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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


Salomi was reading a book in the hotel room while she was soaking in a bath when there was a knock on the door. She thought about not answering it but then she thought that maybe it was Darla. She was still feeling sick. “In a minute, Im comin’”she said as she slowly got out of the tub, dried off quickly and wrapped a robe around her as the knocks sounded more urgent,”Damn it I said I was comin’”she said as she opened the door and then gasped.

“Hey sweetheart”Dorothy said excitedly as she gave her a big hug and then rushed into the room,”Close the door will ya? The press already knows Im around”she said as Salomi closed the door behind her while she stared at her with shock. “So huney how are you?”she asked her

“Um….Im fine”Salomi said

“That’s good. How’s the tour life treating you? Treating you good?”Dorothy asked her as she hugged her,”Whats wrong Salomi? Your so…quiet…tense…Im not gonna bite you”

“I know”Salomi said with a laugh as she started to loosen up,”Its just…”then Salomi hugged her tighter.”Im sorry about what I said, I didn’t mean it. I almost thought that you wouldn’t speak to me again”

“Now what a crazy idea!”Dorothy said to her as she pulled away and looked at her. “I knew you were sorry it was the drinks talking, you were upset. We say things we don’t mean when we are upset, everyone does it. And you were right. I was pressuring you into marrying Gabriel and telling you that he's a good man when you already knew that. Your right, your young, have fun. I did just as bad as you at your age”she said with a laugh and then she sighed,”And I'm not your mother dear-“

“But-“

“I'm not your mother, never was and never will be and I do need to stop acting like it. Your father asked me to take care of you, that was that. Nowhere did he say to take over Salomi’s life, tell her what to do”

“But you are like a mother to me Dorothy. You were the only mother I ever had, or ever will have. Seriously”Salomi said

Dorothy smiled and stroked her rouged cheeks. “Thank you and your like a daughter to me and my little best friend”she said to her,”Which is why I made you the maid of honor. Three days huney…three days”she said to her

Salomi felt a little bad, she almost forgot about the wedding happenings because she figured Dorothy wouldn’t speak to her again. “How are the wedding plans?”

“Hard. Frustrating but it keeps me busy,busy,busy”she said,”Which is why I couldn’t mourn over our disagreement, I didn’t have time for distractions”she said. “How’s tour life?”

“Oh its great!”Salomi exclaimed,”I thought that Darla and I would be bored. But we went to a ranch, horseback riding, we went to the beach and the boardwalk, the film festival-“

“Oh I was so upset to miss that”Dorothy said,”Lots of Clara Bow”

“Oh yes, I love her”Salomi said

“Yeah yeah yeah so does everybody else”she said with a laugh,”Where is Darla anyway?”she asked her

“Oh she's been sick for the past few days. I think it was something she ate. We went to this seafood restaurant and had a feast, clams, lobsters, oysters, she got sick the day after. Gabriel even found a pearl! He almost ate it, can you believe it?”

“What's he gonna do with it?”

“He's gonna make it into a ring”Salomi said,”Or a necklace”

“Like you need another ring”Dorothy said and then smiled at her own.

“Look at you, all lit up”Salomi said to her with a laugh

“Salomi…in three days, three days! In three days I’ll be Mrs. Julian Brulatour. Finally, he's all mine. I've always wanted to be his even when we were keeping it a secret. Oh it's gonna be the greatest day of my life”Dorothy gushed.”Oh and we bought a house out here”

“Really?”Salomi asked

“Yeah, we are both kinda sick of the city. We bought a house right on the coast. Right on the beach, every morning we will wake up and there will be miles of sand and water….”

“What about the club?”Salomi asked

“I'm still gonna do it. I'm going to keep the apartment too, just in case. It's just a 45 minute train ride”she said,”I heard you didn’t get on the train, you got upset”

“Yeah I was hysterical, it was awful-“

“You weren’t ready for it. Never do anything unless you want to. It makes life so much easier. That’s why Im getting married now..its been a long time comin’”she said,”Actually, you can help me. I'm going to run some errands, go by the church. I even talked to Gatsby-“

“We met Gatsby at his party last weekend”Salomi said excitedly

“Really?”Dorothy asked her,”I haven’t seen him yet. Jules met him once and he said,’Oh if Gatsby wants to throw you a party…don’t say no’. Does he look like a murderer?”she asked her.”I heard he killed someone”

“Dorothy!”

