Dance music played loud above the murmur of the dancers. The fetid atmosphere made it hard to think. Hot among all the bodies moving and gyrating. Feeling mostly naked I looked down at my too scrawny body.
"You look stunning, Tessa. Not anyone can rock a crop top halter like that!"
Priya yelled in my ear before pulling back so that she could scan my outfit. As her eyes roved over my body looking for anything out of place, she was my sister, we didn't hide anything from each other and shared everything, too. I trusted her fashion sense and she didn't let me down now. Reaching out she adjusted the fit of my mini skirt.
"It's not enough though, he haven't had a single bite all night!"
It was easy for Priya to say that I was stunning, but I was the one who had to bring home boy friend material. The night so far had been a bust. I hadn't even found any possible candidates. Frowning at Priya I sighed and lifting the bottom of the crop top up I folded it so that my chest was exposed from underneath. Then I unbuckled my double catch thick black belt, loosening the waist of my mini skirt one set of notches before rebuckling. This allowed my mini skirt to ride lower on my hips by at least two inches. I was tired of not being noticed. The younger men liked a high waist, the older men liked a low waist. And I was looking for someone with a little more experience. Someone who could get things done.
My stomach growled. I hadn't eaten since last night, trying to look the best I could for this weekly dance. Betraying my promise not to look at the food my gaze inadvertently found one of the side tables. A bounty of snacks, deserts, and drinks, waited there enticing me, but I ignored it with all the will power I could muster. I wanted to be in top form with absolutely no bloating. To get the best I had to look the best.
And then I shook my head. Who was I kidding? Ever since Michael had choose to cultivate a martial scripture instead of dual cultivating with me there had been absolutely no prospects. Well at least no quality prospects. Of course there was always the bottom feeders. The men who would do anything for a one night stand. But I wasn't looking for a one night stand, I was looking for a husband. A husband that wanted to cultivate the destiny manual with me.
Which was the problem, no man wanted to cultivate destiny. The destiny manual was known as the most difficult, mind bending, hardest cultivation scripture ever created. If destiny dual cultivation failed a woman could just start over again with only minimal back lash. But a man? The back lash was maximized. Often males went crazy, committed suicide, or became a eunuch. Michael got out of it before his cultivation progressed too much. Still he became sick and had to be committed to a hospital. He had been in the hospital intensive care for more than a week before he recovered. His backlash had been the worst of all.
I felt bad for the poor saps that I was seducing, but I had to do it. I had to find and rescue my sister! One of these boys was going to kneel before me and become my little boy toy begging and pleading for love. I was determined. Nothing was going to stop me.
Sighing, I had to admit that things were not going the way I had always assumed they would.
Looking to my left I saw Jessica scanning the crowd and to my right was Mei. Both of them looked absolutely gorgeous. They had assets in all the right places where I had boy shoulders and skinny hips. It was pretty much impossible to pull of the hour glass figure. Crop tops where my thing though, enhancing my proportionately wide shoulders and defined muscles. The flare of the joint where my thigh bones connected with my hips was all the curve my hips could muster. I was much thinner and scrawny, practically no boobs to speak of at least compared to my sisters.
Well technically Mei was even shorter and thinner than I, it was just that her chest was so huge I didn't feel like it counted. She must have been on hormones when she was younger to have a chest like that!
And Jessica was tall with normal hips and a long torso which just emphasized her hour glass figure. Jessica's body screamed athleticism. Everyone joked that she was an amazon in everything but name. Which she hated, absolutely despised, only putting on a polite face whenever it happened. At home her hobby was sewing. Not some body building, fitness maniac like everyone assumed.
Looking behind me, I saw Priya still standing up against the wall. Chubby Priya, intelligent, their alchemist, but no help in this situation. Sighing I refocused on the men. I had to find someone to dual cultivate with.
My sister had been gone for more than three years, now. I had gone to the police. They were no help seeming to be passively waiting for new information to develop. When I desperately pleaded with them they explained had other cases that demanded their attention. There was only so much government money and police time to go around.
