“Awe,” the man said, sounding a lot like Mike Epps. “They in the back, probably in the offices or something.”
Shawna nodded, turning around. She started to feel a little stupid because this was her man’s business and she didn’t really know where his office was. When she tried to think of going to his office at the back of the club, her mind was drawing a blank.
“Ain’t that interesting?” Nalique said, clearly feeling irritated about what she had just heard. “I wonder what be going on back in them offices.”
The skepticism was written all over Nalique’s face and it was starting to rub off on Shawna. She, too, was starting to be a little glad she came. On top of that, she was starting to be more suspicious that something could be going on up in this club, in the back, that she didn’t know about. She couldn’t help but notice how some of the girls looked. More and more, as she and Nalique leaned against the bar with their drinks and scoped out the place, she thought of how no man in his right mind would turn down so much of this easy pussy walking around. It was even more amplified for Tron and Tyrese in Shawna’s eyes because they were the owners of the place. That meant these thirsty hoes would be throwing themselves at them niggas like it was they last supper.
After standing there for a while and never seeing Tron or Tyrese come out of the back, Shawna and Nalique decided that it was time they take it upon themselves and go on a little adventure to the back. As soon as they started to step away from the bar and look for how they were going to get to wherever the back was, Tron walked out the door and onto the floor. Instantly, he spotted Shawna and Nalique there. Inside, he was surprised as fuck and really confused because he knew that Shawna did not send him a text message saying that she would be coming up to the club. On the outside, however, he knew that no matter what, he needed to play it coo and act like he was not the least bit bothered by it. In fact, he knew right away that he wanted to act like he was surprised – surprised in a good way to let Shawna know that he was happy that she popped up. He went walking over to them.
“Hey, baby,” Tron said to Shawna as he hugged her then kissed her. He looked over to Nalique and hugged her, saying hello. She was clearly looking toward the door where Tron had just come out of because she wanted Tyrese to materialize just the same and twice as fast.
“You didn’t tell me you were coming up here tonight,” Tron said. “Why y’all over here standing? We can get y’all a table and shit. It’s no problem.”
“Naw, we just just got here,” Shawna said then smiled. “And I know, it was supposed to be a surprise. Well, it was a last minute thing. Nalique called me to do her hair and next thing you know, we decided to come up to the club to see y’all since we wasn’t doing nothing else.”
Tron glanced at Nalique, purposely keeping his face plain. He found this entire scenario very odd no matter how he looked at it. He never had a problem with Shawna being friends with Nalique. In fact, it would be more than okay since him and Tyrese were such close boys. On the same note, however, up until this point, Tron had never seen either one of them really engage enough to be going places together. What further made this entire situation strange was Shawna doing Nalique’s hair. She’d done it maybe once or twice before that Tron knew of, but it certainly was not a regular sort of thing.
“Oh, okay,” Tron said to Shawna. “Well, let’s get y’all a table.”
Tron said something to the guy at the bar who then said something to somebody else. Within a matter of seconds, Tron was walking Shawna and Nalique over to some tables where they all sat down and put their drinks on the table.
“So, Tron,” Nalique said, smacking her lips together. “Where is Tyrese at?”
It didn’t take Tron long or much energy to pick up on the fact that Nalique was sort of rowed up. In his eyes, she looked like she was on a mission, and he wondered what that mission was about. In light of this, he knew that he had better choose his words very carefully. For all he knew, Tyrese was in the back smashing Diamond. Tron had been in his office looking through some papers between going out to the floor and talking with guys from the street who came in. He really didn’t spend much of his time worrying about or keeping track of where Tyrese was. At the same time, he noticed that Diamond was not out on the floor like the other girls.
Tron nodded. “He’s in the back on the phone talking to some dude about some sort of business,” Tron said. “I go get him for you.”
Nalique stood up. “No, that’s okay,” she said, smiling and trying to act ladylike. “I got legs. I can walk back there for myself. Just tell me where it is again, since I kinda forget where y’all office is back there. I don’t wanna take away from your time with Shawna and all.”
