Roy Glenn - All About The Money

“Chante,” Jada said and touched my arm, “do you have any plans after you leave here?”

“No. What’s up?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to ask you something.”

“What?” I asked, knowing she wanted to talk about me sweatin’ Bella.

“It’s really nothing-” Jada started. “But I was just wondering what you thought of me, Chante.”

Of all the shit that could’ve come out of her mouth, she asks me what I think of her. I wasn’t at all ready for that. “I don’t know.” I giggled and thought about an answer. “I like you, we’re friends, I guess.” And giggled again.

“I like you too, Chante. So that’s why when Bella said that you were-” Jada began.

“Hello, Ms. West,” a voice came from behind Jada.

When she turned to see who the voice belonged to, I got ready to give the speech I had ready.

“Ricky Stanton,” Jada said.

Oh shit! I thought as he stepped between us and kissed Jada on the cheek.

“How are you doing?” Ricky asked. He took a step back and looked at me. I could tell I looked familiar to him.

“I’m doing fine, Ricky.” Jada turned to me. “This is my friend-”

“Chante. We met a couple of months ago at Sensations. How’s the music business?” I asked him quickly before he remembered that he gave me Jada’s number after I got him drunk.

“Busy. Always something going on,” he said and turned to Jada. “Look, I gotta run, but I wanted to tell you we’re having a little party tomorrow night at my house. The One finished his next album, so if you’re not doing anything stop by.”

“I’ll do that,” Jada said.

Ricky turned back to me. “Now, Chante is it?”

“It is,” I flirted.

“You say we met before. Did we get along?” Ricky asked me and Jada rolled her eyes.

I looped my arm in his and winked at Jada. “We got along very well.” I leaned toward Jada. “We’ll talk later, girl,” I said quietly to Jada. Anything to get away from that conversation, I thought, and left the club with Ricky.

After we left the club, Ricky Stanton took me to breakfast. And after breakfast, he took me to my apartment in his limo.

Damn, I loved being Chante.

She was living a life that I only dreamed of and knew would never happen for me.

Jada West

It was good seeing Ricky Stanton the night before. He was The One’s producer and one of my first clients. I’ve seen The One a couple of times since that night. As much as that night represented a turning point in my life, it was apparently just another night at the tittie bar for The One. He doesn’t remember it at all-not that I’ve gone out of my way to remind him. Each time he sees me it’s like the first time we’re meeting, and I always have to remind him that we’ve met.

I decided early in the day that I was going to the party, so some maintenance was in order. I called the spa and made an appointment. I was able to drag Bella and Diane along, but Simone rolled over and pulled the blanket over her head when we tried to recruit her.

“Go awa-a-ay,” she shrieked. I had no idea when she had made her way in, because she was nowhere to be found when we left the club. Diane had come in just before sun up, but still she was down for the spa. I called Chante to see if she wanted to go, but she didn’t answer. She slipped out the club with Ricky Stanton before we had a chance to talk, but I was sure I’d see Chante at The One’s party.

Chante don’t like to miss anything.

After the day at the spa, we prepared for the evening. Bella and Simone had early appointments for the evening; however, both planned to come to the party if it was at all possible.

As for me and Diane, we had a stop of our own to make before we headed for the party. Once we left the apartment, it wasn’t too long after that, that we were seated at a table at Ecstasy.

We were definitely overdressed for the occasion. Diane dressed in her Carmen Marc Valvo satin cocktail dress, with the plunging V-neck in the front and back. And me in my new Betsey Johnson Battenburg-lace dress. “A lot of new faces in here,” Diane said.

“You know how it is, they come and go,” I replied as one of those new faces approached the table. She was a caramel-skinned beauty with big pretty eyes, curvy hips, and large breasts. “Y’all wanna dance?”

“Yes,” Diane said quickly.

I looked at Diane as the dancer began peeling off what little outfit she had on. “I think Bella is right about you.”

“What?”

“I mean it’s cool-you know-if you’re into women.”

“I am definitely bisexual and leaning that way. It’s like-you know-dick is just a job for me now. I don’t know,” Diane said and turned her attention back to the dancer.

While Diane got her eyes full, I flagged down a waitress and ordered two Absolute and cranberry juice on the rocks. “If you see Creme tell her that she has guests in the house,” I said and gave her a fifty.

Before the waitress came back with our drinks, I saw what looked like Creme coming toward the table. If it was Creme, she had lost a lot of weight. I leaned close to Diane. “When was the last time you saw Creme?”

“I don’t know; it’s been a while. Why?” Diane answered without taking her eyes off the dancer.

“Diane!” I yelled to get her attention and pointed at Creme.

“Damn!” was all that Diane could get out before Creme was at the table.

Creme was still cute, but her face was drawn and her olive skin had blotches. She had let her hair grow long and now it looked unkept. Her hourglass shape was gone, and her once firm breasts were sagging. Remembering what she looked like then, it was hard looking at her now.

“Look at you two,” Creme said and pulled up a chair. “Diane and Miss Kitty herself.”

“Creme, what happened to you?” Diane asked.

“I had been sick. Had the flu and shit, lost a little weight. But I’m feeling better now; startin’ to get my weight back up.”

“How’s it going here? I was just saying to Jada that there are a lot of new faces.”

“It’s a’ight, but I’m ’bout burnt out on this. I need to do something different,” Creme said and then looked at me. “That’s why I been hollerin’ at Diane about gettin’ wit you.” Creme looked at Diane. Diane looked away.

I held up my hand to stop her. “Creme, don’t bullshit me. You know as well as I do that the flu didn’t make you lose all that weight. How much are you smoking?”

“You right, Jada, you right. I was on it pretty hard for a while, but I got it under control now,” Creme assured me, but I didn’t believe her. It looked like she had taken a hit before she came on the floor.

“You are in no condition to work for me.”

“Come on, Jada. I got that shit for real.” Creme looked around the room. “I just need to get outta this place.”

I looked around the room and thought back to my first days at Ecstasy. Diane was missing in action, so it was Creme who looked out for me, taught me the ropes. I looked at her now and I saw the desperation in her eyes. “You are in no condition to work for me,” I said, but feeling like I had to do something. “But I’ll tell you what I will do for you.” I reached in my purse and handed her my card. “When you ready to get off the rock, call me and I’ll help you.” I stood up and looked at Diane. “Let’s go.”

It was after midnight when Diane and I arrived at the party. Bella and Simone were there when we got there, and so was Chante, of course. The living and dining rooms at Ricky’s house were fully packed with invited guests. They had gathered two hours after the exclusive event began to toast the host. Quite a few of our clients were there, but there were a lot of others who weren’t. The room was filled with upcoming rappers and a bunch of video vixens, one or two that I considered recruiting.