Author's Chapter Notes:
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Salomi stomped away from Gabriel’s dressing room as he called after her but she didn’t pay attention. He wanted to throw himself at other people in her face? Tina even!? Then she can do the same! She stomped into Dorothy’s office and lifted up a loose floorboard. Three bottles of whiskey was hidden down there just for her. Now that Dorothy was back she couldn’t hide them in her desk anymore. She opened a bottle and took huge gulps of it, too much maybe. She stopped and put it back under the floorboard and made sure it was secure. Then the room got dizzy and she sat down quickly. She sighed as she tried to keep her eyes and whole body steady. She couldn’t look drunk in front of Dorothy or anyone for that matter.
She slowly stood up and took a few deep breaths,she walked into the ladies room and splashed some water on her face. Her eyes were a little red. She blinked a few times and waited for the redness to disappear. When it seemed like the redness was gone a little, she walked out into the bar.
She looked up onstage and saw Tina doing her stupid tumbling act. She so wanted to go up on that stage and pull all of her blond hair out. She saw how all of the men were staring at her, cheering. She caught eyes with one of them however, he always stared at her. He was always there every night. It usually freaked her out because he was old enough to be her father. He nodded his head, signaling that he wanted her to come to him. And she saw Gabriel go to the bar at the same time. She smiled.”Two can play at this game”she said to herself and walked over to the man
“Well look what we got here”the man said to her,”You usually ignore me or send that Ruth girl over here”
“Ruth’s busy”Salomi said to him,”What do you need?”
“I would like another beer…but I also need to get to know you better. You are the hottest thing in here. Hotter than that Tumbling Tina”
Salomi smiled,”Well at least someone thinks so”she said proudly. She looked toward the bar and saw Gabriel staring at her. She knew that he didn’t like it when she talked to that guy. He knew how he kind of scared her with his blank stares. She smiled and looked at him,”What do you want to drink?”
“Whiskey….Jack Daniels. My best friend”he said
“Mine too”she said,”I’ll be right back”she said as she walked over to the bar and told the bartender that she needed two bottles of whiskey.
“What are you doing?”Gabriel asked her
“I'm doing my job”she said without looking at him. She leaned against the bar and the man smiled at her from across the room, she smiled back and waved flirtingly
“You’re flirting with him? And getting him drinks? You said he scared you, whats the interest now?!”Gabriel asked her
“Well he wants to get to know me and hes actually really nice and he said that he would rather look at me than Tina….unlike some people. So hes kind of a priority when it comes to my attention at this moment”she said as she kept smiling at the man, not looking at him
“Ok if this is about Tina and how you are jealous then just tell me. Don’t throw yourself at 40 year old men-“
“Why!? Cause your jealous too?”Salomi interrupted him
“No because he’s 40! That’s illegal! Your only 14!”
“Well maybe I need to find a man that’s 25 years older than me than a boy who’s only 3 years older. He’s a little more mature about it”
“There's nothing mature about statutory rape…what if he tries to touch you? You know that the attention that you give to him may be misleading? That he may want to do something more than just talk to you?”Gabriel asked her. He was really worried about her now. He didn’t like that man at all. This was making him too uncomfortable.
“Well hasn’t your attention misled me?”Salomi asked him as she grabbed two of the bottles of whiskey and put them on a tray.”I mean you said everything I wanted to hear, got me to sleep with you and now….here we are. I'm finding older men and you are flirting with tumbling whores”Salomi said as Tina finished her act and bowed. Men were bowing for her like she was God or something,she rolled her eyes,”Well Tina is done with her act, you might want to standby and get ready to massage her shoulders. You know shes always wanted to. I'm happy to know that you have been spreading around that we aren't together anymore”
“Lomi you know I love you and you know the only reason why we made love was because of that!”Gabriel said to her
“Could of fooled me”Salomi said as she walked away and over to the guy. Every inch she got closer to him, he got sicker to his stomach
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“Miss me?”Salomi asked him flirtingly as she put the two bottles of whiskey down on his table.
“I only ordered one…”he said to her
“The other ones on the house”Salomi said and winked at him
The man smiled,”I'm liking you already”he said with a smile,”My names Frank…you must have a gorgeous name”
“Salomi”
He raised his eyebrows,”Wow never heard that name before. Sounds exotic. You look exotic. Your mother picked the perfect name”
“I was named after her”Salomi said
“I bet she is beautiful too. Your father must be a lucky man”Frank said to her
“He….yes…”she said not wanting to correct him about her being an orphan basically, he didn’t want to hear all of that
Then Ruth rushed over to her,”Please go check on Andre, he’s gonna be late, hes next and I have to take care of something”she said to her and rushed off.
