was pushed towards the table. The men holding court with Karl Magnus moved aside, and then Magnus looked up at Miss Arabella Whiltlock, and his cruel slit of a mouth curled into a slight smile.

 

“Not leaving so early, Miss Whitlock. The night is still young.”