Magic Touch

by Treasure Hernandez

“A’ight. If you really interested, come to the club tomorrow night and we’ll talk. Ain’t no better way to get to know someone than to party with them a little bit. That’s how I got to know Jayla so well,” Alex said, then he smiled and bopped his head. “Good ol’ Jayla. Mmm. Mmmm. Mmm.”

  Simmy didn’t ask any questions about his dealings with Jayla. She didn’t really care. Right now she was in a situation, and he sounded like the person who could turn that situation around. Simmy promised herself that once she found out the details from Alex, made a little money, and paid him back for the fine amount, she would tell Alex that she had a boyfriend. Then she’d walk away. Free and clear. That was her plan, anyway. Simmy didn’t know it then, but even the best thought-out plans sometimes go left.

  Chapter 12

  Part of the Family

  Simmy looked over her shoulder at her reflection in Jayla’s silver-trimmed standing floor mirror. “Stomach looks fat? Hmm. I don’t know about this dress,” she mumbled, switching positions so she could look at herself from another angle. She turned around and eyed all of the expensive outfits she had laid out on Jayla’s bed. Some of the high-end pieces belonged to Simmy, but most belonged to Jayla.

  Simmy sighed. She turned and looked at her ass in the turquoise Hervé Léger bandage dress one more time. “Nah, this is not the right one for me for tonight. Too ‘come fuck me’-ish,” she said before she slid out of the turquoise dress.

  She walked over to the bed and scanned the items. “Maybe this one.” She picked up a white deep-plunge Roberto Cavalli dress that still had the tags on it. She held it up to her body and turned to the mirror.

  “This might be the one,” Simmy said, liking how the white glowed against her skin. She put the dress on, and it fit her so perfect. It looked as if it were tailor-made for her the way it hugged her in all the right places. She was finally satisfied she looked old enough and sexy enough to hang with Alex.

  Simmy had gone a few hours earlier and spent money to have her face professionally beat at the MAC counter down on 125th Street. She leaned closer to the mirror to apply another coat of deep burgundy lipstick. She smacked her lips together and stood back to examine herself again. Simmy loved a dark lip. There was something sophisticated about it. Simmy touched her loose curls to make sure they framed her face just right. She was stunning and she knew it. Over the past months that she’d been spending time with Jayla, she had learned to appreciate her body and embrace her curves. It was like she had finally snapped out of her ugly duckling syndrome. She now had a confidence about her, and she felt good about herself.

  “Kyan would fucking kill you if he knew you were out here primping like this for the next man. This shit ain’t right, Simmy,” she scolded herself; then she smiled. “Oh, well. You gotta do what you gotta do to make that paper. If he were here, you wouldn’t have to be out here impressing another nigga to get put on. Or if his fake-ass man Doc had come through you would’ve never met the next man. How about that shit?”

  All of that talking and Simmy still couldn’t shake the guilty feeling that had crept into her mood. She knew why she was going to meet up with Alex at the club: to find out how she could make money. But something still felt sinister about it all. She still felt like she was somehow being disloyal to Kyan.

  “I’m doing this all for you, baby,” she said as she adjusted the dress to make sure it would all stay in place. She blew a kiss in the wind as she thought of Kyan.

  Simmy slid into a pair of Jayla’s purple, aqua green, and silver peacock feather vintage Gucci stilettos. It was great that they had the same shoe size and were the same size in clothes, too. Both cousins had that Coke-bottle shape that their grandmother had blessed them with. She grabbed Jayla’s deep purple and silver python-skin Chanel classic jumbo bag. She turned around and examined herself one last time in the mirror. She shook her head up and down.

  “You are a bad bitch, Simone Jones. Who knew you could put it together like this?”

  Simmy knew Jayla would’ve been proud of her for the ensemble. It was, as Jayla would say, just the right amount of classy and flashy. Simmy thought she could get used to dressing up like this just to hang out. But, she also knew that these types of wears took a steady flow of funds.

  Simmy looked down at Jayla’s diamond-encrusted Rolex gleaming from her wrist. “Shit.” She rushed through the apartment. She had about six minutes to get downstairs. Alex said he was sending a car to pick her up so that she wouldn’t have to take an Uber and, more importantly, so she wouldn’t have to stand in line outside of the club. Alex had promised her that everything with him was straight VIP treatment. Simmy couldn’t wait to find out if everything he’d said was true.

