by Roy Glenn
“Hey, Chante,” Bella finally said. She was smiling the way she always does, so I couldn’t be sure.
“Where we going?” I said as we got to Jada’s 500 Benz.
“Sensations,” Simone said.
“Again?” I said quickly.
“What, you don’t like Sensations?” Simone asked.
“I like it, but we were just there the other night,” I said and Bella looked at me. “Why don’t we go someplace else?”
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Jada said and got in the car. Diane got in the front seat; I sat in the back between Simone and Bella. Once we were all in, Jada asked, “Where you wanna go, Chante?”
“What about the Twenty-Grand Club?” I suggested, but anywhere other than Sensations was fine with me. The only reason they were even on Lieutenant Gineconna’s radar was because they were operating so high-profile in the middle of his drug investigation. I was sure that if I kept them out of Sensations and out of Sam’s reports, Gineconna would forget all about these ladies.
“Haven’t seen you in a couple of days, Chante, what’s been up?” Jada asked. I could see her piercing eyes in the rearview mirror.
“You remember I said my paper was getting a little short? Well, I’ve actually been thinking about looking for a job.” I wanted to start laying some foundation for when my job started preventing me from doing lunch. Diane and Jada exchanged glances. Diane smiled and Jada looked in the mirror. “I just been gettin’ my resume together and whatnot, but it’s a start, right?” I couldn’t tell if she was looking for a reaction from Bella. I glanced at Bella. She was staring out the window as if nothing I said amounted to a hill of beans. I was way too paranoid and it was starting to get on my nerves.
“Tough break,” Diane said, “having to get a job and all. Maybe you’ll get lucky and find a job doing something that you like.”
“Yeah, maybe I will,” I said and shank into my seat.
It was a completely different event when we went to other clubs. No limousine, no major entrance, no reserved table. We parked the car three blocks from the club and had to walk. We stood in line for twenty minutes and there was nowhere to sit once we got inside. Low profile. That’s how I intended to keep them. I think they preferred it this way, except Simone. She, more than Bella and Diane, reveled in the attention they got at Sensations. Out of the spotlight Jada, Diane and Bella don’t leave the dance floor, but not Simone. Not being much of a dancer, you’ll always find her posted up at the bar, surrounded by men and holding court. The dance floor belongs to the three former shake dancers. Men come and dance with them, but eventually they fade away; usually when they realized that each lady was trying to out dance the others and were paying them no mind.
Of the three, Diane was by far the better dancer, while Jada was more seductive. And even though she may stumble every now and then, Bella is a “saltshaker” that had men mesmerized. Me, I flow somewhere in between. I can hold my own on the dance floor, but I’m nowhere near the level the ladies are on. So I drifted to the bar where Simone was in rare form. One of her suitors asked her to dance. “I won’t dance with you, but maybe Chante will,” she said and dismissed him with a hand. He was fine, so I danced with him.
When I came off the dance floor, Jada did to. She followed me back to the bar where Simone was. It wasn’t long before some good-looking man was handing me a drink. “Here you go, sweetie,” he said and began talking to me like I had known him all his life. Suddenly, I became aware that Jada was standing next to me.
“Chante,” Jada said and touched my arm, “do you have any plans after you leave here?”
“No. What’s up?”
“Nothing. I just wanted to ask you something.”
“What?” I asked, knowing she wanted to talk about me sweatin’ Bella.
“It’s really nothing-” Jada started. “But I was just wondering what you thought of me, Chante.”
Of all the shit that could’ve come out of her mouth, she asks me what I think of her. I wasn’t at all ready for that. “I don’t know.” I giggled and thought about an answer. “I like you, we’re friends, I guess.” And giggled again.
“I like you too, Chante. So that’s why when Bella said that you were-” Jada began.
“Hello, Ms. West,” a voice came from behind Jada.
When she turned to see who the voice belonged to, I got ready to give the speech I had ready.
“Ricky Stanton,” Jada said.
Oh shit! I thought as he stepped between us and kissed Jada on the cheek.
“How are you doing?” Ricky asked. He took a step back and looked at me. I could tell I looked familiar to him.
“I’m doing fine, Ricky.” Jada turned to me. “This is my friend-”
“Chante. We met a couple of months ago at Sensations. How’s the music business?” I asked him quickly before he remembered that he gave me Jada’s number after I got him drunk.
“Busy. Always something going on,” he said and turned to Jada. “Look, I gotta run, but I wanted to tell you we’re having a little party tomorrow night at my house. The One finished his next album, so if you’re not doing anything stop by.”
“I’ll do that,” Jada said.
Ricky turned back to me. “Now, Chante is it?”
“It is,” I flirted.
“You say we met before. Did we get along?” Ricky asked me and Jada rolled her eyes.
I looped my arm in his and winked at Jada. “We got along very well.” I leaned toward Jada. “We’ll talk later, girl,” I said quietly to Jada. Anything to get away from that conversation, I thought, and left the club with Ricky.
After we left the club, Ricky Stanton took me to breakfast. And after breakfast, he took me to my apartment in his limo.
Damn, I loved being Chante.
