Page 78 of Thirst

“Well after your exhibit, once you get a free day, you, me, and your homegirl all need to go out to celebrate.”

“Yes,” I say, my voice chirping in excitement. “I would love for you to meet her. You and Nae have been my only friends, and I would be so happy if y’all met.”

“Then let’s do it. You just let me know when.”

“Absolutely,” I say loudly.

My face is stretched tight with a wide smile. I'm so happy that all of this is coming together so smoothly. Amari, Janae, Majesty, the exhibit, Stanley being put in his place. It’s all so perfect. It’s like I found a genie in a lamp and I'm having my wishes granted. For all I know, tonight could be my last evening stripping. If this exhibit goes as well as Amari thinks it will, I won't have a need to come back here. It’s like a dream. Hell, if I'm dreaming, I’ll kill whoever wakes me up.

“Glad to see y’all in such good moods,” Davon’s voice booms from behind us, stripping me of my smile. I watch him approach us from the reflection in my mirror, and almost burst into laughter at his leopard print matching set—a button-up with matching shorts that stop above the knee. I suppress a giggle, but he sees the small smirk on my face. “Oh, you're just full of chuckles tonight. That’s good. It makes it easier for me to tell you that you can't have the day off tomorrow. I need you to work.”

All signs of happiness drain from my face in a split second. I wheel around in my chair to look him in the face. “What?”

“Look, Shontay can't make it tomorrow,” Von says. “Her mama died or somethin.’ They’re havin’ the wake soon and she asked for some time to grieve. I know you asked to have the night off and I gave it to you, but I gotta renege on that. I need you here.”

My face scrunches, and I even feel Majesty staring daggers at Von in her mirror.

“Von, I can't work tomorrow,” I tell him. “I asked for the night off for a reason.”

“I'm sure Shontay’s mama wishes she had the night off, but she can't have a night off because she’s dead. Don't be selfish, Aaliyah. It’s done. I need you.”

“No, it’s not done,” I snip, feeling myself getting fired up because I can't let him push me over on this. I’ve been letting him take money from me for four years with almost no fight. I can't allow it tonight. Not with my future on the line. “I've got something happening tomorrow night. Something big. It’s the most important thing in the world to me, and I asked for the night off days ago. I can't cancel now. I won’t. So, you're gonna either have to find somebody else, or just work the shift with one less girl. Either way, I can't be here.”

Von frowns so hard I think his forehead is going to shatter. “What the hell you got goin’ on that’s so damn important?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I have my art exhibit tomorrow night. Tons of people are coming, and I'm not canceling it.”

“Well what the hell do you want me to do then? Have Shontay work after her mama just died?”

“Of course not,” I say, shaking my head. “You can't manage a single night without everybody being here? You’ll be short one girl. It’ll be fine.”

“No, it won’t be fine. I got money to make. Plus, Majesty and a few others are off, too.”

Majesty spins in her chair, her lips twisted together. “Von, leave her alone. She and I were both slated to be off. It was scheduled. Now Shontay can't make it, so you're literally just one girl shy from what you were expecting to have. You can handle it. And don't even look at me about coming in. It’s not happening. I have stuff to do with my man in the morning, and I’m going to see Aaliyah and her man doing big things at the exhibit. You're gonna have to just deal.”

Von’s eyes snap back and forth between Majesty and I. The final snap lands his gaze on me. “Okay, so let me get this straight. You're doin’ some art exhibit, tryin’ to make money outside the club, which sounds a lot like a second job I didn't approve. On top of that, you're doin’ it with the guy you met while workin’ here? The evil one with the crazy eyes and the bad attitude? The one who disrespected my place of business by fightin’ the last time he was here? You and him are workin’ together now? That’s what you're tellin’ me? And I'm just supposed to be cool with that? You've been here for years, Aaliyah, and this is the type of shit you're tryin’ to be on?”

“What do you want from me, Von?” I bark, my voice traveling and drawing the attention of the other girls. “Yes, I've been here for years, but I know you weren't expecting me to strip for you forever. I've always wanted to be an artist. This isn’t new. And the fact that I met Amari here is irrelevant. I'm trying to improve my life for me, not stay stagnant for you.”

