(Entrance)

“Wow. You can see a bunch of the park from here. How many slides does this place have?” I whistled, impressed at the structures I could see peeking above the tall marble walls and high steel fences that surrounded the area.

“Five or six, I think? I’m more of a Lazy-River-enjoyer, so I’ve only gone on one maybe twice in my life,” my brunette companion, Eva, stopped ahead of me and turned around in my direction. She tipped the brim of her cap up so she could properly see me when looking up.

“Really? For someone who said they’re a regular, I thought you’d know all about this place. ”

“I come here for other reasons than the rides. It just feels great to relax by the water without overbearing guys ogling me, y’know?”

“Is that still the case with me?”

“… No. I’m fine if it’s you, Jay. Besides, I wanted to take you here for a reason.”

Eva used her hand to cover her face as she turned to me. I looked down at my 5’5” girlfriend’s face and wondered if she was hiding a blush or a smile, but her eyes showed no real change. It was hard to get a proper read on my girlfriend’s expressions because she could so easily put up a poker face when she wanted to, but I was sure she was trying to mess with me.

As we got to the entrance, I found myself in awe of the statues of bikini-clad women holding up the sign for ‘Aquathena Waters’ – the water park a half-an-hour’s drive away from town. The décor was a tad too extreme and overwhelming. I mean, what kind of park would sculpt Amazonian-like statues of nearly-naked women and surround the entrance with them?

“Y’know, I can see why there weren’t that many people in the parking lot now,” I mumbled. “Are the owners right in the head?”

“I get what you mean. The décor’s a bit much,” Eva couldn’t deny my assertion. She crossed her hands as she gave me her thoughts on the park. “Because of that, this place isn’t popular at all. That and a few of the park’s rules drove a lot of customers from coming. Well, the park rules are why I was fine with this place, though.”

I was curious as to what Eva meant, but she started to walk ahead to the ticket clerk before I could ask. I followed behind, glancing around at the multiple posters and statues of women in swimsuits that also lined the entrance walls. There were way more than felt natural. Only when I caught up to her was I able to ask her a question.

“Something tells me this place is very women-centric. Am I right?”

“It’s special because of that,” my girlfriend nodded, slipping her hand into her jacket pocket. She seemed confident – probably because she had something in planned. “You actually don’t get guys here often. Even guys who just aim to go places where they can hit on girls don’t go here.”

“Why?”                                         

“Oh, you’ll see.” Instead of answering my question, she slyly gave me a wink. I swallowed my saliva. Eva was an ‘all attack’-type of girl when it came to messing with others. I was as unnerved as I was attracted. “It’s why I’ve been waiting all this time to take you here. Don’t worry: It’s fine for a guy like you to enter. There’s just one small condition.”

I probably should have researched Aquathena before meeting up with her. Honestly, I should have done that to every place Eva took me because there was always a chance she’d try to surprise me and prank me, but it was too late for that. Eva pulled out a single pre-purchased ticket from her pocket and handed to the one staff member sitting inside a Plexiglas-windowed booth.

“So that’s one adult woman. You’re good to go, Miss,” the clerk accepted Eva’s ticket and hit a button from inside her booth. Behind her, a light flickered beneath a sign that showed a pictogram of a woman. Looking more closely, I saw that it was directly above the turnstile gate that separated the inside of the park and the outside.

“Okay, Jay. Let’s get going,” Eva told me, walking towards the turnstile.

I was pretty sure my girlfriend was skipping some steps.

“Hey, hang on, I haven’t bought a ticket yet. I didn’t think you pre-paid.”

“Oh, you’re fine. You’re allowed to enter on my ticket as an Add-on.”

“Add-on?”

I turned to the clerk to confirm with her what my girlfriend had said. The blonde woman nodded and gestured to the left of the turnstile gate Eva had entered. “Yes, she’s right. You can enter the Add-on gate. All men have to be accompanied by an adult woman in the park here.”

I would’ve expected the second gate to have a pictogram of a man, but the Add-on gate the clerk lit up the light for did not have the symbol. Instead, I saw a lower case letter ‘a’ on the sign. Curiously, I noticed that the ‘a’ gate also had height measurements written on each bar of the turnstile.

Putting her hand on the turnstile she was in front of, Eva used her hand to hide her mouth again. This time, though, I was pretty sure she was smirking behind it. “I said this park was special. C’mon, Jay. I want to show you exactly why I wanted to bring you here.”

With that, she pushed through the gate and walked over to the inside of the park, leaving me alone with the ticket taker.

“Hehehe. Someone’s the henpecked-type,” I heard the blonde woman giggle, causing me to turn in her direction. She had a bemused smirk on her face. “You should head on in, Sir. If you get separated from your girlfriend, it’ll be for some big trouble.”

“I’m not hen-pecked. I’m just letting her have her fun... It’s totally fine that I didn’t have to pay?” I decided to try to continue the conversation. I noticed the clerk’s odd stressing of the word ‘big’.

“Oh, did you not know about our park, Sir?” the staff behind the Plexiglas window of the booth realized she had to explain. For some reason, her smile seemed to widen as she pointed out the female-heavy decor I had noticed earlier. “Then allow me. You can probably tell from the entrance already, but this park was designed with women in mind when it was built. In fact, it was originally planned to be for women only.”

“That’s… weird, isn’t it?” It sounded discriminatory, but I could think of some reasons why women would want a private waterpark.

“Indeed,” the staff employee agreed. “That cuts our customer base down incredibly. The owner was trying to figure out what she could do to keep the budget afloat. In the end, men were allowed in, but it was decided that the park would enforce a special service for any male entering.”

“A special service?” while that sounded nice, the way the woman was grinning made it feel like it would be anything but nice.

“Yes. I think you’ll be in for a… small surprise when you head on in,” she was being very honest. “You will see yourself what I mean when you pass through the gate.”

I was now having second thoughts about facing the surprise Eva had in store for me. Getting in for free sounded cool, but there seemed to be a condition to it. And from what I could assume from the clerk’s words, even if I bought my own ticket, because I was a man, I’d still get the same treatment.

“Well, at least I don’t have to pay this way,” I gave up, realizing there was no use in hesitating. With my hand, I pushed the ‘a’-marked turnstile gate that the employee unlocked for me to pass.

Swisssssh!

It was in that very instance that I discovered just what Athenaqua meant by accessory. The moment I stepped past the gate, my body felt like it was being pressed in on all sides for a millisecond. My vision blurred. The next thing I knew, the 6’ mark on the full height gate I was able to see became a 2’ mark.

“Ngk! W-What?” I was dumbfounded to suddenly find myself unable to push the turnstile any further. It had suddenly gotten much, much heavier. Looking up at everything, I saw that the turnstile had sprung upwards like a tree, and the large marble statues on this side of the gate seemed even bigger, like pillars. They weren’t the only things that were bigger though.

Eva, having waited for me to see my reaction the entire time, stopped hiding her mouth with her hand and put it down, showing a smirk. With her arm high up above my head, she grabbed the turnstile to make sure it wouldn’t swing back on me. I looked up at the long legs of my girlfriend, awestruck. Each one was taller than I was.

Eva broke me from my stupor with a proper welcome. “Yo. Surprised? Welcome to Aquathena, Jay. For the whole day, you’re going to be my Add-on.”