Chapter 15 #3
“I swear,” she mumbled, grabbing a T-shirt off the comforter and hanging it over the back of a chair. “Every time I clean this room, it look like somebody done broke in here by the next day. I’m always rushing and I need to slow down.”
She bent over, picked up a bottle of lotion from the floor and set it on top of the dresser before finally looking over at me.
“You haven’t said much yet, but you called me four times so what happened?
How did it go at the restaurant after we hung up.
I can’t believe you took that money and didn’t tell me until tonight when you thought you fucked up Navy. ”
I leaned against the wall near her bedroom door and folded my arms across my chest. I looked down at the carpet.
She wasn’t wrong for chewing into my ass.
The problem was figuring out where to even begin.
How do you explain that a man she’d never met had calmly put a gun beneath your chin, gave you eleven days to replace money that no longer existed, then walked back into the club like nothing had happened?
I rubbed my forehead before letting my hand fall back to my side. “Tash…”
“Mhm?” She sat down waiting. “I’m waiting. What happened?”
The tears burned my eyes as I blinked them away trying not to panic.
I drug myself over to her bed and plopped down on my backside staring up at the ceiling feeling her eyes glued to me.
“Well, after I hung up with you, he was waiting for me to come out of the restroom stall. I didn’t even know he had entered but it made sense why it got so quiet. ”
“Who was waiting, Marv?”
I shook my head, “No it wasn’t Marv, it was Lev, the one I told you I believe I may have said too much to. The one who makes any woman nervous just from his presence being there.”
I could feel the intensity of her watching for me waiting for more as she ignored a call on her phone. She placed her soft hand under my chin and forced me to look at her since she was right next to me. “Did he hurt you Navy?”
“No,” I wiped the tear that slid down the side of my cheek, “At least not physically but he told me I had exactly eleven days to pay back every single dollar.”
Tasha immediately hopped up and started pacing while lightly chewing on her bottom lip. “Wow, I hate that you even went anywhere near them. How much of the money do you have left Nay?”
I shrugged and prayed the headache that was threatening would bypass. “I don’t know, maybe about seven thousand.”
“What?!” She blurted. “Out of fifty thousand? That’s so irresponsible Nay.” She scolded me.
I immediately sat up now and glared at her pointing my finger at her. “Well, you weren’t saying that when you convinced me to buy the most expensive piece of everything either.”
Tasha’s arms flimsily flew in the air before she dropped them back down placing them on her hips. “Well, I didn’t know that you stole the damn money from some gangsters either. I thought the bank released your funds, or you got it from Lulu, hell I’m not sure.”
Tasha was giving me a headache. It was like I came to her to vent of course; however, she was now pissing me off.
I placed my hand on my forehead and began to massage it.
I then exhaled through my nostrils. “Tash… I know I did something extremely stupid, but you know why I did it. All I need now is for you to help me figure out how to get the money.”
She returned to sit next to me placing one hand on my back gently rubbing it. “I don’t know Navy. What about asking Lulu or possibly pulling it from your 401k?”
“I can’t ask Lulu for that kind of money and besides, she’s on a set income. I can’t pull out of my 401k either. I already did that when Lulu was about to lose her house that time.”
“Damn,” she muttered in deep thought. “Well, I know you don’t want to ask Rome, but…”
“Absolutely not,” I said cutting her off.
“You know what, you’re right,” she agreed.
Out of nowhere, it hit me like a ton of bricks like a light had come on. I abruptly turned to her with my eyes wide. “How much are you making at the club?”
She shook her head and held her hand up. “Don’t even think about it Navy. “You’re a career woman and that isn’t the place for you.”
I frowned. “Come on Tash, you’re a career woman too, you just have a lot on your plate right now, but you have degrees just like me. That doesn’t stop you from doing what you have to do to make extra.”
She snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Hello Nay, look around you. You see what I’m up against.”
“I know this Tash,” I replied feeling bad about her situation.
“However, you pay all the bills and pay for all of those expensive treatments. So, the club has to be worth something, especially where you are. The only men that come through there are corporate.” I debated.
I also watched how her eyes shifted when I mentioned how she’s handling all of the treatments.
It wasn’t until that moment; she had a change of heart.
“You really don’t know what I go through to make that happen, but fine, since just overtime won’t be enough, I’ll help you because I don’t want to see my best friend die behind some money.”
“Thank you,” I sniffed feeling weak as hell in this moment although I was far from a weak woman.
She squinted her eyes and glared at me once again pointing that little finger.
“One rule though, you will not work the front of the club where everyone can see you. You will work the rooms where you’re guaranteed to make at least three to four thousand if you do it right.
But I’m going to warn you now. You’ll have to deal with more than just dancing.
In the VIP rooms, anything goes, it’s on you to say ‘no’ if you want. ”
I swallowed hard wondering what the hell I’d gotten myself into. I wish overtime was enough, but it wasn’t. I nodded my head. “I understand, but right now, I have to do this. I’ll bake sweet treats on the side too like my old side hustle. It won’t be much, but it can help.”
I could tell Tasha felt sorry for me and just as overwhelmed as I did. She looked just as irritated as she did every time she had to come to my house and try to make me leave Rome’s cheating abusive ass. “If I make any extra, I’ll help you out too. I promise.”
I stuck around a while longer while she made some phone calls to the managers to get me in.
Of course, they wanted her to send a picture of me, which she did.
When she finished, she took a long, deep breath.
“They like you, but you’ll have to get an entertainment license first. They do that to everyone to make sure that you’re legal. ”
I simply nodded already spinning the numbers in my head trying to figure out how a woman like me, was about to be doing everything possible to stay alive.
When I thought about that gun pressed underneath my chin with Lev ready to blow my head off, the answer visibly came back as clear as day that I had messed with the wrong people.