Maybe Baby Lite (30 page)

“
Hey,” Gina snapped, but
not really pissed, “I don’t do things so as to be obvious about it,
Ty. I just happened to ask his assistant if Trey was in, that I was
an old neighbor from Bristol, which is sort of the
truth.”

“
Okay,” I responded, “so
what about when he gets back and his assistant said that an old
neighbor was asking about him? He knows that you are I are friends,
what conclusion do you think he'll come to then?”

“
No worries, Ty,” she
giggled, “I told her a fake name!”

Oh great, I
thought.

“
Besides, that,” she said,
“why are you defending him? You’re pissed at him most of the time
anyway?”

“
I told you, Gina, we have
a complicated relationship. I care deeply for him, but I’m also put
off by his need to control me. So, I give him space and looks like
he’s giving me mine. You know, it’s not like I expected that he'd
do anything for my birthday.”

“
It doesn’t matter, Ty.
Let’s not mention the asshole for the rest of the night. Tonight's
all about partying!”

“
I’m not the one who
brought his name up in the first place,” I pointed out. “I’m with
you; this is my night that you've made possible. I love you for it.
Please let’s not argue?” I gave her a hug and we finally changed
the subject.

“
Hey,” Gina said, “it’s
time for a birthday drink for the birthday girl! What’s your
poison, Ty?”

“
I'll have vodka
sonic!”

“
Okay,” she said,
“directions please?”

“
Vodka, soda, a splash of
tonic, and lime,” I recited. She mixed up two for us and we raised
our glasses. “To an epic night!” we chimed in unison.

The Sanctuary was located
in the trendy Buckhead district of Atlanta. Our limo pulled up to
the club’s entrance and idled. The beats from inside filtered out
onto the sidewalk and groups of young patrons patiently waited in
line; one in, one out. The chauffeur exited our limo and opened the
doors for both of us. We took our time stepping out, loving our
chance to make an entrance. Guys waiting in the crowd outside let
out low whistles as we made our way to the door. Gina led the way,
pulling me along behind her. I wasn’t used to the high heels and
didn’t feel as steady on my feet as Gina. Once at the door, the
bouncer smiled warmly and held the door open.

Inside, the spacious club
was packed. There were various levels of the club with tables,
booths, a bar area, and a multi-level dance floor that was already
flooded with people. The current live band was playing Pink’s song
“So What,” one of my favorites. I noticed that there was a
mezzanine that bordered the entire club with two separate
staircases leading to it. Gina read my thoughts.

“
Do you want to sit at a
table on the mezzanine?” she yelled over the music. “It’s roomier
and we can at least hear each other talk!”

“
Sounds good to me,” I
yelled.

We headed up that way and
right before we got to the wide staircase, Ian came up to Gina,
grabbing her from behind, and gave her a giant kiss. They were so
crazy in love, and the surprising thing was they were totally
opposite personalities. I had to smile as I watched them in action.
Ian stood back and admired how sexy she looked. Then he came over
to give me a hug and a “Happy Birthday!”

“
Thank you!” I yelled over
all of the noise.

“
You look fantastic,
love,” he hollered. I loved his British accent. What a match, Gina
from Jersey and Ian from Manchester, England.

“
Thank you!” I yelled.
Finally the song stopped and we had a few moments until the next
set played.

“
Ian, Ty and I are going
to take a table up on the mezzanine. Where’s Piers? I want to
introduce him to Tylar.”

Ian shook his head. “Giner
(that was British for Gina I presumed) you need to let things be
with that,” he said.

“
Hey Ian, it’s her
birthday and she's going to want to dance. Who better than
Piers?”

Ian laughed and smacked
her tight ass. “He’ll be along, I’ll send him up. I should be
relieved here in about 30 and then join you up there
love.”

“
I can hardly wait,” Gina
giggled. “C’mon Ty, let’s get some drinks.” Gina got us the VIP
table up on the mezzanine. There was an alcove on the mezzanine
that was located above the band stage. The mezzanine alcove jutted
out a bit over the dance floor, and had its own staircase leading
to it. It was semi-private from the rest of the mezzanine. Gina
explained it was usually reserved in advance but she and Ian kept
it available for us. Gina pushed the button on the wall next to our
table to summon our waiter.

