7. Lap Dance ♔︎

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| King of Hearts |

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By: Janae Destiny

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"I uhm... me and the kids had a lot of fun hanging out with you today," Monie held onto the front door while Kiara stood out in the hallway.

They ended up spending the entire day together, which was very unexpected for both of them. After breakfast and their little trip to the mall, Kiara showed Monie and the kids around some of Miami's hotspots before deciding to go to a dine-in theatre to watch some new Pixar movie Ava has been talking about nonstop for over a week.

"I had a lot of fun chillin with y'all too," Kiara nodded her head in agreement. "It's been a while since I had fun without drinking and partying being involved."

"You should hang out with us more often then," Monie laughed, even though she wasn't at all joking. "Because between Ava and Marco, they definitely keep me out the house."

"Maybe I should," Kiara laughed too. "But it's getting late and I know you gotta get Ava ready for bed so..." she awkwardly shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.

"So, I'll see you at work on Thursday?"

"Yeah, I guess I'll see you Thursday," Kiara nodded her head. "G'night Monie."

"Good night Kiara," she responded, only closing the door when Kiara turned around and started walking off towards the elevators.

And Monie stood there for a while, just staring at the closed door, like a part of her was hoping Kiara would come walking back through it if she waited a little bit longer.

"You like her-?"

"My God," Monie jumped when Marco very unexpectedly popped up behind her. "What the actual fuck is your problem bruh?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he continued munching on the bag of hot fries he was holding in his hands. "Why you get scared so easily?"

"Why you always randomly popping up on me?" She walked away from the door and went to the kitchen to warm up her leftover food because she was a little hungry.

She was supposed to be getting Ava ready for bed since it was already past her bedtime, but Monie was in no rush. Ava was quietly practicing her letters and handwriting in front of the TV, so Monie just left her alone.

"It's not really random, but okay," Marco followed her. "What we really needa talk about is why you was just staring at the door after Kiara left. Cause don't tell me you like her already."

"Why? Do you like her?"

"Shiiit," he smirked because the answer to that was very obviously yes. "If she's willing to wait three years until I turn 18, then so am I."

"Don't get slapped."

"I'm just playing... sort of. But you still ain't answer my question."

"I do not like her Marco. What the hell?"

"I'm just asking. Cause I know yo ass fall in love in like two seconds."

"That's not even true-"

"Don't even lie Monique. I feel like you in love with somebody else every other month. Like your ex? She was nothing but a bitch, and you still- wait," he caught himself before Monie even had the chance to say anything to him. "I didn't mean that. I don't think any woman is a bitch. That was outta line."

"Nah, I can't even get on you about that one," Monie sighed. "She was a bitch."

Monie has a very bad habit of falling too quickly and way too hard for people she has no business being with in the first place. But after her very messy breakup with her ex-girlfriend and the shit she's been dealing with concerning her baby daddy, Monie promised herself she wasn't going to put herself in another situation like that ever again.

"And even if I did like Kiara- which I don't," she stressed, making it very obvious that she does in fact like the girl. Even if it's just a little bit. "She's not going for that anyway."

"Why not? Cause you work for her?"

"No," Monie took her food out of the microwave and went to sit down at the table to eat it. "But that is another very good reason. I promised myself I'd never mess with anyone I work with/for again. I'm not tryna get my tires slashed again."

"See... crazy ass bitch," Marco mumbled under his breath.

"Aight now. I let it slide once, but don't get beside yourself."

"Did I lie though?"

"Anyway," Monie rolled her eyes. "I was talking to Kiara while you was in the shower and she got a lot of connections around here. I might be able to get you into a summer basketball programme for the summer so you have something to do before school starts back."

"For real? Cause I was bouta start going to the gym or something to hoop until the season started back up."

"I think joining an actual team will be good for you. I know you miss your old teammates, and I think the only way to move past that is to join another one and make some new friends."

"Speaking of old teammates, my niggas back in Chi are hella tweaked that we actually out here," he smirked. "Just wait til they find out who yo new friend is."

"Marco, you needa chill out. I get that you excited to be here and all, but don't nobody need to know where we are right now. And especially not who I may or may not know."