After my police case had ground to a halt I had gone into ridiculous amounts of debt hiring private investigators. No results, nothing. It was as if my sister was just gone. Disappeared.
But I refused to give up hope. For the last year I had been speeding all my time researching my sister's disappearance myself going even deeper into debt.
So it wasn't that I was looking for someone rich specifically, it was just that it would be really helpful if I could find a man with either a lot of money already or one with serious earning potential.
Canvassing the crowd both Jessica and Mei did their part talking to likely guys and then signaling me if all the qualifications were met. It was easy for them to pick up men. Don't get me wrong they were way to beautiful to be approached. Very few men had the balls to come up to them, but on the other hand they could easily approach anyone. Likely looking men would feed them and give drinks like it was candy. Easy.
Yet, after an hour only one man made Jessica and Mei's cut.
Mei found him, a man over forty, a second generation party animal. He was down for whatever, when Mei pushed him my way he didn't even frown. Usually when I get men from Mei they look at me like I am some kind of second day left over. Men had to resign themselves to me after having the chance to talk or dance with Mei. But this guy he just shrugged and then started trying to dry hump me. It was disgusting, he didn't want to talk and what he did say was what you would expect from someone hopped up on drugs.
But he did have money. From the looks of it a second generation money bags. I knew he was the real thing because he had a couple of guards. They stayed at the edges of the crowd, but moved with him where ever he went. It was actually astonishing that Mei had been able to single him out, cut him from the flock.
His breath smelled like halitosis and it was obvious that he was too inebriated to be much use in any context right this moment. No offense. He was probably some killer executive at his day job.
Pushing him away I wasn't surprised when he immediately zoomed in on the next girl. Flashing his jewelry there were a lot of women who would entertain someone like him. At least give him a chance or take advantage of his monetary generosity for a night.
I wasn't interested, though. I had to find someone I could form a connection with. It wasn't because I thought I was so important of anything. It was just that the destiny manual was hard to cultivate. The first chapter third paragraph stated that a genuine connection had to be made or cultivating an otherwise impossible scripture became a hundred times as hard. For me it wasn't worth even trying if the connection wasn't there. Only one in a million could cultivate the destiny manual. There was no need to start stacking the deck against me from the start.
If I wanted to find my sister I had to find the right man. Otherwise it was pointless.
Exasperated I pulled my mini skirt down even lower so low it was scandalous and adjusted my halter showing as much chest as possible. Thanking my lucky stars that I could at least show off cleavage. A lot of girls couldn't get cleavage to save their lives.
And then I looked at Mei whose cleavage could stun even the most jaded men and wanted to throw up. Sometimes life was just not fair.
Right at that moment a man turned around. Our eyes met.
A little thrill went through my body and suddenly all I wanted to do was readjust my clothes to cover up everything I had just done to show off more. But instead I posed a little pushing my chest out and putting one hand on my hip as casually as possible. Nothing I was doing was helping to keep my assets covered, in fact posing like this was making it more likely for something awkward to happen. However, as an act of fortune, nothing popped out. And my belt stayed up.
I was cursing my idea to loosen the belt now. It felt like my mini skirt was going to fall to the floor any moment. Unfortunately, I could do anything about the blush that heated my face.
And then he started moving in my direction. Shocked I couldn't believe that this guy was actually approaching me. The little thrill from before came back even harder and lasted longer bringing parts of my body alive that hadn't been alive in a long time. Desperate I looked around to see if Mei or Jessica could head him off. I wasn't ready. I needed time and a chance to readjust my outfit. Would he think I was a slut? Would he think I was some kind of brainless fun seeker?
Thoughts ran through my head.
And then he was there in front of me.
"Hey, you look just as lost as me. Can you tell me what all this is?"
He said with a smile as if trying to reassure me. But he wasn't assuring me of anything. Did I look lost? Confused?