Scarlet didn’t waste any time knocking. She pushed through the door Ruby left ajar in her distraction, nearly colliding with Talia’s latest conquest. A gasp involuntarily escaping her lips, she cringed into herself and stumbled to the side so he could pass. She didn’t get a proper look at him but his height and the amount of hair on his arms made her think of her father. An illusion she fought to extinguish.
“Scarlet?” Ruby stood up to go to her, but Vanessa placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. “What?” She murmured back to her, slightly annoyed.
“Just give her a minute…” Vanessa reassured her. Ruby turned back toward her sister, seeing her countenance more clearly and reluctantly nodded. For several moments, Scarlet rubbed her arms as they crossed tightly around her ribs. She took a few deep breaths, each one feeling like an eternity, until her shaking ceased. After receiving a soothing pat from Vanessa, Ruby asked, “are you ok?”
Scarlet nodded, slowly collecting herself. “I’m sorry, I thought he… you were right. I shouldn’t have come…”
“Hang on, I’ll come with you. Call me if anything changes, Vanessa?”
“Sure, of course. Thanks for checking on us.” She offered a smile, but her tone was completely devoid of enthusiasm.
Suddenly, Alejandro came charging up the stairs, catching all of them off guard. “Where is she? In there?” His rhetorical query hung in the air as he raced down the hall and started pounding on the closed bedroom door. Out of nowhere, he kicked into a flurry of Spanish. Whether he was irate or highly concerned, no one had any clue, but they noticed one curious irregularity—he’d referred to her as “Natalia,” something only his uncles or her clients did. Vanessa warily faced the twins, pointing behind her back with her lips forming a question mark. Both of them shook their heads, equally as perplexed as she was.
Continuing on his dizzying tirade, Alejandro read off his phone as he scrolled through multiple screens. Supposedly, a few of Talia’s clients had contacted him and voiced various concerns, so this visit was a welfare check more than anything else.
A menacing groan reverberated from inside the room. The door opened for half a second before slamming shut. Out of the temporary opening flew Talia’s bedside table lamp, which would have smacked Alejandro in the face if he hadn’t ducked. She spouted an array of obscenities in Spanish back at him. At one point, Vanessa gasped and covered her mouth, drawing glances from everyone else in the room. She bit her lip and clarified for the twins how it was essentially a threat of bodily harm to Alejandro that would permanently make bathroom functionality extra difficult for him. Her reaction made him roll his eyes and mumbled his reasoning behind the gesture to himself.
Rubbing the back of his neck and assessing the situation further, he took extra care with his phrasing as to not escalate the tension any further, “Ok, I will take care of Calypso for as long as you need the time away. And if I make any mistake, you can tell me about it later. Sound fair?”
Her response was muffled, but she accepted his offer.
“Just do me a favor and make sure you order in food every now and then. However you do that, I leave for you to decide. I brought you a little something for breakfast so if you just open up for a second…” In the chaos, the girls completely missed the fact he’d brought a takeout bag with him. He held it up to the door, being careful to stand far back for his own safety. Once again, the door opened for a split second. Her hand grabbed the straps of the bag and she hastily pulled it inside before shutting the door.
Alejandro exhaled and promptly brushed himself off. “And don’t leave your front door unlocked all night. Do what you want with your life, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok to risk everyone else’s lives with that type of carelessness.” More Spanish followed, but it appeared Talia had calmed down as well and agreed to Alejandro’s suggestions. The distinct squeak of mattress springs confirmed she’d settled back into bed.
Turning back toward the other three, he said, “let’s go. We need to work out a plan for the upcoming Calypso shows.” The response wasn’t immediate, so he introduced more sternness to his tone, “Now!” One by one, all of them agreed. He held the door for Ruby and Vanessa but noticed how Scarlet was still rooted in place. Her eyes lingered on the door, hoping to see Talia emerge despite knowing deep down it wasn’t going to happen today.
“Scarlet?” He asked. She turned his way, quickly noticing his face had softened as much as his tone. “Come on, you can’t do any good here. Not when Talia isn’t ready to listen and face herself.” She nodded, unable to say a word, as she let Alejandro escort her and the others back to Calypso.
* * *
When Scarlet returned to Calypso with her fellow sirens and Alejandro, the change in the atmosphere was immediately apparent. She’d been on the premises without Talia on numerous occasions, but the mere possibility of the club’s activities having to move forward without its leader sucked the air out of the building. Gauging everyone else’s pessimistic expressions, they were clearly experiencing similar feelings.
