Hot Boyz (15 page)

Mason did the honors. “Baby, this is Heidi Hamilton, the realtor who works for Claude.”

“Hi, nice to meet you,” Mercedes replied. Mercedes put her hand behind Venus’s back. “And this is my sister-in-law, Venus.”

Heidi greeted her. “I know Venus. How have you been?”

“Fine, Heidi. Good to see you.”

“Hello, Mercedes,” said Cicely. “How’s your mother-in-law doing?”

“She’s fine. All of that drama over her getting lost is behind us now. Thanks again for all of your help.”

“No problem. I’m just glad everything turned out okay. Mason still needs to come and get his briefcase. In all of the confusion, we forgot what you came over for in the first place. Well, we’ll see you later. Have a great night. And Mason, save a dance for me, okay?” said Cicely, walking away in her conservative black pantsuit.

“I’ll remember that.”

“Nice to finally meet you, Mercedes,” said Heidi, following Cicely wearing all white.

“And you as well,” Mercedes said.

Heidi turned back, remembering Mason, “Good-bye, Mace.”

Mercedes watched her walk away.

Heidi seemed to follow Cicely’s every move, allowing her to lead the way tonight, walking behind her and peering over Cicely’s head due to her own six-foot stature with heels. She nodded to each group of guests as though she’d rather be in the background. Yet, she managed to turn her head to check out the scene behind her and to each side, just to take in her surroundings.

“You never told me about her,” Mercedes said to Mason. She looked at Venus. “And you either.”

Venus replied, “She’s just one of Claude’s realtors at his office. I saw her at one of his office parties a couple of times.”

In deep thought, Mercedes said, “She sure looks familiar. That’s all I know.”

Sequoia was seated at the bar chatting it up with one of the bartenders. Colette managed to find an available seat two bar stools to the right of her just as the bartender was bringing a small bottle of Bollinger champagne over to Sequoia.

“Ma’am, this is from the manager,” he said, placing the ice-filled chrome bucket and a glass in front of her.

“Oh …” Sequoia began to say.

“From who?” asked Colette, banging her thick beer mug on the bar, springing to her feet and standing behind Sequoia’s stool.

The male bartender spoke. “Excuse me, Colette. It’s just a drink from Mr. Wilson.”

“Where is he?” Colette looked around.

“He’s right over there.” The bartender pointed as Torino was coming around from the other side of the bar.

She yelled, “Torino, what is your problem?* Buying her a bottle of champagne. What is that all about?”

“Colette, come with me.” Torino forcefully took her by the arm.

“Ouch, let go of me, that hurts,” she complained.

Torino tried to speak quietly. “Shut your mouth and come with me.”

Colette looked back at Sequoia, pointing in her direction, “You’d better not drink that or your ass is mine.”

Sequoia pulled the bottle from the ice bucket, poured the bubbly into her fluted glass and held up the glass in Colette’s direction. And then Sequoia looked at Torino. For the first time, her eyes sparkled back at him. She then started a conversation with the bartender as if nothing ever happened.

Colette spoke within two inches of Torino’s face. “I’m not going anywhere, Torino. That was so damn obvious it’s not even funny. And you want to make it seem like I’m trippin’. That was disrespectful.”

“Woman, it was no big damn deal. I just felt bad for being so abrupt with her earlier and it was a gesture of peace. But you had to blow it way out of proportion as usual.”

“Please, you never send me a damn glass of water.” She rubbed her upper arm where he’d grabbed her and made a pouty face.

“Colette, you know that you can have anything you want in this place. Everyone knows you. But you came up here tonight on my brother’s big night just looking for a fight. I’m sorry but you can’t start anything tonight. I’m not having it, Colette. Now go home.” He pointed toward the door.

“No.” She put her hands on her hips.

“Colette, I will have someone drive you if you’ve been drinking.”

“Drinking? I haven’t had a sip yet. But I’ll start up in a minute. Besides, you can’t just make me leave. Is this how you handle misunderstandings with your main woman and your peripheral ho’?”

“Peripheral?”

“You make the main one leave so you don’t run off your safety net. Because I guess you think I’m so in love with you that I’ll just forgive you and hang around, huh?”

“Forgive me for what?”

“For trying to kick me out tonight.”

Torino looked around as he felt people’s stares. “Fine, don’t go. But if you so much as blink wrong, I will leave with you and then it will be on, do you understand me?”

“Oh, it’s on now anyway. But I’m not even tripping over your triflin’ ass ho’. Sequoia is not half the woman I am.” She smacked her own self on the ass and stared him down.

“Colette, just find a seat and chill out. I’m about to go check on my family and make sure they’re okay. And I’ve got some serious VIPs here tonight, rappers, producers, and investors. So don’t blow it for me. Now can you please go somewhere and just chill out?”

“I will do just that, Torino. You just go do your work. But do me a favor. Don’t buy another woman a drink while I’m here, please?”

“Just go, Colette.” Torino walked away toward the VIP area and left her standing there.

Colette kept an eye on him for a minute and then she spotted Kyle chumming it up with Cicely and Heidi. “Yes, it’s on all right.”

Mercedes and Venus sat in a cozy VIP area on a leather sofa, eating appetizers and drinking Merlot.

“I haven’t seen you drink in a while, Mercedes.”

“I try not to. But tonight is a special night.”

“That Mason is so damn fine, I can’t stand it,” a group of girls said walking away from Mason and his agent.

Mercedes continued talking to Venus. “So, I figure if I limit myself to a thousand calories per day…”

Venus interrupted. “Did you hear them?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“Venus, you know me better than that. Those young girls don’t threaten me in the least. Mason gets that all the time.”