  Just then, her phone rang. She looked down and saw that it was Alex. “Hello?” she answered inquisitively.

  “Hi, beautiful. You ready?” Alex said into the phone.

  Simmy couldn’t help but take notice of how sexy he sounded over the phone. And, again, that pang of guilt struck her in the back of her mind. “Yes, I am ready.” She took a deep breath. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Excellent. I have a car waiting for you outside already. I’ll see you soon.” He hung up before Simmy even had a chance to respond to anything.

  She grabbed her purse and headed downstairs. Destiny awaits.

  * * *

  “Damn,” Simmy gasped as the car pulled up outside of the club. It was absolutely packed out there with people. There was a big crowd in front of the club but also a line snaking along the side of the building and wrapping around the corner. “It’s serious out here tonight. Who the hell gonna be here? Jay-Z and Beyoncé? This place is packed out.” She was talking to the driver, but he didn’t say a word to her.

  Simmy spotted Alex in front, posted up outside of his Range Rover with a group of dudes and small clique of chicks. Even from a distance, Simmy could see that Alex looked good as hell in a deep blue suede jacket, a simple white Balmain T-shirt, a pair of neat, fitted jeans, and a pair of dark blue suede Louboutin hard bottoms. Alex’s row of thick solid-gold Cuban link chains gave him a street edge although he was dressed up.

  The car pulled up, and the driver got out, walked around the car, and opened the door to let Simmy out. As she put one leg out of the car and eased the rest of her body out sexily, she felt all eyes on her. Simmy wasn’t used to this caliber of a crowd giving her that type of attention. Her cheeks burned under all of the gazes. Her nerves and the freezing cold air slapping at her bare legs had all of the hairs on her body standing at attention. Jayla’s short chinchilla fur wrap wasn’t helping Simmy’s freezing legs and feet. Simmy was learning that the price of being beautiful was steep these days.

  “You got this. You got this, Simmy. You’re a bad bitch tonight. Don’t act nervous. Act grown up.” She gave herself a pep talk as she walked over, teeth chattering, to where Alex stood looking fine as hell.

  “Hey,” Simmy said, a completely involuntary goofy grin spreading over her trembling lips. She felt like an awkward school nerd walking up to a crowd of cool kids to ask if she could hang out with them.

  “Ay, Simone. You made it,” Alex said cheerfully. He opened his arms. Simmy stepped closer and, to her surprise, he pulled her in for a hug. It was awkward but, still, she smiled and reminded herself that this was what she had to do to get the money.

  “Everybody, this is Simone,” Alex introduced her. He pushed her forward like she was a prized possession he was bragging about. Simmy knew that her cheeks were red because she could feel her face filling with blood. The dudes in Alex’s entourage, of course, smiled at her and welcomed her warmly. Some eyed her up and down like she was a piece of meat they were ready to eat. But, the chicks with Alex’s group barely spoke. They eyed her up and down too, but in a way that said they wanted to see what she was wearing so that they could hate on her. A few of them even whispered and rolled their eyes at her.

  “C’mon. Let’s go inside. I was just waiting out here for my special guest,”
Alex said, throwing his arm around Simmy’s shoulders.

  Simmy couldn’t lie to herself. Getting inside with that kind of special treatment felt hella good. She already liked everything about this new situation with Alex. She just hoped that the money was as good as the treatment.

  Once they were inside, Simmy saw that, just like outside, the inside of the club was packed and jumping. There were two floors, and each floor had a DJ. The crowd wasn’t afraid to dance, either. Simmy loved seeing how the dance floor downstairs was packed with swaying bodies. Alex reached his arm back, grabbed Simmy’s hand, and pulled her along as she followed him through the sea of people. Simmy couldn’t say that having him hold her hand didn’t kind of make her feel special. Especially since, as they walked through, there were so many chicks trying to get his attention. Simmy fielded their glares and knew they all wished they could be in her place at that moment.

