Cilia paid the taxi driver then stepped out of the car. She barely got to shut the door before the black Lincoln zoomed off. She jumped back so the back tire wouldn't roll over her foot and shook her head, watching the car disappear down the block. Looking up, Cilia peered into the Internet café that had full glass windows, giving her a view of everyone inside.
The place was pretty full. She could see people sitting at tables eating, other people at computers with headphones on and a bunch of waiters and waitresses running around serving people. The place seemed really fancy inside, the entire area did. Which was a surprise to Cilia considering the area Allele and Iris lived in wasn't too far from here.
As she walked toward the café she decided to survey the block at the same time just to scope out the area she was in. A place across the street caught her attention making her do a double take. It was the only place that was lit up with a blue light, labeled 'Breeze.' Cilia could hear what sounded like muffled music and when she looked closer, she saw a small line out front being watched by a man dressed in a suit.
A club? She asked herself, breaking her neck to get a good look. She looked at the Internet café she was now standing right in front of and back across the street, having a silent battle with herself. Maybe I should go over there, she thought. She's always heard of things like clubs in prison and wanted to check them out. Besides, she didn't want Iris and Allele to know where she was honestly. She wanted to be by herself and only took Allele's suggest to going to the café because she didn't have anywhere else in mind. So by going somewhere else, he wouldn't be able to pull up on her if he came looking for her.
Cilia nodded her head to herself in confirmation, deciding to ditch the Internet café and go across the street. When she got to the other side, she stepped onto the sidewalk and slowly approached the place, noticing the big, bald White man dressed in a suit, standing outside with the crowd of what was like thirty people, parked behind a purple velvet colored rope.
Cilia realized she was right about the music now that she could hear it thumping inside of the building. It seemed dangerously loud. Gripping the strap of the small leather purse that was slung across her body, Cilia began to approach the entrance of the club until the bouncer stopped her.
"Stop trying to be funny before you don't get in at all. Don't you see the line?" The man barked, pointing to the crowd of people who were all grilling her.
Just then a fight on the line broke out between two men, one picking the other up and slamming him on his back which took the velvet rope down with them.
"Shit!" The bouncer screamed, tapping a black earpiece in his ear as he rushed over to the scene. "Back up outside! Back up outside!"
Everyone on the line was going crazy, others joining in the fight while others just watched, recording it. Three more bouncers rushed out, nearly knocking Cilia over. Cilia watched the madness for a second more before causally walking right inside since no one was guarding the door. She had seen too many fights in prison to get excited about it anymore.
As soon as she walked in, she was hit with a rush of cold air that instantly made goosebumps form on her arms. The place was huge, much bigger then it looked from outside. There was even a second floor as she watched people dancing up top. The place was dark blue and colder than a meat freezer. The music was way too loud and Cilia honestly couldn't understand what the rapper was saying.
Looking around her, she dodged people who were wilding out dancing, drunks who were stumbling all over the place and employees, carrying trays with dozens of shot glasses on them. Finally making her way over to the bar, Cilia chose to stand instead of sit. She looked up at the menu behind the counter, reading off the drinks to herself, still gripping her bag strap. She felt like she was doing something bad. She was only breaking the law a little bit since clubs and drinking were only for people the age of twenty one, but she was twenty so it was not that big of a deal.
"Welcome to Breeze nightclub, can I get you something to drink?" A bubbly red head White girl asked, seeming to pop out of nowhere.
Cilia's eyes were still scanning the menu not knowing what she wanted to drink yet. "Not thirsty yet."
The girl nodded her head, about to move off until Cilia leaned forward with a screwed up face. "Who is this rapping though?" She asked, not believing this is what people called music. The only word she was hearing from the entire song was 'lifestyle.'
"It's Young Thug, Lifestyle. You never heard it before?"
"No. It's stupid." Cilia frowned.
