Chapter 5

When I arrived at work at Chances nightclub later on that night, I discovered the longest line I’d ever seen. Mostly white, Asian, and Latino women made up the crowd. I forgot all about J-Holiday, the R&B heartthrob, and Wale and his crew coming out to perform tonight. Wale was a rising star on the hip hop scene, trying to bring notoriety to D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, which he called the DMV.

Approaching the front door, I attracted several stares from scantily-clad women. They looked extremely pissed off and began complaining once they saw me walk right pass the 6’8”, 330 pound bouncer named Tiny and make my way inside the club.

After entering my gold mine, I learned that all of Big Nate’s novels were gone off the glass-encased shelves. I went over to the admission fee window to holler at Kisha, who was responsible for taking the money to gain entry inside the club. It cost $60 to get in, $150 for the party. The fellas were sure to follow in hopes of meeting those sexy women.

“What happened to all the novels, Kish?” I asked over the loud music.

She looked at me a second and then went back to counting money and admitting people in the club. “Oh, them joints flew off the shelves after I told them they get a free copy after paying to get in the club.” She paused for a second and then added. “Don’t trip on nothing. I added the price of the book in the admission fee, so in reality they paying for the book without knowing.”

“How you work that?”

“Well, you know we promoted this thing all over town as $60 to get inside and $150 for VIP? Well, if you didn’t buy a ticket before tonight, then I charged their ass $85 to get in and $175 for VIP That way, the $15 for the book is covered, plus an extra $10 for me and you to split.”

“You’s a schemin’ little muppet,” I said jauntily.

“What?” she asked innocently and then winked at me. “I just put them under the impression that the book was free as a token of our gratitude for coming out to Chances tonight.”

“Yeah, okay,” I grinned. “I’ma head on to my office, ‘cause I got a lot of paperwork to handle.”

“Okay, me and Tiny will be heading up there in a minute to bring you everything the club took in tonight.”

“Before or after you pay the artist performing tonight?”

“Where the hell you been at, Melo? I been paid them people two weeks prior to tonight. We do have a business account at the bank,” she reminded me, which is why I loved her, because she was always on top of business and never slipping.

“Well, holla at me later on then. I’m gone,” I said as I left Kisha to handle her business.

Markita takes good care of all of my sexual needs, but I was jive curious about Zetta. Damn, she had a banging body! I got a slight hard-on just thinking about her perky titties and shapely apple bottom. I was so deep in thought, I never saw the collision coming until I felt the impact.