James and Imani had to go home the day after Christmas to prepare for the new year. New Year's eve was a big night for club owners. Clifford and Tyreek were busy getting ready for the party that would be happening at Gemini in a couple of nights. Unlike opening night, I would actually be working New Year's eve. Clifford expected a lot of men that he knew to show up at the club, and he needed me to do what I was hired to do.
Tati dragged me to find outfits for myself and the rest of the bottle girls. We went to several boutiques until we found one that specializes in bottle girl and dancer uniforms. I looked around the store until I found the leotards.
"This is fye," I held up a long sleeve zip-up leotard. "We need these."
Tati nodded her head in approval. "Yeah, I think these will look good on everybody." I agreed with her since leotards really looked good on all body types, and all of the bottle girls at Gemini had different shapes. The leotard wasn't bikini cut, it looked more like boyshorts so even if you didn't have no ass, the leotard would make you look like you did. And you could zip the leotard as far down to your belly button or as high up to your collarbone, so really everyone should be comfortable. I also grabbed some fishnet tights for us to wear underneath.
I asked the manager if she could grab the uniforms in the sizes we needed for the girls. It took her a while, but finally, she came back with a box full. I went through the box to make sure we had everything we needed and Tati used the company credit card to pay for them.
"That was easy enough," Tati sighed as we walked back to the truck. "Now let's go eat."
I did not object as Tati drove us to Popeyes, my stomach had been growling all morning. We ordered our food and then Tati parked us in a nearby parking lot so we could eat.
"So what's going on with you mama? You seem down." I questioned her.
"Girl this baby has me drained." She sighed as she unwrapped her sandwich. "I've been taking my vitamins and everything but shit, I feel like I have no energy. And I'm emotional as fuck, everything Reek says hurts my feelings, and I feel anxious about every little thing."
"Damn Tati I didn't know you were feeling like this." I rubbed her arm to try to comfort her.
"I mean yeah, it's nothing anyone can really do so I've just been dealing with it." She shrugged.
"Hopefully it'll get better soon. Right now your body is just trying to adjust to you having a baby growing inside of you."
She nodded her head and sighed. I stopped talking because I could see the tears starting to build up in her eyes. I knew Tati wasn't ready to be a mom but she was trying her best to stay positive.
When we were done eating we drove to the club to drop off the uniforms. It was a Monday so no one should really be there, but there were two black trucks parked outback. Tati and I looked at each other silently trying to decide if we should go in. I felt my nerves building up as we hopped out of the truck. I did not want to walk into some shit I wasn't supposed to be seeing. As soon as I closed the car door Tyreek came running out.
"What are y'all doing here?" He asked as he approached the truck with his sleeves rolled up.
"We're dropping off these uniforms," I answered as I walked to the open trunk.
Tyreek followed me and grabbed the box from out the trunk. Instead of walking through the back door he had just come out of he walked around and went through the front entrance.
"What's going on?" Tati questioned. I was thinking the same thing but I didn't know if I wanted to know the answer.
"Nothing. Come on," Reek said as he held the front door open. Tati and I made our way to dressing room in the back with Reek on our tails.
"Y'all needed something else?" He asked as he sat the box down.
"No," I eyed him because he was acting weird. "We're just going to put this stuff away."
"Aight," He said as he kissed Tati's cheek and then walked out of the dressing room closing the door behind him.
"Is it just me, or was that shit weird?" I asked Tati.
"Naw something is definitely off." She mumbled as she opened the box.
I walked over to the closet and noticed that we were out of hangers. "We need hangers."
"Some should've came in the shipment last night."
"Okay, I'll go look."
I exited the dressing room and made my way down the hall to the inventory closet. As I got nearer to the closet, I could hear some shuffling going on in the meeting room next door and voices talking at a low volume. Instead of walking in the closet as I should've, I peeked my head around the corner to see what was going on in the room.
The door was barely cracked and the room was dark so I couldn't see everything that was going on in there, but what I did see horrified me. There was a man, visibly beaten up, laying on the floor with tape around his mouth and his hands and feet tied together. As soon as the man made eye contact with me he started fidgeting around and trying to scream, but obviously, it was muffled by the duck tape over his lips. The door slammed shut and I quickly turned around and slid into the closet. Half a second later the light in the closet flicked on and someone was grabbing my arm.
"What the fuck are you doing?" I heard Clifford's voice booming from behind me. Shit.
I turned around to face a very pissed-off Clifford. His eyebrows were furrowed together and his eyes were dark.
"I- Nothing, I was just looking for some hangers." I looked away from him.
"Cheyenne..." Clifford took a breath trying to calm down.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't even thinking," I mumbled as I looked down at my feet. Why did my dumb ass have to be so nosey?
"You and Tati need to go home, now." He pulled me by arm from out of the closet. "Tyreek shouldn't have even let y'all come in here right now." He went on, obviously very upset.
