Chapter 7 O’Shynn Royal
O’SHYNN ROYAL
Iwas in my office overlooking the club cause from up there, I could see everything without people realizing I was watching them, including the damn bartenders who were moving too slow.
Girls standing around talking too much instead of making money.
Security paying attention to the wrong shit.
Waitresses flirting instead of carrying bottles and it all mattered.
That was the problem with people. The second they got too comfortable, they started slipping.
I sat behind my desk with my laptop open, heels kicked off under the chair, and one leg folded under me while I looked over numbers from the last three nights from payroll, bottle girls, VIP percentages, dancers, bar tabs, and what money needed to be washed from the Cartel.
I looked at which girls deserved more sections, and which girls were about to get less shifts because they kept showing up late with a new excuse every damn weekend.
The club was open downstairs already even though it wasn’t packed yet.
I could hear the bass through the floor, hear men laughing, glasses clinking, and girls talking loud.
One of the dancers had on some cheap ass perfume that kept floating upstairs every time my office door opened, and it was irritating the hell out of me.
“Tasha late again?” I asked without looking up from the screen.
The girl standing in front of my desk shifted awkwardly. “Yeah.”
I sighed. “That make three times this month.”
“She said her babysitter—”
“I don’t care what she said,” I cut her off. “Every girl in here got a reason they late. Either they baby daddy tripping, they tire flat, they wig not done, they got a migraine, Mercury in retrograde, whatever… I don’t care… cut one of her sections this weekend.”
The girl nodded quick and started writing it down. I continued, “And if Diamond keeps arguing with customers over tip money, she can take her ass home too,” I added. “I’m tired of hearing about her attitude.”
“She said they was touching her though.” She informed.
“Then she should tell security to handle it instead of acting like she wants to fight every man in the club.”
That got a little laugh out of her. I liked Trina because she never caused trouble.
She was one of the ones who did what she was supposed to do and stayed out of the way.
I looked back down at the paperwork spread across my desk.
One of the bartenders stole again and somebody always stole.
You’d give people jobs, good money, chances, and they still found a way to play in your face.
“Also,” I said, finally looking up, “tell them if they want direct deposit this week they need to stop putting Cash App cards on file like I’m stupid.”
Trina laughed harder this time. “Okay.”
“And close my door when you leave.”
The second she stepped out, the office got quiet again, a little too quiet.
I leaned back in the chair and rubbed my temples because I was tired, but not the kind of tired sleep fixed.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Malik and that was the real problem.
Ever since I dropped him off on the side of the road like he was some random man and not somebody I had feelings for, he had been ignoring me.
At first I told myself I didn’t care because I had too much other shit going on to be worried about one man acting emotional.
Then a day passed, then another, and now here I was sitting in my office checking my phone every twenty minutes like some little girl and I hated it.
I hated that I even cared. I picked my phone up again and looked at the last text I sent him and still no response.
Then I looked at the last missed call I had made to him and no callback.
I sucked my teeth and tossed the phone back on the desk.
“Fine then,” I muttered to myself. “Fuck you too.”
But even saying it didn’t make me feel better because I knew he had every right to be mad.
I had treated him like he was disposable.
Like because I was scared for him, I could just make the decision for both of us and push him away before he got too close.
The crazy part was I knew exactly where I got that from.
I got it from Dom. That’s how he used to be too.
He used to push Carmen away every time shit got real because he thought loving somebody meant putting them in danger.
He thought if he kept enough distance, it would protect her and look at them now.
I picked up the encrypted phone instead of my regular one because after everything that happened with Carmen, I wasn’t talking on nothing that could be tapped or listened to. She answered after the second ring.
“Hey.” Her voice sounded softer than usual and tired too.
“How you feeling?” I asked spinning around in my chair staring at the ceiling.
“I’m okay.” She replied, but I didn’t believe that.
“You lying?” I raised a brow. “Bitch don’t be lying to me.”