Majesty chimes in, piling it on. “It doesn’t have to be this deep. It’s one girl short, for one night. You gotta learn to loosen the reins. Let us have our night, let Shontay do what she needs to do, and we’ll be back when we’re supposed to be. Here, I’ll even do you a solid. If you need me to cover an extra shift next week, I got you. Just don't try to ruin what we’ve got going on tomorrow. Alright?”

Von pinches his plump lips together so tightly it looks like they’ll burst. Tension flexes the muscles in his jaw and his eyes narrow. He swallows hard, and I don't know why he's taking all of this so personally. Nonetheless, he breathes loudly through his nose and raises his head.

“Yeah, alright,” he says, but his voice has dropped an octave. “You do what you gotta do. I’ll see you both the day after tomorrow. But just know, I'm gonna remember this.”

Von turns on his heel and saunters away as I'm rolling my eyes at his ridiculousness. I could let his attitude bring me down, but I'm flying too high for all of that. I turn to Majesty, who is already smiling with barely-contained excitement, and we squeal in delight as we stand up and hug, both of us laughing.

It feels like fate. That toast we made must've really been magic, because everything is falling into place. Not even Von can stop it. Tomorrow night, my life changes forever. I may have just worked my last shift at Fantasies, and even though I see Shay staring at us out of the corner of my eye, I'm too elated to care.

Forty-Seven

My nerves are on fire. I stand in the back of the venue with Amari and Shawn—the same room where I saw Amari show his true form as a vampire—and wait for the sound of people walking in to look at my paintings. It doesn't matter that everything has gone swimmingly up to this point. Nevermind the fact that I was actually able to add five more abstract pieces since the last time I was here, bringing my total up to eighteen pieces of art on sale today. My mood isn't swayed by the fact that Stanley has been in the building but still completely under Amari’s spell, walking around mindlessly as he set up the payment options and assigned his workers to different sections of the venue so that they're always close by if someone wants to buy a piece or has a question. This time, the lighting is perfect, there's music, and I didn't have to set up my art the same day as the show. We’ve been locked in for days now. This exhibit is real. My dress being a beautiful shade of royal blue doesn't matter either though. I'm not on display. My art is, and tonight could mark the biggest change my life has ever seen. The doors to my very first exhibit are about to open.

“So, when we open, you don't even have to do anything,” Amari explains to me in the back room. “You're not established yet, so we don't have to have a big introduction. All of the big hitters are already in the room, but more will filter in as the two-hour window goes by. Just walk around and let people shop. If anyone has questions, you’ll be around to answer, or they'll ask the staff. At the end, we’ll do the auction on the feature piece, and Stanley will reveal you as the artist. For now, just fall back and let it happen. This is your night. You ready?”

I take a deep breath and struggle with how to feel. I've wanted this for so long that I'm shocked by the moment actually being here. It took battling through long phases of being uninspired to create the art hanging on the walls out there. I was almost raped. I put up with rude customers at Fantasies, not to mention Von’s never-ending crap, and I even learned that vampires are real. I went through all of that just to be standing right here, and now that the moment has arrived, it feels surreal. It’s actually happening, and my emotions are everywhere all at once.

I take a deep breath and look at Amari standing in front of me. He's dressed in what seem to be his favorite colors—red and black—and he is beautiful as always. His dark skin looks effortlessly moisturized—even after a hundred and fifty-six years of life, and his stoic demeanor helps to calm me down. What makes me nervous is what I know about him. We’re about to enter a room full of people, none of which will know that they are in the presence of a vampire, and it was he who made all of this happen. Stanley may have called his contacts this time, but it was because of Amari and his powers. Yet, something about him calms me, and I know it’s not because he's Influencing me. We make eye contact and I wait to feel the familiar sensation of warmth that comes from his Influence, but it never arrives, and I know that the tranquility in my chest is only there because I'm starting to find comfort in his presence.