by Leach, Kiki
“Nikki was really great tonight, wasn’t she?” she asked.
“Yeah, she was. I’m actually kind of surprised, really.”
“Why?”
“I always thought maybe the acting thing was just a pipe dream. I didn’t think she’d actually work at The Bean her whole life, but I never pictured all of this actually happening for her.”
“I didn’t either. I mean, I knew she had to make it, somehow. I guess I just didn’t picture that it would happen this way or turn into all that it’s become. Maybe she was right, maybe being with William all this time really has helped her more than it’s hurt.”
“Is that the sound of you starting to accept them?”
“Hell no. Never that. But maybe I won’t give her such a shitty time about it anymore.”
When she heard someone knocking on the window from the other side, she turned her eyes downward and glared.
“Gina?” she said.
“OHMYGOD – OHMYGOD!” shouted the girl standing next to her sister, one with bright green eyes and crazy brown hair. Though she was excited to see her idol and even attempted to don a similar outfit Vanessa had worn back in high school, she looked more like she had just missed an audition for the remake of Flashdance.
Vanessa was taken aback by the presence of both of them and set her glass on the nearest table. As she headed outside to meet with them, Maurice was quick on her tail.
“Regina!” she called out, opening her hands wide as she approached. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Gina leaned into her friend’s ear and clinched her teeth. “I told you she wouldn’t know anything about us being here.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” asked Vanessa again as she stood in front of them.
“We came to see about the party. Dumb-dumb here said that Nathan--”
“Nathan. What?”
Gina punched her friend in the arm. “You tell her, I’m not saying anything else about it.” She stood back and folded her arms.
Her friend stepped forward and sighed. “Last week, Nathan came into the coffee shop. He was meeting Sheila and they were talking. I couldn’t really hear all of what they had said, but she handed him something, a ring I think, and then she left the shop. Next thing I know, Nathan is coming up to the counter and asking me about Melanie and wanting her number. He didn’t tell me why but--”
“I can pretty much guess why,” she interjected.
“I can too,” Maurice replied.
“Asshole,” they both mumbled simultaneously.
Gina’s friend stepped closer to Maurice and stared at his mouth. “Do your lips always do that little twitch thing when you say bad words? Because it is spectacular.” She licked her own lips as he took a few steps back, slightly frightened.
“Look, Gina,” Vanessa began, “you and your little thot-nasty friend need to get back home before Alexander finds out that you both were at a bar tonight. And trust me, he will find out.”
“V, I don’t want to go back home! Felicia’s kids scream every. day. They were even screaming about her horrible cooking before we dipped out!”
“Then go to your mother’s for a few days. What’s that saying? You ain’t gotta go home, but you gotta get the hell up outta here?” She lifted two fingers and pointed behind her. “BYE.”
Gina grabbed her friend by the arm. “Come on, Allison.”
“But--” she started as she was yanked away. She spun her head back around, screaming. “It was nice to finally meet you, Vanessa Rae Brown!”
Vanessa shook her head as her sister and her friend traipsed off into the night.
“I can’t believe those two. And Nathan? He told me that you and Melanie were coming to the party tonight because she mentioned something to him about you asking her first.”
“And she told me that you were planning to go with him, stating it was something she had overheard, which is why I asked her to come with me tonight.”
“Looks like we got played.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m surprised Melanie went along with something like that though.”
“I’m not. I told you from the very beginning what she was about.”
“She’s not a bad person, V.”
“I didn’t say she was a bad person, just very, very thirsty for your--”
“She can’t get access to something that doesn’t belong to her,” he informed her.
She sniffed. “What does that mean?”
“It means, what it means.”
And Vanessa knew exactly what that was, and beamed.
“So what do you want to do about them?” she asked. “Let ‘em twist in the wind?”
“Sounds like a plan. You’re the one I really wanted to be here with tonight.”
“Yeah, me too. I mean, me with you.”
“I know. And since we’re being all honest about things, I have to say that you look damn good in that dress, V. Sexy as hell. It’s probably not appropriate of me to say right now, but--”
“I’m glad you did. Really glad.”
He swiped his finger back and forth beneath her chin. Her eyes fell shut and her heart jumped. His touch alone sent a warming sensation throughout her entire body and straight down between her legs.
“You want to head back inside,” he asked her.
“Yeah.”
She took him by the hand as he led her back into the venue.
Nathan, who was on his third or fourth glass of scotch was soon joined by a very pissed off Melanie, who herself had had a few too many watermelon shots and glasses of red wine. She wasn’t exactly drunk, but she sure as hell wasn’t as lucid as she had been before entering the place.
“Where the hell is Nicole?” she said, leaning on him. Nathan gently pushed her away and pressed the front of her body against the bar.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“I know that you don’t know, I was just speaking out loud! Where the hell is Maurice?”
“Probably off in a corner someplace fuckin’ V.” He downed another scotch and drank back the soda in a separate glass.
“I should’ve known this stupid plan of yours wouldn’t work. Now I’m without a husband, I’m without a date and standing here stuck with you.”
“Don’t knock it, alright?” he said. “You could’ve been at home alone tonight.”
