Chicago

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

. . .

    Chai never saw herself as a bottle girl. The most provocative thing she's ever worn was lingerie sets for her lustful nights with Derek. Other then that, her style was fairly modest and you wouldn't catch her with more than her cleavage out.

Chai didn't know how she ended up as a bottle girl. One day, during her shift at the grocery store, she was approached by Kane Combs— a wealthy business man and the owner of The Honey Lounge. The Honey Lounge was a neighborhood hotspot that attracted big time gangsters, socialites, and even celebrities from time to time. It was the home of the underpaid bar tenders, silicone strippers, and honey barbecue wings.

"You're very pretty,"

He said to her as she checked out a Tropicana juice and some dish detergent. She eyed him before responding with a generic "thank you."

Chai took note of his attire. He wore a crisp polo shirt paired with freshly ironed trousers and Gucci loafers. The icing on the cake was the ice on his wrist which was a diamond studded Rolex watch that glistened underneath the cheap light fixtures of the grocery store.

There were two types of rich men—the type that liked to flex and the type that didn't need to flex because the proof was in their assets. The man before her, like most wealthy black men, was the type that liked to flex. He was the type of rich man that came from nothing so he had to prove to everyone that he was everything.

"How much you make here?" He asked her as he took out his black American Express card that he used to pay for his items.

"Are you trying to be funny? It's nothing but minimum wage over here." Chai smirked as she told him to remove his card once the transaction was processed.

"What if I told you you could wear something sexy, make $20 an hour and then make ten times more than that in tips?"

Chai raised her eyebrow at him, "oh?"

Kane tucked his card back in his wallet as Chai bagged his items and handed it to him. Before he took the bag, he handed her a folded flyer from his other pocket, "if you come down to the Honey Lounge after ya' shift, I can get you out of that apron as soon as Friday."

And so said, so done. After her shift, she went down to the lounge and landed herself a new job as a bottle girl. Five months into the job, she found herself getting comfortable in an environment filled with sex, money, music and drugs. She went from being surrounded by desperate teenagers and cranky adults to working amongst hustlers and big time ballers who were ready to take her to the top simply because she had a pretty face. It took some adjustment but she was meeting new people and making way more money than she thought.

      Saturday night was always a movie at the Honey Lounge. On this particular Saturday night, Kane was hosting an event that required the bottle girls to dress according to his event theme. The theme of the event was "Dipped in Gold" which required the girls to wear all black with gold accessories. The bottle girl uniform was simple at HL. Their uniform was a tight crop top that hugged their breast tighter than cling wrap along with high waisted legging shorts that emphasized their butt cheeks and camel toes. They had the freedom to do whatever they wanted as far as hair, nails and makeup but it just needed to be done. Honey Lounge had a reputation of having some of the finest female employees and Kane was determined to keep it that way. If he saw so much as a hair strand out of place, they were in for a serious scolding.