And she didn't say that because she cares what Marco's friends think. She cared about Aiden- and word travels faster in Chicago than one might think it does. Especially since Marco is friends with Aiden's little cousins. It would take him two seconds to figure out where they are, and baby daddy or not, Aiden is the last person on earth she wants to deal with.

"Monie, I'm not as stupid as you think I am. Obviously, I'm not actually gonna tell niggas where we stay at or that you know the King family. I'm just saying, my old teammates would lose they shit if they found out."

"Mommy?" Ava came walking in from the living room.

"Yes, baby?"

"I'm tired," she yawned.

"Yeah, I figured you was gonna say that. We bouta go take a shower, okay?"

"Okay," she nodded her head.

"I don't think you're stupid by the way," Monie said to Marco as she stood up from the table. "Actually, I think the complete opposite."

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"Monie?" Marco whispered as he peaked his head into her bedroom door. All of the lights were off in the room, but he knew for a fact she wasn't sleeping yet.

"Hmm?" She hummed, turning over in the bed to look at him.

"I knew yo ass wasn't sleep," he went and got in on the other side of the king-sized bed.

It was late, and Ava was asleep in the middle of the bed, but he made sure to be careful not to wake her up.

"What's wrong Marco?" Monie sat up and turned on the lamp that was on the table beside the bed.

She was worried because it's not very often Marco comes into her room at night, meaning he most likely couldn't sleep.

"I had that dream again," he whispered.

"About... mom and dad?" She asked really quietly, almost like she didn't want to say it at all.

"Yeah," he nodded his head.

"You wanna talk about it?" Monie still asked, even though she knew he was going to say no like he always does.

Marco was so young when it happened that he doesn't have a lot of concrete memories of their parents. The few memories he does have from the first few years of his life replay over and over in his head sometimes, like a movie on an endless loop. The memories themselves are all good, but when he's sleeping, they sometimes manifest themselves into the very haunting memories of their parents' death.

It doesn't happen very often. Actually, it barely happens at all. But on the rare nights that it does, Marco doesn't like to sleep by himself. He would either end up on the floor in Ava's room or asleep at the end of Monie's bed at their old apartment.

"Nah. I don't wanna talk about it," he shook his head.

"You wanna stay in here for the night?"

"Can I?" He asked, even though he knows she never says no.

"Of course you can."

Marco got under the covers and made himself confortable in the bed before Monie reached to turn the lamp back off so it was dark in the room again.

"Night Monie," he whispered.

"Good night Marco," she reached across Ava for his hand, placing a gentle kiss on the back of it before letting him go and turning back around in the bed.

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Thursday Night

Thursday night- or technically Friday morning since it was well after midnight- came a lot faster than Monie was expecting.

After that Tuesday that Kiara spent the entire day with Monie and the kids, they had a part two of that the very next day.

Kiara came over on Wednesday to drop off the custom patch jeans she made for Ava the same night she bought them, and just never ended up leaving. They spent most of the day down at the beach before walking a couple of blocks over to have lunch at some cute little Caribbean-style restaurant.

Kiara was going to head home soon after that, but Marco insisted she stay for dinner since he was cooking, and she felt like it would be rude not to, so she did. She even took him grocery shopping to get everything he needed, since there still wasn't much in the house, while Monie stayed with Ava as she took her afternoon nap.

Why was Kiara doing things like that for people she barely knows? Well, there's a simple answer to that. Because she likes Monie. Maybe not like that, but she definitely does like her. Even if it is just as a friend.

Currently, though, Monie had her AirPods in her ears and was listening to her own music as she quickly re-curled her hair and touched up her makeup. She was already on the floor for a little bit, but she had to pee after a full bottle of water and three shots of tequila. So since she was in the locker room anyway, she figured she'd just freshen up before going back onto the floor.

It was loud in the locker room, but she wasn't paying attention to anything the girls had going on around her, especially since she isn't cool with any of them yet. She just quietly hummed to the tune of the Kelela song playing in her ears, pretending she was in her own little world.

"Monique," one of the girls called her name, but she didn't hear it at first because of the music playing loudly in her ears to drown out all of the voices around her.

"Monique!" The source of the voice repeated a bit louder that time, finally able to get Monie's attention.

She doesn't know any of these girls, not in the slightest. She only worked with a few of them the previous Sunday, and couldn't remember any of their names if you paid her to.

"Yeah?" She turned around from her handheld mirror, which she was using to re-apply a dark brown liner to her lips.

