I was beginning to think that Kelly and Mandy were right, and I'd been working too much. I took a deep breath, squashed the uneasy feeling, and turned my attention back to Kelly. I barely caught the tail end of the conversation.
"So, I told him that if he can't keep it in his pants, then he can just stay the heck away from me. I deserve someone who's loyal." She thrust her finger in the air for emphasis.
Apparently I hadn't missed much. As usual, she and Mark were off-again.
Mandy nodded her agreement. "I think you need to get rid of him for good. He's not worth your time, especially if he's just going to cheat on you. You deserve better."
The two looked to me for my opinion, but what did I know about relationships? I was in the first relationship that I'd been in in years. That is, if you considered what Tyler and I were doing a relationship. We mostly enjoyed dinner and Netflix on the weekend or when we had an evening away from work. The last serious relationship I'd been in had ended much the same way Kelly and Mark's had. With me catching my guy and his secretary doing the humpty on his desk.
So, I told her the first thing that came to mind.
I shrugged. "I have to agree with Mandy. Ditch the loser. I don't care how much he looks like David Beckham. His cheating butt needs to go. I would've tossed him out on his keister the first time I caught him fooling around."
"I know you're right." Kelly agreed, but I could see in her expression that she was too caught up on him to toss him out on his ear like he deserved. Kelly was tough, fearless even, but under that tough exterior was a soft, too-forgiving heart. One that Mark liked to take advantage of a little too much.
Kelly was just telling us about how she'd caught Mark cheating this time around when we finally reached the head of the line.
A quite large, bald, muscular man with skin the color of warm caramel frowned down at the three of us. Despite his frown, I couldn't help but admire his beauty. I was certain he'd be panty-meltingly handsome if he were to ever smile.
His expression, furrowed eyebrows and a frown, was set in stone. Kelly, being as fearless as ever, approached him with a smile.
His expression remained the same.
I'd hate to play poker with this guy.
"We have a reservation for three." She smiled.
"Name."
"Sears. Kelly Sears"
Frowny Face skimmed his tablet, then nodded and lifted the red velvet rope holding the crowd at bay. "The hostess will show you to your table. You ladies have a great night." We passed him by as he clicked the rope back into place behind us to another round of groans.
Once inside, my senses were bombarded with the sound of thumping base, flashing lights, and the screech of Miley Cyrus's voice as she belted out one song or the other. They all sounded the same to me.
We approached a long, glass-topped bar that separated the entrance from the club's main floor. A small blonde woman, wearing an even smaller black dress beamed up at us from behind horn-rimmed glasses. Her nametag read Caroline. Two hulking men, guards I assumed, flanked her.
"Welcome to Club O'Shea." She smiled at each of us. "Your name please?"
"Sears. Reservation for three." Kelly smiled back.
Caroline scanned the computer and made some clicks with the mouse.
"Here you are. Sandy will show you to your table."
A tall redhead, who I assumed was Sandy, appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
"Right this way, ladies."
I had to hand it to Kelly, the club was hot. The floor was a glossy black, the walls a deep red. There were black leather half-moon shaped sectionals surrounding the dance floor, and in front of each sofa was a low, glass topped table. People were dancing without a care, and at the bar, drinks were flowing freely.
We formed a single-file line and followed Sandy around the throbbing dance floor and up a flight of stairs to the balcony overlooking the main floor.
"This place is crazy," Mandy practically shouted in my ear. "I hope it's quieter at our table."
I nodded.
We reached the balcony floor and followed Sandy past several busy tables. This section of the club was a little calmer, but not much. The floor was carpeted, the tables black and glass, to match the theme throughout the club. My favorite part was the framed concert posters lining the walls.
"Here you are." Sandi directed us to a booth overlooking the dance floor.
"Isn't this great?" Kelly asked as we all settled ourselves at the table.
Mandy and I nodded.
"At least we can hear each other talk," Mandy replied as she settled into her seat.