"Baby I'm sorry, I didn't even see anyt-"
"Save it Chey, Imma see you later." He shook his head before leaving me in front of the dressing room.
"We gotta go," I said as I entered the room.
"What happened?" Tati raised her eyebrow as she looked up from her phone.
"I think I saw some shit I wasn't supposed to see," I shook my head. "But Clifford wants us to leave."
"Okay, then let's go," She grabbed her purse. "We'll come back for this stuff tomorrow."
Tati and I went back to her house and I sighed as I plopped down on the couch. My mind was racing a mile a minute. I honestly couldn't even comprehend what I saw in that dark room. I was hoping that I was just imagining shit.
———
When Tyreek came in the house he stood in the doorway and nodded at me. "Cliff is outside Chey."
I had hoped that Clifford didn't chew Reek out but from the look on his face, I could tell that he did.
I took that as my cue to grab my stuff and head out. "Call me tomorrow Tati," I said before closing the door. I held my breath as I approached Clifford's truck and climbed inside. He didn't say anything or even look at me before reversing out of the driveway.
We drove to my apartment in complete and utter silence. The energy radiating off of Clifford had me scared to even breathe too hard. He pulled up to the front of the building and unlocked the car doors. I didn't even look over at him before hopping out.
"Chey," He caught me right before I closed the door. "I love you." The look in his eyes was something I had never seen before. It made me nervous.
"I love you too." I said before closing the door. He watched me as I walked into the building and then I heard him speed off. The security guard at the front door greeted me as I made my way upstairs to my apartment. I locked my door, kicked off my shoes, and immediately stripped down to my underwear before laying on my bed.
As soon as I closed my eyes, the face of the man I saw laying on the floor popped into my head. I wrecked my brain trying to figure out why that man's face stood out to me so much. It was like I saw him somewhere before.
I almost shook the feeling off before the name Jamal popped into my head. Then the memories from his conversation with Clifford as we left the restaurant in New York came back to mind. Damn Jamal, you must've really fucked up this time.
I decided to take a quick nap before making dinner. When I woke up I was expecting to see some messages or missed calls from Clifford but there was nothing. I know I shouldn't have been snooping around but damn was he really that mad at me?
I made myself a salad for dinner and turned on a new series I had been watching on Hulu. Tati called me to make sure I was good, so I talked to her for a minute before deciding to just get in the shower and get in the bed. It was clear that I wasn't going to hear from Clifford tonight and me staying up and thinking about it was not helping.
In the morning Tati texted me to meet her at the club. I got up, washed my face, brushed my hair into a messy bun, and threw on leggings, a sweater and some ugg's.
When I got to the club Tati was already in the dressing room hanging up the uniforms. I grabbed the steamer and started steaming them to get the wrinkles out so that they would be ready for tomorrow.
We were basically done with the clothes when there was a knock on the dressing room door. "Come in," Tati invited whoever was at the door in.
"I need to talk to you for a second." Clifford walked in the room, eyes on me.
"Oh, now you want to talk to me?" I mumbled as I rolled my eyes. "I'll be back Tati."
I hung the steamer back on the stand and then followed Clifford out of the room. He leaned against the wall in the hallway and just stared at me.
"What is it, Clifford?" I looked away from him.
"Chey," He turned my chin so I was facing him.
"What?" I moved my head away from his hand.
"What's wrong with you?" He looked me up and down.
"Nothing is wrong, what did you want to talk about?"
"I wanted to talk about yesterday, but now I want to talk about this little attitude you got."
"I don't have an attitude Clifford, I just want an explanation."
He chuckled dryly. "You know I can't give you that. You weren't supposed to see any of that. You weren't even supposed to be here."
I knew that Clifford was right. He told me that he had to do shit he didn't like sometimes, but I didn't enjoy seeing it with my own eyes. "I don't like that side of you..."
"You gotta take the good with the bad." He shrugged. "If you can't deal with the fact that sometimes the business I'm in isn't pretty and you can't mind your business, then I don't know what to tell you. I keep you in the dark for a reason, Cheyenne. I don't understand why you can't just accept that."
"So it's my fault that you had the breaks beat off that nigga and I just happened to see it?!"
"No, it's your fault for peeking through closed doors."
"It was cracked..." I mumbled.
He cut his eyes at me. "Either way, you knew you weren't supposed to be in there."
"I know..." I rolled my eyes.
"So what now?"
"Clifford I love you. That's not going to just change overnight."
"If you love me, you gotta love all of me."
"How can I love all of you when I don't even know all of you. The stuff you're hiding from me... how can I accept what I don't know?"
"By trusting me." He grabbed my hands.
"I do trust you." I sighed. "I just got curious. But it won't happen again, and I'm sorry."
