Be Bad For Me(11)

"You good to go? We need to leave in at least ten minutes to get there on time."

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready."

When they arrived at the fancy Italian restaurant, Jason and his fiancé  had already arrived. They were waiting at the reserved tables already,  looking at the menus in front of them.

"Hey, man, hope we didn't hold y'all up too much," Anthony said, walking up to the table.

"It's all good, man. We got here like two minutes ago. This is Trinity,  my fiancé," Jason gestured towards his fiancé. She was pretty cute. Her  hair was twisted on the top of her head in a bun, with long curls  hanging around her ears and framing her baby doll face. She had a  caramel complexion and auburn colored hair. She wore a blue halter dress  that Annette thought she saw in Bloomingdales a couple of months ago.  Trinity had so much ice on her wrist and neck, that she was sure to  blind someone. She and Anthony both shook hands with Trinity.

"And this is Annette, my girlfriend." Annette smiled, as Anthony  introduced her. All of a sudden she didn't feel so out of place for  dressing up. She wore a little black satin dress and black pumps all  from the House of Dereon. She kept it simple in white gold jewelry and  diamond earrings that Anthony bought for her not too long ago.

She and Anthony sat down and lifted their menus, as well. "Honey,  remember I was telling you about Anthony and how he did some promotions  for the club for me a couple months ago."

"Yeah." Trinity nodded. "He's the one that had the idea about promoting new artists at club Dominos."

"Yeah, I keep telling him that he needs to get into this club business with me."         

     



 

Anthony smiled. "I'll eventually go the business route, but you know  that I'm on this music shit right now, Jason. If I wasn't doing that,  you know I would be working for you."

"Come on, man. My general manager is leaving in a couple of months to  move to California. I won't have nobody helping me out then. Then, I  have to go through all the trouble again to find someone who's  qualified. You don't even need to work full time, just enough hours to  get your work done."

"I might think about that, but I ain't promising you nothin'."

"Man, I'm telling you. You belong in this industry. If you have a career  in music, this is the business to start out in. You can start part  time, here and there, and see how you like it."

"Sounds like Jason's offering you a nice job and you won't take it?" Annette looked at Anthony.

"Annette, you know how I am about this music. Sometimes, I'm in the studio for hours … "

"Yeah, but listen to what Jason is saying. You can use your position at  the club to promote who ever you want to and that includes yourself."

"She's right." Jason nodded.

"I'll think about it," Anthony replied.

"Are you in the music industry, also, Annette?" Trinity placed her menu on the white cloth linen.

"No, I used to work at the radio station where Anthony is now, but I quit there a long time ago."

"I didn't think I noticed you as a regular at Club Dominos. I thought I  saw you there with Anthony the other night. But I just realized that I  must have you mixed up with some other female." Trinity was tugging  lightly on the loose curls around her ears.

Jason also owned Club's Dominos, which catered to a more sophisticated  adult crowd. She had only gone to the club a handful of times and that  was only because she was with Anthony. As a matter of fact, the only  time she ever visited any club was when she was with Anthony. But what  she had just said sparked suspicions. What did she mean she thought that  she saw me with Anthony the other night?

"I'm sorry. I haven't been to Club Dominos in a while, so that couldn't have been me the other night," Annette said.

"Oh!" Trinity placed her hands over her mouth as if she was embarrassed.

"Oh, you must be talking about Candy," Anthony said, quickly. "She works at the radio station with me."

"Oh, right. Yeah." Trinity nodded, as if that finally made sense.

Hold up! What the heck were they talking about? And who the heck was  Candy? Before she could say another word about Club Dominos and Candy,  Jason changed the subject.

"Man, I heard that Tango was having this big ass birthday bash for his home boy in a few weeks. Did you get an invite?"

"Yeah, someone sent me a text message the other day about it. What is he turning? Thirty or something?"

"Uh-huh. I think this one's going to be big. I heard some of his frat  brothers were coming down up from Florida to be there. Last year when  Tango threw a house party at his crib, it was off the chain. Anybody who  is anybody will be there."

Annette had heard Denise talking about getting an invitation at work,  but she didn't think it was anything to be excited over. Instead, she  wondered if Denise knew a girl named Candy up at the radio station. She  made a mental note in her head to ask her tomorrow when she called her.  Suddenly, she had a terrible headache.

As the waitress took their orders for drinks, appetizers, and main  courses, she distanced herself as she thought about what happened last  Saturday night. She remembered staying in that night because she had  accidentally sprained her ankles while climbing up the stairs getting to  her apartment that morning. She knew that Anthony had been at the club,  but he hadn't mentioned going with anyone, not even Leroy. When she  called his cell phone around one or two in the morning, he didn't  answer, so she figured that he had too much to drink and had already  gone to bed.

When their food finally arrived, she pretended to be interested in what  they were talking about and pushed her food around on her plate, eating a  bit here and there. She wasn't even hungry anymore. How could she eat  when she felt that her boyfriend was being untruthful to her? She wasn't  really focused on what they were talking about, but it involved  something about club expansion and other growth opportunities. When she  was done pushing food around and around on her plate, she got up and  excused herself to the restroom.

"Excuse me," she said to Jason and Trinity, and then she whispered to Anthony, "I'm going to the lady's room to freshen up."         

     



 

"Mind if I come with you," Trinity said, placing the linen napkin that  was on her lap beside her plate. Her food was half eaten as well.

She smiled and waited politely as Trinity got up and met her on the  other side of the table and followed her in the direction of the  restrooms. When they were in there, they both took the free spaces in  front the mirror and starting touching up their hair and makeup.

"You know, I felt bad for what I blurted out earlier," Trinity said,  putting her lipstick back in her handbag and turning so that she was  facing me. "You seem like a nice girl and I may have come off as kind of  rude when I did that. I really do apologize."

"No problem," Annette said, arranging her curls away from her face.

"Anyway, I don't think you have anything to worry about. You're a very  beautiful girl and Anthony doesn't seem that stupid. As long as you're  his main girl, things will always work in your favor. Trust me, I know."

"Thank you. You can't help but wonder, you know?"

"Believe me … I know. Before we got engaged, Jason was at that club almost  every other night and you wouldn't believe what girls would do to get  in free, get free drinks, or whatever. I mean they would degrade  themselves to anything. I finally put my foot down about stuff and he  eventually started spending less time at the club and more time with me,  when I threatened to leave him."

Annette finally turned to face Trinity and said, "To tell you the truth,  Trinity, I don't think Anthony has the same priorities as Jason does.  Jason is a little bit older. Anthony is young and he likes to live life  on the fast side."

"If you give him an ultimatum or at least tell him what you want, he  should understand and take you into consideration with his career. If he  doesn't, then you should really think about moving on," Trinity said.

She met Trinity's eyes and could tell that she was being sincere about  everything she said. But, Trinity didn't understand their relationship.  There was no way she could leave Anthony and at the same time not feel  like her life was going to end.

"It's easier said than done … "

Trinity reached in her handbag again and pulled out a business card. "If  you ever need to talk or just want to go out sometime, give me a call."

She took Trinity's card and looked at the logo. Her title indicated that  she was an independent image consultant and counselor. She smiled, "No  wonder your words seem too good to be true. Is there a fee?"

"No." Trinity laughed. "If you ever come see me, I promise that it'll be  as friends. It's a lot easier than you think to let go. Believe me, the  hardest thing for me to do was follow my own advice. I now know what it  feels like to follow good advice, but in the long run everything works  out. Trust me." She smiled, reached out and touched my shoulders in a  sympathetic way.