“But after a while it has to wear on you,” Venus said.

“No, after a while you start to get used to it. I used to be just like Colette when it came to Mason. Always wondering what he was doing and why the women in the mall were staring at my man. I don’t have time for that. If he wanted to leave me, he’d have left a long time ago. The years make you more secure, not less secure. Especially those young and skinny ones. They don’t even faze me.” She took a sip of her wine with one hand and dipped a French fry into some catsup with the other. She then looked over at Heidi.

Venus spoke. “You deserve an award. No wonder he hasn’t left you for anyone else.”

“I spend more energy trying to make him happy and trying to support my black man. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah, girl. I support Claude all right. Maybe too much actually. I need to really get on him, though. He undermined my authority with Cameron the other night. Things won’t get any better if Cameron thinks Claude and I aren’t getting along.”

Mercedes gave her the hush look as Claude walked up.

Venus had to ask, “Hey baby. Where have you been?”

“I was at the bar sipping on some orange juice and making my way around a bit. Hey, Mercedes. You look nice tonight,” Claude commented.

“Thanks Claude. So do you. Nice suit.”

“Thanks,” he said, tugging on his lapel.

Mercedes asked, “I met your realtor, Heidi. Have I seen her before?”

Claude took a seat as Venus scooted over. “I’m not sure. She’s been working at the office for a couple of years now. She’s one of my top sellers.”

“And how does she know Cicely?” Mercedes asked.

“She’s Cicely’s sister, I think.”

“Oh, that’s right. That’s where I know her from. I saw her picture at Cicely’s house.”

Claude’s eyes got slightly bigger, but not much. “At Cicely’s house?”

“Yes, you know the day Mattie got lost. I was picking up Mason’s briefcase from her house.” Mercedes looked at Venus. “I can’t believe she said that briefcase is still there. Mason said he was going back over there the same day to get it, remember?”

“I think so. Maybe he got sidetracked.” Venus said.

“Obviously.”

Venus bounced in her seat at the “Hot In Herre” cut by Nelly. “Come on, baby. Let’s go cut a rug.”

“Cut a rug? You’re showing your age,” Claude actually joked.

Mason walked up and grabbed Mercedes. “Come on, baby. Maybe we can do some of our stripper moves and confuse the hell out of them.”

“Mason,” Venus said, looking surprised that he would talk that way.

Mason and Mercedes left Claude and Venus behind.

The crowded dance floor was rumbling from the excited dancers simulating removing their clothes, “I am getting so hot, I wanna take my clothes off,” yelled Mason.

Venus got up and joined in next to Mercedes and Mason, leaving Claude to sit and watch.

“Watch her,” Claude yelled to Mason and Mercedes as he smirked a goofy grin.

And Torino walked over to the floor hand in hand with who else but sexy Sequoia as she yelled, “I think my butt’s getting big, hey.”

Torino was interrupted from his smooth dance moves by one of his bouncers. “Mr. Wilson, we have a problem at the door, sir.”

He stopped in mid step. “What’s up?”

“A few people seem to think they’ve already paid to get in.”

“Paid when?”

The bouncer talked directly into Torino’s ear. “The door man, Josh, can explain it to you better than I can, sir.”

“Excuse me for a minute. I’ll be right back,” he said to Sequoia, who gave him an approving nod and joined in with Mason, Mercedes, and Venus.

Torino and his bouncer approached the front door in a hurry.

“Torino, these ladies seem to not want to pay the cover charge,” said the lady at the cashier’s window.

One lady with a Brooklyn accent got irritated. “Excuse me but, why are you talkin’ for us? We’re the ones who asked for the manager.”

Torino’s ticket girl remarked like she wanted to go off. “Torino, these chicks are trippin’.”

“Trippin’? And who you callin’ chicks? You need to see your way out of this,” one of the other girls threatened.

“Hey, now calm down. There’s no need to get heated. Step over here for a minute,” Torino instructed them so the other patrons could pay. “What’s going on?”

The third girl started to explain. “See, me and my girls came all the way up here from Orange County. That’s about an hour or more drive time. And we’re being treated like we’re criminals trying to get away with something. We don’t have to lie to get up in no club.”

“Tell me what happened, please,” Torino told them again.

“See, Roslyn here hooked everything up so that all we had to do was show up and give our names.”

“Which list were you supposed to be on?”

“I think it was Kyle’s list.”

“Kyle only has a guest list authorizing before ten o’clock. It’s already midnight so it would be full price, which is twenty-five dollars. Tonight is a special event, ma’am,” Torino explained.

The first girl spoke again. “Twenty-five dollars, bunk that.
That’s what Mr. Swole here tried to sell me.” She pointed at the bouncer. “I’m not gonna party for just two hours for no twenty-five dollars.”

“Wait a minute,” the second lady said. “We already paid ten dollars in advance to get in here. That would be thirty-five dollars. I don’t think so,” she said, snapping her fingers.

Torino told them, “Sorry but we don’t have advance ticket sales or any discounts like that.”

The calm one continued, “I paid this guy thirty dollars for three people late last night at club Déjà Vu in Upland. He said our names would be on the list.”

“What guy?”

“This Kyle guy. He was promoting and taking names all night.”

Torino looked confused. “Kyle took cash from you?”

“Yeah, he did. I gave him a twenty and a ten,” she said.

“And he promised to add you to the list?”

“Yeah.”

“Did he give you a pass or a ticket stub?” Torino asked for clarification.