The waitress chuckled and was about to answer back until a fellow employee yelled out to her for help with the dozens of other customers waiting to be served. She ran off leaving Cilia to chill at the front of the bar by herself.
Cilia looked over her shoulder to keep an eye from behind. She's never been to a club but knew it was a place people dressed up to dance, drink and have fun. She could at least say she was dressed for the occasion, but she wasn't really into the whole club scene.
Minutes past and songs changed as some people got off and others got on the dance floor. Cilia sighed as nothing seemed to take her mind off of Iris. She couldn't believe her sister was blind, it was stressing her out almost to the point of making her want to cry. She was really trying not to think about it, but it was hard.
She felt the purse on her vibrating so she began to fidget with it to open it. She pulled out a big square phone with a round ball in the middle, labeled 'BlackBerry' under the screen. Cilia had never even held a phone before so she didn't know how to work it. She went with how the she thought the phone would work and clicked the button on the left side and the mail icon on the screen opened.
Allele - Did you get there yet? 12:35PM
Cilia was confused for a moment until she realized he was asking about the Internet café. She bit her bottom lip and hit the button under the word reply to write back 'yes.' It took her about five minutes to finally send the message back trying to find the letters to type. When she did, as silly as it sounded, it made her feel a little good that she had figured out a cellphone on her first try without asking anybody.
She sighed to herself, putting the phone away. Relax Cilia, just try to forget about the situation right now. She told herself, taking a deep breath before sighing out loud. She looked up at the menu again displaying drinks, figuring one would mellow her out a little bit. NexxThursday "Down" came on and she subconsciously began to nod her head as it played. She never heard it before and didn't know who it was but she liked it.
"And what's ya name?"
Cilia looked to her right and immediately snarled. She ice grilled the man that was making it no secret he was checking her out as he smiled from ear to ear. "Unavailable." She snapped.
The man's smile disappeared and he mumbled something under his breath, walking away. Cilia went back to the board, wondering if she should get a mojito. She knew it was alcohol but she never tasted it before. It sounded cool.
Two minutes must have past while Cilia still tried thinking about what she wanted to drink, but her mind slowly started to drift back to her sister. She couldn't help but not to think about it. Her twin sister was blind and there was nothing she could do about it. It would be impossible for her to get any kind of job making enough money to pay for an operation like Iris', unless she went into porn or something.
Cilia narrowed her eyes as she started to think about it. How would I look on camera...She thought. Porn would never have been something she would have done, but desperate times called for desperate measures. "Mmm..." She groaned running her hands down her face. She was lost in her thoughts and didn't know what to do.
The scent of Calvin Klein cologne passed near Cilia's nose. It was subtle and faint but still captivating enough to make her look next to her. A tall caramel toned man that screamed "hood" was dressed in a Burberry shirt, True Religion jeans and Kayne West's red Yezzy sneakers standing next to her. To say he was fine was an understatement.
Immediately Cilia's downstairs tingled. It was the same feeling she use to get sometimes in prison when she took her cellmates magazines. Cilia never had time to be interested in boys romantically with the childhood she had. So her horny days came later down around the age of sixteen and up. Especially when she was transferred from juvie and sent to Bedford Hill Correctional facility at eighteen. Her cellmate always had a stack of magazines and at night Cilia would be in her bunk bed, staring at all the well built muscular male models inside. She would sometimes get really wet and fantasize about having sex with them. She never had much of a variety of men to look at in the magazines, since her cellmate Erica only had Russian magazines since she herself was Russian. But most of the men in the magazines were good looking and got her body in overdrive; and it was happening again, but this time with a real person. Cilia already knew because of how her body was reacting meant she must want to fuck this guy.
"Yo' bartender, lemme get Vodka no chaser." He commanded in a tone not too loud but loud enough to be heard over the music. As if he knew Cilia was looking at him, he turned to her, looking her up and down.
