Caught Up

Lauren wonders how Junior found her, and she worries that he will cause a scene, as she knows that the mafia holds misogynistic views and anti-gay biases. Lauren looks to Taylor and Taylor’s boyfriend, Jackson, who are both seated a couple rows behind her, silently signaling that this masked man is Junior. Lauren once again tells Junior to leave, but he promises not to embarrass her.

The narrative explains that Lauren is a part-owner in Velvet, along with Taylor, Ryan, and their friend Sylvia. Lauren struggles to reconcile her sexual attachment to Junior with the memory of his betrayal. Although his apology makes her wonder if he has changed, she decides that he is just trying to sleep with her. As she considers the issue, the two people on stage, Morgan and Stephanie, continue their sexual performance. Morgan and Stephanie are married, and they are favored performers at Velvet. As Morgan teases Stephanie, the crowd moans and laughs, and the atmosphere becomes more relaxed. People in the audience start having sex themselves as Morgan performs oral sex on Stephanie. Lauren considers having sex with Junior but does not want to be judged by Taylor and Ryan, who know that Junior hurt her in high school. Lauren is surprised to see that Junior is paying close attention to the performance and does not seem disturbed at all. She notes the wild look in his eyes and turns her attention back to the dais as Morgan and Stephanie prepare to have sex.

Junior is aroused, and he can see that Lauren is also struggling to restrain her arousal. He can hear people having sex throughout the room. He is surprised to learn that Morgan is Stephanie’s husband, as he assumed that they were both paid performers. When Morgan and Stephanie climax, the crowd cheers, and attendants offer hand towels to the audience. Lauren quickly leaves the room, but Junior chases her down a hallway and through an exit. He grabs her and pins her against the wall, noting how she arches into him. When he apologizes again, Lauren declares that he ruined her life. Junior confesses to having planted drugs on Lauren’s treacherous high school friend, Kelly, and he also admits to having beaten up the principal. Lauren is shocked, and Junior offers to do anything she wants. She tells him to grovel, angering him, but he calms down and reflects that his lifestyle has made him accustomed to getting whatever he wants and leaving whenever he feels like it. He wants things to be different with Lauren, and he needs to leave his father’s organization in order to ensure her safety. Junior gets down on his knees and declares that he would only grovel for Lauren.

Junior presses his face into Lauren’s lower back and apologizes again. Lauren feels powerful, knowing that Junior is not the type of man to apologize or beg. She feels an equal measure of arousal and caution. Junior notices that Lauren is not wearing underwear and begs to touch her. She does not forgive him for the past, but she allows him to touch her. As Junior starts caressing her, she climaxes immediately, but they are soon interrupted by Taylor and Ryan, who tell Lauren that their fellow co-owner, Sylvia, has called a meeting. Lauren turns to see Junior with his mask off. As he takes off his shirt and offers it to her to wear, he reveals an undershirt stained with blood. She notes the bleeding but accepts the shirt. Junior tells her to enjoy her night.

Sylvia tells the owners that their landlord, Patrick McKinney, has raised their rent again. This time, the rent is too high for them to sustain the business. Although Lauren and Taylor offer to pay a couple months’ rent in advance, Sylvia suggests creating the appearance that the business is struggling in order to discourage McKinney from raising the rent again. Legally, play clubs like Velvet cannot own property or sell alcohol, so only select landlords are willing to rent to them, and they always charge high prices. Lauren is determined to find a way to keep Velvet open.

A couple days after the meeting at Velvet, Lauren, Taylor, and Ryan look at possible new premises for the club. Ryan and Taylor interrogate Lauren about her interaction with Junior, and Ryan cautions her against getting involved with him. They all acknowledge that a man in the mafia could be dangerous, but Lauren never felt that she was in danger. Her friends are also concerned about how Junior found Lauren’s location, but they all admit to having stalked someone for one reason or another in the past. Taylor sees Junior’s decision to plant drugs on Kelly and beat up the principal as a sign that Lauren and Junior are star-crossed lovers, but she suggests that Lauren keep the relationship casual to avoid getting hurt again.

Lauren does not want to revisit her past and recalls how ashamed she was at the time. Taylor, who is from Vietnam, sympathizes because she was adopted by a white Mormon family that has never fully accepted her. Taylor also approves of Junior’s instinct to protect Lauren. Taylor then tells them about a personal request that she received through Me4U. The subscriber wants Taylor to cover herself in olive oil, surround herself with vegetables, and baste herself. Ryan and Lauren immediately identify the subscriber as a cannibal fetishist; because the request violates Me4U rules, they recommend blocking and reporting him. Lauren reminds herself that Taylor is new to sex work and resolves to talk with her about possible dangers.

As Junior rides in the back of a van with Alec and some other mafia men, he keeps thinking of Lauren and Velvet. When Alec asks him about Lauren, the question draws everyone’s attention to Junior. One man, Enzo, advises Junior never to apologize, but two others, Vinny and Jimmy, disagree.

The men are staking out a “rat,” a member of the mafia who is betraying the organization by talking to law enforcement or other mafia families. Everyone puts on masks and readies their weapons. They flood out of the van on Stefan’s order.

After successfully grabbing the rat, Junior goes to his father’s house to burn his clothes. His father criticizes him for getting blood on his clothes, then insists that Junior stay the night and eat breakfast with the family. Junior holds back any reply and goes to his room, where he locates Lauren’s high school diary. (The narrative reveals that Junior took the diary from Kelly years ago when he planted drugs on her.) Now, seeing the diary makes Junior feel even more guilty about abandoning Lauren. The diary contains Lauren’s high school fantasies of what she and Junior could have done if they had stayed together, and Junior decides to use these fantasies to win Lauren back. Suddenly, he gets a Me4U notification, so he tips Lauren and receives more photos of her in return.

Lauren finds Ryan working on video editing and convinces them to hire an assistant. She then gets a Me4U notification for a personal video request from NT95; the subscriber is paying $5,000. The attached message contains only an address, and Lauren assumes that NT95 wants to meet, even though this request violates Lauren’s subscriber rules. Lauren explains to NT95, but he responds with an image of a page from her high school diary. Lauren panics, wondering how NT95 could have her diary, but Ryan reads the next message, which states, “Please, Lo.” Lauren struggles to come to grips with the fact that NT95, her first and most loyal subscriber (whom she also sees as a friend) is really Junior.

The address is an arcade where Lauren once fantasized about performing oral sex on Junior, and she cannot decide whether to meet him there. When Junior increases the payment to $7,000, Lauren considers the political work she could accomplish with that kind of money. Ryan tells her that she should only see Junior if she wants to. He offers to go with her and to bring Taylor. Although Lauren is worried that Junior has been stalking her and might hurt her, she also suspects that he might have been keeping up with her life to make that sure she is safe. She also wants to have sex with Junior, so she accepts the request.