He points in the direction where I last saw Solange, and I sprint toward it, passing a sea of writhing bodies in various stages of undress. So. Many. Ponies. I can’t unsee it. Solange opens the door just as I reach it.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, a look of concern crossing her face when she sees my panicked expression.

I need a moment to regroup, so I pull her inside the bathroom and lock the door.

“Do we need to make a quick exit?” Solange asks as she tugs on the window frame and tries to pull up the pane. It only lifts a crack, and she growls in frustration, then throws up her hands. “What’s going on?”

I brace my hands against the porcelain sink and meet her confused gaze in the mirror’s reflection. “Holy shit, Solange, we’re at a sex party.”

Solange

What? No, he must be punking me. “Dean, be serious for a minute.”

“Solange, listen to me,” he says as he paces the length of the surprisingly spacious bathroom. “I’m being one hundred percent serious. Does this sound like something I would lie about? Me?”

Oh. My. God. I kind of scream on the inside for a few seconds. This is bananas. All I can do is repeat his words. “We’re at a sex party.”

“Bingo. I’ll take ‘Oh, baby, the places I never thought I’d go’ for one million, Solange.”

“Shit. Are you telling me Peter wanted to bring a firm recruit here?”

“Now that I think about it, no, that’s not what’s going on,” he says. “Peter wanted me to bring a firm recruit here. He didn’t know that Kimberly and Nia had canceled. He just conveniently and suddenly decided that his marriage meant more to him than a very important assignment that could give him a leg up in his bid to become a firm partner. The sneaky, cutthroat, disloyal son of a bitch. Peter set me up. Or tried to.”

“Are you sure that’s what this is, though? Because I’ve read about sex clubs, Dean—just . . . uh . . . out of curiosity—and there’s a whole process to this. Waivers, promises of confidentiality, rules.”

“Well, I’m not an expert in these things, but a bell rang and suddenly people were having sex, and everyone in there seemed to know what was up. That sounds like a sex club to me.”