Cilia raised an eyebrow and sized him back up. They had a stare down for a second and his face turned into a scowl. Her heart skipped a beat, genuinely intimidated for a second which had never happened before. But the guy suddenly smiled and Cilia swore her heart skipped a beat. If there was such a thing as the perfect smile the dude in front of her sure would have won that title a million times. He had two deep dimples to accompany that.
"Naw I'm playin' with you."
Cilia didn't bother to return his smile, low key mad someone just made her feel fear. Instead she slightly scooted over and ice grilled the man for a full six seconds with not so much as a muscle moving on her face before she cut her eyes at him, looking away.
Breeze chuckled, "Why you so hostile?"
She didn't answer. He was honestly really cute and she wanted to fuck him. But truthfully he was out of her league. He was six foot two with smooth skin the color of peanut butter. His dimples were so cute they were intimidating and his lips plump and thick. He was really muscular and had to be around 200 pounds or so. He reminded her of one of those magazine men. He would probably never go for her.
"Whatchu drinking?"
Cilia was getting uncomfortable. It was only because he was so good looking, it was making her feel ugly that he was trying to talk to her. He was way out of her standards. He was probably making fun of her or something. Trying to make her think she was cute enough to talk too so as soon as she answered back with a flirtatious comment he would embarrass the shit out of her.
"So you just gon' ignore me?" Breeze asked, amused.
The bartender placed his drink on the table and Cilia tiptoed to make sure her voice would be heard since the man was already back by the machines making more drinks. "Apple martini, please!" She said, choosing to ditch the mojito last minute and go with something else.
The bartender didn't say anything but he nodded his head letting her know he heard. Cilia slightly nodded her head to Jamie XX's "Good Times" as the club patrons began to sing along and dance to it.
"Didn't strike me as the apple martini type. Apple martini girls are more soft and dainty. You more like a Bacardi Lemon. A lil' soft but with a kick to it."
Cilia looked next to her, looking into the face of the handsome stranger. She rose an eyebrow, finally deciding to say something back. "You didn't strike me as a personality reader."
The dude chuckled, his tongue flicking over his bottom lip before it returned inside his mouth. "And what does that mean." He asked looking away as he watched the club.
"It means how do you know what my type is. What does drinking an apple martini have to do with who I am?"
The bartender placed her drink in front of her and before Cilia could dig in her purse the stranger pulled out a fifty, sliding it to the bartender. "Keep that shit bruh, you working hard."
The man smiled and thanked him before flying over to the other customers.
"I could pay for my own stuff." Cilia said looking at him.
"It's okay, anything you want tonight is on me. I got'chu."
"Hey..." A girl said smiling hard and touching the good looking man's arm as she passed. He nodded his head at her and kept his eyes roaming all over the place.
"No thank you," Cilia said mixing her drink with the tiny little red straw in her glass the size of a toothpick, "I don't want you to think buying me drinks is an invitation to my ass warming the leather seats of you're car tonight on the way to some cheap motel."
Breeze chuckled, looking at her for a second. "You funny, but naw I'm not like that shawty. I'on need to buy you drinks to get anything from you. I'm not stressin' that. And my seats are fur by the way."
"Hey daddy." Another girl said playfully, giving him a hug. Cilia peeped the up and down glare from the girl before she walked off.
"What's with the paparazzi around you? What are you the presidential thug of this club or something?"
He smirked and looked back at her. "Presidential thug? What make you say that? I can't be a construction worker that wanted to chill at the club on a Friday night?"
Cilia gave him a look. "Cute, but a construction worker's job stops when he's off the clock. So either you looking for you're boss or you have ADD because your eyes have not stopped moving since you approached me. What you're looking for is any signs of trouble. You're looking for anything that might jump off, you're looking for somebody you have beef with...you're looking around to make sure you're safe."
Breeze seemed surprised for a minute but then he smiled. "See why I said you don't look like the apple martini type."
Cilia low key cut her eyes making him laugh. It got quiet so he smiled and kept talking to keep the conversation going. "I'm Breeze." He said extending his hand.