Thé girl that had called her, Jade, is a sort of 'veteran' in the club, which simply means she's been working there since Kiara opened it three years prior. She was tall, had extremely light skin due to her mixed background, wore this obnoxiously bright neon pink hair, and had a very pretty face- which is ironic because her attitude couldn't be uglier.

"Streets saying you been getting real close to King," Jade chewed her gum a few times and popped it before continuing. "You just got here and already pushing it."

"Who exactly are these streets?" Monie asked. "And pushing what exactly? Cause if Kiara ain't complaining about it, then it seems like bitches are just too damn worried about what I got going on."

"Oh, so now I'm a bitch?"

"Only if you're these so-called 'streets' you talking about. Cause ain't shit going on between me and nobody. And even if there was, I don't know why y'all so worried about the next bitch's pussy in the first place."

"I care when it comes to my money. We not about to let some new bitch come up in here and fuck up the flow of how we do shit here."

"Is this like your hazing ritual or something?" Monie laughed. She was completely unaffected by anything this girl was saying to her. "Cause I promise you don't scare me. Like, not even a lil bit."

"Ain't shit funny, so I don't know why your ass is laughing."

"Uhmm, it is funny. Actually, it's fucking hilarious. I don't even remember your name and you're stepping at me like this? Bitch, please. We're fucking dancers, how is me being here affecting your bag in any way?"

"Dancers at a club that hosts exclusive ass celebrity parties and King is cool with hella rappers that be asking to use us in music videos and shit. And they love them young, new bitches like you."

"Aww, if you think I'm cute, you coulda just said that," Monie flipped her hair back behind her shoulder with a very guileful smile.

"Bitch, don't flatter yourself-"

"Jade, leave this girl alone," another dancer came up behind her. Monie remembers her from Sunday too, and she seems pretty cool from what she recalls. "I don't know why you even messing with her."

"Not right now CeCe," she held her hand up in the girl's face.

"No, I actually think this is the perfect time," Monie interrupted. "Cause this conversation is over. I'm just sitting here minding my own business, so I don't know why the fuck you wanna come bother me in the first place."

"Exactly," CeCe defended her. "This only her second night here. So go fuck with somebody else."

"You know what?" Jade rolled her eyes. " I don't have time for this shit anyway," she said before walking off as if she's not the one who approached Monie.

"She said that like I invited her to talk to me?" Monie was so confused about that entire encounter.

She could see why Kiara maintains her distance from the dancers in her own club. She definitely understood now, because some of them just seem very... off.

"Just ignore her," CeCe pulled out the chair next to Monie and sat down.

"I'm already ahead of you on that one," Monie picked her mirror back up and continued with her brown lip liner.

She finished touching up her makeup, wiped her body down with a wipe, reapplied her perfume, and put all of her stuff, including her AirPods, back into her bag and locked it back in her locker.

"Bitch you look good as fuck," she whispered to herself as she checked her outfit- if you can even call the very small amount of material she was wearing an 'outfit'- in the full body length mirror before exiting the locker room.

Monie wasn't doing a stage set at the moment, so she was making her rounds around the club, giving both lap and private dances to whoever was willing to pay her. And oh were people willing. Jade was right about one thing, they definitely do love new girls.

She got more numbers and instagrams than she appreciated that night, with zero intentions on hitting any of them up. Monie's eyes were doing a quick scan over the club when she caught Kiara's eyes from across the strobe light filled space.

Kiara was in the VIP section, where she tends to stay because it's far away from the general population. She had a bottle of Don Julio in her right hand and was standing over some girl with her hand firmly on her jaw as she poured some of the liquor into her mouth.

After giving the girl the shot, that's when she looked up and their eyes happened to meet from across the club. Kiara flashed that famous million-dollar smile and did a small hand motion, signaling Monie to go over there.

And Monie couldn't help but smile in return. She's obsessed with Kiara's smile, and she's not really sure why. Maybe it's how her full brown lips naturally have the most perfect pout. Or maybe it's the open-faced gold and diamond grills she has on both her bottom and top teeth that gives her smile an extra little something. But whatever it was, Monie was very drawn to it. She was very drawn to her.

She kept her eyes on Kiara the whole time as she slowly made her way over to her and her group of friends.

