Sensations

"Where are we going? I said I didn't want to go out tonight."

"You haven't gone out at all for the past two months, Milena. I'm worried about you, and I figured a night out on the bar with a friend would be helpful."

"I don't think drinking my problems away is good plan. Didn't seem to work well for my uncle."

"Oh, this isn't for the alcohol. This is just to get you out socializing, as your isolating ass desperately needs."

"Whatever you say, Lucy."

The two pulled to the side of the road, and, after getting out set the meter, Lucy opened the door up, and the two started walking.

"What is this place, anyways? You said it was named, what, Sensations?" Milena asked.

"Yeah, it's a new place that popped up here a couple months ago, and it's honestly my new favorite bar."

"What's so nice about it that it superseded whatever your previous favorite was?"

"You're gonna see for yourself." Lucy responded, as they rounded the corner and saw the short line for the bouncer, a tiger of a woman wearing some rather stylish pink glasses.

Fumbling with her purse, Milena pulled out her ID and looked up to see her friend chatting up the bouncer. The bouncer took a long glance at her card, and nodded.

"Are either of you ladies going to be having a remote tonight?" the tiger lady said in a distinctly intimidating feminine voice.

"No, it's Milena's first time, and I'm just trying to show her the place." Lucy responded, to a nod from the bouncer.

"Well you both can head on in. Enjoy yourselves, ladies."

"Thank you miss!" Milena said, looking up at the woman to attempt to meet her gaze in some vague approximation of 'normal' behavior.

The two women walked in the door, to see a surprisingly calm place in front of them, with far less people than one would expect in a bar on a Friday evening. Lucy took her friend's hand, and guided her to the front bar, to an almost immediate response from a bartender, who was also wearing some good-looking pink glasses.

"Hey Delilah, could we get my friend over here a warm Hug?" Lucy said, like the bartender was her best friend.

"Sure Lucy! You getting anythin' for yourself?"

"The same, please!"

"Comin' right up!"

As the bartender left, Milena leaned over and poked her friend on the shoulder.

"A 'Hug'? What kind of drink would that be?" she asked.

"Oh just trust me, Milena. The normal drinks aren't why I brought you here."

With a mildly perplexed look on her face, Milena shrugged, and looked back to the bar in front of her. Below a plastic cover on the bar was a paper menu, presumably to protect it from spills, and, to distract herself, she began to look over the confusingly-named drinks in front of her. "What the hell is a 'Weighted Blanket'," she thought, before being broken out of her focus by a drink being placed in front of her.

"Here ya go, two warm Hugs, right here." the cheery bartender said with a smile on her face.

"Thanks Delilah!" Lucy responded for both of them.

"No problem hon! You just give me a holler if y'all need anythin' else." the bartender said, before walking away towards some other people.

The woman's aggressively southern accent stuck out to Milena, but she didn't comment. Instead, she had a look at the drink in front of her. It looked to be in a large shot glass, and had the color of hot cocoa, but clearly without the same boiling heat.

"It's better to drink it all in one go, Milena."

"O-okay."

Milena picked up the drink, and felt what her eyes had told her: the drink was merely warm. Figuring she had nothing better to do, she put the drink to her lips and drank it all down, and... wow! With the consistency of a calmingly warm milk, and the taste of a good chocolate, she felt the nice flavor slide out of her mouth and right down her throat like silk. She shivered at the feeling of the warmth sliding down her throat, and set the empty glass in front of her.

Still reveling in the good flavor, Milena was startled by what her brain could only parse as someone coming up from behind and giving her a hug. She looked back behind her to see who was doing it, and was confused to find no one, despite the feeling still remaining. She looked over towards Lucy, only to find her smiling happily with her eyes closed, empty glass still in her hand. Distracted by the odd sensation that was only now starting to fade, she tried to get her friend's attention, only to be denied that by Lucy raising her index finger up at her like she was counting one.

"Give me a sec, Milena." she said, still smiling.

"What was that though? Someone must have come up behind and hugged me." In response, Lucy shook her head like she was shaking cobwebs off of it, and looked back to her friend.

"You dolt, that was the drink doing that." Lucy teasingly answered.

"B-bwuh?" A confused exclamation was all that Milena could get out in response.

"That's the whole thing with this place," Lucy continued, "the drinks give you feelings. A hug, some cuddles, a headpat, if you name it, they've probably got it."

"But how does it work? How is it so fast acting?" Milena got only a shrug in response.

"Beats me, but I don't ask questions. Some liquid hugs are the best thing for me after a long day of work, I don't care how they get it going."

"Whatever, I'll look it up when I get home."

"Now that you know what you're expecting, why don't you look at the menu for yourself."

Milena took her friend's suggestion and started to look closer at the menu. Confirming what her friend had said, she saw many pleasant sensations listed across the paper that sat below the plastic cover on the bar, in addition to a note of there being more exotic selections available in the so-called 'Hole in the Wall' section in the back.

"What's this 'Hole in the Wall' place, Lucy?" Milena inquired to her friend.

"That's where they have the drinks of a more, ah, lewd nature, to make sure people who don't want to see those reactions aren't there," Lucy responded, "and judging by the look you got on your face, your discomfort's the reason why."

"Yeah that's fair. I'm not gonna shame anyone for liking that, but that's most certainly not my thing." Lucy shrugged in response.

"Fair-o. Not gonna make you go back there if you don't want to. There's plenty up here for you to enjoy, and I honestly don't go back there often myself anyways. Do keep having a look at the menu, though, I'm gonna get myself something else." Lucy said, before sticking her hand up to wave down the bartender that had been helping them before.