The three of them brought chairs out from the storage shed out back and arranged them in a semicircle in the middle of the floor. Alejandro leaned his back against the edge of the stage as he stood across from them. Ruby and Vanessa both offered to reach out to their contacts—Vanessa with her former dance students and Ruby with the other strippers from her father’s old joint— in case they needed more group numbers to fill the void left by Talia.
Through the course of the discussion, Scarlet stared out into space. Words and phrases flew in one ear. Her head buzzed with countless thoughts about her father and how his abuse had her convinced for years that she couldn’t love anyone, including herself. Then she met Talia, a person who’d suffered through hardship but refused to let it define them, and she believed for the first time she could put a lifetime of pain behind her. With Talia being bested by her personal demons, what was to stop the same thing from happening to her too?
Alejandro thoughtfully nodded, considering the comments thus far, and suggested, “let’s do what we can with the dancers we already have before bringing in anyone new. Emilia already has enough to handle with Amber and whatever project she has up her sleeve.”
The sound of Emilia’s name snapped Scarlet out of her daze. Her entire body let out a gasp before the air escaped her lips. “Wait, what about Emilia?” She turned toward her sister, her eyes wide with panic.
“That’s the other thing I was going to tell you over the phone… Emilia knows everything. And I do mean everything.”
“Oh God…” She slumped forward to bury her face in her hands. Ruby rubbed her back as she gave her the rundown of the previous night’s events. Vanessa filled in the blanks, eventually taking over for the journey to The Underground and the state of their apartment upon her return.
Once she was caught up, Scarlet paced the room in what felt like slow motion to those around her. She shut her eyes tight and focused on her breathing. Although riddled with angst, she found some of the details curious and didn’t hesitate to call attention to them. “So, you were the one who called Amber? Did she thank you?”
Ruby shrugged. “In her own way. You know her.”
“Right… did Emilia seem like she was ready to quit if you hadn’t agreed to bring them together?”
“Honestly, I don’t know, but I wasn’t going to take that chance. Otherwise I’d never forgive myself.”
“And this project Amber is working on, what do you know about it?”
Vanessa interceded, “I know the music she has picked out for it but not much more than that. But now that she has Emilia like she’s always wanted, that’ll help boost her amount of creativity for sure.”
Circling back to the task at hand, Alejandro concluded, “in the meantime, we still need to fill in the time in the schedule. I think Amber will want Emilia to focus on her thing, so she’ll have to stay out of the sets for a while.”
* * *
Despite the others’ reassurances, Scarlet found herself plagued with uncertainty for the remainder of the day. By the time she returned to Javier’s place, Juan Paulo had turned in for the night. Javier was vague about the details while the two of them rested together in bed, but it sounded like Juan Paulo spent much of the day working on the same song from that morning.
“You’ll be moved with how much passion he brings to the ending but also… you can tell something’s broken inside him. It just isn’t the same like it was. And with the showcase coming up in a few weeks, this couldn’t have happened at a worse time.”
“What showcase?”
“We got a call about it earlier today. Apparently, someone Natalia had connections with, they have roots in the music business and want to help us possibly cut an album.”
“Javi!” Scarlet beamed, “That’s amazing! You must be so excited.”
“Yes. It would be amazing… if JP can get himself together in time… how’s Natalia? Did you get to talk to her?”
“No… I wanted to but everyone seems to think it wouldn’t do any good. Once Talia makes her mind about anything, there’s not much you can do. I really thought JP was making a lot of progress, but it ended the same just like it always does. Maybe it’s just impossible for people to change.”
Javier rolled toward Scarlet and kissed her lips a couple times in an attempt to alleviate her mood. She kissed him back, but only halfheartedly. He leaned away, softly asking as he combed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “If you’re not up for it tonight, we can just sleep. Whatever you feel like doing.”
“No… no, I want to. I need some sort of distraction. It’s been a long day and I don’t want it to be a long night too.”
Javier planted his lips on Scarlet’s neck, kissing repeatedly as he eased his way inside her. She gasped with pleasure before making a conscious decision to do so. Her arms reached around his back and she held on tight as his thrusts increased in momentum. Before long, she cried out in ecstasy and blood rushed to her head. The heat was so incredible her vision grew fuzzy and sleep came to her soon after.
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