Becoming Carter (The Carter Series) (Volume 2) (20 page)

“Thanks, Babe. You’re stunning, as always. You know I love how you rock those skirts,” Kelvin replied.

“Ugh. Get a room already!” Lexy jokingly snapped as she stepped between us. “Me and Mike are fighting, so please tone down the cute couple shit, okay. You’re making me jealous. We all look great, now can we get out of here and go get some drinks. It’s Friday, I’m annoyed with my husband, and I’m ready to get my drink on.”

“Sounds good. Let’s do it,” I said as I took Kelvin’s hand and we stepped into the elevator.

We decided to go ahead and take a cab to the club, which really was only a block or two away, but Lexy didn’t want to walk the distance in her four-inch, purple heels. So we endured a two-minute drive in a taxi that smelled like piss and fish, with a fare of six-dollars, which we forced Lexy to pay.

When the cab pulled up to the club, there was a line outside that was going down the sidewalk. The extremely large bouncer who was standing outside was directly underneath the bright red lights of the sign that read Turn Up, horizontally. The three of us stepped out of the cab and it seemed like the eyes of every person in line immediately focused on us. Lexy and I were out of the cab first, and the men in the line were quick to stare, and some of them even whistled at us, as if anything that immature would work on any woman.

When Kelvin stepped out of the car, however, all the whistling from the men stopped. Instead, they just looked at Kelvin from head to toe, probably wondering what the hell he did for a living that he could afford a suit that cost more than their entire wardrobe put together.

The women in the line looked at Kelvin like they wanted to strip him naked right there in the street, but of course, there was no whistling. There were some pretty hateful stares at Lexy and me, however. It was like they were mad at us for being with him. A black woman with long braids going down her back looked at me like she was ready to fight me over my own man, so I made a point of turning around and giving Kelvin a kiss on the lips, and then grabbing his hand and leading him towards the bouncer as I winked at the jealous woman.

I could see it in the eyes of everyone who was around—they were wondering if we were going to get in, because they obviously weren’t—so I was a little nervous when we stepped in front of the oversized man with the clipboard. First, he looked at Lexy and me like he was ready to tell us to get to the back of the line, but before he could speak, I saw his eyes shift over to Kelvin. The minute they made eye contact, Kelvin and the bouncer nodded to each other, then the bouncer moved aside and said “Right this way, Mr. Carter. Have a good time,” as he opened the large black door, and the loud music from inside came roaring at us as we stepped over the threshold.

Inside the club, it was unbelievably loud and packed. The DJ must have had the music on full blast, and I could feel every kick of the drums, and the bass made my heart feel like it was vibrating. The expansive room had a lot of flashing white lights on the ceiling, but for the most part, the club was fairly dark, and had a very sexy feel to it. The entire perimeter of the room was one gigantic bar, and the huge dance floor was in the center of it all. The right side of the room was sectioned off by a rope that separated it from the rest of the club, and Kelvin pushed us in that direction.

We made our way through the crowd, bumping into loud, obnoxious patrons the entire way. One man walked past us and looked me up and down, then flashed a flirtatious smile. He stopped in front of me, and looked like he was ready to say something, but he stopped and focused all of his attention on something that was behind me—Kelvin.

“What up, Kelvin?” the short man said, sounding every bit as nervous as he looked.

“What’s good?” Kelvin replied from behind me.

Apparently, that was all it took, as the man nodded, then turned around and speed walked in the other direction. I turned around and looked at Kelvin, searching for an explanation, but all he did was smile at me and shrug, and we kept walking.

When we reached the rope, there was a tall, bald man in a black suit standing in front of it, looking like he was pissed off at the whole world. Kelvin stepped in between Lexy and I and spoke to the man.

“What’s going on, Marcus? We’re gonna kick it here for a while,” Kelvin said.

Before Marcus could answer, another group of guys came strutting up to the rope and tried to make their way past Marcus, but he held up his arm to stop them.

“Sorry,” he said to the group of young black men, “your reservation for VIP has been cancelled. We have to accommodate Mr. Carter and his guests.”

One of the men, who was wearing a bright red Chicago Bulls jacket, looked over at Kelvin and obviously didn’t recognize him. “Who the fuck is a Mr. Carter? We’ve only been here an hour. What the fuck do you mean it’s been cancelled? Man, you better let us in here.”