"I'm glad she respects my boundaries on that." Milena thought, before looking back down at the menu. Nothing seemed to particularly pique her interest, until she saw a small note towards the bottom of the menu, stating that custom sensations not listed may be possible at the request of a bartender. Intrigued by this, she looked up, to see Delilah coming over towards Lucy's hails.

"What can I do for ya, Lucy-girl?" the bartender asked.

"Could I get myself another Hug?"

"Sure can do, missy! How about your friend over here?" she said, looking over to Milena.

"Er-I," she stuttered, trying to get the words out, "I wanted to ask about trying something custom?"

"Certainly! What were you thinkin', darling?"

"Would it maybe be possible to do something that's sort of, like, a shoulder massage?" Milena said, sort of shrinking herself down on the barstool.

"Hmm... I can prolly whip somethin' like that up for ya." Delilah said, seeming to be focusing more on her glasses than on Milena, "What kind of flavoring you want in it?"

"Err, c-could I get a vanilla flavoring?"

"Certainly! I'll be right back with those for you two girls." Delilah said while walking off, leaving the two friends to talk to each other.

"Shoulder massage, eh? Interesting choice." Lucy said, looking over to Milena.

"Oh yeah, they have been comforting to me since I was a kid. Helps me calm down when I get all worked up about things."

"I hadn't actually asked for a custom before, surprised they can do any flavor. Thought the flavor went with the chemical or whatever."

"Yeah, it kind of caught me off guard as well. I just spat out what my favorite kind of taste was." Milena said, with Lucy nodding in response.

"Makes sense from what I know of you."

"Order up, ladies!" the bartender cheerily said from behind the bar, pulling the two friends from their conversation. She set down the drinks in front of them, one the same chocolate as before, and the other an off-white color, both in similar shot glasses.

"One hug and one custom shoulder massage, right there!" Delilah said, before leaning back against the wall behind her. "You tell me how that custom drink goes, I want to know how well it got made."

"Thanks for making it for me, miss!" The bartender waved her hand dismissively.

"Aw shucks, you don't have to be so polite! It was nothin'. Really, the glasses helped me out with figurin' out the recipe."

"Oh, those glasses do something? I thought they were just some part of a uniform kind of deal." Milena asked, with Delilah laughing in response.

"Oh nah, these things are much more than that. They're really a helper with keeping all the stuff in line, good personal aid," the bartender explained, "I think Mary up front even uses 'em to help with the card checkin'."

"That's really neat! I wonder where I could get some like those, sounds like they would be useful." Milena said wistfully.

"I think that new boutique downtown sells 'em, actually. I could take you over there some time, I bet you'd like their outfits." Lucy offered.

"Thanks Lucy, I might have to take you up on that offer this weekend. For now, I want to try this custom drink the bartender so kindly made for me." Milena said, and Lucy nodded.

Milena took a closer look at the drink in front of her. It definitely had the right color to be something like the vanilla ice cream she so enjoyed, but color could certainly be deceiving. She took the glass in her hand brought it to her lips. The liquid she drank had the right flavor to be something sweetly vanilla, but Milena could tell the sweetening was overdone, as it was a touch rich for her tastes. She swallowed it to get the oversweet taste out of her mouth, and move on to the part she was more looking forward to.

The cool beverage hit her stomach, and almost immediately, the sensation began of someone rubbing her shoulders behind her. Her brain almost made her look back again to see who was doing it out of instinct, but the soothing massage itself helped her to keep that reflex in check. The pressure on her shoulders relaxed her body, sending a pleasant sensation deep into her core. Milena took a deep breath in and smiled, leaning forward to set the glass down rest on the bar in front of her. She felt happy and calm from the faux massage, even as the pressure faded from her shoulders. Milena took a few seconds to savor the moment before piping up to the bartender.

"Err..." Milena scraped her brain for the bartender's name, but came up blank, "miss bartender?"

"Whatcha need?" the woman responded to her inquiry, standing up from her lean.

"I wanted to comment on the drink, if you don't mind."

"Go right ahead!"

"The sensation was distinctly what I was looking for, but the sweetness was a bit overwhelming." Milena said, moving to fidget with her hands, before the bartender's nod dismissed her anxiety.

"I reckon that makes sense. I worried the default vanilla was gonna be too sweet for ya. I'll fix it for the next time, but I reckon it's gonna get added to the menu in its new form, judgin' by how mighty pleased you looked." Delilah's words replaced Milena's worry with a bit of a blush.

"T-thanks, miss!"

"No problem, sweetie! I'm gonna leave ya to chat with your friend now, go ahead and call for me if you two need somethin' again." she said before walking off. Milena looked over to see her friend grinning cheerfully.

"What did I say? I knew you were gonna enjoy yourself here." Lucy said smugly.

"Yeah yeah, you were right, it was really nice to get out of the dorm and come here. We might have to come out together more often."

"I'm just glad you enjoyed yourself. This place is good on your own, but it's even better with a friend, so I'm glad to bring you with me any time."

The calming effect the massage drink had on Milena helped her out with less awkwardly hanging out at the unfamiliar place, and soon enough she felt very comfortable with being there with Lucy. The conversation was pleasant, and the drinks were too. The distraction from life outside was pleasurable, let alone the literal pleasant sensations the place gave. Even after she had to leave for the night, Milena was smiling at how nice the place was, and, for once, she was very happy.