Page 2 of First Comes Love… Then Denial

“Flo!” Donald shouted as I elbowed the person standing behind me in the stomach. Flo let out an ear-piercing scream. You would have thought I was trying to kill her by the sounds of her.

“What the hell is going on?” another man’s voice boomed over the crowd’s clamoring. Flo’s hand left my hair.

“Gage,” Flo whimpered. “This servant came at me. Everyone saw it.”

I turned to come face to face with a weaselly looking guy. He had a receding hairline that made his large-crooked nose and thin lips stand out. He wore almost an identical outfit to Donald, except Gage wore a red polo.

Groupies, I muttered to myself.

“Who the hell do you think you are to attack my guests?” Gage yelled at me.

“Attack? I attackedher?” I scoffed then shook my head. “On the contrary.”

“Thank you, Gage,” Flo smirked, putting her arm around Gage’s arm. He looked down at her, frowned, then shook her free of his arm.

“Get off me,” he growled at her. Her mouth gaped open, but she said nothing to him.

“You might be pretty on the eyes, but you’re here to serve us.” He might as well have slapped me in the face.

“What the hell did you just say to me?” I bawled my fists at my sides.

“I said…You are pretty on the eyes, but you’re here to serve…” he said slowly then gestured around the crowd, “us. So, if you don’t want your sweet little ass fired, you need to stay the hell away from the guests and just stick to handing out drinks.”

The fire Flo had lit under my ass was nothing compared to what Gage had just done to me.

“Understood, sweet cheeks?” Gage smirked then slapped my ass.

The world around me turned red. My blood pressure was through the roof to the point I could feel my pulse in my head.

He didn’t get a chance to say another word. I launched at him and tackled him to the ground. Several women screamed and an uproar shortly followed.

“You son of a bitch!” I screamed at Gage while holding him by the collar and shaking him. His head hit the deck several times.

“Someone get this crazy bitch off me!”

“I’ll show you a crazy bitch,” I snarled then reached for the nearest item – a life preserver.

Wasn’t my first choice, but in this situation, I didn’t care. All I cared about was teaching the bastard a lesson on keeping his hands to himself.

“Ten… nine… eight…” the city’s finest chanted from their jail cells, “...seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… Happy New Year’s!”

The three words made me cringe.

Happy New Year’s?What the hell was so happy about it? It just signified another crappy year gone and another three-hundred-sixty-five days of more crap.

“Happy New Year's, girl!” an elderly black woman said cheerfully walking up beside me, where I stood holding onto the bars of our cell.

“Happy New Year's,” I smiled.

I genuinely meant it for her. Just because I was in a shit mood and wasn’t looking forward to a new year didn’t mean I couldn’t wish the best for someone else.

“Did you make a New Year’s resolution?” she asked, leaning against the bars and facing me.

“No. You?”

“Same one I make every year,” she grinned.

“Every year?” I asked with my head slightly cocked. She took hold of her round belly and jiggled it, making me laugh.

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