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“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.