Salomi nodded, she sighed with relief though. Ruth was so freaked out that she didn’t notice that a 40 year old man was flirting with her.”Gotta get back to work”
“Come back and visit when you have free time”Frank said to her
“I will”Salomi said with a smile and then went backstage.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Gabriel slammed his fist down on the bar and walked toward his dressing room. He didn’t know how else to get through to Salomi. He didn’t want to get hurt anymore…or feel for her anymore. But he knew that was impossible. Should he give up on her?
He walked into his dressing room and saw Tina sitting on his vanity table. He sighed,”Tina…this isn’t a good time…”
“She hurt you didn’t she?”she asked him
“What?”he asked her
“I know what's going on. I saw her flirting with some old guy…who by the way doesn’t look anywhere near as good as you do. She’s playing games..and to be frank with you..its excusable. She's…what? 14? Shes still a baby. A little girl. They can do that. But not you, no you’re a man now. You are too old and mature to deal with that shit”Tina said as she came up to him,”You hate how she bosses you around. You hate how everything is going between you two right now. But shes not helping, shes only pushing you away. Now…me…I wouldn’t push you away. I'm 18 and I'm too old for games. I tell you what I want…when I want it”she said as she got closer to him,”And I want you Gabriel. Leave the kid behind and get with a woman”she said to him. And she ended her very dramatic monologue by pulling him toward her and kissing him as hard and as passionate as she could.
For a split second he almost gave in, but it was a split second and it was over quickly. He pulled away from her and pushed her up against the wall.”Look Tina…you are beautiful, talented, graceful..and you certainly have legs for days….but you have to leave me alone ok? I love Salomi. And I need to give us some space right now. But I cant do that if you are always around trying to get into my pants. You are being a hypocrite when you say I should stop playing games with Lomi…because if I were to give in to you. I would be doing the same with you. You have been playing games since you somehow found out about me and Lomi’s falling out. But its just a falling out, its not over”Gabriel said to her and then let her go.”You gotta go”he said to her,”I need to think”
Tina frowned and groaned,”Fucking child”she said and stomped out of the room
“Fucking child?”Gabriel said to himself.”That’s new”he said as he sat down at his dressing room vanity.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“Now you know not to drink before you go onstage you alcoholic!”Salomi said to Andre as she walked out of his dressing room,”You are on in 10…I don’t care if you have to throw up on your banjo but you have to perform…they love you out there”she said to him quite frankly and closed the door behind him.
She walked back toward the bar and walked past Gabriel’s dressing room, his door was halfway open and she again heard something that she wished she didn’t.
”Look Tina…you are beautiful, talented, graceful..and you certainly have legs for days….”was what Gabriel was saying to her. Salomi blocked the rest of it out. That must be it. They are over. She held back the tears as she went out to check on her new friend Frank.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Abby felt on top of the world..and so in love. Now that Vernon was home more often due to this new “golden child” that came into the hustle, they can actually be a family. She had her husband back and it felt so good. She snuggled against him and smiled,”I love you Vernie”she said to him
“I love you too”he said to her
They sat there in silence and listened to each other breathe as they held each other and laid there. Then Abby felt her stomach turn. She jumped out of bed and scared Vernon in the process and ran to the kitchen and threw up in the wash basin.
“Baby…whats wrong? Whats going on!?”Vernon asked as he ran to her. He comforted her as she threw up, rubbing her back as she did so. She then finished and sat on the floor, leaning her head against the basin. He handed her a glass of water,”Was it something you ate?”he asked her
She shook her head as she drank the water, she took big gulps and then took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She sat there in silence as she tried to find the right words to say. He sat there staring at her, scared out of his mind. She looked at him and then…started laughing?
“Abby….what….whats….why are you-“
“Don’t you know whats going on?”she asked him as she laughed,”I didn’t want to tell you because I wasn’t sure…but….Ive been throwing up for days now…”
“Ok…?”