“I would’ve probably been better off!” She turned to the door just as Maurice and Vanessa reentered, hand in hand. “Oh, and would you look at that!” Nathan turned his head. “Judy and Johnny just walked through the door to reclaim their places on the throne.” Melanie whirled back around to the bar before they saw her and waved her hand for the bartender. “Give me whatever the hell it is he’s having” – she motioned to Nathan – “but make it a double.”
Within the hour, Maurice and Vanessa found themselves reconnecting in a quiet corner, while Nathan and Melanie both remained seething at the bar. Adrian and Sheila continued to find themselves on the dancefloor, and Oscar, who had just shown up, decided that remaining in the shadows until the night was completely over, was better for everyone, especially Nikki, who had also just arrived to more applause, with William by her side.
As the two of them moved toward the stage and stood up before the entire crowd, Maurice and Vanessa shuffled to the front and stood alongside Sheila and Adrian.
Sheila peeked over her shoulder at Maurice, then eyed Vanessa. “Where’s the date you actually came with?”
“Probably sucking down drinks at the bar, as per his routine when he’s not getting what he wants.”
“I honestly can’t believe you decided to come with him tonight after everything he’s done to you. It just seems ass backwards to me.”
“Sheila, every relationship within this entire group is ass backwards and has been since day one. You screwing both Nathan and Adrian in the same fucking day, two men I’ve already had first, is living proof of that.”
She clinched her teeth. “HEY!” She grabbed Vanes
sa’s arm and yanked her close. “He” – she nodded her head back toward Adrian – “still doesn’t know anything about what happened the night Nathan came home from jail, okay?”
“That better not be the only thing he doesn’t know about.” Vanessa ripped herself away from Sheila’s grip and stood closer to Maurice.
“Attention, everyone!” shouted William over the crowd.
The music stopped playing in an instant and those screaming for Nikki got louder and louder before eventually dying down.
“Now, I don’t know about you, but I think that was one HELL of a play that took place tonight at the Gershwin, right?”
Everyone began clapping again. Vanessa screamed out ‘GO NIK!’ and Maurice whistled and clapped.
William then turned to Nikki and took her by the hand. Staring into her eyes, he smiled. Though Nikki was beginning to notice that something was different about it in comparison to any other time he looked at her with nothing but love and admiration.
“In honor of my lady,” he said, holding her hand tight. “I just want to tell you how damn proud I am of you tonight. And how much you earned this night and what’s to come of it.”
More ominous words.
And then he released her hand and stood back.
Directly behind where they stood, a projector screen slowly ejected from the ceiling.
A puzzled Nikki stared at him as his eyes never left the blank screen as it lowered.
“I think this might be your best performance yet.”
William pulled a tiny remote from his pocket and pushed a small red button at the top as everyone looked at each other with curiosity.
Nikki leaned forward. “What are you doing?”
“You’ll see.”
And before anyone knew exactly what was happening, what appeared to be the foyer of someone’s house suddenly flashed across the screen.
Nikki took a few steps forward to get a better look at what she had seen, and instantly recognized the decorum from William’s house. Her mouth dropped open the second two people moved across the screen in a blur, kissing, grinding against each other and slamming themselves into the wall.
Her heart beat so hard and loud and fast inside her chest that it was pounding against her brain.
“Dios Mio.”
Lips smacking one another, with deep breaths slamming against each other like gusts of wind colliding started playing louder and louder over the music itself.
She watched in horror, along with everyone else in the entire room, as she recognized herself with Oscar on the day he had come by to tell her that he and Melanie were officially through.
“Dios Mio.”
When Oscar recognized himself on the screen, he pummeled through the crowd and rushed to the front of the venue. He stared up at Nikki, but she was traumatized stiff. Her hands were frozen in the air, her mouth remained hanging, her eyes were drying out from having been so wide open as she stared up at the two of them enraptured with one another. And then the footage skipped to them inside of William’s bedroom.
“Oh my God,” Vanessa mumbled.
Maurice glanced down at Vanessa before angrily turning his eyes back to the screen.
Melanie and Nathan slowly moved from the back of the room up front after realizing that they had recognized the two naked people gyrating against each other on the floor of a well-designed bedroom.
Flashes of bulbs suddenly popped all around them as various reporters, bloggers and photographers began rushing the stage in a frenzy and bombarding Nikki and William with questions. Industry professionals hung their heads in shame.
When one photographer spotted Oscar in the crowd, they turned to rush him as well.
A mortified Melanie grabbed her stomach and held onto Nathan’s shoulder the second her husband’s penis flashed before her eyes, right before entering Nikki’s mouth.
“I’m going to be sick,” she said. She hurried off to the nearest bathroom. Nathan remained in place for a few seconds longer before joining her.
“That’s it.” Maurice ripped off his jacket and handed it to Vanessa. “Hold this. I’ve had enough of this shit.”
“Now THIS!” said William, as he turned to the crowd. “Is where it REALLY gets good! She does things to him with her mouth that I never even dreamed of her doing to me, and she does them so damn well.”
Maurice jumped on stage then, and ruthlessly shoved William back; he tumbled.