Sandi took our drink orders, all martinis, and hurried away from the table and down the stairs.
I watched over the glass barricade our table was situated against as Sandi wove her way past over-friendly men, a few gyrating women vying for her attention, and made her way to the bar.
That uneasy feeling started to creep its way across my skin again. I scanned the dance floor but saw nothing but a crowd of people having a good time.
"What do you think?" Kelly looked at me expectantly.
I glanced beside me at Mandy and found her giving me the same hopeful expression.
"It's promising." I nodded and tried to shove that uneasy feeling away.
Kelly grinned. "After a few drinks it'll look more than promising," she said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Look at this place. Look at that hunk," she giggled like a schoolgirl and wiggled her finger in the direction of the bar.
"Please tell me that you didn't bring me here to help you find a man?"
Mandy rolled her eyes while Kelly just laughed. "I'm not looking for a guy. Not yet, but Mandy and I do think you need to get out a little more. Even Tyler thinks you need a night out with the girls."
"When did you talk to Tyler?"
"Okay, well, I didn't exactly talk to him," she began. "It was last weekend when he picked you up at the office. I overheard him say that he thinks you need to get out more. That you work too much."
This time I rolled my eyes. "That's not exactly him saying a girls night out is a good idea. That was him asking if I might consider going away with him for the weekend."
"It kind of is the same thing, and oh my gosh! Are you going to go away with him? You totally should!" She laughed.
"I don't know. Maybe." I shrugged.
"Well, just relax and try to have a good time tonight. Leave work behind for a few hours." She pointed a finger at me. "Don't think I haven't noticed you scoping the place out. You're still in PI mode."
She had me there. And I thought I was being discreet.
Sandi, the waitress, approached the table and placed our drinks before us. Once she took our dinner orders and walked away, I tried to explain, "I just had a weird feeling. As if we were being watched."
"Of course people are watching us. Look at us!" Kelly grinned. "We look hot."
I leaned back in my seat and sipped my drink. I tried but couldn't remember the last time I'd gone out and had a little fun. Work was my number one priority. Maybe a little fun might be just what the doctor ordered. Besides, Tyler and I didn't have any plans because he was doing his duty as a hotshot detective tonight.
How'd that saying go about all work and no play?
Mind made up, I smiled and lifted my glass.
"To the first of many girls' nights out."
CHAPTER TWO
Kelly was right.
After two (or six) martinis, Club O'Shea was the bomb!
Once I finally decided to let myself go and stop worrying about work for a few hours, everything became so much better. Our dinner had been delicious, conversation was great, and I currently found myself on the dance floor with a hot Brazilian named Rocco.
Yes, Rocco.
He had a strong jaw, the cheekbones of a GQ model, and the steel abs of an Adonis. He was hot, but had nothing on the big, dark-haired detective that was well on his way to sweeping me off of my feet.
>
Whether he liked it or not, all Rocco was getting from me was a dance and a polite thank you when the song ended. Tipsy or not, I wasn't a cheater, even if I wasn't quite sure what Tyler and I were to each other yet.
Mandy, Kelly, and I had hit the dance floor together and somehow drifted to the men we were currently dancing with.
I glanced around and found Kelly dancing with some guy she'd been making eye contact with since we sat down to dinner. If I wasn't mistaken, he was the same guy she'd pointed out at the bar as we'd sat down earlier in the evening.
A moment later I spotted Mandy exactly where she'd been since we'd decided to take to the dance floor, shaking her hips in front of a man whom I'd dubbed Mr. Handsy due to the fact that his hands had been all over her since the moment they met. She didn't seem to mind, and I wasn't her mother, so I kept my mouth shut and let her have her fun. Besides, I had to hand it to her, he was smoking hot.
Rocco squeezed my hips in his big hands and drew my attention back to him. I subtly eased his hand away from my backside and back up to my waist. He grinned, completely undeterred.