Cilia just looked at his hand then at him. She blinked, staring at him for a few seconds and when he still didn't pull his hand back she gave up and shook it. Then probably a moment later it hit her. "Oh...as in the owner of this place?" She asked remembering she was in 'Breeze' nightclub.
Breeze nodded his head, chuckling at the slow moment she just had.
"Oh," She said dryly. "I'm Cilia."
Breeze was taken aback a bit; he's caught a few girls like that before. Ones that had major attitude until they realized he owned the club, then all of a sudden they turned sweeter than candy. But this chick still had an attitude that was straight up letting him know she didn't give a fuck what he owned.
"Okay, okay, Cilia...that's cool. So you're name is a biology term."
"What?" The amber eyed girl snapped.
"You're name, Cilia, Cilia is a short microscopic hairlike structure. You know, like an eyelash or an eyebrow."
Cilia shrugged. "Okay?" She knew what her name meant, she had learned it in her science classes she'd taken in juvie and prison. But honestly she had forgotten what it meant until he brought it up just now. Cilia got her GED in prison so she wasn't illiterate or uneducated. But with only a prison education she wasn't the sharpest pencil in the box either.
"Damn, I was just enlightening you. I can't enlighten? Cilia, right? Why ya attitude so bad?" Breeze asked playfully.
Before Cilia could answer a short Asian girl with obviously dyed blond hair that was borderline yellow approached Breeze, biting her bottom lip. She was very pretty and had really nice cheekbones Cilia had to admit, but the excessive bright hair was pushing her a point or two down the beauty meter. Hopefully she picked a better color to suit her next time.
The girl squeezed herself between the small space Cilia and Breeze were standing, her back turned to Cilia while she spoke to Breeze. Cilia rolled her eyes and turned her head around to look at the club patrons herself. She was starting to think these girls were watching them and just walking up on purpose because this guy was being approached like every five seconds. She realized these girls must have know he was the owner of this place too because these girls were losing their shit.
"You not from here are you."
Cilia turned back when she heard a voice and realized it was Magazine model. The girl was no longer there signaling she just came over to be a bitch for three seconds like everybody else. "I was born in Texas, but I was raised up here as a baby. Why?" She questioned.
Cilia knew her and Iris were born in Texas. When she asked Ms. Pat about her biological parents she told them they were born in Texas and given up for adoption at one. Cilia liked to rep the place she was born from even if she didn't know anything about it.
"Really? I don't hear an accent." Breeze inquired.
"Am I suppose to have an accent?"
He chuckled, putting his hands up.
Cilia stirred her drink and continued to look out at the crowd. When she turned back toward Breeze she saw him looking at her ass. She raised an eyebrow, getting a little offended. "May I help you?"
Breeze smirked, "I mean no disrespect beautiful, you said you were from Texas and I'm just wondering, 'cause they say everything in Texas is super-sized," he tilted his head back some and looked at her butt again before he leaned forward, returning eye contact. "But you ain't exactly K. Michelle back there."
Cilia couldn't help but crack a smile. She was skinny and never really had ass or boobs, but it never bothered her. "Well sorry for having a normal sized butt. Should I go to a surgeon and get two bowling balls attached to my shit?"
Breeze smirked. He licked his lips and looked at her, "Naw I'm just playing ma, you good. I was born in Trinidad but came up here like around ten, eleven. I can't remember which age is was exactly."
"So where's you're accent then?" Cilia asked, she could tell her was around her age so it was not that long ago that he came up.
He blushed, making his dimples pop out. Cilia felt her panties getting saturated and awkwardly tried rubbing her legs together, uncomfortable by her wetness tickling her second pair of lips.
"I still got the accent but I'm shy, I'll do it for you one day. I mostly only use it around my family sometimes because we all from Trinidad. Or sometimes I use it with my one cli—friend," He stumbled, "he's Trinidadian too."