Over the loud music, Gina
ordered our drinks. Before we were finished with our first round,
Ian and Piers joined us. Piers was extremely good looking and
possessed the same hot British accent as Ian. He was about 5'11''
in height, lean build, and had dark, almost black hair that was
neatly trimmed in what I'd call a business cut. He had dark brown
eyes, and a very relaxed demeanor about him.

The next group up was a
Scottish boy band that Ian discovered in Atlantic City. They were
booked at one of the casinos and Ian had been able to get them for
a four-week gig at the Sanctuary on weekends for July. They were
called “Johnnie and the Self Abusers.” I had a fairly good buzz
going, and Piers leaned over the table and asked me if I wanted to
dance. I recognized the old ’80s tune, “Don’t You Forget About Me,”
starting. How appropriate I thought. Someone had definitely
forgotten about me.

“
Sure, I said, grabbing
Piers’ outstretched hand as he helped me up. We descended the
stairs to the lit dance floor.

It was one of those songs
that bordered between fast and slow, so Piers and I did a mixture
of both. I caught myself wishing it were Trey that I was dancing
with. As the song ended, I raised my head from Piers shoulder. He
had his head bowed slightly toward me. Suddenly his lips were
brushing mine in a sweet kiss.

Oh no!

“
Happy Birthday, Tylar,”
he said, smiling.

I returned his smile. He
put his arm around me and we headed back up the staircase to the
mezzanine. Once seated, more drinks were set in front of me. There
they were; the dreaded, Jell-O shots, my downfall from senior prom.
I pushed that memory from my mind and tossed the shot back. Right
then someone came up from behind me put his arms around me with a
squeeze and gave me a “Gotcha!”

“
Oh my God!’ I squealed,
turning around to see Luke, Clint, and Rodney. “Gina didn’t tell me
you were coming!” I jumped up to hug them.

“
Whoa,” Clint whistled,
checking out my outfit.

“
I see that ‘Whoa,’ and
raise you a ‘Wow!’” said Rodney. I blushed.

“
You look amazing, baby!”
Luke winked.

“
You guyyzzz” I gushed,
feeling no pain. “C’mon, it’s my birthday, let’s toast!” Gina
brought another tray of Jell-O shots, and we all took one, toasted,
and downed it. The band below was keying up for another tune. The
lead singer had the mic, announcing the next song.

“
Okay everyone, we’re
going to do a two-song tribute right now to the ‘King of Funk’. So
I want everyone to hurry on down to this dance floor. That’s right,
for the late great, King of Funk, Mr. Rick James his 1981 hit,
“Super Freak!”

“
C’mon,” Gina, said,
grabbing my arm as the band struck the first note. “Everybody!” she
commanded.

Maybe it was the alcohol,
or my friends around me, or the way I was dressed, but all
inhibitions left me when I stepped on the dance floor. Gina was
freak-dancing with Luke, so I grabbed Rodney and started freaking.
I was bumping and grinding against Rodney, then turned and he did
the same to me. At one point I was down at his ankles working my
way back up his body to the beat when I froze around his
mid-section. I was being watched by a pair of very familiar, very
emblazoned sapphire blue eyes. Trey sat at the bar adjacent to the
dance floor, leaning back, with a beer in his hand and a blond on
his left. I couldn’t tell if they were together or not.

Rodney noticed I'd not
come back up all of the way, and bent down to face me. “Are you all
right? Are you going to be sick?” he asked, concerned.

“
I may be,” I answered,
“don’t turn around Rodney, but Trey is sitting over at the bar, and
he’s looking over this way.” Naturally, Rodney turned and saw
him.

“
Holy shit,” he said, “I’m
outtie.”

Rodney climbed the
staircase to the safety of the mezzanine. “Chicken,” I thought. I
wasn't about to be intimidated by Trey so I danced over to Clint
and joined them.