"Wassup Monie," Kiara nodded her head towards the girl when she finally made it to the VIP section. She backed up a few steps and reclaimed her seat on the couch behind her.

"Hey King-"

"Hey beautiful," one of Kiara's friends called out to Monie.

He was tall, brown-skinned, and undeniably fine as hell. And any other time Monie would have been interested. Any other night but that one.

"Hey baby," Monie looked up at him with a very seductive smirk on her face.

"Come here," he backed up so he was sitting down next to Kiara on the couch. "Let me talk to you for a second."

There were other girls already tending to their section. But again- niggas love a fresh face. So automatically, everyone was very drawn to her. And besides being new, she's absolutely beautiful, so that just adds to the attention she'd normally get anyway.

Monie danced for the man and a few of their other friends, collected her very generous tips, and was about to head out of the section when she very suddenly stopped when she saw Jade, the same girl who had just tried her in the locker room, entering the section.

That's when Monie chose to single out Kiara for no other reason than to make the other dancers- but specifically Jade, jealous. Was that childish of her? Sure, and she knew it too. She just didn't care.

She couldn't force Kiara to accept the dance, and Monie wasn't expecting her to go with it, especially after how much she stressed having boundaries between her and the dancers. She was just hoping to get her attention for a few seconds, exchange a couple of words, and then move on.

"You look good, King," Monie couldn't help but look at how her boobs perfectly sat up on her chest in the leather bustier top she was wearing.

"Thanks. You uh..." Kiara looked her very minimal dance outfit up and down before finishing her statement. "You look really good too."

"I'm practically naked and my ass is all out, but thanks," she sort of laughed. "Do you want a dance?"

"A dance?" Kiara furrowed her eyebrows like she didn't know what Monie was talking about.

"Yeah, like a private dance."

"I don't really do shit like that. And you know this."

"What's so bad about a harmless little dance?" Monie placed her hand on her hip. "This my way of saying thank you for being so nice to me the last few days."

"And it's just a dance?"

"Just a dance," Monie repeated.

"Aight," Kiara nodded her head.

She was surprised that Kiara agreed. Kiara clearly liked her enough to basically spend two whole days with her when they'd only met a few days ago. But to go as far as to let Monie give her a private dance? Well that- that definitely surprised her.

"Come on then," Monie held her hand out to her.

Kiara took her hand and made sure to pick up her bottle of Don Julio as she followed close behind Monie to the back of the club where some of her private rooms are.

And she definitely knew how unprofessional that looked, especially since she has rules about these sorts of things. And she knew people were definitely watching her because it's hard not to, but at that moment... she simply did not care.

People are not allowed to touch the dancers, and Kiara is very strict about that rule because it keeps very clear boundaries about what her club represents. What the girls do with these men and women outside of her club? Well, that's none of her business at that point. But inside Ethereal Miami, she enforces those very strict rules to keep her dancers safe.

But for some reason, Kiara seemed to forget about all of that at the moment. Because somewhere along the lines, after they'd both taken another shot, Kiara's hands had found their way to Monie's waist, holding tight onto her body as Monie danced on her in the straddled position she was in on Kiara's lap.

She only did it to stabilize Monie's movements on her, but when she realized, she pulled her hands away from her very soft and warm skin.

"It's okay," Monie grabbed Kiara's hands and put them back on her waist. "I don't mind."

"You sure? I don't wanna be touching all on you and make you uncomfortable."

"I don't mind... cause it's you," Monie wrapped her arms around Kiara's neck and leaned in real close to her.

"Monique..." Kiara whispered her name, all of a sudden at a complete loss for words.

"Yes, King?" She whispered directly in her ear, sending a shiver down the whole of Kiara's body.

"I like this," Kiara moved her eyes from Monie's- because the eye contact was getting just a little bit too intense for her- down to look at the pink sequins bikini top she had on with a matching g-string.

"Yeah, me too... but I like it even better when it's off."

"Oh really?" Kiara was way more intrigued by that statement than she should have been.

"Mmhm. You want me to take it off for you?"

"Uhm..." Kiara hesitated. But then she remembered that Monie would not have offered to do it if it wasn't something she wanted to do.

"King, do you want me to take it off?" Monie asked her again.

"Yeah..." she slowly nodded her head. "Go ahead and take it off for me..."

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