Page 23 of Trouble

“I know Tash left most of the management to you, but you’ll be taking over what she used to do as well.” I could see that it physically pained JoJo to speak about her friend and leaned in and hugged her.

“I’m so sorry she’s gone.”

“I swear,” she mumbled as she wiped tears from her face with the back of her hand. “Every time I think I have it all under control, just the mention of her name brings it all back. We were supposed to grow old together, like the Golden Girls or some shit.”

I chuckled. “I could totally see all of you sitting around throwing one-liners at each other.” JoJo laughed through her tears.

“It was supposed to be exactly like that. Now, Tash, MiMi, and Angel Girl are gone. It’s just me, Keys, and Legs. The other women too, but we were the originals and half of us are gone.”

“How is Angel Girl?” I asked. Everyone was still tight lipped about her, but I’d come to understand that she had some sort of degenerative disease, or cancer or something.

“She’s not well. It won’t be long and she…” JoJo choked up and I pulled her into my arms again. There was no point telling her how sorry I was that she was losing another friend. She knew. Besides, feeling bad about a situation didn’t do a damn thing to change it for the person who was hurting. “It’s crazy because Angel Girl and I didn’t even get along that well. I reminded her of someone who stabbed her in the back and she never could quite separate the two in her mind. She knew I wasn’t the one, but it still colored the way she treated me. And the bitch of it is I would take every bit of bullshit she could throw my way if she was whole again. We had our issues, but there was still love and respect underneath it all too.”

“I get it,” I told her. “It was like that between my mom and me in the end. I still cared for her and loved her even though I’d never been her priority when she was healthy. I would have given anything to go back to the status quo rather than lose her completely.”

“Yeah, I guess you do get it.” JoJo swiped at her face some more and then seemed to physically shake off all the emotions that took hold of her only a moment before. “Damn. I swear, I didn’t come here for an unpaid therapy session.”

“I’m not just an employee, you know. I’m a friend too. If you need to talk, I’m here to listen and what is said here, stays here.”

“I appreciate that, Trinity. Thank you. I came here to discuss your promotion though.”

“From manager to bigger manager,” I teased.

She chuckled lightly. “Something like that. The bump in pay I mentioned isn’t as straightforward as you’re probably thinking. Keys and I talked it over and we want you to become a partner in the club portion of our business.”

“JoJo, I don’t have the money to buy into something like that,” I admitted.

My friend shook her head and took hold of my hands. “No buy-ins required. You’ve worked every job there is to work at Paramour. Since you took on management, you’ve busted your ass and whipped that club into shape. We want to bring you on as a partner because you earned your place through hard work, dedication, and loyalty. That was your buy-in. There were originally six of us partnered. We are putting Tash and Angel Girl’s shares in a trust for their kids. MiMi didn’t have anyone, so we wanted to offer you her stake basically. Christina is taking her portion of Redemption Inc. and you are getting the Paramour side of things. You get vetoing rights when we make a decision for Paramour as well.

“I’m not a member of S.H.E.” It was the only thing I could think to say.

“True. You could be, if you wanted, but it isn’t a requirement to take the position.”

“I don’t think I can see myself driving motorcycles around. I’ve been driving the same Jeep since I was seventeen.”

“You might want to think about an upgrade,” JoJo teased.

“Now, why would I do that when the best mechanic in the world keeps her running so well for me?” We both laughed, since she was my mechanic.

“I guess that’s fair. It’s nice to not have a car payment to worry about.”

“That’s the damn truth,” I agreed. “I’ll do it. I’ll take the job. You might have to fill me in on what Tash did behind the scenes,and MiMi too, for that matter, but I’m pretty quick on my feet, so I don’t think it will take long to figure things out.”

“Good. Our first order of business will be to find some new dancers.”

“Why?”

JoJo sighed and then looked up at me. “We were supposed to open tonight, but three of our scheduled dancers moved to Atlanta to take jobs there because we were closed down too long.”

“So, what you’re saying is we’re short staffed and don’t have enough entertainment to be open tonight?”

“First problem to solve is a doozy, huh?” JoJo joked.

“Nah. I can handle this. Do you have any club members who have danced before?”

“One, I think. I can check with her to see if she’d be up for filling in.”

“Okay, you do that and I’ll dust off my pasties and fill in too.”

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