Synergy (5 page)

Once Dee
had her bag over her shoulder and a blunt in her mouth, she didn’t
waste any time in getting out of the staff room. The last thing she
wanted was for someone to come running in and question her about
her hand. She moved swiftly back into the club, and hoped she could
blend back into the atmosphere. With the weed going to her head,
and the many shots finally catching up with her, she suddenly felt
a little unsteady on her feet, so when she was close to the bar,
she used the bar stools for support . As she slid under the gap to
the staff area, she was suddenly taken by the arm by Paul, who had
seen her coming.

“
Dee, you can’t be behind
here.”

“
Wh-Why
not?”
 
she
stuttered, a smile on her face.

Paul
looked at her for a second and returned her smile, before he moved
with her to the customer-side of the bar.

“Come on drunky, I’ll have a drink with
you.”
 
He
laughed, as he gestured to the other barman to take over. Bringing
a bottle of vodka with him, he helped Dee onto a stool before he
poured them each a small shot size amount, and filled the rest with
cranberry juice. He sat himself onto the stool next to her then
turned in her direction.

“What’s wrong beautiful?  You look down.”

“
Why can’t you be
straight?
” she blurted out, cupping her
hand over her mouth in surprise. The two of them laughed in
unison.

“
I ask myself that every
day.”

Jason

So maybe going out wasn’t such a bad idea after
all
, Jason thought. He was actually
wondering why he objected to it in the first place. He’d had some
great food, great drink, great company, and he had Tom to thank for
that. Once they’d watched all the dancers the club had to offer,
they’d invited some people over to their table and had a few rounds
of shots. Tom seemed to be getting on well with a woman about their
age; she was tall, blonde, and spoke with a Middle Eastern accent.
The only problem was Tom was in a committed relationship, in fact,
they’d been engaged for a few years now, and even had a baby
together. Carmen, his fiancée, had put up with Tom since they were
around eighteen and baby Lydia came along just over 18 months ago,
so Jason knew it was his responsibility to make sure Tom did not go
home with anyone tonight.

Throughout the night, Jason had tried to send hints Tom’s way
but all he’d done was insisted he was simply acting as ‘wingman’ to
try to find someone for Jason. Jason wasn’t sure how true that was,
but nonetheless, he continued his night. It was around 1am by now,
and whatever drinks he’d downed during the night were starting to
wear off a little, so he told Tom he was heading to the bar. The
club had started to die down now; he guessed because people had
used this place as a stop gap, or had only come for the
‘
main attraction’
 i.e. the girls, then gone somewhere else. As Jason
walked to the bar, he saw one man sitting at one end on one of the
four bar stools, and a man and woman sitting at the other end. The
remaining barstool in the middle was empty so he took his place
there waiting for some service. After a second, the man who was
sitting with the dark-skinned woman stood up and moved behind the
bar.

“
What can I get
you?
” he asked Jason.

“
JD and coke please”

The man,
who was probably around Jason’s age, with stubble, poured out the
drink and took Jason’s money, before turning back to the woman on
the bar stool.

“I’ve gotta get cleaning, Dee – no more drinks
ok
?” He joked, smiling her way.

“Yeah yeah
!” the woman muttered
sarcastically.

As she
spoke, Jason turned his blue eyes in the direction of her voice. He
took in her dark cocoa skin, black curls falling down her back and
over her shoulder. Her skin looked smooth, and he couldn’t help but
notice on her small frame she carried a large chest and cleavage.
He must have looked a moment too long, because her eyes turned to
his.

“
Enjoying the
view?
” she asked. Her lips were thick and
full, and a layer of shiny lipstick made them look juicy and
enticing.

“Lost for words?”
She raised her
eyebrow at him, and it was only then he realised he still had not
said a word to her since he’d sat down. He awkwardly shifted in his
seat, and struggled to come up with a sentence.

“
Oh, er...I’m
sorry, I didn’t mean to er
...”

Before
he could finish his incoherent sentence, she snapped
back.

“Mumbling white boy, we don’t get many of ‘em in
here.”

He
wasn’t sure whether he blushed, but he’d never felt so embarrassed.
He was famous; he was used to talking to people, all sorts of
people. He had to speak for a living; press conferences,
interviews, radio, TV...but for some reason he felt like he just
wanted to watch her, as creepy as that sounded in his own head. She
was so beautiful, so elegant-looking despite the outfit choice. As
he thought about her outfit choice, he realised he’d seen it
before. She was on stage. The one he had watched in awe. If only he
could remember her name.

“
So what’s your story? Ain’t seen
you in here before.”

Jason
thought for a moment. His story?  Rich celebrity on a break
from working in the studio? Maybe not. Hold on. She didn’t know who
he was. She had no idea. The thoughts swirled around in his
slightly tipsy head. This didn’t usually happen to him. Most people
knew his story without even asking. He suddenly felt giddy,
excited.

“
Just here on
business.
” He managed to
answer.

The woman nodded
.
“You got a name?”

“Jason”
 
he answered.

Once
again, she nodded. She still didn’t know.

After taking a sip of her drink through a straw, she extended
her hand toward him.

“I’m Dee”
 
she said, and with that he took her hand and shook it
politely.

“
Can I buy you a
drink?”
 
he
asked, and she laughed softly.

“
Paul says I’m not
allowed.”

Paul,
who he now realised was the bartender, popped his head up from
under the bar.

 “
No you’re
not!
” he yelled back.