She was living a life that I only dreamed of and knew would never happen for me.
13
Jada West
It was good seeing Ricky Stanton the night before. He was The One’s producer and one of my first clients. I’ve seen The One a couple of times since that night. As much as that night represented a turning point in my life, it was apparently just another night at the tittie bar for The One. He doesn’t remember it at all-not that I’ve gone out of my way to remind him. Each time he sees me it’s like the first time we’re meeting, and I always have to remind him that we’ve met.
I decided early in the day that I was going to the party, so some maintenance was in order. I called the spa and made an appointment. I was able to drag Bella and Diane along, but Simone rolled over and pulled the blanket over her head when we tried to recruit her.
“Go awa-a-ay,” she shrieked. I had no idea when she had made her way in, because she was nowhere to be found when we left the club. Diane had come in just before sun up, but still she was down for the spa. I called Chante to see if she wanted to go, but she didn’t answer. She slipped out the club with Ricky Stanton before we had a chance to talk, but I was sure I’d see Chante at The One’s party.
Chante don’t like to miss anything.
After the day at the spa, we prepared for the evening. Bella and Simone had early appointments for the evening; however, both planned to come to the party if it was at all possible.
As for me and Diane, we had a stop of our own to make before we headed for the party. Once we left the apartment, it wasn’t too long after that, that we were seated at a table at Ecstasy.
We were definitely overdressed for the occasion. Diane dressed in her Carmen Marc Valvo satin cocktail dress, with the plunging V-neck in the front and back. And me in my new Betsey Johnson Battenburg-lace dress. “A lot of new faces in here,” Diane said.
“You know how it is, they come and go,” I replied as one of those new faces approached the table. She was a caramel-skinned beauty with big pretty eyes, curvy hips, and large breasts. “Y’all wanna dance?”
“Yes,” Diane said quickly.
I looked at Diane as the dancer began peeling off what lit
tle outfit she had on. “I think Bella is right about you.”
“What?”
“I mean it’s cool-you know-if you’re into women.”
“I am definitely bisexual and leaning that way. It’s like-you know-dick is just a job for me now. I don’t know,” Diane said and turned her attention back to the dancer.
While Diane got her eyes full, I flagged down a waitress and ordered two Absolute and cranberry juice on the rocks. “If you see Creme tell her that she has guests in the house,” I said and gave her a fifty.
Before the waitress came back with our drinks, I saw what looked like Creme coming toward the table. If it was Creme, she had lost a lot of weight. I leaned close to Diane. “When was the last time you saw Creme?”
“I don’t know; it’s been a while. Why?” Diane answered without taking her eyes off the dancer.
“Diane!” I yelled to get her attention and pointed at Creme.
“Damn!” was all that Diane could get out before Creme was at the table.
Creme was still cute, but her face was drawn and her olive skin had blotches. She had let her hair grow long and now it looked unkept. Her hourglass shape was gone, and her once firm breasts were sagging. Remembering what she looked like then, it was hard looking at her now.
“Look at you two,” Creme said and pulled up a chair. “Diane and Miss Kitty herself.”
“Creme, what happened to you?” Diane asked.
“I had been sick. Had the flu and shit, lost a little weight. But I’m feeling better now; startin’ to get my weight back up.”
“How’s it going here? I was just saying to Jada that there are a lot of new faces.”
“It’s a’ight, but I’m ’bout burnt out on this. I need to do something different,” Creme said and then looked at me. “That’s why I been hollerin’ at Diane about gettin’ wit you.” Creme looked at Diane. Diane looked away.
I held up my hand to stop her. “Creme, don’t bullshit me. You know as well as I do that the flu didn’t make you lose all that weight. How much are you smoking?”
“You right, Jada, you right. I was on it pretty hard for a while, but I got it under control now,” Creme assured me, but I didn’t believe her. It looked like she had taken a hit before she came on the floor.
“You are in no condition to work for me.”
“Come on, Jada. I got that shit for real.” Creme looked around the room. “I just need to get outta this place.”
I looked around the room and thought back to my first days at Ecstasy. Diane was missing in action, so it was Creme who looked out for me, taught me the ropes. I looked at her now and I saw the desperation in her eyes. “You are in no condition to work for me,” I said, but feeling like I had to do something. “But I’ll tell you what I will do for you.” I reached in my purse and handed her my card. “When you ready to get off the rock, call me and I’ll help you.” I stood up and looked at Diane. “Let’s go.”
It was after midnight when Diane and I arrived at the party. Bella and Simone were there when we got there, and so was Chante, of course. The living and dining rooms at Ricky’s house were fully packed with invited guests. They had gathered two hours after the exclusive event began to toast the host. Quite a few of our clients were there, but there were a lot of others who weren’t. The room was filled with upcoming rappers and a bunch of video vixens, one or two that I considered recruiting.
I looked around the room, nicely decorated with people mingling and having a good time. Not only was there a DJ who was spinning the hits, but there was a microphone in case any of the rappers felt like going freestyle.
“To a successful and profitable year,” Simone said, hoisting up her crystal champagne flute.
“Here, here!” I agreed.
