50 Shades of Drake 1 and 2

50SOD II: Chapter Sixty-Six

    Topz, the gay bar, was located near Decadence, the club where Destiny and Aubrey had...entertained an audience, so to speak. That area of the city seemed to have all of the hot spots.

    To say that the characters in Topz were colorfully flamboyant would be a massive understatement. The outfits varied from tasteful to...unique. She saw silver hot pants paired with thigh high boots, a too-tight tank top, and a feather boa. There was also the guy who had a full blown beard while wearing a skirt, heels, and makeup. There were all different types partying it up, drinking, mingling, grinding on each other. Women and men alike. No judgements, no one to force them into a box of conformity... a place where they could be themselves, dress how they wanted, dance how they wanted, and make out with whoever they wanted, as demonstrated by the couples getting hot and heavy in the dark corners of the place.

    Women looked in her direction. She went through the whole mental process of trying to smile politely, but not too politely. Smile control. Make sure her smile was friendly, but not overly friendly to the point where she'd have women slipping her their phone numbers.

    Carlos stared down at her and laughed. "Will you loosen the hell up? You're making me feel uptight."

    "The upside, is that here in Canada, I'm of legal drinking age," she said, searching for the bar.

    He shook his head. "I remember the last time you and I went to a bar. First and last time I will encourage you to drink. You were drunk off your ass. And it didn't take much."

    "Hush. I want a drink."

    He winced and led her to the bar. Neon lights lined the edge of the bar counter. They were a bit too bright, seeing as how the club's interior was incredibly dark, but Destiny seemed to be the only one to notice or care. Carlos plopped on the seat.

    "Hmm, what should I order?"

    "Do you even know the names of any drinks?" Carlos asked her.

    "Ummm..." She reviewed the huge selection of bottles lining the shelves behind the bar. "Not really."

    "How come I have a feeling I'm going to regret this?" he wailed.

    She gripped the edge of the counter and looked at him. "Order me something. Something fruity. Something where I can't taste the liquor."

    He smacked his forehead and called over the bartender.

    By the time the bartender made the drink Carlos ordered for her, two men approached Carlos asking him to dance with them. Destiny's brows rose as she sipped her pineapple juice and Malibu rum drink. No time wasted whatsoever, she thought.

    Carlos checked with her to make sure it was okay.

    She waved him off. "Go. Dance. Have fun." What was a straight girl to do in a gay club? She turned her head to the right and saw an older woman with a gray mullet. The woman wore a biker's vest, black leather pants, and was looking in Destiny's direction. Definitely not that, Destiny thought, whipping her head around so quickly, she nearly gave herself whiplash. She stared straight ahead and watched Carlos dance. Aubrey's words echoed in her head. I refuse to believe Carlos would be here for anything other than spending time with me. He doesn't have a motive to be here for any other reason. Sure, he didn't clear it with me first before hopping across the Canadian border, but he's spontaneous that way. Wild. Carefree. That's just Carlos. Bridgette on the other hand... She sipped her drink so hard, the straw bent in. She sighed and set her glass on the counter.

    Bridgette was a cancer. Destiny got evil vibes from her. And after Destiny had put her in her place earlier that week, the vibes that Bridgette gave off only became worse. Sure, she smiled the way an administrative assistant was supposed to. She was courteous whenever Destiny went to visit Aubrey. But there was an underlying hostility beneath the smiles and pleasantries.

    From what Aubrey said, she's crushed on him for a long time. Why would she continue to pine after him after this long? Hasn't she got the point? Doesn't she know by now that Aubrey doesn't want her? And...if she's delusional enough to still think she has a chance with him, there's no telling what else she's willing to do. She frowned down into her glass. And someone at the office is leaking information, someone who would have access to information that sensitive...

    "No Negative Nancys!" Carlos shouted, running over to her. He grabbed both of her hands. "Come dance with me!"

    She joined Carlos on the dance floor and even managed to enjoy herself, but that didn't stop the goosebumps slowly raising along the length of her arms. The thought that Bridgette could be the mole, the leak...it was unnerving, for some reason. And if I tell Aubrey that theory, he'll just laugh it off or think I'm being paranoid again.

    "You're thinking about work!" Carlos shouted. "Stop it!"

    "I'm trying to!" she yelled. Trying to no avail. The thoughts continued to plague her long into the night.

    Several men were into Carlos, and made it known to the world. Carlos was something of a hot commodity. She stood by, trying to shove her thoughts about work to the back of her mind.

    Carlos and Destiny hit up a few other bars, then returned back to her condo where she drunkenly draped herself across the length of the couch. She stuck her legs up in the air and reached up to take off her shoes. "Why do my legs seem so long whenever I'm trying to take off my shoes? They never seem this long when I'm just standing...or sitting...or doing anything else other than taking off my shoes."

    Carlos shook his head and walked over to her. "Girl, you are the champion of the lightweight class. You cannot handle your liquor."

    "It's not my fault," she muttered, lowering her hands onto her stomach as she watched Carlos help remove her heels. "All of this work bullshit is driving me crazy."

    "The storm will pass," Carlos said confidently, setting her shoes down on the floor and stumbling over to the armchair.

    "I don't know if it will," she fretted. "It just keeps getting worse and worse. We finally find some dirt on Palmer, something we can really stick to him, and then I realize that Bridgette - Aubrey's secretary, of all people, is probably the person leaking out information from his company."

    Carlos's brows shot up.

    "And the worst part? I can't tell Aubrey, because he thinks I'm paranoid," she rambled on. "He thinks I'm paranoid because I know that she has a big time crush on him. But she really is evil. I'm not paranoid. I'm not imagining it. I can feel it. She's bad news."

    "Everything will work out," Carlos said, his tone a little less light than it had been before.

    She sighed and continued to kick her feet into the air. "I hope it does. I mean, Palmer tried to pin accounting bullshit on Aubrey when he's not even in the accounting department. But when everyone finds out that Palmer was the one driving the car in his wife's accident and not his wife? When they find out that he probably caused the accident on purpose? I mean, why else lie about it, right? When the world finds out about that, everything he tried to pin on Aubrey will just look like exactly what it is. Bullshit. Smoke."

    Carlos closed his eyes and turned his head.

    She rolled over onto her stomach and looked at him, grinning from ear to ear. The look on his face caused her smile to falter. "What's wrong?"

    "We really shouldn't talk about work," Carlos said, opening his eyes and looking at her. "We can talk...boys. How about the hot ones we saw at the bars tonight?"

    "Some of them were cute," she said, the drunken feeling slipping away from her. She could sense that something was wrong. "You're acting funny. Was it something I said?"

    "No," he told her. "I'm just trying to keep the mood for tonight light. Okay?"

    "Okay," she said, raising up on her knees and clasping her hands together in front of her.

    They capped off the night by watching a movie, something with Melissa McCarthy in it. The movie was hilarious, but as Destiny watched along with Carlos, she couldn't help but remember Aubrey's warning. Carlos has been a great friend to me. But...he definitely got weird when I started talking about work. Why would anything to do with work affect him that way? And when am I going to learn to keep my freaking mouth shut?