but she couldn’t understand why Candice was sending her up if it was all so tame. ‘Why don’t you do it?’ she asked, as Rooster called for the nominated hens or chicks to come forward.
‘You do yoga, you should be flexible,’ Candice replied, ‘and, besides, I can’t limbo in this skirt, it doesn’t leave much to the imagination when I’m standing up straight, let alone if I’m horizontal.’
Scarlett couldn’t argue with that, Candice’s skirt was incredibly short. She didn’t know if she was any more suitably attired, her little black dress was hardly limboappropriate, but regular yoga classes meant she was reasonably flexible so maybe it wouldn’t be all bad. She hadn’t expected games but it was highly likely there would be more embarrassing contests to come and this sounded like it could be one of the lesser evils.
She glanced around the room. Most of the tables seemed to be nominating a participant, although the majority seemed to be brides-to-be, not ‘chicks’. She finally clicked why the club was named The Coop—it was full of hens and chicks and one very loud and proud Rooster.
‘C’mon, Scarlett, do it for me, it’ll be fun,’ Candice pleaded.
Scarlett thought it would be about as much fun as getting her legs waxed but she wasn’t sure how she could get out of it. It was unlike her to put herself in the spotlight but as the girls continued to egg her on she found herself giving in. Maybe she’d had one too many cocktails, she thought as she said, ‘All right, I’ll do it.’
Just as she stood up the two ‘Himbos’ appeared front and centre on the floor beside the catwalk. Scarlett breathed a sigh of relief. At least it seemed as though she wouldn’t have to actually get up on the stage. The men were both very toned, no surprises there, and dressed in what could only be described as very tiny, very snug leather shorts. Scarlett thought one of the men was the stripper who had just finished his routine. He had swapped his loincloth for white shorts, which were a sharp contrast to his dark skin but left nothing to the imagination.
The other ‘Himbo’ was in a pair of slightly more respectable black leather shorts. Scarlett had never thought she’d consider men wearing tiny leather shorts ‘respectable’ but it seemed as though there was a fair bit about tonight that was going to challenge her traditional and conservative views.
Just when she thought it was safe to join in, the Himbos sprang up onto the stage and Rooster called to the girls, ‘Okay, hens and chicks, make your way up to me.’
A spotlight swept the room and came to rest on the gaggle of women gathered by the stage before it moved to illuminate a short flight of stairs leading up onto the catwalk. Scarlett was horrified to realise they were expected on the stage after all but slightly mollified by the sight of the stairs. It was a relief to know they weren’t expected to spring onto the stage in the Himbos’ footsteps—she certainly wouldn’t be springing anywhere in her borrowed platform heels.
The women made a beeline for the steps, eager to get the competition under way, as Scarlett held back. The steps had no railing and she didn’t want to get jostled and go sprawling up the stairs in front of everyone. She was going to be embarrassed soon enough just doing the limbo, she didn’t need to start by making a complete fool out of herself.
The women clustered around the Himbos as the deejay played dance music. The women and the Himbos were all dancing, with the exception of Scarlett, who tried her best to blend into the background behind the others, although that was hard to do given she was almost five feet eleven inches tall in her five-inch heels. Fortunately Rooster began to introduce the Himbos to the audience, which Scarlett took to mean that the contest would be starting soon and she wouldn’t have to be embarrassed for too much longer. The Fijian stripper in the short white shorts, Caesar, was introduced first, followed by Rico, who was introduced as the ‘Italian Stallion’. The audience cheered and clapped as the Himbos took their places.
‘And now I’d like to introduce our judge for this evening,’ Rooster crowed, somehow managing, through sheer force of personality, to keep the attention on himself. ‘A favourite among the chicks, our very own Judge Jake.’
The cheers of the audience turned into wolf whistles and the noise in the club reached maximum volume as Candice’s friend, the barman Scarlett had been talking to earlier, came up onto the stage. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who thought he was delicious.
He had changed his outfit but Scarlett was happy to see he wasn’t wearing leather pants—she’d seen enough leather pants tonight to last her a lifetime. He’d changed from regular denim jeans into a black pair, which hugged his thighs. His chest was still bare and he had a length of rope looped over one shoulder and slung across his torso. He jogged across the stage, moving lightly and waving to his adoring audience, and Scarlett’s level of embarrassment increased with every step he took towards her. It was too late to back out now but she wished the stage would open up and swallow her. She tried in vain to hide, even though she knew it was futile. He was going to see her standing there sooner or later.
Caesar and Rico had stepped in front of the women, creating some space, and Jake passed them each a black strap, which they fixed around their chests. At the front of the strap, positioned over their sternums, was a hook that looked like a mountaineering karabiner. Jake hoisted the rope from his shoulder and handed it to the Himbos. At each end of the rope was a small metal loop, which Caesar and Rico clipped into the karabiners.
Scarlett’s eyes widened in surprise. She hadn’t expected the rope to be tied around their chests, she’d expected them to hold it, stretched out between them. That would have given the competitors plenty of space to move but once the rope was tied around their chests and clipped into the karabiners it was quite short and didn’t leave a lot of room to manoeuvre. Not, Scarlett thought, that most of the girls would mind, but she had no intention of brushing against half-naked strangers any more than she had to.
Jake waited until the limbo rope was in position before taking the microphone from Rooster and taking over the contest. The girls were asked to line up and after much jostling Scarlett found herself third in line behind two hens, one rather large one and one with an exceptionally long veil. Judge Jake approached each competitor in turn and asked them their name. He showed no surprise when he got to Scarlett and she knew then he’d already seen her on the stage. She just hoped he didn’t think she’d volunteered.
Even in her heels she was still an inch or two shorter than him, and she had to look up slightly when she told him her name. Up close she could see that his green eyes were ringed with brown and he winked at her as he repeated her name and Scarlett felt her cheeks redden. She hoped the tell-tale blush wouldn’t be noticeable but she suspected the spotlight would only serve to enhance the colour in her face.
With much cheering and clapping from the audience Jake got the contest under way. The plump hen went first and she could almost walk under the rope without ducking, she was so short. The next hen, the one with the long veil, wasn’t so lucky. She trod on her veil as she tipped her head backwards to duck under the rope. This pulled her up short and made her fall and she landed hard on her backside. Her faux pas was greeted with laughter from the audience, though not cruel or nasty laughter. Scarlett knew most of them would be laughing with relief that they weren’t the ones lying flat on their backs in front of a crowd.
She couldn’t work out how the hen had managed to trip herself up but as she was sprawled on the floor and Jake was reaching for her hand to help her to her feet Scarlett just prayed that she wouldn’t be as unlucky or as ungainly. She was next in line.
‘How confident are you?’ Jake asked her, as she moved a step closer.
Scarlett looked at the girls around her, including the one already disqualified. ‘I’ve done a few limbos in my time,’ she fibbed. ‘I think I can take this one.’ Her knees felt weak and she wondered how she was going to manage to limbo on wobbly legs but her voice sounded surprisingly normal and strong.
She wasn’t sure why she’d chosen to announce her lies to the room; she could only assume it had something to do with the challenge in Jake’s eyes. She didn’t want to look like a complete klutz in front of him but neither