Jada West
It was a little before midnight on a Wednesday night and the ladies and I had been sitting around talking and drinking. Everybody, myself in included, had an appointment earlier that night and had come back to my place. “So, I say we polish these off and go find some real trouble to get into,” I said, looking around the room.
“One more of these and I ain’t gonna have to try too hard to find trouble,” Diane said hoisting up her glass.
“Okay, we’re all feeling real nice and nobody’s got an appointment”-I winked-“so we should just call an end to this bonding, then go kick up some dust.” I glanced at the ladies. “Who’s down?” I asked.
“Count me in!” Diane said, hyped and drunk at the same time.
“You ain’t said nothing but a word,” Simone tossed in, as she turned up her glass.
Just then the phone rang.
“Does this mean I can give it away for free tonight?” Bella giggled.
Diane got up and removed the drink from Bella’s hands. “I think you’ve had enough,” she said. in a dramatic fashion. We all started cracking up as I picked up the phone.
“House of Beauty, this is cutie,” I sang into the receiver.
“Hey, cutie, sounds like there’s a party going on over there. How come I didn’t get an invite?” Chante said into my ear.
“Oh, hey, Chante. We’re just sitting around trying to decide what to get into,” I answered. I had planned on talking to Chante about her conversation with Bella, but it was a conversation I wanted to have in person.
“Hmmm, seems to me like that’s where I need to be,” Chante said.
“Well, come on through then,” I challenged.
As I hung up, Simone turned to me and asked, “Who was that? Chante?”
“That was her,” I confirmed.
“So, what’s up? Is Chante gonna be down or what?” Simone asked.
“I don’t think so. I mean she’s cool and all, but ours isn’t the kind of business you can just welcome someone into,” I said to Simone, even though that was exactly how I got her. I placed the phone back in its cradle and swallowed the last of my drink. I was had nice buzz going and this wasn’t really a conversation I felt like having with Simone. But I knew she wasn’t about to give up.
“So we just continue to have her hanging around? I mean, pretty soon she’ll figure it out, don’t you think? Nobody can be that fuckin’ dumb.” Simone snickered.
“Well, she hasn’t said anything to make me think she’s even curious.” I lied just to shut Simone up. She had a way of questioning everything. I hadn’t forgotten about the questions Chante had asked Bella, but a part of me was a little suspicious about why Chante never approached me. “Why don’t we think about getting our groove on,” I offered, trying to keep things light.
“Yeah, I feel you on that. So what’s up with the bachelorette party Diane mentioned?” Simone asked.
“Bachelorette party?” Bella questioned. “Diane, you are getting too gay for me.”
“Look, it’s like I told her. I don’t think we need to even start doing events like that. I mean, we make good money now. We start going out like that, I’m just afraid it could turn into something we don’t want.”
Simone didn’t look like she agreed too much with my response, but I meant what I said. “I didn’t start this business only to go right back to where I’d started. I see no real money in the stripping thing; especially since we make three or four times what a stripper earns on a good night. This is easy money for a few hours on your back.” I knew for sure that old saying-been there and done that-applied in this case. It made no sense to start stripping at parties. And honestly, I was a bit pissed at Diane for even bringing it up in the first place. I went and sat down next to Diane. “Did you ever imagine things would turn out this way?” I asked.
“I always knew you were destined for the big-time. I watched how you came to Ecstasy and took over. Yeah, there were prettier girls working there. Better dancers too. I was a better dancer than you.” Diane laughed. “But you knew how to give those men what they wanted, and you made the money. So when you said you were gonna do this, I knew this was where the money was gonna be. Why do you think I begged you to be down?” Diane smirked.
“Smart girl.” I leaned closer to her. “So, why do you want to take a step backwards and go back to shaking your ass? I know it can’t be the money.”
“Honestly,” Diane said softly, “Creme asked me if I would do the party with her. I already told her what you said, but she wants to get with us bad and she’s trying anything.”
“I knew there had to be something else to it. I tell you what, why don’t you and me go by Ecstasy and I’ll tell Creme myself. That should get her off you.”
“Thanks, Jada. Once she hears no from you, maybe she’ll stop bugging me about it.”
Diane and I stood up and started getting ready to leave. “We’re gonna make a quick run, ladies,” I said to Bella and Simone. “Chante is on her way. Give me a call and let me know where y’all end up and we’ll meet you there.”
“Where y’all going?” Simone asked.
“Ecstasy,” Diane replied.
“The place where you guys used to dance?” Bella asked.
“That’s right,” Diane said.
“What are y’all going there for?” Simone asked. “You’re not still thinking about asking that crackhead to join our family, are you?”
“Of course not,” I assured Simone.
“She getting on my nerves, so Jada’s going to shut her down,” Diane said.
“I wanna go,” Bella said quickly. She stood up and started shaking her ass. “I might even dance while I’m there.”
“Why, so you can fall off the damn stage again?” Simone asked and started to get ready to leave.
“Why you gotta go there, Simone, with your no-dancing ass,” Bella came back.
“Aren’t we getting a little loose with the language, ladies?” I asked.
“Sorry, Jada,” they both said, and Diane stuck out her tongue. It was usually her that I had to chastise about her language, but lately it hasn’t been an issue.
“Where are you two going?” I asked.
“With you,” Simone said.
“No. You guys have got to wait here for Chante.”
“She has a cell phone, am I correct?” Simone said in as proper a manner as she could.
“Simone, you are absolutely correct. Chante does have a cell phone,” I said and took out my cell phone.
Bella walked up to me. “Can we talk for a second?” she asked quietly.
“Sure.”
“Jada, I don’t feel comfortable around Chante after the other night,” Bella told me.
“I understand. But that’s why I want you to wait here for her. I’m going to talk to her tonight, but I wanna know if she comes at you again.”
“What about Simone?”
“Have you told her anything?”
“No.”
“You let me worry about Simone,” I said and headed for the door. When I opened the door, there was Chante.
Chante
“Oh, hey, Chante,” Jada said, obviously startled to see me standing there.
I almost went for my gun when the door flew open. “I was just about to ring the bell.”
“Good, now we don’t have to wait for her,” I heard Bella say in the background.
“Y’all weren’t trying to leave me, were you?”
“Me and Diane were gonna make a run,” Jada said and looked at Diane. “But we can do that anytime,” she said and kept walking out of her apartment.
“Hey, Chante,” Diane said, hugged and kissed me on the cheek. After she squeezed my ass, she followed Jada to the parking lot. I can tell by the way she looks at me that she’s interested, and I’m curious.
Bella was standing in the hallway; but when I looked at her she looked away. I’d wondered if I had come on a little too strong when I tried to get Bella to talk the other night. “How you doin’, Bella?” I asked and followed Diane. Bella didn’t answer. I looked over my shoulder and saw she and Simone coming behind me. “What’s up, Chante,” Simone said.
“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.