Shy looked around the room she was in. It was definitely a hotel room, but not the best hotel she’d ever been in. In fact, it was probably the worst. The first thing she did was try the door, but it was locked. Next, Shy went to the window to see if she could tell where she was or at least what floor she was on, but the window was bricked shut. She went into the bathroom. "At least it’s clean." Shy walked over to the bed, picked up the remote control and turned on the television.
Chapter Twenty-four
At exactly five o’clock, a car pulled into a parking space directly in front of Impressions. The driver, a tall man dressed in jeans and a white tee-shirt got out and walked away.
One half-hour later, a woman drove her car into the parking lot at Impressions, and went inside for happy hour. She sat at the bar and ordered a drink.
"Let me have a hypnotic, honey," she flirted with the bartender. "You’re kinda cute, honey, what’s your name." She sat at the bar drinking and flirted with just about every man who came near her. This went on for the next hour, until a man came in and she invited him to sit down next to her.
The two of them sat at the bar, talking, laughing, dancing and drinking together for hours. At eleven thirty the man looked at his watch and whispered, "It’s time."
They got up from the bar and walked out of the club arm in arm, still talking and laughing. As they approached the front door they saw three cops along with the club’s security. As they got close enough for everybody to hear, they went into their act. "You sound like a fuckin’ fool," she said as they passed the cops.
"You got that right," The man laughed. "I am a fuckin’ fool."
At the same time in the club’s office, Tara Wallace the club’s manager looked at her watch and prepared to make her rounds. She put on her head set and called security. "Greg, meet me in the office. I wanna get my rounds done before the show starts," Tara told him.
"Yeah, P-Harlem is hot. I wanna see him too," Greg said of that evening’s entertainment. "I’ll be there in a few."
Once Greg arrived, he and Tara went around to all five of the bars in the club and took money from each of the cash registers. A couple of months earlier, Wanda had noticed that profits at the club were down, but the crowds had remained consistent. She brought it up during the monthly meeting with Mike and Bobby. "That means that somebody is stealing," Bobby said.
Wanda handed the income statement to Mike and he looked at the numbers. "Looks more like a whole lotta somebody’s stealing, Bob."
"Why don’t you have Tara go around during the night with security and count down the registers," Wanda recommended. "That will at the very least give us better control of the money."
"If people are gonna steal from you, they’ll find a way to do it," Mike said and passed the statement to Bobby. "But I think it’s a good idea."
"Glad that’s settled," Bobby said and got ready to leave. "I got something that I need to take care of."
"Before you go, Bobby, there’s one more thing."
"What’s that?" Bobby asked impatiently.
"This funeral home that you said we needed, Mike."
Mike and Bobby looked at one another. "What about it?" Mike asked.
"It’s losing money. In fact it’s never made any money. I think that we should cut our losses and sell it," Wanda advised.
"No, Wanda," Mike said. "That funeral home provides a valuable service to the community," he said and followed Bobby out of Wanda’s office.
After the registers were counted down, Tara went to the front door and counted that drawer down as well, before returning to the office just before the show started at midnight.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Thursday night live at Impressions. Is everybody havin’ a good time?" the MC asked the crowd, but got only a weak response from the crowd. "I don’t believe you heard me, I said is everybody havin’ a good time?" this time the crowd of nearly fifteen hundred people roared. ‘Is everybody ready for P-Harlem?" and the crowd roared again. "That’s good, that’s good, cause we gonna bring him out in just a minute. But, before we do that, I wanna remind you all to be sure to tip your bartenders and your waitresses, they are here working hard to take care of you, so you take care of them."
The crowd began to chat, "P, P, P. ."
"A’ight, a’ight. You’ve seen him on 106 and Park and his new single is blowin’ up ya radio everyday! Impressions very proudly welcomes to the stage, New York’s own, P-Harlem!"
The crowd went wild and continued to chant, "P, P, P. ." as P-Harlem slowly walked across the stage, escorted by two of his dancers and struck a pose for the crowd as the chanting continued, "P, P, P. ."
"Thank you, Impressions, thank you" P-Harlem said as he grabbed the mic. "Y’all too good to me."
The chatting continued, "P, P, P. ."
"Y’all ready to set this bitch on fire!"
The crowd continued to chat, "P, P, P. ." and the beat began.
Niggaz ain’t shit to me, truth is, ya crew ain’t hot,
Y’all boyz are sloppy and ya crew don’t pop
We can bang out, Let them things out, my crew don’t stop
How you gangster, runnin’ for safety like Ronnie Lott
Meanwhile, outside the club, in the parking lot the argument had begun as planned. "Who the fuck do you think you talkin’ to me like that?" the woman yelled. "I’m a muthafuckin’ lady, you sorry ass muthafucka."
"I’m talkin’ to you, bitch!" the man yelled back.
"I know you don’t think that just because you bought me a few drinks,that mean that you gonna get some of this pussy! It takes a whole hell of a lot more than a couple of drinks to get this pussy!" she screamed.
"What do it take then, baby?"
"It takes a lot more than you got," she said and laughed in his face.
"How the fuck you know what I got?"
All I’m tryin’ to do is make that cash, put it in my stash
But I see niggaz want me to fail
I can’t do that homie, thought I proved that
New coupe, same color as a taco shell
Hop out nigga with the stroke, bitches ready to fuck
Outside the club, the argument was beginning to get loud and as expected one of the officers walked over to see what all the noise was about.
Niggaz looking from the side
Hatin’ approach me on that battle shit
I was like what go on fear factor nigga
And eat some buffalo nuts cause this shit not for you
See my life, look at the obstacles of Oz
"Get your muthafuckin’ hands off of me!" the woman yelled. As the officer approached, the woman took out her gun, a 22 caliber automatic, "I’ll kill you!" she screamed and fired two shots at the ground.
Hearing the gunshots, all three officers ran toward the sound, leaving the front door unprotected. The cop, with his gun drawn yelled "Drop the gun!" The woman dropped the gun and put her hands up.
"What’s goin’ on over here?" the cop asked as the other two officers arrived on the scene.
They immediately separated the woman from the man. "Y’all need to lock her up! That bitch is crazy."
"I ain’t crazy and I ain’t no bitch. This sorry ass muthafucka was trying to feel on me!"
"So you shot at him?"
"No, I was just trying to scare him with the gun and it went off by accident."