“Hey!” Marcus snapped. “Your reservation has been cancelled to accommodate Mr. Kelvin Carter Jr. Let’s not make this more trouble than it has to be.”

The leader of the young group looked over at Kelvin and glared at him, but he didn’t say anything to him as Kelvin placed his hand on my back and led Lexy and I past the rope and into the VIP booth.

“Alright then,” the young man said as he turned around and walked away, his entire group following his lead.

“Sorry about that, Mr. Carter,” Marcus said as we passed him.

“It’s all good, Marcus. Hey, make sure all of their drinks are on me for the rest of the night,” Kelvin replied.

The three of us sat down on a large black leather couch that was in the shape of a U. A waitress immediately came over and took our drink order, and was back with the drinks in less than two minutes, placing them on the round glass table in front of us.

“This fucking place is the shit!” Lexy screeched as she took her first sip of her Cosmo. “Your uncle owns this place, Kelvin?”

“Yeah, my Uncle Ant owns it. He’s had it for a while now. I don’t get to come here too often, but it’s a really nice place. Always packed, six nights a week. The seventh day is Sunday, the only day the place is closed.”

“Well, he’s done a great job with the place. I’m impressed,” Lexy said excitedly.

“It really is nice,” I chimed in. “I’m not too big on clubs really, but I could get down with this place. You planning on hitting the dance floor, Lex?”

“What? The dance floor? Have you seen my boobs? If I hit the dance floor, my tits are bound to pop out and hit somebody in the face. The last thing I need is a lawsuit for tit abuse,” Lexy answered. “What about you two lovebirds? I’d love to see Kelvin out there. Tell me, Kelvin, are you an Electric Slide kind of guy, or more of a pop & locker?”

Kelvin let out a hefty chuckle. “I’d have to say neither. When I was younger, I used to mimic Michael Jackson pretty good, but those days are long gone. I still know how to hold it down on the dance floor, but I’d only do it if Lilliana asked me to.”

“Ooh, ask him! Ask him!” Lexy said in a high pitch voice. “I’ve got to see this.”

I glanced over at the packed dance floor and found myself feeling intimidated by all the people. They were out there doing all kinds of dance moves I’d never even seen before. It was like every person in the place used to dance for Usher or something.

“I don’t know,” I said nervously. “Maybe later. Let me get a few drinks in me, then we’ll see.”

“Hell yes! Let’s get a few drinks in us!” Lexy exclaimed. “How about some shots? It’s Friday! Christmas break has officially started, so let’s celebrate! Titties and Patron! Whooo!”

Kelvin waved to the waitress who was standing close by. “Let me get three shots of Patron,” he said in her ear.

“Patron? That’s too strong, Babe!” I said loudly. I was never a big fan of strong liquor, and Patron had a reputation for either knocking people out, or making them do stupid shit. I wasn’t in the mood for doing either.

“We’ll only take one, then we’ll take it slow the rest of the night. Let’s just do it for Lexy.”

I looked over at Lexy and caught her smiling at me like an excited toddler, intentionally showing all of her teeth. “Ugh. Alright, but only because I love you, Lex. Let’s do it.”

Right on cue, the waitress brought the shots of Patron to the table. Kelvin tried to offer her a tip, but she refused, and then walked away.

The three of us reached for our shot glasses at the same time, and held them out in the air, waiting for someone to propose a toast. I saw Lexy take a deep breath like she was getting ready start talking, but before she could, someone spoke up from the other side of the velvet rope.

“Damn, you sure are gorgeous,” the short man said. He was a white guy, about five-foot-six, and he was wearing clothes that were entirely too big for his little frame. He had his hat turned to the side, and he spoke with an accent like he was from the hood. “That red hair is sexy. You wanna dance?”

Kelvin and I looked over at Lexy, who was still holding her shot glass in the air as she looked at the guy.