“Vernie. I'm pregnant. We are going to have another baby”Abby said happily
“Are you?…Ohmygod!”he said as he kissed her cheek happily.”Oh baby. You…we are just popping out babies like hotcakes”he said with a laugh
“Yes its so easy now”Abby said,”Oh it will be great. Vivian and Junior can have a little brother or sister to take care of and play with.We can be a bigger and better family”she said as she snuggled against him as he sat next to her on the kitchen floor
Vernon instantly got sad. Bringing another child into the world was a miracle indeed. Just a few years ago, doctors were telling Abby that she could never be with child. But now he had not 2 but 3 kids to keep away from his hustling and illegal life. His conscience was getting to him….he had a bad feeling that time may run out for him if he didn’t stop this feeling in his stomach soon.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“Hey boss”Morietti’s bouncer said as he walked into his office
“What?”Morrietti said as he counted counterfeit money, not looking up.
“I got a new lead on those two girls with the suitcase. You wont believe it”
“So fast?”Morietti asked, finally looking at him.
“My girl of the week loves reading the papers. She has archives of them. Supposedly the older dame is a silent film star and real famous too. Supposedly she and Abraham had a real hot fling. My girl is a big fan of hers. The other girl is Abraham’s daughter….but look who’s with them”he said as he pointed to the old black and white photo on the page.
Morietti grabbed the paper from him and looked at the headline, “FILM STAR GIVES UP FILMS TO BE A NANNY”. The picture showed the woman walking the streets of New York City with the girl,next to the girl was a blond haired boy. He gasped,”Holy shit”
“Yep, it’s the Golden Child. He knows them”
Morietti laughed,”I knew that kid would be good to us. He’s been bringing in a lot of customers….and he’s gonna bring that million dollar suitcase right back to us. Its been too long”
“So,what do we do boss?”
“When he comes to the office, have him speak to me instead of dropping off his delivery. I have a proposition he wont be able to refuse…”Morietti said as he snickered evilly as he looked at the picture. The wheels were sure turning in his head and they weren’t turning up anything pretty.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Gabriel sighed as he sat down at the table, looking at himself in the mirror. However,it was funny, all he could see was Salomi’s face. He then picked up another scrap sheet of paper and continued to write what he couldn’t finish before.
Tell me how you love me more
And how you think I'm sexy baby
But you don’t want nobody else
You don’t want this guy
You don’t want that guy
You wanna…
Touch yourself when you see me
Tell me how you love my body
And how I make you feel baby
You wanna roll with me
You wanna hold me
You wanna stay warm and get out of the cold with me
I just love to hear you say it
It makes a man feel good baby
Tell me you depend on me
I need to hear it
He could write for days but then there was a knock on the door and Ruth came in.
“Shit can you knock?”he asked her.
“Sorry….your money for tonight”Ruth said to him
“Hey…can I ask you something?”Gabriel asked her.She nodded,”Did you tell Tina that Salomi and I broke up?”
“No…well…I told her that you two were fighting…why?”she asked
Gabriel just chuckled,”Nothing….never mind…forget it…”he said to her sarcastically as he got his things and rushed out the door. He should have known.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Gabriel finally finished all of his deliveries and went to headquarters to drop everything off and just go home. Tonight was just exhausting and he couldn’t stop thinking about Salomi. He dropped his bag off and nodded at Morietti’s assistant and started to walk off.
“Not so fast”he said as he grabbed him,”He wants to talk to ya”he said and pushed him into his office. It all happened so fast, and soon he was standing right in front of Morietti
“Uh…hi sir”Gabriel said to him
“Ok,I'm going to cut to the chase here”Morietti said to him and then he showed Gabriel a picture of him, Salomi and Dorothy walking down Times Square. ”You know these girls?” Gabriel nodded,”Good. You don’t lie. These two girls have something of ours. And they have had it for years, well ever since that damn ship sank. They have a suitcase filled with one million dollars of counterfeit money that is rightfully ours. Not theirs. A very important client wants it. Now we need a way to get to them but we find that you are already close to them. You need to get that suitcase immediately”
Gabriel sighed.He knew that Salomi cherished that suitcase because besides her father’s overcoat, that was all she had of him. She was barely speaking to him now. How could he possibly get it from her? “Um…I'm sorry but me and the girl…Salomi…we are barely speaking”
Then in a split second, Morietti had him pinned against the wall with a 9mm pointed to his head,”Listen you fuck! I don’t want any apologies. I don’t care if your fucking the girl or not! Whether you are talking to her or not! Bottom line is I need that fucking money now! Steal it, replace it with something else. Anything! I need that money by Friday night at midnight or both of those girls will die, you understand me?!” Gabriel nodded in fear,”DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?”
“Yes”Gabriel said and then ran out the office.What shit did he get himself into now?
*______________________________*
Chapter End Notes:
Featured "Poem"- "Lost Without You" by Robin Thicke