Then he ran toward the projector screen, reached a hand up and violently yanked it from the ceiling. Sparks flew everyone as electrical wires broke and snapped against one another in the process. He jumped out of the way as the screen eventually fell to the stage.
William smirked. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
Maurice walked back over to him and snatched the remote from his hands. Dropping it to the ground, he crushed it with the bottom of his heel.
He looked back into William’s callous eyes and smirked as well. “Oops.”
Vanessa ran upstage and took Nikki into her arms. “Are you okay?” She brushed her hair back from her face and searched it for any movement. But a mortified Nikki could hardly speak.
“I – I – I –” And then she looked into Vanessa’s eyes as tears spewed out from her own. “V?”
Vanessa ran over to Maurice and pulled him back from a threatening William. “Here,” she said, shoving him over to Nikki and handing him his jacket. “Get her the hell out of here, now. These vultures are going to try and eat her alive.”
“I’ll get her out the back. Do what you can to keep them distracted.”
Vanessa turned her focus to William. “That sure as hell won’t be a problem.”
Oscar watched in horror as Maurice dragged Nikki out of his sight.
As Vanessa stomped over to William, he started nodding.
“Alright,” he said. “So maybe you were right about me from the very beginning.”
“NO SHIT!”
She grabbed him by the arm and recklessly pulled him from the stage. When she found the women’s bathroom, she quickly pulled him inside, kicked in the door of each stall and placed a chair directly beneath the handle of the door once she was sure no one else was inside.
William carelessly leaned back on the sink and folded his arms.
“I knew that it was a mistake for Nikki to get involved with you, I just didn’t know it would cost her so damn much! Something about you has NEVER sat well with me, even when I was a kid. And now I’m completely clear as to why. You are a sick, vile, twisted piece of shit, you know that?”
“And what took place on that screen out there wasn’t sick and vile?” he retorted. “Come on, V. Your friend got every bit of what she deserved tonight--”
“My friend?” she questioned. “My friend is now more than likely TRAUMATIZED because the asshole she chose to trust just violated it on every level known to humankind. My FRIEND is probably now crying her eyes out because she chose the wrong man when the RIGHT one, the one she was happily fucking up there on that screen for the entire city to witness is now being eaten alive by the press out there. What the fuck were you thinking pulling a stunt like this?”
“I was thinking that maybe your friend shouldn’t try to play me for a complete idiot.” He dropped his hands in his pockets. “I’ve got security cameras all throughout my house, Vanessa, which is something Nikki has always neglected to notice while being there with me. When I came home with Corrinne once and saw him there with her arguing about some shit right outside my front door, I knew that it hadn’t been the first time he was there, but I was going to make damn sure it was the last. So I took various images from my security cameras and used them, for this.”
“What happened to her tonight could absolutely murder her reputation and make everything that she worked for mean absolutely nothing.”
“I was counting on that,” he said.
“You piece of shit.”
Vanessa righteously balled her fist and slammed it hard again
st the side of William’s face. He fell into the mirror, then pulled back laughing and tapped his fingers against his lips, which began to bleed, thanks to the help of Vanessa’s rings strategically placed on each finger.
“I better never catch you anywhere near her again,” she said.
She pulled the chair back from the door. As soon as it opened, a handful of reporters spilled inside.
As Maurice waited with Nikki at the back alleyway for her car to arrive, she wrapped his jacket around her shoulders and tried scrubbing the smudged mascara from her cheeks.
“I feel like such an idiot,” she said.
“Don’t, he’s a dick.”
“Even if he is, I should’ve seen it coming. I should’ve known something was up when he wasn’t as frequent at rehearsals. When he was taking random phone calls in the middle of the ones he chose to show up for. I should’ve known.” She located a set of steps on the other side and sat down on the first one. “My career is ruined before it’s even begun.”
“Given the current state of society, you’ll be more famous tonight than you ever would’ve been with the musical.”
“Yeah, Mo, for performing the best blowjob on a bedroom floor. Just hand me the Emmy right now.”
“I don’t know about an Emmy,” said Melanie as she stumbled out from the back door with Nathan directly behind, holding her up. “But you just might have earned yourself a few Golden Globes. Not including the ones in your blouse.”
Nikki quickly stood up to match her. And then she backed off and sat back down.
“I’m not in the mood for this shit right now.”
Maurice walked over to Melanie and stared down at her. “Now’s not the best time, Mel.”
“Don’t call me that,” she told him in a sharp tone. “That isn’t my name, it’s Melanie. Right Nathan? Mel. A. Nie, that’s not too hard to remember. But then again, maybe it is since you couldn’t even seem to remember that I was your date tonight and not Vanessa. Where is she by the way? Comforting William with her mouth like that slut back there did for my husband?”
“Alright, alright.” Nathan tried pulling her back, but she yanked herself out of his arms.
“There might be people in there who feel sorry for you, but I think you got exactly what you deserved, Nicole Sanger,” said Melanie. “Karma’s a bitch and it proved just how much bigger it could be tonight when it’s tested by the likes of a home wrecking whore--”