I also noticed a couple of athletes were in attendance. Simone, the closest thing I had to a right- hand man, had already talked about luring the elusive men onto our clientele list. Simone leaned over as we watched Chante seductively dancing with a football player who was one of the targets. “Is she on board?”
“Nah, I don’t trust her like that.”
Simone brought the glass to her lips then looked at me, her eyebrow raised. “You don’t trust her? I can’t tell-I mean the way she hangs with you. I mean, it’s like she’s already on the team,” she said.
“Well, she’s not.”
I glanced over at Chante and the ball player again. The two looked like they’d soon be headed for a room. When Simone cleared her throat, I looked to see what or who was holding her attention. She was watching Bella and the guy she was with.
“Who the hell is he?” she asked.
I looked at the roughneck who Bella was with. “Oh, that’s Bullet. He’s The One’s bodyguard.”
I motioned for Bella to join us. She excused herself from Bullet and came over to where Simone and I were standing. I asked her what was up with that, because from where we were standing, they looked like they were in love.
“Yeah, he’s been on me real hard since I got here,” Bella admitted.
“Well, is he a potential customer or a freebee?” I asked.
Bella looked at me and sucked her teeth. “Girl, please, who you talking to? You of all people should know. Aren’t you the queen of not giving up the goods for free?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Yeah, you got that right. But I was just checking,” I said.
When Chante walked up Bella slipped away, and a few minutes later, I saw Bullet walking over to her. “What happened to the dude you were all up under?” I asked.
“Jada, I’m telling you, he’s a trip. All over me, but wanna talk about we need to go to my place because his fiancee is at his house!” Chante said with tons of attitude.
“Hmm, interesting,” I said, storing the information for later use. “I’m kind of tired. I’m thinking about getting out of here soon.”
“Yeah, you mind if I ride with you?” Chante asked.
I shook my head. “Not at all.” It was obvious that she had had too much to drink. “Let me go check on the ladies.” After wandering around the house for a while, I found Diane. She told me that Simone was out by the pool talking with a couple of football players. “You seen Bella?”
“Simone said she left with Bullet.”
“We’re getting ready to leave. I’m tired and Chante is drunk.”
“I’m not drunk, Jada.”
“Whatever, Chante.”
“I’m gonna go too. Nothing here I’m interested in. I’ll let Simone know we’re going,” Diane said.
On the way back to my place, Chante went to sleep in the backseat. She was able to make it as far as the couch before she was out cold again. It was funny, I couldn’t wait to leave the party because I was so tired, but once I got home, a burst of energy popped up. So while Chante slept, me and Diane talked about Creme. How sad it was to see her looking like that.
I remember her offering me a bump before I went onstage that first night. “I was so nervous that night, Diane; and I was so tempted to hit it.”
“You see where you’d be if you did,” Diane reminded me.
It was maybe an hour after that when Simone came in. Once Simone started talking, Chante woke up and joined the conversation. I looked up and we’d been sitting around chit-chatting for nearly two hours. It was almost seven in the morning. Just as I was about to break things up and retire to the bed, the door opened and Bella stumbled in.
“What the fuck!” Simone screamed. Her horror was well justified. Bella’s clothes were torn and stained with blood. One of her eyes was bruised, and blood was trickling down her lip and chin.
“What the hell happened to you?” I jumped from the couch. By the time I got to her, she nearly collapsed right into my arms.
“Somebody call 9-1-1!” Diane screamed. She rushed to my side and helped me move Bella’s body to the couch.
“Forget 9-1-1,” Chante said. “We need to get her to a hospital now. We can get her there a lot faster.”
What she said made sense. We piled into my car as Chante nursed Bella in the backseat. When we arrived at the hospital, I didn’t even take time to park the car. I pulled up at the emergency room entrance and I ran inside screaming for help.
“Please. . my friend. . she needs help! She’s in the car!” I yelled. Two ER workers ran out to the car. I was so glad to have Chante there. She talked to the police and told them everything we knew, because the rest of us were useless. By the time Chante came walking into the waiting area where the rest of us were, everyone was silent with our own thoughts.
When the doctor came out, he told us that the beating Bella had taken had caused some internal bleeding. “Internal bleeding?” Diane questioned.
“Internal bleeding is the leaking of blood from blood vessels into spaces in the body. Deeper bleeding which involves arteries and veins can result in severe blood loss, which can result in shock.”
“What causes that?” Simone asked.
“It can be caused by a violent blunt force, such as being thrown against an object or the beating she apparently took.”
“But she seemed all right on the way here,” Simone said.
“Signs and symptoms of internal bleeding are less obvious than that of external bleeding. In fact, an injured person may appear normal at first.”
The doctor promised he would do all he could to help Bella, but when he came back an hour later, he didn’t even have to say a word for us to know the diagnosis.
“I am so sorry, ladies. There was nothing more we could do,” the doctor offered up. “The beating she took caused a lot of internal bleeding. It was just too severe,” he said somberly.
My head was spinning and pounding at the same time. I was fuming! I still couldn’t believe Bella was gone. Before the doctor could even finish, two detectives walked into the room.
“We need to know who was the last person to see her alive,” one officer said.
