Page 4 of JoJo
“Oh my God, what did you do?” Keys hissed as the door to the suite was pushed open and three large bikers moved into the room. “We’re here for JoJo,” Keys went on reprimanding Quickshot as Sweet moved to be near Angel Girl.
“We haven’t met,” I heard as the third man held his hand out to Tash.
“Charmed.” The word was acidic at best, because clearly she was just as unhappy with the intrusion as I was.
“What? Did you two get the only non-frigid chicks in their club?” Steel’s voice grated on my nerves as the words found their mark and set my temper to full-tilt bitch mode.
“Who in the hell are you calling frigid, you poor excuse for a cue stick?” Tash’s response nearly had me laughing, but I managed to hold onto my anger, because they were invading my last weekend of being a business owner, a woman who had it all going on. When I thought about the fact that he was waiting in the wings to snatch it all out from under me, I suddenly felt the reflexive need to kick him in the balls.
“Why is he here?” I finally demanded.
“Quick and I talked about coming for Angel and Keys. Figured we’d bring Steel along to help him get used to us and take his mind off other stuff.”
“And you thought it would be a good idea to have him around me, on my last get-away and de-stress weekend before I lose everything?”
“JoJo,” Sweet was going to attempt to make sense of that decision? Really? No, no the hell he was not. I was fed up with men thinking they could dictate my life, interrupt it, and cause me nothing but grief.
“I’m so fucking sick of men ruining everything. First my dad and his fucked up stipulations, then my asshole greedy brother, and now I can’t even have a fucking girl’s weekend to try to forget the fact that my life is being snatched from me because I don’t have a dick!”
“JoJo!” Sweet’s voice barked out at me as if I would bow down to his fucking orders.
“No!” I yelled at him before blowing out a frustrated breath. “I don’t get to fall in love with someone and work my way to marriage. If I choose that for myself, I lose my business that’s been in the family for four generations. If I marry some asshole, I could lose my business anyway, because my father won’t even allow for a prenup. So, excuse me if my inability to ever have a bit of happiness for myself seems so far out of reach that they,” I gestured indicating the women around me, “are the only thing I’ve had to look forward to since my dad died. Now, you guys show up, and you bring the fucking prick who told me he’d buy my business out from under me through my even bigger prick of a brother when I lose it all?”
The anger abated with my words as I lost steam along with all the hope for a different future. They were going to win, and I knew that before I set out on this weekend. The men ruled everything, and trying to deny it was only making my heart hurt worse. It was in that moment that I truly resigned myself to my fate and gave in. My body slumped in on itself with the weight of my reality before I finally addressed everyone again. “Why don’t you guys all just go and enjoy Vegas. I’m really not in the mood anymore.”
Keys stopped and glanced between Quickshot and JoJo. “Jo, we’re supposed to…”
I didn’t let her finish.
“We were supposed to do things, but obviously everyone’s plans changed, so just go.” I picked up my drink and knocked the rest back then. “I’m really not in the mood for company anymore anyway.”
“Well, I don’t have an asshole attached to me who is crashing our girls weekend. So, they can go off with theirs and we’ll have a great time just the two of us.” I glanced noticing Angel and Sweet looked like they were about bail as Tash tossed an arm around my shoulder. A knock at the door startled everyone. “I swear,” she laughed out. “I don’t have a man!”
Quickshot answered the door since he was standing closest. When he threw it open to a masculine deep, and slightly confused voice on the other end. “You ordered um, Vegas Vinnie’s Room Service?”
Tash and I both burst out laughing at the disgusted look on Quickshot’s face. Our elusive strippers had finally arrived. “What the fuck?” Quick huffed out.
“Oh, um, plans changed last minute,” Keys stammered to the men outside the door. She pulled her wallet out and produced a few bills before handing them off to the men. “We no longer require your services.” Keys looked anxiously over at Quickshot then.
“No problem, Sweetheart,” the man said with a smile in his voice. “Hope you ladies have a lovely night.” I wish I could have seen the guy as he spoke, because his comment seemed to rile up Quickshot. When Keys closed the door, he started in.
“Please, tell me they were just dancers. And why the fuck are you ordering male dancers anyway?”
“Yes, they were dancers, and we’re all heterosexual women, of course our strippers are gonna be men!” Keys indignant reply made me laugh, but only on the inside.
“I’m glad we showed up when we did,” Quickshot huffed out with a frustrated sigh.
“Thanks again,” I mumbled before turning and walking towards the bedroom I was supposed to share with Tash. Now, I wondered if Tash and I weren’t put into a room together because Angel and Keys had been expecting company in theirs all along. That pissed me off further. So, I ended up turning around and picking up the phone to call the front desk. “Could you tell me if you have any singles available for the night?”
“What are you doing?” Keys asked on a shocked breath. “I booked this suite for us for the whole weekend.”
I placed my hand over the phone as the front desk clerk checked availability for me. “Yeah, I appreciate it, and no offense, but I’m not down to listening to other couples banging all weekend in the suite when I don’t even like men right now. I’m just going to get my own room, and probably head back to Georgia in the morning.”
“No,” she pleaded with me while tossing a glare at someone over my shoulder. “Please, don’t do that, JoJo. I didn’t know the guys were going to show up. I swear. They can all get their own rooms and do their own thing. We came here for a reason.” It was obviously Keys was being sincere, but judging by the shifty looks being passed between Angel Girl and Sweet as they moved to leave the room, she was likely the only one who felt that way.
“Look,” I started. “Thanks for getting me out and trying to take my mind off of my crazy shit, but really I’d rather be alone right now. Besides, I have an old friend out here working over at Apex Tattoo. I’ll probably head over and catch up.” It was true that a guy I’d once dated worked there. He did his apprenticeship with a parlor in northern Georgia. Unfortunately, my dad got sick a few months after I started seeing Eddie. When he got the offer to head out west I was knee deep in learning how to run the garage business and taking my dad to treatments. I told Ed to go, and he didn’t hesitate to take the out. I didn’t really want to see him. Obviously, I wasn’t very important to him to begin with, but he made a mighty fine excuse.
“Who do you know at Apex? I got some work done there a month ago,” Steel piped up.
