The light-skinned girl with the French accent seemed pretty tipsy, the one with the big butt who lived on the first floor was waving the waiter down, probably for another round of drinks, and the one who lived on the second floor—the cool, calm, collected southern woman who always acted as if she were better than everyone else—was sitting there almost pie-faced, and just running off with the mouth. Mona Lisa figured, What the hell. After all, the least she could do was buy the big-butt girl, Tamara, a drink for saving her a couple of weeks back.
“Hello, ladies,” she said when she reached their table. “Do you have room for one more?”
The light-skinned girl with the French accent looked up. “Sure, but let me buy, okay?”
“Dior, I think she meant do we have room for one more person at the table,” Tamara said with a giggle. “And anyway, I’m getting the next round.” She looked at Mona. “Do you like mojitos?”
“No, no, no!” the southern belle said. “Not just mojitos. Harlem mojitos!”
“Sorry, Chloe.” Tamara turned back to Mona. “Do you like Harlem mojitos?”
“Look,” Mona said as she pulled a chair from another table and sat down next to her neighbors, “whatever it is you ladies are drinking, I’m drinking. Because damn, if you all don’t look like I want to be feeling. In fact, order me three drinks, I have a lot of catching up to do! And, oh, by the way, Happy Valentine’s Day.”
MOBAY UPTOWN
February 14, 2008—Valentine’s Day
“Is that man fine, or what?” Mona Lisa said, pointing to the man making his rounds serenading the tables in the club with his saxophone. “I wonder what size shoes he wears.” She stood up to take a look, but couldn’t see because her view was blocked.
“Why do you care about his shoe size? What? You’re planning on buying him some footwear?” Chloe asked.
Mona chuckled. “No. I’m just wondering if his horn is as big as his sax.”
“Ooh, you are so bad,” Chloe said, slapping her on the back. “You really are.”
Mona turned to her. “Girl, how many drinks have you had?”
Chloe shrugged. “I don’t know. Hey. Want to hear a joke? What is a southern belle’s mating call?”
“I don’t know. What?” Tamara asked.
“I’m so drunk!” Chloe said with a grin.
Tamara, Chloe, and Mona all burst out laughing.
“Really? You don’t seem drunk to me!” Dior said with a puzzled look on her face.
Mona looked at Dior, then turned to Tamara. “Is she for real?”
Tamara nodded. “She’s just feeling good. Dior, that was the punch line to the joke, honey.”
The puzzled look stayed on Dior’s face another few seconds before she, too, started laughing. “Oh, that’s so funny! Southern belles say they’re drunk so people will know they’re horny.” She started pounding the table. “That is so funny!”
“Dior, stop. You’re going to spill the drinks,” Tamara said, moving hers out of Dior’s way.
“You’re right.” Mona started laughing. “She is feeling very good. In fact, I’d say she’s half drunk.”
“Uh, uh, uh!” Dior held up a finger. “A lady gets inebriated, never drunk.”
“Okay, you’re inebriated,” Mona said with a smile and a shrug.
“Half inebriated,” Dior corrected her. She turned to Chloe. “I knew you were from the South. I could tell by your accent. You are, too, Tamara?”
Tamara nodded.
“I guess we all are,” Mona added.
“Really? Where are you all from?” Chloe asked.
“D.C.,” Mona said. “Not real South, but a little.”
“I’m from Atlanta,” Tamara said.
“Well, I have you all beat. I’m from Texas.”
Mona raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize we were in a competition,” she said, taking a sip of her drink.
“No, of course not,” Chloe said quickly. “I was just saying, we Texans are real southerners.”
“And people from Atlanta, Georgia, aren’t?” Mona said coolly.
“Well, yes, but…” Chloe paused. “Aw, what the hell? I guess I’m just competitive by nature. Of course, we’re all southerners.”
“Not me,” Dior piped in. “I’m a northerner. A real northerner. In fact”—she stood up and surveyed the club—“I bet I’m the most northern person here.”
“Girl, will you set your ass down?” Tamara grabbed her arm and pulled her back in her chair.
“Dior, you are something else.” Mona shook her head. “But I gotta admit you’re a lot of fun.”
Dior leaned across the table. “So, you like me, then, huh?”
Mona looked at her in surprise. “I never said I didn’t.”
“Hah!” Dior took another gulp of her drink. “You weren’t the most friendly person when I first met you. In fact, none of you were. I thought all of you were kind of mean.”
“Me?” Chloe’s hand flew to her chest in a show of astonishment. “Me? Mean? I can’t believe you would believe that of me.”
Mona chuckled. “Oh, I can.”