Shawna smiled at Tron, waiting to see what he was going to say so she could read it. Tron could feel Shawna and Nalique’s eyes barreling down on him as they both waited for his response. He really did not want to let Nalique walk back there on her own. While he hoped that Tyrese was not in the back smashing Diamond, he couldn’t be totally sure that it wasn’t going down. Quickly, he knew that he had to think of something and that it had to make sense.
Just as his mind scrambled, Diamond came walking out of the doors from the back. While Tron did not know what this could mean for Nalique, for him at least it was good news. The fact that she was out on the floor meant that Tyrese wouldn’t be caught in the back with her. Feeling relieved, Tron described how to get to Tyrese’s office in the back. Nalique thanked him and walked away.
Tron turned to Shawna, still wondering what her real motivation was for coming up to the club like this unannounced. She’d never done anything like that before, and Tron found it awfully strange that she was doing it now after they sort of got into it with her thinking that he was messing around. Tron knew in the back of his mind that he had come in the back door maybe thirty-five or forty minutes ago from chilling with Desirae for a second out in the parking lot of the mall. Even while he stood there in front of Shawna, he could feel his manhood feeling moist from the work that Desirae had put in. Tron went ahead and slid into the other chair.
“You haven’t been in here in a while,” Tron said.
“I know,” Shawna said, knowing that she was going to have to think quickly about what she was going to say. She’d done so much thinking between the shop and getting ready then getting all the way over to Honeys East. “And that’s why I decided to come up in here,” she said and smiled. “When Nalique told me that she was coming tonight, I started to think about how I don’t really come up here like I should. I wasn’t doin’ nothing. I even started to text you and tell you.” Shawna was lying. “But I was like naw, I’mma let it be a surprise. The place really does look like y’all done come up a bit on the inside.” Shawna looked around, comparing it to the last time she’d been in there. “The last time I was here, it wasn’t quite like this.”
Tron nodded, having his own feelings about the two of them coming up to the club really being Nalique’s idea. Even though he was only his mid-twenties, he knew how women could be so tricky and really have other intentions. Of course, he wanted to believe his girl wasn’t like that, but he knew that any woman could be that way if she needed to be.
“I see, I see,” Tron said. “And yeah, we been putting in work in here, that’s for sure. Like I told you at home, we gotta change the outside a little bit. People are starting to recognize it from the news, and I think it is hurting us. We used to have way more clients in here than this. This may not be all that bad and shit, but at the same time we want that packed look back.”
Shawna acknowledged to herself that Tron did indeed have business sense. Just as the two of them started to talk about other things, their attention was snatched toward the floor. Men rushed into the doorway that led to the back. Out of instinct, Tron jumped up and headed over to the door. He pushed guys out of the way to get to the doorway, hearing what sounded like women screaming and curse words flying everywhere. By the time he got through the crowd of guys and into
the hallway that was at the back of the stage, he almost stopped in his tracks. Tyrese was pulling his pants up while Nalique and Diamond went at it.
Nalique spewed comments right and left, calling Diamond a dick-sucking hoe. Diamond called Nalique a dyke, which was a clear reference to the fact that Nalique really didn’t have a solid shape like a lot of other chicks. This pushed Nalique over the edge, causing her to start slapping and punching the mess out of Diamond. Diamond got some licks in herself, but it was nothing compared to Nalique. What made matters even worse was how Diamond was out in that hallway fighting with Nalique naked.
For a split second, Tron tried to think of how this could have happened if he had seen Diamond come out onto the floor before Nalique went walking back. He also cringed at the fact that his boy Tyrese had gotten caught up. He quickly fumbled with his belt buckle and zipper as he stood back from the two chicks going at it.