Around an hour passed in the club and more people started to
leave one by one. Halfway through Jason and Dee’s conversation, Tom
announced to Jason that he was leaving, alone, Jason observed,
which he was happy to see. He said goodbye and tried to ignore the
gestures Tom was giving behind Dee’s back.  Their conversation
wasn’t totally smooth, it was mostly Dee asking a lot of questions
which Jason didn’t particularly want to answer such as
“
So what’s your job
?” to which he answered he worked in the music industry -
 not a lie. When he thought he would ask her the same
question, he realised awkwardly that she worked in a strip club,
she was a stripper. What did you ask about that? Is it a good line
of work? Is this your only job? Is it like, to help you pay for
college? He wasn’t sure how to approach that subject at all.
Luckily, the amount of alcohol they’d both consumed helped them on
their way to find some form of conversation. He found out she had a
brother and a sister, and that she grew up in Detroit. He told her
he grew up in Tennessee and he had stepbrothers. Dee told him she
had a son, a two-year-old, and that she wasn’t with the father
anymore.

When
they ran out of alcohol, she asked him if he smoked, and pulled a
blunt from the inside of her purse. He nodded. Truth be told he
didn’t do it on the regular, or even that much at all anymore, but
he did when he was younger.  For social situations he’d
partake, and he knew he damn sure didn’t want to say no to her. As
she lit it up, the pair of them passed it back and forth until it
was finished.

As the night was heading to a close, the staff asked them to
clear out, adding unless Dee was offering to help clean. Dee had
given a ‘
hell no
’
and complained that she didn’t want the night to end. It was then
that Jason said something he had never said before, something he
didn’t even plan to say.

“
I have champagne at my
hotel”

Did I really just say that
? He
thought, but her reply surprised him.

“Then let’s go”
 
she winked, as she stood up
and took his hand. He knew then he had to have her.

Chapter 5 – Hangover

Dee

Dee
awoke to a dry sensation in her mouth and a throbbing in her head.
She laid with her eyes closed for a moment and when she first tried
to open them, they felt stuck shut. Prying them open, light shone
into her pupils causing her to squint uncomfortably and groan
slightly. The light sent a shooting pain through her head that she
knew only too well on mornings like these. As her eyes slowly
adjusted to the light, she looked at the white ceiling above her,
then to the chandelier in the middle of it. It took her a second to
process, but she then realised she didn’t have a chandelier in her
room. She scoffed at the thought.

Frowning, she sat up slowly and propped her back on the
headboard of the bed. She looked at the foreign room that for sure
was not her own bedroom. A flat screen TV was mounted on the wall
in front of her, and a dressing table was to one side. It was then
that it dawned on her she was naked beneath the bed covers. She
took a deep breath and looked beside her eyes taking in a sleeping
man. His hair was tousled on the pillow, and his face was buried
deep inside it. Jason. She let out a breath of air as she
remembered last night’s events. She couldn’t believe she’d gone
home with some white businessman type. Rich white businessman, by
the looks of the room. This wasn’t a typical hotel room, this cost
money, she could tell that. Last night began to flood her head. She
remembered talking to him in the club; she remembered how bright
his blue eyes shone in the light, and how nice his smile was. His
lips, and how good they felt on hers, then down her neck,
collarbone, breasts, stomach...

“Shit”
 she muttered under her
breath, as she clutched the bed sheet around her chest and scanned
the room for any sign of her clothes. A few items of clothing were
flung on top of a chair by his side of the bed and she could only
assume they were hers. It now meant she had to walk across the room
naked to retrieve them, which she did as quickly as she could,
hoping he wouldn’t wake up. Even though Dee knew he’d seen it all
last night, it was somehow different the next morning, a lack of
alcohol being one of the reasons. Not that she had anything to be
ashamed of. She was actually proud of the way she looked; she had
never been insecure about her body. She couldn’t be while making
her money in stripping.

She
rifled through the clothes on the chair one by one, finding each
item belonging to her and throwing it on as quickly as she could.
Midway through getting dressed, she felt a throbbing in her right
hand, and glanced down at it. She saw an angry bruise peering
through the skin and remembered the guy who’d grabbed her ass and
the events that followed. She winced as she continued getting
dressed, and hoped the bald guy’s friend was sporting a bruise just
as nice on his face. When she was fully clothed, she found her
purse lying on the floor by the bed, and she hastily picked it up
and searched through it. Feeling like something was missing, she
then realised there was no phone in there, and had flashbacks of
shattering it against the wall the night before. 

What time was it now? 
She had
no idea if it was morning or afternoon, with no phone and no watch
to tell her the time, and she sure as hell didn’t know where she
was. From the looks of the place, she could wager a guess it was
far from home. She had already established she had no phone, and so
no way of calling a cab or a friend to come get her, even if she
had any idea where to tell them to drive to. Depending on what time
it was, she was probably also in some shit with her mom as she
wouldn’t have shown up to take Tushaun to school, which means her
mom had probably been late for work. Fuck.  She needed to
think. She could only hope she got home before her mom sent out a
search party for her.

She took another look at the sleeping heap in the bed, and
felt glad that he was still asleep; she couldn’t be assed with the
small talk that would probably come from his mouth. He was probably
gonna regret going home with a stripper anyway, so she didn’t want
to have to deal with his guilt complex. Checking her wallet for
money she saw she had a huge wad of one’s bulging out the side as
well as some fives, tens, and twenties; maybe the odd fifty was in
there too.  As she flicked through, she thought something was
different about some of them so took a harder
look. 
The fuck?
  There were some hundred dollar bills in amongst
them! As the sleeping body in the bed turned over, she whipped her
head up and watched him to make sure he wasn’t waking up. When she
heard him go quiet again, she hastily stuffed the bills back into
her wallet and realised it was probably the rich business guy who
threw them her way.