  Once Alex stopped at the entrance to the VIP section, it was like the president or some important dignitary had arrived. The security smiled and exchanged daps with Alex and moved aside so that he, Simmy, and his entire entourage were allowed beyond the velvet ropes. The waitresses inside the VIP section seemed to have been awaiting Alex’s arrival. They all rushed toward him wearing smiles so big their teeth glowed in the dim purple lights. Alex and Simmy were escorted over to the biggest of the seats inside. When Simmy stepped up to Alex’s specially reserved table, she tried to play it cool, but it wasn’t working very well. She had never had the privilege of hanging out in VIP, so this was all new to her, and she was awestruck. She always had fun when she went clubbing with Jayla, but they had never partied in VIP. This was all new to Simmy, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t liking it so far.

  Simmy’s eyes stayed wide like a kid at Christmas as Alex invited her to get comfortable on the beautiful white leather wraparound couch that he called his “personal seat.” It was probably her young age, but Simmy wanted to take out her iPhone and snap pictures of everything. She didn’t think anyone her age would believe her otherwise. From the tables filled with at least twenty expensive bottles of premium liquors and champagnes—gold bottles of Ace of Spades, the top-shelf Luc Belaire Rare Rose, Moët, and Dom Pérignon to name a few—to the extremely well dressed, beautiful, exotic women who shared the space with them, to the handfuls of cash being moved around right under Simmy’s nose, she was overwhelmingly impressed. She cheered herself on silently that she’d been smart enough to take Alex up on his offer.

  “Here, have a drink,” Alex offered and handed Simmy a flute filled with Ace of Spades. Simmy became nervous thinking of what excuse she was going to tell him. She didn’t feel comfortable drinking without Jayla. Her cousin was the only person she had ever drunk around. She started to refuse and tell him that she didn’t drink, but she didn’t want to be viewed as a party pooper or, worse, she didn’t want Alex to think she was a stupid little girl. She smiled and took the flute. “Thank you.” She raised it in the air and smiled. She took a sip and wanted to spit it out but, instead, she forced the nasty liquid down. It burned her throat. Simmy didn’t know how people drank that stuff.

  “You having a good time so far?” Alex asked her.

  “Yeah. Thanks for inviting me. It’s really nice,” Simmy yelled into his ear over the music. “I’m definitely impressed.”

  Just then three bottle service girls wearing black lace leotards and black fishnet stockings sauntered into the section carrying six more expensive bottles of liquor with sparklers lit up at the tops. Simmy’s eye lit up. Jayla had told her that buying bottles in the club started at $300 for the cheapest bottle and could go all the way up to $1,000 per bottle. Everything Simmy had heard about in rap songs and saw in rap videos she was living at that moment.

  Alex slid his hand down, put it on her knee, and squeezed. “I’m glad you came. I love showing you a good time. You can enjoy this all of the time,” he said, moving his hand a little farther up her leg until it rested on her inner thigh.

  Simmy’s stomach clenched, and she squeezed her legs together. She acted like she was getting something from her bag and shifted away a few inches so that Alex’s hand fell off of her leg.

  “Sorry, excuse me,” Simmy said awkwardly. Moving didn’t stop Alex. He inched closer to her and this time threw his arm around her shoulders and forced her even closer to him. He leaned his face close to her ear. “You look fucking amazing tonight. All grown up and sexy as shit,” he whispered in her ear.

  His hot breath sent an uncomfortable tingle down Simmy’s back. She swallowed the hard lump that had suddenly lodged in her throat. “Tha . . . thank you,” she stammered, shifting in the seat. This definitely wasn’t what she’d come there for.

  Simmy could see a few of the beautiful women across from where she and Alex sat leaning over to one another and whispering and then glaring in her direction. Simmy shifted some more, again trying to get out from under Alex’s hold. She didn’t like him touching her like that. She thought about Kyan again, and her heart started racing. She needed to get the information and get the hell out of there.

  “So, about that thing we talked about,” Simmy said, moving a little farther away from Alex, pretending she moved so she could look at his face to talk to him. She kind of wanted to get to the point now.

  “What?” Alex seemed to play dumb at first.

  “The thing you invited me here to talk about. You know, the change in the way I do things, changing my old-fashioned way of getting money,” Simmy reminded him, a hint of annoyance in her tone.