“Oh look at me, believing the gossip”Dorothy said with a laugh

“Well that’s what a lot of people were talking about. There were so many rumors flying around but everyone just had a good time. We didn’t see him until the end of the party. Gabriel was performing with some other Broadway stars that were there and some man started talking to us, all normal like. Then Gabriel mentioned that it was the weirdest party he had ever been to, not ever seeing the host and all and then the man said,’Im Gatsby’”

“He said that to Gatsby?”

“Yes it was classic. But he just laughed it off, he apologized for being a bad host. But he was incognito the whole time, very mysterious yes but I don’t think he murdered anyone. A woman said that he was the type of person who didn’t want trouble with anyone”

“Sounds like my kind of guy, cant wait to meet him, he's got an orchestra and everything and he's doing it free of charge. That’s why the wire took so long, I wouldn’t hear of it but he wouldn’t hear of taking money from me, I guess he can throw it around huh?”

“I say take the free party, it was so good no one wanted to leave”Salomi said

Dorothy nodded,”I’ll trust you on that”she said,”So come with me, I need to make a few stops, some last minute things oh and if anything pops into your head- anything at all tell me, it's better now than the day of”she said.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

When Darla saw the first set of pictures, she was fuming, but it didn’t seem like enough evidence, she needed more. And that’s what she said to Robert,”I need more.I don’t care how long it takes”

While everyone else thought that she was sick, she was looking at photos, making wires and doing a little snooping around of her own. The recent picture she had looked at made her go crazy. Leon was lip locking with one of the chorus floozies. Gabriel didn’t even say anything; he still claimed that he didn’t know anything. Probably to save his precious act, just like his stupid fiancé. She was furious with all of them, she didn’t know who she could trust. So she went out and bought something a little special and very expensive but whatever, Leon was paying for everything, the detective, the photographer, the gifts, the clothes, everything. He was helping with his own demise, the son of a bitch. Don’t take for granted, a woman's intuition.

“Thanks sir”Darla said quickly and ran out of the store as she put the item in her purse, she walked down the street and tried to look for a cab. They weren’t running rampant like in the city.

“Darla!?”she heard someone call. Her face went pale and she turned around to see Salomi sitting in the passenger seat and the driver was none other than Dorothy. When did she get to town? For what? Oh the wedding, that’s right. “Darla are you crazy? You’ve been sick, what are you doing walking around?”

“I just needed some fresh air”Darla said quietly as she walked up to the car. “My stomach feels better”

“I thought you had a headache?”Salomi asked

“Oh well that too, it feels better too. It was something I ate, I think I might have swallowed an actual pearl like Gabriel almost did”Darla said and flashed a smile to Dorothy,”Hey Ms. Gibson. Did you hear that Gabriel found a pearl? You ready to be a Mrs.?

“Yes I did hear, how are you Darla?”she asked her,”Why don’t you get in? The hotel is a long way from here, we were just heading back from some last minute wedding planning”she said as Salomi got out of the car and opened the door for Darla to get in. They continued to drive and Salomi told Darla about the last minute additions that she made, how beautiful the church was, how excited she was to party with Gatsby again. But Dorothy watched Darla in the rearview mirror and she didn’t look so good, not because she was sick, but because she was up to something.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

“I can't believe that on our night off, we are at another rehearsal”Leon whispered to Gabriel as they stood in line. They were having a rehearsal for Dorothy and Jules’s wedding. The wedding party had to know how to walk down the aisle and it seemed that the flower girl and boy were having some trouble. They were very young. “But I gotta say that this is some star studded event”he said. Josephine Baker, Greta Garbo and Charlie Chaplin were in the wedding party as well and were standing along with the likes of them.

After that was the dinner and it was held at the Onyx restaurant, the most expensive on Long Island. The press was all over and around the restaurant since ‘the biggest stars of stage and screen were here for a star studded wedding’. There were lots of champagne, lots of toasts and laughs.

The next night was the bachelor and bachelorette parties. Dorothy took over the jazz club at the hotel and made it into an invite only bachelorette party, with a lot of jazz and booze. Pretty innocent.

The guys, well, what else do guys do for their bachelor parties? Jules protested at first but then gave in since the other guys weren’t. They went to see a burlesque show and the dancers were quite naughty. All the guys celebrated with a lot of booze and lapdances.

“So Dorothy? Do you know what Jules is doing right now?”Darla asked her as they listened to the jazz singer sing ‘Funny Honey’.