As “Super Freak” ended,
the band immediately cued up another Rick James song, “Party All
the Time,” as in ‘my girl wants to.’ Perfect, I thought. Clint and
I danced to the tune, along with Gina and Luke. We were bumping and
grinding and I was getting the ultimate pleasure watching Trey
squirm in my very astute peripheral vision. I made sure when the
song ended, to jump up and wrap myself around Clint in a big hug. I
think he was a little shocked, but no more than I.

After two in a row, we
were all a bit worn out. As we climbed the stairs to the mezzanine,
Gina caught my attention.

“
That was quite a little
show you put on down there for Trey, you looking to get Clint and
Rodney’s asses kicked tonight?”

My look of surprise and
shock didn’t fool Gina at all.

“
Don’t bother,” she said,
“I know how you roll, girlfriend and hey, I’ve got no problem with
dude sitting over there watching you and feeling like his heart is
being ripped out, believe me. But C’mon, Ty, you know that it’s not
really fair to Clint and Rodney when he chews them out later,
right?”

“
I was dancing with Piers,
too,” I argued, “so you think Trey’s going to take a piece out of
his hide, too?”

“
Doubtful,” she answered.
“In the first place, we’re not even sure Trey was in here when you
were dancing with Piers. Secondly,” she continued, with a laugh,
“you weren’t dry humping Piers like you did with the
others.”

“
It’s called ‘freaking’” I
argued, “and it’s a perfectly acceptable dance.”

“
Uh huh,” Gina replied.
“Hey, I ain’t the one you have to convince, Ty. I was doing it too,
you know. It’s just that, well…” Gina started giggling almost
uncontrollably, “My partner didn’t leave the dance floor with a
hard-on like both of yours did!”

“
Shut up! No they didn’t!”
I laughed, “You're making that up, Gina!” I was bent over, laughing
so hard that I didn’t notice that Trey was walking to the dance
floor with the blond who'd been sitting next to him at the bar.
Gina hadn’t missed a thing, though, as she glanced at
me.

“
Showtime,” Gina said,
nodding her head toward the dance floor. I turned to follow her
gaze and my heart sank to my knees. We hurried the rest of the way
up the steps. I didn’t want to give Trey the satisfaction of
knowing that I'd seen him take his date on to the dance floor. The
band did a Mike and the Mechanics ’80s song called, “All I Need is
a Miracle.” What an appropriate selection, I thought. I tried to
ignore the lyrics but the words floated up to me over Gina’s
insanely expensive sound system, the words crisp, clear, and sharp
as a knife as they pierced my heart.

I couldn’t take it any
longer; I felt the warm tears brimming in my eyes threatening to
spill. Gina saw it, too.

“
C’mon,” she said, taking
my hand, “let’s go to the little girls’ room.” We'd barely made it
inside the restroom when the floodgates opened. Gina found box of
tissues and was trying to do damage control to the eye make-up
she'd so carefully and expertly applied earlier.

“
It’s okay, sweetie,
you're going to be fine, no need for tears,” she was trying her
best to soothe me.

“
Why is he here?” I
blubbered, “And he brought a fucking date! He must really be trying
to send me a message with this stunt, and it’s my birthday!” I
wailed.

“
No, no, honey, c’mon, you
don’t want streaks down your cheeks, now,” Gina was dabbing
away.

“
Oh, I don’t care what I
look like, Gina. I want to leave!”

“
Oh, no, we're going
nowhere, girlfriend. Now you just take a minute and calm yourself
down and listen to me, I mean it.”

I nodded obediently. Gina
took out a compact and dabbed some pressed power just underneath my
eyelids.

“
There, that’s better,”
she said. She then got some pencil liner out and relined my bottom
lids. “Perfect,” she said. “Now, I need to tell you something, Ty,”
she started in a conciliatory tone. “I'm probably the reason that
Trey is in here tonight.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
Well, I said something to
Aunt Becky when I talked to her last week. I let her know that Ian
and I were having you come to Atlanta this weekend to celebrate
your birthday. I asked her to let Clint and the others know, and
that they were invited as Ian’s and my guests to the Sanctuary
tonight in honor of your birthday. I swear to God that I didn’t ask
her to invite Trey, though!”