Chapter 6: Armando?

"Jenna, I fucking said I don't know what happened! That's all I said. He wasn't supposed to get mad at me like that." I yelled into the phone. Few minutes after Eric left, I called Jenna.

I heard her sigh. "Wanna come over? I could cheer you up."

I smiled and slightly shook my head. "There's no need. I'll wait for him and besides I need to go through my e-mails and check on REAder account."

"Alright then. But don't stress yourself out and if anything happens, call me immediately. Understand?"

I tilted my head to the side. "Yes, Mom."

"Seems like someone's finally understood the concept of respecting me," she hummed satisfiedly. I could imagine her smiling from teeth to teeth. I rolled my eyes skywards and ended the call.

I walked away from the couch and the motioned to the kitchen. I took out a bottle of tequila from the fridge and reached for a tumbler. If I was going to prevent myself from thinking, tequila was the answer. Drowning myself in alcohol had always been useful in situations like these.

I plopped myself on the couch and opened the tequila bottle. Pouring it's contents into the glass, I smiled involuntarily at the sweet, familiar and intoxicating smell. Tequila was my favorite alcoholic drink ever since I started drinking which was, of course, at a painfully young age.

My joy was short-lived when the contents of the bottle didn't reach half of the glass. I cursed out loud and walked into the kitchen only to find that that was the last tequila bottle I had.

Groaning out loud, I went back to the living room and gulped down the tequila. I got comfortable on the couch with my laptop. I logged into my REAder account and checked on my last published story.

"Well, at least my life's making progress in some areas."

I logged into my email account. I absentmindedly scrolled through all my notifications until my gaze rested on a particular one. My body became rigid immediately. After a few seconds of shock, I opened the e-mail.

Hello Roxanne. I am Erica Ramirez and I got your e-mail address from your REAder account. I would like to speak to you concerning your last published story on REAder.

Please reply urgently.

Erica.

Erica.

Erica Ramirez.

Erica fucking Ramirez.

She was the famous movie producer at the top of her game. She had produced at least ten successful movies and received millions of awards and Grammys. This couldn't be true. Erica wouldn't contact me.

But what if my story was so good that she couldn't resist?

What if she wanted to get to know the writer?

What if this was just fraud?

What if it was just some trap to kidnap me?

What if it was just a trap to kidnap me, cut off my head, cut me into tiny bits and then throw me into the Atlantic ocean?

I mentally slapped my subconscious for that last thought.

I did the only thing I could do under such circumstance.

"Don't tell me that there's already an emergency," she said.

"Well, more or less..."

"Damn it! Is he armed? Did you find out he's in a gang? Fuck no! Are his gangster friends at your house kidnapping you? Oh no, Roxy! I'm dialling 911," Jenna said in a flash.

"What? No. Eric's not even home yet." I paused for a second, aligning my thoughts. "I'll meet you at your place in 15," I said and ended the call. I stuffed my phone, laptop and earplugs into my overnight bag and headed out the door.

Immediately I pushed her doorbell, Jenna's peach door swung open and she folded her arms.

I let myself in. "Hey."

She closed the door. "Took ya long enough."

I didn't bother replying. Just a glare drove my message of disapproval home.

"What's the emergency?" she asked, clearly concerned.

I made myself comfortable on the couch and explained the mysterious mail to her. We logged into my account and she took her sweet time analysing it which just earned her several eye rolls from me.

"It seems authentic." She finally spoke up, her eyes not leaving the screen.

"Like you'd be the one to know if it's authentic or not." I resisted an eye roll. "On second thoughts, there's no way you could even find that out," I said, shaking my head at her.

Jenna logged out of my account before shutting down my laptop. My eyes did not leave her.

She finally turned to me before walking out of the living room. "You need to chill out, Roxy."

I huffed.

She opened up her closet and started checking her clothes out. She must have taken my silence for consent when she shoved a yellow skimpy outfit on my face.

I angrily pushed it off and glared at her.

"You're wearing that," she stated simply.

I looked at her like she just said she was Beyonce. "I'm wearing this why?"

She rolled her eyes. "We're going out, silly."

"Oh no!" I exclaimed when I connected all the dots. "I am not going clubbing tonight."

"Come on, Roxy. It'll be fun! No excessive drinking, I promise, and no playing sex truth or dare." She raised her right hand like she was pledging.

"Still a big, fat no, Jenna."

After going back and forth with the argument, I finally gave in. I went into her bathroom and changed into her yellow outfit, which like anything coming out of Jenna's closet, was extra hot! She pat her bed and I sat on the edge while she expertly did my makeup.

Jenna was on a black tight gown similar to mine but had extra designs. She topped it off with some nude heels and did a black smokey eye to match.