Nalique got a handful of Diamond’s hair and pulled her into the dressing room. A couple of other dancers were back there, either getting ready to go out on the floor or just getting back in from being out there. They quickly moved out of the way as Nalique practically dragged Diamond all over the dressing room floor, keeping a firm grip on her hair while she punched her in her face and pulled her. It was obvious that Diamond was trying to get loose from it all, by the way her arms flailed about, but Nalique was not only stronger than her but she was also taller and had bigger arms. Diamond kept on fighting, but her efforts really didn’t count for a whole lot.
“Bitch, I know you was down here fuckin’ with my man!” Nalique yelled while she tore into Diamond. “Nasty dick-sucking bitch.”
Just then, Tron found himself standing next to his boy Tyrese. He tapped his shoulder, not liking that the club was officially having another incident.
“Nigga, what the fuck happened?” Tron asked, clearly pissed off by this shit.
Tyrese shook his head. “Man,” he said, clearly hating that he’d finally gotten caught up in a game that he played so well for so long. “Diamond was in the back suckin’ my dick and Nalique came in.”
“I thought I saw Diamond come out onto the floor,” Tron said.
“Yeah, but then she came back, nigga,” Tyrese said. “I was on the phone and she came in, closed the door, and started sucking on my dick. Next thing I know, Nalique comes walking in while Diamond on her knees and shit.”
Nalique was clearly enraged at what she’d seen. On the same note, it felt good for her to come up to that club and finally see that what she had been hearing about was indeed true. The moment she lay eyes on Diamond, she knew exactly who she was. Seeing her on her knees and sucking Tyrese’s dick was all the proof that she needed. What really threw Nalique over the edge though was Diamond getting off her knees and making some sly remark when she walked out of the room, even going as far as pushing her shoulder as she passed her in the doorway.
Nalique continued to drag Diamond across the floor by her hair while she beat that ass something fierce. Tron and a couple of other guys who had been standing behind him and Tyrese in the doorway went into the room and started to break it up. When they did, Nalique was pushed to one side of the room, with just a few scratches on her face and a missing earring. Diamond was pushed to the other side of the room, with a scratched and clearly bruised face.
“Now, bitch!” Nalique said. “What was your dick-sucking ass saying?”
“Fuck this manly bitch,” Diamond said.
Just then, Nalique tried to get back at her, but a couple of guys restrained her to her side of the dressing room. Before Tron knew it, Diamond was reaching frantically inside of her purse and muttering the words: “I’mma kill this bitch.”
The guy who was standing close to Diamond noticed what she was saying and what she was doing. Without even thinking, he yelled out, “Gun!”
Just as all of the men who were watching the fight had started to duck down, Diamond frantically pulled her pistol out of her purse, cocked it, and aimed it. The guy nearest to her moved her arm away and up, causing Diamond to fire and put three bullet holes in the ceiling of the dressing room. As a couple of other guys subdued her and the gun, Tron could hear that there was chaos happening out on the floor of the club.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Tron said as he turned around and rushed out onto the floor. When he got to the doorway, his eyes were met with men and naked women, all running and screaming from the loud boom of the gunshot. They flooded the two doors to the outside – the parking lot. Immediately, Tron’s eyes went over to where he had left Shawna sitting. Her table was empty. She must have run outside like everybody else.
Chapter 9
Desirae was tired Friday night after she had chilled with Tron in the parking lot after work. She just came home and went right to sleep. The next day, on Saturday, her girl Reese had hit her up asking if she wanted to go to this sale out at Washington Square Mall before she was busy a little later on. Not having anything else to do, Desirae agreed and met Reese up at the mall. The two of them chatted while they walked the mall, liking that they were there earlier in the day rather than their usual time at night when everybody in the city was out at the mall. Everything was so calm and peaceful.
“So, girl,” Desirae said. “What you got going on later?”
Reese smiled, hesitating a little bit. Clearly whatever she was doing was making her excited to think about it.
“I’mma be meeting up with this one nigga I met,” Reese said, smiling.
“Girl, I told you about that meeting people online and stuff,” Desirae said. “Be careful with them Facebook and Instagram niggas before you find yourself caught up in some shit, you know?”
