Meet Me At Midnight (18+)

Chapter 42-Hues of Sunsets

Warning: Eating disorders/self harm/rape/domestic abuse

The halls were barren, empty, not a soul occupied them. The usual glare of the colored lights were gone, the loud and sensual music blaring through the speakers now were silent. The club didn't open for another eight hours, the security guards wouldn't arrive for another four, the servers another five, and the dancers another six.

She offered the option for all employees to come in whenever they wanted. If they needed a place to stay for the night the option was there. The last room at the end of the long and narrow hall had plush, black, velvet couches, multiple flat screens, a fridge stocked full with leftovers from the kitchen, and a fully stocked freezer filled with ice cream and soft drinks. It was a breakroom of sorts for when the employees were in between shifts.

Nikoa heard laughing coming from the back room, most likely Alina and Xiomara hanging out and watching one of their telenovelas again. She always found them in the backroom watching them on breaks. They always showed up early to work to watch reruns. Whenever Nikoa asked why they didn't just watch at their homes she always got the same answer: free food, free drinks, free big screen television. She didn't blame them, the couches were really comfortable. She would know better than anyone considering she's the one who had them tailored to her liking by the furniture place. They had even taken ass measurements to insure her ass sunk down to the perfectly comfortable depth.

"What's this one about?" She asks.

Xiomara and Alina shriek in surprise and sit up from the couch they were lazily lounging on, the bowl of popcorn they were sharing goes up with them, the fresh and buttered kernels flying in the air and falling to the floor.

One lands in Nikoa's outstretched palm. She pops it in her mouth. The butter melts along her tongue. Delicious. And salty.

"Dios mio, mi corazon!" Alina shrieks while holding her palm to her chest right above her beating heart. (My god, my heart)

"Which telenovela are you watching now?" Nikoa asks again. "It doesn't look like your regular one."

"It's not," Alina answers. "Our other one doesn't start till five so we're just watching this one. Amara just found out she has an evil twin named Cathalina. She thought she was dead."

"Sounds entertaining," Nikoa muses. It does not. Not at all. "Well have fun with that. I'll be in my office." The girls nod and bid their farewells.

Her office wasn't really much of an office. It had a glass desk and a spinning chair with a computer and stacks of paperwork on the desk, but that was about as close to an office it got. The walls were black, strips of LED lights framed the room like crown molding. A white, leather loveseat was pushed against the left wall, a silver pole in front of it. She often came here to dance when she needed to let off some steam and right now she definitely needed to let go of some shit. No one except her and Santino had a key to this room.

Nikoa placed her wallet, gun, and phone on the desk before going over to the tablet built into the wall that controlled the speakers and lights in the office. She opened the plantation shutters to allow the sunset to stream in. The darkroom cast in shadows of hues of pink and yellow and orange and red created a sensual vibe. Her phone was blowing up in her pocket for the last hour so she decided to set up her camera on the windowsill to send a picture to Maven so she could in turn tell everybody she was alive and occupied. 

Nikoa started playing her special playlist she had programmed into the tablet off of Pandora. The first song, 34+35 remix by Ariana Grande, Doja Cat, and Megan Thee Stallion started filtering through the speakers at half volume. Every room was soundproof so the guests could play their preferred music as loud as they wanted in their rented rooms. For safety purposes, every room had three hidden red buttons the dancers could push that alerted the guards if they ever felt uncomfortable or threatened.