“What do you mean?”
“Please. You were downright snooty when I first met you. I introduced myself to you and you never even told me your name.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry! My name is Chloe. Chloe Johnson.”
Tamara laughed. “Well, yeah, we all know that now since we’ve been sitting here throwing back mojitos.”
“Harlem mojitos,” Dior corrected her.
Chloe shrugged. “Well, I’ve never been good at making friends with women.”
“Why? You think all women are jealous of you?” Mona asked with a sly smile.
“Well, no. But, well, yeah. Kind of. I’m just saying…well, all of you are good-looking women, too, so you know what I mean. Don’t you find other women get jealous because you’re beautiful and you dress so well?”
“Oh my God,” Tamara gasped. “You are such a damn snob!”
“No, I’m not! I’m—” Chloe stopped. “Hell, maybe I am.” She giggled and took a sip of her drink. “But, well, what about you?” She challenged Tamara. “I’ve not noticed you going out of your way to be extra friendly. Oh, you’ve always been polite and everything, but always so businesslike. I’ve never even seen you smile until tonight.”
“What do you mean?”
“She has a point,” Dior said.
Mona nodded her head in agreement. “Even when you helped me out the other night, you did what you had to do and then it was almost like you were dismissing me. I didn’t mind, of course, but then I didn’t care enough about you to mind.”
Tamara grimaced. “I’m sorry. I’ve just been so caught up in my job that I haven’t been really personal with anyone. I don’t mean anything by it.”
“Well, if I’m a snob, and Tamara’s a snow queen, what are you, Mona?” Chloe asked.
“Ooh, ooh, I know!” Dior raised her hand as if she were in school. “Mona is the sexually liberated woman of the new millennium who—”
“Dior, are you calling me a ho?”
Dior jerked her head back. “What?” The look on her face made all the women burst out in laughter, and even Dior joined in after a minute.
“No,” she said when she finally caught her breath. “You just seem to be the kind of woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it.”
“Ahem,” Tamara said, looking around the table. “But you do seem to have a lot of traffic coming in and out.”
“Girl, please! I live right under her,” Chloe said with grin. “You should hear the way them box springs be working.”
“I can’t believe it. All of you are calling me a ho!”
The women all started laughing again.
“Actually, I’m quite proud of my sexuality. I don’t see any reason why I can’t have as many bed partners as a single man. And when one’s not available, I have no problem bringing out one of my little toys.”
“Ooh, you a
re so nasty!” Dior hooted.
“What? You’re going to tell us you don’t have any sex toys?”
“Well, yeah,” Dior admitted. “But I don’t go around telling people I do.”
“Well, you just did,” Chloe pointed out.
“That’s because you guys are a bad influence,” Dior said with a pout. Again, the women started laughing.
An hour and three more rounds of drinks later, Chloe sat back in her chair and said, “I guess you all have been wondering why I’m dateless on Valentine’s Day night.”
“Um, no. I wasn’t wondering at all. You don’t have to have a date to have a good time, you know,” Mona said. “I’m sitting here having a ball myself.”
“Same here,” Tamara concurred.
Dior said nothing.
“Well, make believe you’re wondering,” Chloe said haughtily. “So since you’re wondering”—she ignored the face Mona made at her—“I was supposed to be having a romantic dinner with my boyfriend.”
She paused as if waiting for someone to press her for details. When no one spoke she continued. “But then he had the nerve to dump me. On Valentine’s Day! He said I had to choose between him and my job. And I just got this great promotion!”
Mona reached over and patted her hand. “Yeah, that is tough. You okay?”
Chloe nodded. “I’ll get over it. But I really thought this guy was going to be the one, you know? I actually imagined him and me might spend the rest of our lives together.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Mona sighed. “Actually, I had big plans for Valentine’s Day night also. I made all of these elaborate plans with a guy that I really thought was worth it, and then it turned out that he’s living with a woman and has a kid. I found out when I showed up at his door in a limousine.”
“Oh God. That sounds awful,” Tamara said.
“It was. Serves me right, though. I should have known better than to let my guard down.” Mona turned to Tamara. “What about you? What’s your sob story?”
Tamara let out a sigh. “I realized I’ve been making some really bad choices when it comes to men lately. I almost slept with my employer, who has both a wife and a girlfriend—”
“Wow!” Chloe exclaimed.
“And at the same time I was messing with this guy who acted like he wanted to get married after only knowing me for a few weeks. Like I said, bad men choices. So I just needed to get my head together before trying to figure where someone else’s head was at.”
Mona nodded. “That makes sense.”
Chloe looked over at Dior. “Why are you so quiet, all of a sudden?”