  “Oh, you mean, how we talked about using credit cards instead of stuffing shit into booster bags? Yes, we need to talk about how you could be going to the register and hitting them with a credit card and straight paying for your shit,” Alex said, laughing. He picked up his flute of expensive champagne. “Ain’t nothing special about it, baby girl. You just do it.” He raised his glass at her and then put it to his mouth and drank the flute clean in one gulp.

  “Are the cards stolen or something?” Simmy pressed. She tapped her foot impatiently. She didn’t like that Alex wasn’t getting to the point. He knew why she’d come there, so why was he playing games?

  Alex picked up another flute full of champagne. “Look, why don’t you just have a good time tonight? Enjoy the party, the free liquor, and the company—my company. If you’re really down, I’ll send you out with some of the girls in my network tomorrow. Trust me, they’ll break it down to you and show you how to work all angles. You’ll be making money in no time,” Alex said.

  Simmy’s shoulders flopped, and her corners of her mouth turned down with disappointment.

  “Stop being so uptight. Relax and enjoy this lifestyle, young’un. Isn’t your birthday coming up in less than two weeks?”

  “Yes, it is,” Simmy replied, surprised that he knew that much.

  “Well, consider this an early birthday present from me to celebrate you turning eighteen. You only live once. YOLO,” Alex told her. Then he laughed. There was the weasel laugh again. This time it made Simmy cringe. With everything going on, her birthday was the last thing on her mind right now, and she was a little irked that Alex was making her wait on getting the job information.

  “A’ight, tomorrow then,” Simmy relented, still uncomfortable with how close he was to her. “I need to go to the restroom,” Simmy said, unhooking his arm from around her shoulders. She didn’t really have to go, but she did want to get from under Alex.

  “Dina!” Alex called to one of the scowling chicks across the room. The pretty girl said something to her clique and then sauntered over.

  “This is Simmy. She’s a part of the family now. Show her to the restroom. I need to make sure she’s good at all times. She got a lot of potential. I wouldn’t want her to forget her way back to us,” Alex said. He was talking to the girl, Dina, but looking directly at Simmy.

  Dina nodded like an obedient soldier. “I’ll show you,” Dina said to Simmy.

  Simmy laughed a little
. “It’s okay. I’m a big girl. I think I’m okay to go to the bathroom alone,” Simmy said, more to Alex than the girl.

  “Just go with her,” Alex told Dina, totally ignoring what Simmy had just said.

  Simmy thought that the whole master and servant type of scene with Dina and Alex was strange. Simmy also thought his comment about her forgetting her way back to them, like she was going to run away, was strange. The fact that he thought she needed to be watched made her a little uneasy. But, once again, Simmy chose to ignore her gut feelings. She was desperate to make quick money, so she had to roll with the punches at this point. She just kept telling herself this was something she had to do. This was the only chance she had at making some real money.

  At the end of the night, Alex said his good-byes and made his rounds through the VIP section, slapping fives and chest bumping with dudes and getting pecks on the cheeks from chicks. Simmy stood aside and watched. She wanted to be home and in her own bed already. Simmy had tried to leave at least six times that night, but Alex wasn’t having it. He’d told Simmy to wait for him and he would give her a ride back to Jayla’s place. He used her safety as a ploy to keep her there, and since Simmy had never been to the club alone or had to go home alone at the end of a night, she took his word for it.

  When he was done acting like a movie star waving and kissing his way toward the exit, Alex led Simmy out of the club to his waiting SUV out front. He opened the passenger side door for her and, just as she was about to get in, she heard someone yelling out to Alex.

  “Alex! Alex! Wait a damn minute, Alex!”

  Simmy heard a woman’s booming voice coming from her left. She paused and turned around. Not this again. A quick flash of that crazy day with Kyan and Ava went through Simmy’s mind.

  A beautiful girl stormed toward Alex and Simmy, her face folded into an evil grimace. She was coming fast and furious. Simmy squinted. She hadn’t remembered seeing this girl in the club or with Alex’s network of chicks. The girl was dressed in a pretty sequined minidress and a pair of Sophia Webster Chiara butterfly sandals like she had just left the party. But, Simmy was sure she hadn’t seen her inside. She would’ve definitely remembered this girl.