Soul Streets

Valentine and the Cafe girls

"Ladies! Let me introduce you to Shane, he is going to be the newest member to the family."

I stood, stupefied behind the counter of the cafe. The cafe was fancy, but quaint, you could tell business wasn't booming; but obviously the cafe had funding. The "ladies" Sherry was talking about were four girls in corsets and miniskirts with round serving trays held at their sides. I honestly had to question what Sherry had told me before, maybe I wanted these girls to tear me apart.

"Eh, a new member? Loyal to Trent or Godfather Charley?" Said one of the girls, a tall read-head whose name tag read 'Valentine'.

"Godfather Charley?" I asked.

"Trent's uncle." Sherry said. "He technically runs the family right now as Trent's adoptive father, but Trent is the true heir to the family. All of our young members and some of the old loyalists to Trent's father who ran the family previously follow Trent. But many of the current family heads were elected by Charley so they are loyal to him. Trent's actual father, Reese, was a kind man who took his job and his family in stride. When he died, the family was left  to Trent; but at the time Trent was still young and by family tradition he couldn't inherit the family. Trent was adopted by Charley so Charley could run the family until Trent came of age. Trent turned seventeen two months ago."

I frowned "so the father that Trent had a meeting with earlier?"

"Was Charley." Sherry responded.

"If he became an adult two months ago, then why is Charley still in charge?" I asked.

"Because Charely has more influence in the Family council." Valentine said. Valentine was obviously the leader of the group of cafe girls. Among the cafe girls was Valentine, a young short girl that was probably at most fourteen whose name-tag read Annie, and two twins whose names were Tibby and Libby.

"If that's the situation then I am on Trent's side. He's kind of a scary guy, but he seems like he has his goals." I said, looking Valentine in the eyes, it was obvious that it was in my best interest to stay on this girl's good side.

Valentine smiled. "That's good to hear. Just to let you know, while we are the main staff of the cafe, every other member of Trent's family has to serve in the cafe at some point. I will get your uniform ordered as soon as I get your measurements."

Valentine simmered up to me and hugged my arm to her chest. "Come see me some time and we will get all the little details worked out alright?"

Sherry pulled Valentine off of me. "While its true that he will work here eventually, we all know that you don't actually need to do measurements on him. You are an analysis class Daemon, you knew how to make his uniform the moment you touched him and you can make it with the flick of your wrist as soon as you have the fabric."

Valentine gave a little giggle. "Sherry, why must you always ruin my fun? Well I will see you at the ceremony tonight then Shane, or maybe we could have some fun at the after party?"

Now Sherry stepped in between me and Valentine. "Not a chance, Trent left him in my care, there is no way I am letting you scare our new recruit like that. Come on Shane, we are leaving."

"Bye bye Shane, see you later!" Valentine said as she waved.

Once we had gotten back to the lounge and had started towards the door leading into the main compound, Sherry turned to me. "I can't believe you. After I warned you about the cafe girls and everything, you still let her flirt with you like that."

"You said to be careful, but how was I supposed to be prepared for that? And besides the rest of them looked alright, it was just Valentine hitting on me."

Sherry shook her head, "you obviously don't know women that well."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"We girls happen to be the most evil, maniacal, and dangerous beings in all existence. Just because one of us looks cute and innocent, doesn't mean we aren't planning to kill you in the night when you drop your guard."