Looking for a Date: Veritas
Veritas is hosting a masquerade on January 17th, and I'm looking for a date. Before you decide whether that's you, let me tell you about the two nights that made me want to go back.
The first was February 2015, long before I started doing this work. An SNCTM Valentine's party. They took your phone at the door: no photos, no video, complete discretion. In place of cameras they'd hired illustrators, who moved through the rooms sketching whatever was unfolding, so the only record of the night was someone's drawing of it. Something between memory and art.
I wore an ornate horned mask I'd gotten for my birthday the year before. Custom made, commanding. Everyone else was in delicate lace or traditional black, elegant and beautiful and safe. I looked dangerous. And I went alone.
That mask gave me a confidence I didn't know I had. I spent the whole night as a voyeur, moving from room to room, watching scenes unfold. Couples. Groups. Eyes watching eyes watching. I was fascinated by the intimacy of it, the permission everyone gave themselves the moment their faces disappeared behind silk and feathers. By the end I knew two things: I would come back, and next time I wouldn't only watch.
Four years passed before I did. 2019, with a friend and her husband. SNCTM had grown by then, added performances, theatrical and elaborate, unlike anything I'd seen. The moment I walked through the doors my heart was going and my whole body felt awake.
We had cocktails first. At the bar we met a masked stranger, tall, easy to talk to. We flirted. One thing became another, the way it does when everyone understands the rules without anyone saying them out loud. Before long the three of us were tangled together with a small crowd watching, and I understood the difference the 2015 version of me had only guessed at.
I haven't been back since. Life got busy, the world shut down, priorities moved the way they do. Then the Veritas invitation landed in my inbox a few days ago, and I haven't stopped thinking about it. January 17th. It reads like a dare.
So here's what I'm looking for. Someone who already knows what makes a night like this extraordinary. Someone who can hold a real conversation over cocktails and then read the room when conversation stops being the point. Someone who understands the difference between watching and participating, and knows when each one is the right answer. Someone who won't hesitate when I lean in and say, "Let's go."
If you've been waiting for the right moment to reach out, this is it. I don't do this often, and when it's right, it's the kind of thing you don't forget.
Let's make this interesting.
Contact me: booking@veronicawilder.com
Learn more about Veritas: veritasclub.org
Learn more about SNCTM: snctm.com