I took out my phone from my bag while Jenna searched for her condo keys. She threw me a black clutch and I stuffed my phone and earplugs into it. We hailed a cab and at 9 pm we were on our way to the club.

"Where exactly are we going?"

She smiled, looking up from her phone. "The Silent Strippers."

"Isn't that a strip club?"

"Not necessarily."

The only reason why I agreed to go out with Jenna was to get my mind off things. Speaking of things, I wondered where Eric was. If he was fine. What he was doin-.

"We're here," Jenna squealed.

We had been driving for the past hour now. I wondered why Jenna picked such a far off club. I voiced my thoughts out loud.

"Well because I've never been here before," she lazily stated, admiring the exterior decor of the club.

We paid the driver the cab fare and Jenna pushed us towards the entrance of the club. There was an extremely long queue of people waiting to get in. Jenna stood, studying the line and then her eyes suddenly lit up. She yanked me to follow her as she started walking briskly to the front of the line. There were several protests from people behind and I just watched Jenna do her magic.

"Lucho!" Jenna sounded excited.

One of the bouncers looked down to us and his lips immediately shifted to a warm smile.

"Jenna!" He said with the same energy. "I've been expecting you."

Wait what?

"This is my friend Roxy," Jenna smiled back.

I gave him a small wave. "Hey."

The complains from the behind became more audible so Lucho led us in with a smile which we appreciatively returned.

"Lucho?" I turned to Jenna when we were finally in the club.

"Met him at one of the other clubs and he invited me over," she explained and my lips formed the shape of an 'o', duplicating my thoughts.

"Holy shit!" She exclaimed when we finally took in our surroundings.

It was not what we expected, at all.

I turned when I heard a man shouting. He was yelling something out to a girl in an elevated cage. She was topless. Her cage came down a few seconds later and said man deposited lots of dollar bills in her cage. The renewed energy she continued to dance with was inevitable not to notice.

I turned to the dancefloor. It was completely packed with people humping and grinding. I swallowed a d inhaled the humid air one more time.

Nope. I made a mistake of coming.

I turned around, hoping to escape before Jenna-.

"Not so fast." She locked arms with me. I frowned at her. "We're going to enjoy tonight. You'll see."

I spared the twerking strippers and men one last glance. "I don't think so."

"20 shots of tequila and 20 shots of whiskey."

I glared at her.

"What? 20 for you, 20 for me," she said with an innocent smile.

"Make that 6 shots each plus a little dark and stormy twang for me, that is the tequila."

The bartender politely nodded at me and started shuffling his bottle.

"How's the place?" Jenna smiled.

I stared at my nail extensions. "Apart from the underlying smell of choking marijuana and the smell of stale sweat and alcohol, seems nice."

Jenna tried to hide her smile.

The bartender set a tray of 6 neatly arranged shots of tequila before me. He then did the same for Jenna.

My eyes instantly perked up. "Oh look! They've got cute little disposable shot cups."

"They do. All clubs do," she deadpanned. I rolled my eyes at her sarcasm. "First one to finish four shots?"

I glanced at her. "In three.... Two......... One!" I yelled and immediately started drinking. I downed my first two shots with ease and that's when Jenna screamed.

"Done."

I turned just in time to see her slamming the last shot cup on the counter.

Whoa!

"Never compete with a club champion."

I blinked severally to stabilize my vision. Dark and stormy could be strong sometimes. "I think I've learnt that now."

"I think I'll have a shot of your tequila, sweetface," A masculine voice said from beside me and immediately, one of my full shot cups disappeared.

I sharply turned. "Armando?"

He gave himself a mock salute. "That's me."

I chuckled a bit. "What are you doing here? I mean this is a strip club and you're kinda.... gay?" I said and immediately mentally slapped myself for being so low. Apparently, 2 shots of margarita really deteriorated my manners.

"Gay?" He laughed. "So you have been keeping tabs on my sexuality." He smirked. "But to answer your question, no love. I'm bisexual. I prolly must have slept with more women than you've even met." He turned to the dancefloor. "Care for a dance?"

My mouth must have hung open for a good number of seconds before I recollected myself. "Um - I kinda have a boyfriend, so......"

He came close, tucked a few strands behind my ear before whispering, "pity." He then gestured towards a topless brunette.

After taking several wide-eyed deep breaths, I turned to Jenna and she was inquisitively staring at the opposite direction. Leave it to Jenna to always desert you at these kind of moments.

The brunette pranced to him in a seductive walk, at least that's what she thought she was doing.

He stared at the upper rooms. "I want a lap dance and maybe you for the night."

"Alright babe." Her voice was croaky and Irish.

Wait what?

She was about to give him a lap dance? In front of me? Topless?

**************

-C