The music pulsated, the multicolored lights flashed, and I found myself relaxing into the beat. But despite the handsome man whirling me around the floor, my mind kept drifting back to Tyler. He was at work tonight, and I couldn't help but worry about him. I knew he was an excellent detective and could take care of himself, but I was a worrier. What could I say?
I really was having a good time, but I found myself wishing I was at home, snuggled against Tyler's side with some cheesy movie on the television and a cold beer in hand.
The music ended, and I searched around for my friends.
"Somewhere you need to be, love?" Rocco's voice was a deep rumble beside my ear.
"I need to get back to my friends," I lied. In truth, I needed to sit down. All of the gyrating and the smell of Rocco's cologne had my head spinning. Of course, some of that spinning could've been from the martinis.
"In that case," Rocco said as he slid a hand into his pocket, "Here's my number if you change your mind tonight…or any other night." He winked before he spun on his heel and walked away with a smile on his face.
I crumpled the card in my hand, searched the floor again, and found Kelly disentangling herself from her dance partner. She looked a little irritated, and I immediately knew that her interest in this guy was long gone. I made my way over to her.
"Hey, I need you for a minute," I said. It looked as if she needed a little help getting away from the obviously drunk man pawing at her. Normally, Kelly wasn't one to get entangled with a drunk stranger, which let me know that tonight wasn't only about us all having a girls' night out, but about her trying to get over that cheating fool Mark.
She pushed her away from the guy. "See ya." She saluted him and linked arms with me.
I continued to search the dance floor for Mandy as Kelly and I made our way back up the stairs to our balcony table but couldn't find her.
"Where's Mandy?"
Kelly peered over the balcony. "I don't know. Should we go look for her?"
I nibbled my bottom lip for a moment. While I knew Mandy was a grown woman, the caring friend and investigator in me was telling me to go find my friend, just in case.
"Yeah, I think we should. I haven't seen her in a little while, and that guy she was with is gone too," I said.
"Do you think they left?" Kelly wiggled her eyebrows.
"No." I shook my head. "She wouldn't just up and leave without telling us. Besides, it isn't like her to take home a stranger."
"Wait, there she is," Kelly said and pointed to Mandy as she weaved her way past a group of men at the bar.
We watched as she made her way across the dance floor and up the stairs.
She flopped down beside me, martini in hand, and blew a strand of hair out of her face.
"Where's your guy friend?" Kelly giggled, obviously a bit tipsy herself.
"I don't know." Mandy frowned and sat down her glass. "I went to the restroom and then the bar for another drink. He was supposed to wait for me there, but when I got back he wasn't where he said he'd be. She shrugged. "Oh well. He wasn't all that anyway."
We laughed.
"His loss," Kelly replied.
"So, Barb. How are you enjoying your night out?" Mandy asked.
I grinned. "I have to hand it to you. I've had fun, and I've only thought about work a couple of times."
"You looked as if you were having fun with that big hunk of man on the dance floor," Mandy said with a smile.
"His name is Rocco." I rolled my eyes. "He has an amazing body, a great smile, and enough charm to melt a girl's panties. He's one of those guys who knows he's hot, and he wears enough cologne to gag a maggot." I made a disgusted face. "But honestly, all I could think about while we were dancing was Tyler."
"That detective is one hunky fella," Kelly agreed. "Is it getting serious between the two of you? If he wants to go away for the weekend, I'd say things are heating up."
I shrugged. "I don't know. It's too early to tell, I think. All I know is that he's on my mind more than not, and I can't wait to see him again."
Kelly and Mandy shared a smile, then finished off their drinks.
"What about the guy you were dancing with?" I switched the subject back to Kelly. Talking about my relationship with Tyler taking a serious turn scared the stuff out of me. It's not that I didn't want something more than mere friendship, it was the fact that my last serious relationship ended badly, and I did not want that to happen with Tyler.