“Because I’ve got you all beat, but I’m too ashamed to tell you about it.”
Mona sat up straight in her chair. “Come on, we laid out our embarrassing tales to you!”
Dior took a deep breath. “Okay, but I don’t want any of you to think differently of me when I tell you.”
“Just tell the story,” Chloe urged.
“Well—” Dior let her head fall on the table in dramatic fashion. “Oh God, I can’t tell you!”
“Girl, it can’t be all that bad,” Tamara said with a puzzled tone.
“No?” Dior raised her head and looked at her new friends. “I met a guy over the Internet and arranged to meet him for a blind date.”
“On Valentine’s Day?” Mona whistled. “That’s pretty gutsy. So what happened? Did he stand you up?”
Dior shook her head. “No. Actually he’s here.”
“What? Where?” Tamara, Chloe, and Mona started craning their necks, looking around the club.
“He’s right there, sitting at the end of the bar looking out the window,” Dior said dismally.
“Who?” Mona stood up to get a better view. She gasped. “Oh my God! Say it ain’t so!” she said, sinking back into her seat.
“What? Who is it?” Chloe asked. She and Tamara jumped up to get a look.
“Jerome?” they asked simultaneously.
Chloe started laughing so loud that Mona had to put her hand over her mouth.
“Are you serious? What the hell were you thinking?” Tamara asked in an incredulous tone.
“Oh God, I’m so embarrassed.” Dior covered her face with her hands.
“But why would you go out on a date with Jerome?” Mona asked. “You can’t be that hard up.”
Dior took a deep breath and then told them the whole story.
“I can’t believe he lied like that!” Chloe said.
“Hmph!” Tamara said. “I can. Just like Miss Margie says, that’s one trifling individual.”
Mona looked around the table. “Well, we can’t let him get away with playin’ our girl like that, can we?”
“Hell no,” Chloe said.
“What do you have in mind?” Tamara asked.
Dior waved her hand in disgust. “Forget it. He’s not worth the trouble.”
“Quiet, Dior!” Mona commanded. “Okay, girls, how about this?”
“No, I’m serious,” Dior said firmly. She drained her glass and waved to the drink waitress for another round. “I acted stupid, so I got played for stupid. The last thing that I want, though, is for Jerome to even suspect that it was me whom he played, so let’s just leave it alone.”
Mona sucked her teeth. “If you insist.”
“I do.” Dior looked around the table. “Besides, if he hadn’t pulled that little stunt, I would never have wandered into MoBay and gotten to know all of you here! Think about that?”
“You know, you’re right.” Tamara nodded. “Which means we could have continued to live in the same building for years only nodding to each other on our way in or on the way out, and giving each other the evil eye when we thought another one of us was looking at one of our male guests a little too hard.”
“Aha!” Dior pointed a finger at her. “I knew you were giving me the evil eye a couple of weeks ago.”
“Shut up!” Tamara started laughing.
“But it is true,” Chloe broke in. “And look what we would have missed out on. Like I said, normally I can’t stand hanging out with a bunch of women, but I can’t remember when I’ve had such a good time. I guess we should be grateful to Jerome in a way, huh?”
“Aw, hell no!” Mona said with a snarl.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t go so far as to say we should be grateful to that asshole,” Dior added.
“For real,” Tamara added. “I mean, yeah, he may have been the reason we all met up this evening, but I don’t know…somehow I think it was bound to happen. Look at us, four young women—”
“Four beautiful young women,” Chloe interjected.
“Four beautiful, successful young women,” Dior added.
“Four sexy, beautiful, successful young women,” Mona said.
“Okay,” Tamara said diplomatically. “Here we are, four sexy, beautiful, successful young women, living in one of the most exciting cities in the world, and ready, willing, and able to claim it as our own. Hell yeah, we would have wound up friends.”
Dior grinned. “How the hell could we not?” She raised her glass for a toast, which everyone joined. “To us!”
“May our friendship stay tight, even after our tits and asses start to sag!” Mona added.
DAFINA BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
850 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
Copyright © 2008 by Kensington Publishing Corp.
“Dior Emerson” copyright © 2008 by Miasha
“Tamara Murphy” copyright © 2008 by Daaimah S. Poole
“Chloe Johnson” copyright © 2008 by Deja King
“Mona Lisa Dupree” copyright © 2008 by T. Styles
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Dafina Books and the Dafina logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-0-7582-5709-3
; Table of Contents
D IOR E MERSON
T AMARA M URPHY
C HLOE J OHNSON
M ONA L ISA D UPREE
Diamond Playgirls Page 29