Three Kings

avé.

"ARIEL!" I whipped around on my toes, juggling two plates of empty glasses in either hand.

"THEY ORDERED DRINKS FIFTEEN MINUTES AGO! I need you to get on your job!" Tasha added yelling over the loud bass of the strip club. Yo Gotti's 'Respect You Earn' blasted through the speakers. I had gotten so used to the chaos by now that I didn't even notice it.

"Okay Tash, I'm working three tables - full of grown ass men. Give me a break," Besides the money, waistressing at the strip club was not an ideal job. The thirsty ass men couldn't seem to differentiate a stripper and a waitress and the girls were absolutely catty. Both situations resulted in too many altercations. I didn't do well with disrespect - from anybody.

"The Arteaga's are here tonight. Table in the back. That's who ordered drinks..." She shot back."...understand why I can't 'give you a break'? Get on your shit," she said before picking up a couple of menus and disappearing into the crowd.

"Bitch." I mummured under my breath rolling my eyes.

I was annoyed every time I had to work their table. I usually passed it along to someone else or managed to keep myself busy with something. This time I wasn't so lucky.

I just hated the way everybody in the club stood around the perimeter of their section watching them like scavengers. It was like this every time they came through. All of them hoping this would be their night. They were all waiting to be chosen by an Arteaga.

The saddest part was that it was more men than women. Who comes to the strip club to stand around and spazz out over another nigga? Ugh. I was aggravated. It was the one reason that I never took their table. Gotta play like Moses just to get to they ass.

Arteaga's were something like a royal family. Money flowing in and loved to remind people of that. Lavish cars and expensive jewelry was synonymous with them. People called them 'Three Kings", the same name as the club I worked for. They owned a few strip joints in the area and had their hands in a few shares of clubs here in Virginia. I only knew this because Tasha loved to remind me.

I finally reached the table shuffling past a few fleas to get to them. "Okay, I got three amaretto sours, pitcher of long island, two hurricanes, and your bottles of Ciroc and Ace of Spades will be here in a minute," I said placing the last drink down. I could feel a few eyes staring at me so I chose to keep my eyes on the table. "That's gonna be it for you?" I asked finally looking around. It was plenty of women at the table to go around. It was probably too many. Some of them were lapped up. No responses. I turned on my heels. "Yo," I felt a hand grip my wrist tenderly. I felt like I wanted to snatch away but on.second thought. Wrong place. Wrong time.

"Yeah," I looked over my shoulder.

"Baby, this shit nasty as hell." His brown eyes glimmered in contrast with my own. He was holding up the hurricane in his hand with a disgusted look on his face.

"What's wrong with it?" I questioned hoping to sound sympathetic. I wasn't.

He sipped it again and made the same face. "It's sweet as fuck." he answered. He had a thick accent. He didn't sound American at all. More like a Spanish guy attempting to be black. It was laughable but like I said wrong time. Wrong place.

Besides, I didn't make the drink and honestly all the bartenders had been taught to make drinks the way the club wanted them made. Which was with as little liquor as possible. If it wasn't up to par it wasnt our fault. But I couldn't say that either.

"Sorry to hear that." I put on my best smile. "What can I get you?" I said taking my booklet out. I looked up and found him staring at me. Not enough to be creepy but enough to make me look away. He was actually beautiful upon closer inspection.

"What do you suggest?" he picked up the menu his eyebrows furrowing as he licked his lips.

The question was simple enough. I don't know what was taking me so long to answer. "I'd suggest Hennessy VS and Pineapple. Not really a favorite but it's picking up a little bit," I finally managed.

"And how much is that?" He smiled exposing his nearly perfect pearly white teeth. He was being difficult on purpose.

I smirked a little. I was a sucker for sarcasm. "Three drinks will run you about $30 plus gratuity...so about $970.00," I shot back with sarcasm.

He laughed and tapped the table. "Sounds fair. Alright baby. Ima have that." he stopped. "Three of those," He corrected himself. I nodded and walked feeling his eyes on me. Those eyes. Damn. Made me feel like I was the only one in the room. Too intent. Too fearless.

I finished the rest of my shift quickly and without drama. Rare enough.

The club was empty now. It's amazing how big it looks when no one was in it. I sat at the bar taking a long sip from the water bottle in front of me. I was exhausted not to mention I had to be up in three hours for class. The night life was such a bitch to me.

Tasha swung open the metal swinging door with Big Pat following behind. He always had to stay after closing hours in case someone tried to run in while we balanced the cash drawers. It's happened too many times before.

"You must have made quite an impression on Avé honey." She look directly at me and I returned a genuinely confused expression.

"Why you say that?" I asked swiveling in my chair. She handed me a wad of cash.

"$970.00," she raised both eyebrows.

"Must've been some good drinks," she said sarcastically before walking off.