“No,” she said, and I could hear her smile a little through the phone. “I’m really okay. Just sore girl.”
“You should be in bed.”
“I am in bed.”
“You better be.”
She laughed softly. “Damn, you sound like Dom.”
“Trust me, ain’t nobody sound like Dom when he in one of his moods.”
That made her laugh harder. I leaned back in my chair once again and looked out the big glass window at the club floor below me this time.
Dudes were starting to come in by the groups now.
Security was walking girls to sections. One of the bartenders had her ass halfway hanging out her skirt which was a typical night.
“I heard about Riverside,” I said after a second. There was a little pause but of course her ass was still on the line.
“Did you?” Carmen carefully asked.
“Please, I know my brother and so do you.”
Then finally she sighed. “I don’t ask questions right now; he has to do what he has to do.”
“You don’t have to ask questions.” I said. Because neither one of us was stupid. If Dom found out who was behind that hit, somebody was dead. It was that simple.
“You mad?” I asked.
“Nope,” she responded. “I just… I don’t know. I hate all of this right now.”
I knew exactly what she meant. It was the violence, the retaliation, and the way blood always answered blood, but this was our life.
“I know,” I said.
“But I also know him,” she added softly. “And if somebody came after you or Candy D or one of his brothers like that, I’d be sitting here right now knowing the same thing.”
That was true too and for a second neither one of us said anything. Then she spoke again. “What’s wrong O’?”
I frowned a little. “Nothing.”
“O’Shynn.”
“Nothing.” I snapped.
“You always say ‘nothing’ when something wrong.” She read me not backing down.
I looked down at the desk and started playing with one of my rings. “It’s Malik,” I admitted finally. There was a brief pause and then Carmen laughed.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Because you finally admitting it.”
“Admitting what?” I smiled.
“That you care.” She replied.
I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see me. “Please.”
“No, seriously,” she said. “You care about him and that’s okay.”
I tried to deflect. “I never said I didn’t.”
“You didn’t have to.” She shot back.
I sighed and leaned my head back against the chair. “He ignoring me,” I mumbled.
“Well…”
“Well, what?”
“You did put him out the car like he was an Uber driver. Yeah I may have been out of it, but when you came here the other day, I heard you on the phone talking about it.”
I felt bad. “That is not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.”
I shook my head. “You know why I did it,” I said after a second.
“Oh, trust me, I know.” She retorted, because she did know… she knew exactly why. Same reason Dom used to keep pushing her away. It was fear, not fear of love. Fear of what comes with loving somebody when your life looked like ours.
“Do you know what it feels like,” I asked quietly, “to actually like somebody and all you can think about is them getting caught in your mess?”
Carmen was quiet for a second before answering. “Yeah,” she told me. “I do.”
I looked down at my nails. “I keep thinking about what happened to you,” I admitted. “And all I can think is what if that happened to him because of me? What if somebody trying to get to Dom can’t get to Dom so they use me? What if they use Malik?”
Carmen didn’t answer right away. When she finally did, her voice was softer than before.
“O’Shynn, that can happen whether you love him or not.
” That made me get quiet because that was the part I didn’t want to think about.
“You pushing him away don’t make him safer,” she continued. “It just make both of y’all miserable.”
I closed my eyes for a second. “You sound annoying,” I sighed.
“And you sound in love.”
“I’m not in love.” I frowned.
“Mhm.”
“I’m serious Carmen.”
“Okay,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. “You just calling me from an encrypted phone in the middle of running your club because the football player not answering your calls, but sure.”
That actually made me laugh. I hated when she was right too.
That was probably why I got off the phone with Carmen when I did, because I could feel the conversation getting too close to the truth and I wasn’t in the mood to sit there and let my little sister-wife-lawyer whatever the hell Carmen was to me now, talk me into admitting I was out here acting like a woman with feelings.
“I gotta go,” I told her.
“You running from me.” She quizzed.
“I’m hanging up.”
“O’Shynn!” She giggled.
“Bye, Carmen.”