“Oh he's probably getting a lapdance with all the other guys”Dorothy said,”What do you think they're doing? Reading books?”she said. She had a couple of glasses of champagne and didn’t have a care in the world. By this time tomorrow, she will be Mrs. Julian Brulatour and partying with the likes of Gatsby.

“Lapdances? All of the guys?”

“Yeah what kinda guy would pass that up?”Dorothy said as they all clapped and she whistled. “Hey waiter?! More champagne!”she said as the rest of the girls cheered. But Darla didn’t cheer at all.

“Why the long face?”Salomi asked her with a giggle

“What's the name of the club that Gabriel went to? They get lapdances there you know that?”

“Yeah, so? Don’t remind me”Salomi said with a laugh

“What's it called?”

“I dunno….uh….it had an interesting name…Olivia’s that’s what it was”

“Olivia’s? You sure? That doesn’t sound so interesting”

“It did at the time. I mean I expected some joint like that would be called ‘Desire’ or ‘Lust’ or something”

“Or infidelity”Darla mumbled,”Be right back”she said as she walked away. Salomi shrugged as Dorothy handed her a glass of champagne. She sipped eagerly, its been awhile since she had alcohol. She was so happy for Dorothy, so happy for Gabriel. She was so happy for everyone.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Darla walked back into the jazz club and sat at the bar. Salomi was dancing with Dorothy and many people were cheering for the two. She sat next to a man as he watched. He turned to her.”Why aren't you out there with them?”

“Cuz I don’t feel like it”Darla said.

“That actress sure does hang around some cute girls”he said as he looked her up and down.

“No thanks I'm taken”she said and then stopped.”She ain't”Darla said as she nodded over to Salomi

“She's not? Wow, she's the hottest one here”he said as he got off the bar stool. “Thanks toots”he said to her

“No thank you”she said with a sly smile. Salomi was in for something. Darla warned her that all men were the same, she didn’t believe her. She probably will now.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

It seemed that Jules couldn’t hold his liquor like the rest of the guys and he was the first to leave. Leon, Gabriel and a few other guys stayed behind. But then it got to the point when it was time to leave too. However, Leon was very drunk and couldn’t get enough of the ladies as always. “Ok Lee, let's go. Theres a girl named Darla that’s waiting for ya”Gabriel said to him

“Where's Darla? She's here?”Leon asked anxiously as he looked around in a drunken stupor.

“No she's not here, that’s why we have to leave”Gabriel said with a laugh

“Oh yeah she's waiting for me. I mean I gotta tell ya. I love Darla, you know that?”Leon asked as Gabriel helped him up,”And I love you too Gabe”

“You love Darla? You might want to tell her that”he said, remembering what she said at Gatsby’s party.

“Oh she knows”Leon said,”She knows how much I love her and all the things that she does with her tong-“

“That’s enough Lee”Gabriel said with a laugh as he walked Leon out and got him into a cab. He couldn’t wait to see Salomi himself.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Darla was outside smoking a cigarette when a cab rolled up and Leon hopped out and ran to her. She couldn’t help but smile when he walked over to her, he was so cute. “Hey Dar…I missed you”he said as he hugged her

“He's drunk”Darla said to Gabriel,”You guys were at Olivia’s this whole time?”

Gabriel nodded,”Where's Lomi?”he asked her.

Darla smiled,”Still dancing at the club downstairs”she said.”I got Leon, you go find her”she said with a smile. Gabriel will walk in on that guy doing God knows what. She smiled at Leon and saw a trace of lipstick on his shirt,”You son of a bitch”she muttered

“Wha? Huh?”he asked

“Nothing”she said,”Let's go”

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Salomi was asleep at the bar when Gabriel walked in. Dorothy and a friend were still dancing and chatting but everyone else turned in for the night. He smiled and picked her up and carried her out.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

“And introducing, Mr. and Mrs. Julian Brulatour”the master of ceremonies said as Dorothy and Julian walked onto the dance floor that was held in Gatsby’s backyard. The wedding was beautiful but Gatsby turned his backyard into the World’s Fair. It was a huge celebration.

However, more trouble was unfolding without anyone knowing it. It was a little past midnight when things started to go wrong. Jealousy led to anger, confusion led to fear and in a flash there was a gunshot. Then two, then three.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Ive got a wicked taste for trouble
And I'm never, never satisfied
Yeah I'm a whole lotta trouble baby
And my evil ways cant hide
Oh my my
Well I been itchin’ for some trouble babe
Every single day that Im alive

*_____________________________*









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