Cilia nodded her head, wondering what he was about to say. Her heart felt really mushy talking to this guy and she didn't like it. Why was she being so nice? It was making her feel vulnerable.
Breeze watched her hard while she had kind of drifted away from his gaze, sipping on her drink. He bit his bottom lip not knowing why he was so nervous to ask for her number. He usually never had a problem getting any number. There was something about this girl. She wasn't the baddest in the joint with her skinny little ass and big puff, but she seemed genuine.
"Hey..."
Cilia looked at Breeze and saw him drawing circles on his glass with his finger. She looked at his face.
"Can I get your number?"
Cilia's stomach tightened and it was a good thing she was facing the counter because he would have definitely saw her stomach pull itself in. A number meant he was interested in her—or at least interested in going balls deep in her. And it's exactly what she wanted.
"My number for what?"
Breeze shrugged, licking his lips. "I wanna take you out on a date or something. You know, we could chill or go out to eat. You cool."
Cilia was instantly disappointed. She honestly just wanted to fuck. She knew the difference between a romantic and physical attraction. And her body having a physical reaction to him said it was sexual attraction. Cilia didn't even care about coming off as a hoe, he didn't know her and she didn't know him. She'd probably never see him again anyway, but she told herself maybe she shouldn't come off as a super super hoe by trying to give it up on the first night. So maybe taking the number wouldn't hurt.
"How about you give me your number and I'll think about calling." She said knowing she didn't have a phone for herself. She had Iris' phone but she wasn't about to give him Iris' number, she didn't want Iris and Allele all up in her business.
Breeze nodded and dug in his pocket, pulling a pen out. He looked around then reached over the counter, pulling out a blank receipt that was just hanging out of the register and wrote on the back of it. He gave it to her and Cilia put it in the small slung across her.
"So..." He started.
Cilia felt someone bump her making her spill some of her drink on the counter. When she turned to see who it was she saw a Spanish girl wearing a black fishnet dress that left nothing to the imagination. The girl cut her eyes at her and began to talk to Breeze.
"Whassup tho' Breeze. Why you ain't call me back yet?" She asked him.
Cilia clenched her jaws and shook her hand off that was soaked in the alcoholic beverage that instantly formed a sticky texture on her skin. She grabbed a tissue from the metal container it was in and wiped her hand off, walking away. Close to the entrance of the club she felt a gentle tug on her wrist and turned around.
Breeze didn't want to seem thirsty, but he was really enjoying her company. She was witty, cute, cool—had a bit of a nasty attitude though, but he realized it was her real personality; and for now he rather her be her real self which may have been a bitch, than to be fake and pretend to be nice because he owned the club and had money, "Wait, where you goin'?"
"Home."
"Already?" Breeze asked. He knew it had to be getting annoying with all the petty broads coming up to him every minute, throwing shade at her. "Look we could go chill in V.I.P. or something. I'll tell the DJ to make an announcement to get the next girl thrown out that come up to me and do some petty bull—"
"I said I'm fine. I have to get home anyway. I have...things to do. And honestly I think it's best if I go because you're gonna get a drink thrown in one of your bitches faces. They keep grilling me like they wanna fight and this last one just bumped me. Trust me, I get angry really quick and I'll more then stomp a bitch out in here. So to avoid that I'm just gonna go. It was Breeze right, bye."
He furrowed his eyebrows. "How you know my name?"
"You told me it." She clarified. When Cilia saw his face relax a little she smirked. "Your eyes move a lot but your memory isn't that sharp."
Breeze bit his bottom lip. She had a smart ass mouth but he liked it.
"Oh yeah, and one more thing," She said, walking to the door. The area by the entrance was dead silence since no one was out there so he could hear her perfectly. Her back gently hit the door as she pushed it open with her butt, letting cool air from outside slip into the club. She walked outside, holding the door open and still looking at him. "You didn't strike me as the type."
"What type?"
"Fur seats." She said letting the door close and leaving him there confused for a second before he busted out laughing.