“Girl, I know, I know,” Reese said. “But this ain’t like that. This is a nigga I met through my cousin Jamila. He gon be coming through and picking me up and we gon go somewhere.”
“Wait a minute,” Desirae said. “Like a date and shit?”
Reese nodded. “Yeah, I guess,” she answered.
Desirae smiled, nodding her head. “Awe shit, girl,” she said. “Well ain’t that some special shit, I see. So you came here to get yourself together a little bit. Do you have any idea where he wants to take you?”
Reese shrugged. “We talked about a couple ideas and stuff, you know,” she said. “But we ain’t got no exact place just yet. Maybe we’ll go downtown or something. Maybe we’ll go to the movies. It really ain’t that big of a deal to me.”
“So, tell me about this dude,” Desirae insisted.
Reese went ahead and gave some quick details about the guy she was going on a little date with later on. Apparently, he worked as a teller at some bank over in Haughville, on the west side. He was 24 years old; no kids. For all intents and purposes, he already sounded like a keeper to Desirae.
While the two of them shopped and walked around the mall, Desirae started to think about it more and more. As much as she wanted to be okay with how things were going with Tron, she wanted a man like Reese was talking about – a guy who was going to take her out on dates and not just keep her off to the side. Now that Desirae thought about it, a lot of the dudes that she had messed with over the years never really took her much of anywhere. At least, they didn’t go to the kinds of places that she wanted to go to.
Within a couple of hours, Desirae and Reese were done with the mall. It was starting to get more of the middle-of-the-day crowd, and Reese had found everything she came to get. Reese wasn’t going out until a lot later and had brought up the idea of taking a nap. Instead, they decided to meet up at Desirae’s place where they would smoke a little bit and chill. Desirae had let her know that if she wanted to nap over there, she was more than welcome. Reese, being Desirae’s closest girl, didn’t turn down the offer.
When Reese followed Desirae into her apartment, Desirae went ahead and turned the television on just to break the silence in the place. Reese plopped onto the couch while Desirae walked into her kitchen and got them something to drink. The news was on in th
e background, but she wasn’t really paying attention to what was being said.
“Girl, look at this shit,” Reese said. “That strip club done had some other shit happen.”
Desirae, unconcerned, slowly made her way out to the living room and set the cups down on the coffee table. She grabbed her bag of kush, a blunt, and sat down next to Reese to see what the news preview was talking about. After some commercials, the news came back on and went straight into the story about violence breaking out at the Honeys East strip club on the city’s east side. The footage showed police cars, out in the middle of the January night, pulled up around the building.
“Girl, ain’t nothin’ new,” Desirae said. “You know some shit is always happening over there. Not only is that club like that, but so it that hood. This ain’t new shit.”
Desirae continued rolling the blunt until she was shocked by what she saw on the news. The channel’s reporter and camera were all up in Tron’s face, with the words CLUB OWNER underneath as he talked.
“Shit, girl, shit,” Desirae said, fumbling around the couch as she looked for the remote. “That’s Tron, girl. That’s Tron.”
Reese looked hard at the screen, definitely finding Tron attractive. For the first time, she got to see what her girl Desirae was over in this apartment halfway heartbroken about all the time.
“Girl, he fine,” Reese said.
“Girl, listen,” Desirae said as she found the remote and turned the volume up. “Listen, listen.”
Desirae and Reese listened as the news reporter got a statement from a Tron Hillsborough. Tron, who spoke so professionally into the camera, was clearly stressed about everything that happened last night. On top of that, the news people went so far as asking him what the club management planned to do about the rise in violence that had been taking place at the club.
Desirae hung on to Tron’s every word, in shock that this was yet another thing she didn’t know about him.
“That nigga had told me that he owned a restaurant,” Desirae said to Reese, clearly upside by how deep in the dark she really was.
The Diary of a Side Chick (Side Chick Diaries Book 1) Page 8