“Bring your shots back up,” Lexy said to Kelvin and me, and we quickly obliged. “I’d like to propose a toast to
not
having white, wanna-be black guys leaning over the VIP rope, staring at my tits while they attempt to talk to me. Here’s a toast to having a good time with my friends without being interrupted by idiots who are half my age. A toast to
not
robbing the cradle for little boys who don’t look half as good as my husband of the last twelve years. A toast to my husband’s big dick, and to ignoring jack asses who are about to be escorted away by security.” Lexy then downed her shot of Patron while I tried to stifle my laughter, and Kelvin stared at the guy to see what his reaction was going to be.

The guy looked pissed, but before he could say a word, the security guard leaned over and whispered something in his ear, and he turned around and walked away with a look of defeat spread across his face. Once he was gone, Kelvin took his shot.

“Wow. You’re fucking incredible, Lexy,” I said as I laid my head on her shoulder, still laughing. “You don’t miss a beat.”

“What the hell?” Lexy snapped. “It’s like I have a sign on my face that says
my husband isn’t here, so please come and try to get in my pants
. That guy was like seven years old. Are you kidding?”

“It’s the boobs,” I said. “Every time you bring them out, you get little boys flocking to you to stare at your chest.”

“Whatever. I get annoyed by all of that shit. I know there are some women who want to be pursued all the time, even when they’re married, but I’m not one of them. I don’t let these boys think for one second that they have a chance with me.”

“Aww, Mike would be proud,” Kelvin chimed in.

“He should be!” Lexy bellowed. “I’m only mean to guys because I love
him
. He better appreciate it.”

“Well, from what he’s told me, he definitely appreciates you,” Kelvin assured Lexy.

“Oooh, what does he say about me?”

“You know I can’t tell you that. It’s guy code, and shit like that. Just know that he loves and appreciates you, even when he doesn’t act like it.”

“Well that’s nice to hear,” Lexy replied with a big grin. “Because he sure does forget to…” the loud
pop
of a gunshot interrupted Lexy in the middle of her sentence. Everybody in the room seemed to stand still, trying to see if they’d heard what they thought they’d heard, and then their fears were confirmed as another shot went off. The loud
bang
of a third shot sent everybody in the club running and screaming for the exits, including the three of us.

Kelvin grabbed me and pushed me down on the ground, hurling his body on top of mine, and then forced Lexy down with us. We waited there for about five seconds, then Kelvin began pushing Lexy and I out of the booth.

“Stay low to the ground and go for the emergency exit to our right. Go now!” he said, full of intensity.

As Lexy and I crawled towards the emergency exit that was only about twenty feet away, I looked over and saw the young black kid with the bright red Bulls jacket standing in the middle of the dance floor holding a handgun up in the air. He looked right at me as he smiled and fired another shot into the ceiling. The screams of the remaining patrons grew louder as people tried to exit the club as fast as they could.

Kelvin shielded us with his body as we made our way to the exit. The second we reached the door, Kelvin got up and pushed it open, sounding the alarm to the building. The cold night air hit us, and the three of us quickly got up and started running as the door closed behind us.

We ran down the narrow alley until we got to the end of it and were standing on the sidewalk. We were on the side of the building now, and we could see mobs of people running down the street away from the club. Some were darting out into the street in front of oncoming traffic, nearly getting themselves killed in their panic.

“Fucking little asshole,” I said as we stood on the sidewalk and watched the people fleeing the club.

“Who? What are you talking about?” Kelvin said.

“It was that little dickhead whose spot we took in VIP. I saw him as we were leaving. He was standing in the middle of the dance floor, firing shots into the ceiling to clear out the place. I can’t fucking believe that.”

“Damn. I guess paying for their drinks wasn’t good enough,” Kelvin said with a small chuckle. “That was a bad idea for him to do that. He’ll be lucky if he gets arrested.”

“What do you mean?” Lexy inquired. “How would getting arrested be a good thing?”

“Let’s just say my uncle doesn’t fuck around about his club. That guy better hope someone has already called the cops, because my uncle won’t.”

I saw the confused expression on Lexy’s face and chimed in before she had a chance to ask any more questions.

“Here, Lexy,” I said as I noticed a cab approaching and waved it down. “Take this cab home, Kelvin and I will grab another one.”

“Are you sure? Why don’t we all just take this one?”

“You’re going the opposite direction as Kelvin’s place. It’s fine, we’ll get another one. Or, we can just walk. It’s only a couple of blocks back to the penthouse anyway.”