"So, we good?" He asked.
"I'm good, if you're good." I smiled.
"Then we good." He pulled me into a hug. "Imma be here late tonight getting stuff together for tomorrow, but if you still up when I leave then I'll come over."
"Okay," I kissed him. "I love you."
"I love you too."
———
Clifford never came over last night but that was to be expected. I wasn't mad because I knew tonight was going to be a big night for him.
I woke up early in the morning to get my hair pressed and to see my wax lady. Then I went to get my nails done with Tati.
When we were done at the nail salon I went to the club to meet with Clifford and discuss the game plan for tonight.
"Hey beautiful," Clifford smiled at me as I walked in his office.
"Hey," I grinned. "You ready?"
"Yeah. The real question is are you ready?"
"Yeah," I shrugged. "Who you want me to talk to tonight?"
"There's this dude named Ace. He's going to be in VIP section 3. He has a lot of pull in the industry and I want to make him a partner, so I need you to show him a good time. But I don't need you to ask him anything, and I don't want you telling him anything about yourself. I just need you to make sure he has a good time. I'll handle the rest."
"Sounds easy enough." I nodded my head.
"He always has a big crew with him, so you might want to bring some of the other girls over there with you to help you out."
Clifford kissed me and made his way downstairs. I followed behind him and went to the dressing room to find one of the girls. I chose to bring Kalia with me to the VIP section. She was 5'5, chocolate skin, thick, and had big natural hair. I loved her, and if I was gay I would've slid on her by now, so I know she would be a good one to help me in the section. Plus she was new and tonight was only her second night working in the club so she really didn't know how things go and she wouldn't suspect that anything was weird.
I helped Tati pass the uniforms for tonight out to the girls. Then I got dressed myself. My makeup was already done so it didn't take long before I was walking out of the room with Kalia by my side.
The club started to get packed pretty fast. Kalia and I chilled by the bar until I spotted one of the security guards taking a group of people to section 3. As we walked towards the section I tried to spot out Ace so I knew where to focus my attention. Clifford showed me his instagram so I knew exactly who I was looking for. When I spotted him he was half way turned around talking to someone else, but the big ass red star tattoo on the side of his face gave him away.
"Hey y'all, what y'all drinking on tonight?" I asked out loud as we entered the section. Most of the people who could hear me over the music turned their attention to me.
"What y'all want?" Ace asked the people he was sitting next to. They all answered the different bottles that they wanted and Kalia and I wrote down their orders.
"Did y'all want some shots?" I asked with a smile.
"Only if y'all gon take one with us." Ace licked his lips.
Kalia looked at me unsure and I shrugged. "Bet."
We went to the bar to get the drinks and the bottles that they wanted, and a round of tequila shots. Kalia and a few other girls carried the bottles with the sparklers in it to the section, and I carried the rest of the drinks and shots on two trays.
"Here's your drinks," I announced as I sat the drinks infront of those who ordered one. And then I passed out the shots, leaving a couple on the tray.
"Where's yours?" Ace eyed me.
"Don't worry, we gon take them." I smiled as I handed Kalia a shot glass and grabbed one for myself.
We tapped the glasses together and took the shots to the head. Throughout the night, Kalia and I took turns taking shots with Ace and his people. I knew he was drunk after his second drink and fourth shot because he was talking really loud and sweating through his button up. This was all before 12 o'clock.
I took that as my queue to go find Clifford who was on the stage with Tyreek.
"Your boy is lit," I whispered in his ear. He nodded his head and followed me upstairs. I went back to the section to take everyone's drink orders again and to clean up the empty bottles and glasses. Kalia came with me to the bar, and I could see Clifford entering the section as we starting grabbing new shot glasses.
I watched the two men as they talked and laughed for a few minutes. They exchanged numbers and then Clifford dapped him up. He left the section and came over to me with a smile on his face.
"Come with me, we're about to do the countdown." He whispered in my ear. I asked Kalia to take the drinks to the section and let her know that I would be back.
At this point there was a crowd of people on stage drinking and dancing and getting ready for the countdown to the new year. I stood towards the back near the DJ with Tati, Tyreek and Clifford. The big screen started a 30 second countdown and the host of the party grabbed the mic and had the whole club counting with him. Once the countdown reached 00:00 everybody screamed Happy New Year. Clifford leaned down to kiss me and I felt my eyes starting to tear up. I had really become such a cry baby.
Last year was crazy for me. I got accepted into my dream college, won a full ride scholarship to college, graduated high school, lost that full ride scholarship, found a sugar daddy, had drama with my friends and potential love interests, fell in love with my sugar daddy, fell out with my family, and gained a new family. I honestly didn't see anything that happened last year coming. Everything that I went through really changed who I was as a person. I was really nervous, but I couldn't help but be excited to see what this new year had in store for me.