She groaned. "I didn't catch his name. He was already slurring his words before the dance even started. What about you, Mandy?"
Mandy shook her head. "His name is Derek, he said he's single, knows how to move his hips, and that's about all I found out about him before he pulled a David Copperfield and vanished on me."
The party was still raging around us, but it was obvious that the three of us were done partying for the night.
I checked my watch. "It's after midnight. What do you ladies say we head back to my place, grab some ice cream, and spend the rest of the night watching trash TV and complaining about men?"
"We're with you," Mandy said and was out of her seat before I could gather my purse.
We made our way down the stairs to the main level.
"Just a second." I touched Kelly and Mandy's arms. "I need to stop at the restroom."
"Can't you wait?" Mandy asked.
"It's a twenty-minute drive to my place and I have what feels like a pitcher of martinis in my bladder. There's no way I'm holding it. I'll just be a minute." I waved to them, then wove my way across the crowded dance floor to the offshoot hallway where the restrooms were located. The hallway was brightly lit and, much to my surprise, had minimal traffic. With all the teased hair, spaghetti straps, and miniskirts, I expected there to be a line a mile long at the door to the women's restroom due to wardrobe malfunctions.
Three giggling women, one wearing a "21 Today" sash, the other two wearing tiaras, stumbled out of the door. I twisted to the side to keep from being knocked down, then pushed through the heavy swinging door.
The restroom was cleaner than I'd expected, and there were at least fifteen stalls lining one wall, with sinks and mirrors lining the opposite wall. Two ladies finished up with their reapplying of lipstick and brushed past me to the exit.
I hurried into one of the first stalls.
Once finished, I stepped out of the stall and up to the sink. I washed my hands, grabbed some towels from the dispenser, and hurriedly dried my hands.
It was as I turned to toss the paper towel into the trash that my eye caught and held on something odd.
A shoe. More specifically, the toe of a man's shoe, sticking out from beneath the door of the last stall.
I tossed the towel in the trash and stared at the shoe for a moment. Why would a man's shoe be in a women's restroom? My first thought was that a tryst had gotten a little crazy and some dude had lost
his shoe. But the investigator in me took over. I approached the shoe, knelt down, and looked it over. It was just your run of the mill men's Nike.
That uneasy feeling in my gut came back times one hundred and a chill slid across my skin. I stood, careful not to touch the shoe and took a step toward the stall.
All of my senses were on high alert. It was too quiet, the room suddenly too stuffy to breathe. I wished I had brought my gun.
I pushed the stall door open with my fingertips and immediately regretted my decision.
"Ho-ly crap." I stared down at the man, the very dead man, perched on the toilet. One shoe on. One shoe off. His socked foot twisted at a weird angle. His eyes were still open, his jaw slack, and his head was tilted to the side. I could see that his eyes were bloodshot, and there was an ugly red mark around his throat. If I'd had to guess, I'd say someone had strangled him. I rushed to the exit, stepped out into the hallway, and looked around. Near the end of the hallway I spotted a cleaning cart. I rushed over to it. I dug around until I found what I was looking for. An Out of Order sign.
I jogged back to the restroom, slapped the sign on the door, and slipped back inside.
The last thing I needed was someone coming in and seeing me standing over a dead body. I pulled out my phone and dialed 9-1-1.
"9-1-1, what is your emergency"
"This is Barb Jackson. I'm a private investigator at Jackson Investigations. I'm at Club O'Shea. I found a dead guy in the women's restroom just now."
"Are you alone in the restroom? Are you safe?"
"Yes. The other stall doors are open. I'm the only one in the room."
"Is this a case you were working?"
"No. I'm just out with friends and came in to use the restroom." I looked around.
"A unit is on the way. Would you like to stay on the phone with me until help arrives?"
"No, thank you. I'll be fine."
We disconnected the call, and I dialed Kelly's number but before the phone could ring, she and Mandy entered the restroom, came up beside me, and then froze in their tracks.
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