MG FF: Forbidden Stranger Updated Part 20 pg 130 - Page 75

Superb...Fantastic...too too too good...pls cont soon...

LOVED THE FACT THAT THEY WERE JUST TALKING AND GETTING TO KNOW ONE ANOTHER

Maan seems annoyed at the end :/

hmm..this story is getting interesting with every chapter

Chapter Twenty

Almost Heaven smelled like carpet deodorizer and lemon cleaner when Geet entered the main room Sunday evening. Whoever had the job of closing during the week did a cursory cleaning job, but on Sunday morning a professional crew took over. The glass shelves behind the bar gleamed, the lacquered tables were spotless and the chairs were arranged just so around them.

Naintara had already arrived and was dressed in a booty shorts and a Lycra scarf top that left her shoulders bare and dipped in a vee to her navel. The colour was baby blue, a nice complement to her porcelain skin. The only other thing she wore was a pair of four-inch platforms, easier to dance in, and an impression of mixed excitement and trepidation.

"I think I'm going to puke," she murmured as Geet joined her and Annie at a table in the middle of the room.

"If you do, be careful not to sip in it." Annie said with a grin and sly wink.

"You'll be fine." Geet patted Naintara's arm and found her skin ice-cold. "Once the music starts, just pretend you're back at my house. Relax and go with the flow."

"Easy for you to say. You both were born sexy. I'm trying to fake it."

"Okay, I'm here," Romeo's voice boomed through the huge room as he came in from the corridor at the far end of the bar that led to his office and the storeroom.

Behind him was Vikram. Annie made a small face of repulsion. Having experienced more than a few of his come-ons, Geet knew exactly how she felt.

"You'll be fine, Naintara," Geet said."We'll be sitting right here—"

"No." Hands fluttering in the air, Naintara shook her head vigorously enough to set her hair swaying. "I've changed my mind. You guys wait at the bar, would you? And don't watch?"

Annie linked her arm through Geet's. "We'll do whatever you want, girl. Just go up there and have fun." She sent a pointed look Vikram's way, then added, "Knock 'em dead."

Romeo took a seat, Vikram started the music and Geet and Annie strolled to the bar, keeping their backs to the stage.

"When I first started, the older girls always said don't spend time at the bar," Annie said, her accent a pleasant accompaniment to the Latin music Naintara had chosen. "The men see you standing around doing nothing; they think you're not worth paying for."

"Was it in Jamaica?" Geet asked.

"Yeah. I was fifteen, helping my mama raise all five of my brothers and sisters."

"And you're still helping raise someone," Geet said with a nod towards the stage behind them.

Annie tapped Geet's cheek with one long red nail. "Like I haven't watched you play mama hen to the younger girls ever since I came here. Pari, Shasha, Pinky, Meera..."

Three of the four were still at Almost Heaven, but Shasha Gupta had quit a few months earlier. She'd been a good dancer but a bad money manager, spending it on clothes and cars and good times when the cash was coming in, bumming a bed to sleep in when it wasn't. She had often talked about going back to school and when she'd quit last august, Geet had hoped that was the reason. She didn't know, though, because Shasha hadn't said goodbye. One day she didn't show up, and Romeo had said—

Romeo said she wasn't coming back.

That she'd gotten a better offer.

Despite the long sleeves she wore, a chill danced down Geet's spine. First Shasha, then Sameera, then Tasha. Haven't you ever wanted to change your life? She'd asked Maan when they'd talked about Sameera and Tasha. But three girls who worked together all acting on that desire within weeks of each other? All three getting better offers, going off to God knew where?

Coincidence? Or something more?

She was staring into the distance, trying to think of any other dancers she knew who had taken off like that recently, when Vikram walked behind the bar and gave then his biggest, oiliest smile.

"What can I do for you pretty ladies?"

Annie tapped that long red nail again, this time on her own cheek. "Oh, I don't know. Drop dead, maybe?"

He exaggerated a wounded look. "You hurt my feelings, Annie."

"I've heard that other girls have hurt a lot more than that. What was it? A black eye? A split lip?" Annie slid a sly glance Geet's way. "A knee to the groin?"

Vikram shot a venomous look at Geet, who summoned a smile from the memory. "How many times have I warned you to keep your hands to yourself? I even told you what I was going to do if you ever touched me again. Bright guy that you are, you did, and I did. And I'll do it again if you give me a reason."

Vikram shifted behind the bar, his movement's jerky. "You know, b****, you're not that hot, I can find plenty of girls better than you."

"Yes, but will they let you come near them?" Annie shook her head with mock sympathy. "I don't think so."

"Screw you both." Vikram sneered. "You don't mean nothin' to me. Snotty little b****es." He stormed away, slamming the door behind him as he disappeared down the back hallway.

Annie grinned. "What do you think he has on Rahul that Rahul keeps him hanging around?"

"They're related. Vikram's mother and Rahul's mother are cousins."

"Vikram has a mother?" Annie shuddered at the thought. "It's a good thing for Rahul's family that he's got this business for all the freaks to work in. Arjun, the muscle-bound fireplug, is also related."

"And Vikrant, the bouncer at the Mariette club." Geet fell silent; Maan had worked at that club for a while before moving to Almost Heaven. That was where he'd met Tasha, who'd moved on... maybe. Who was friend with Sameera, who'd also moved on...maybe. Who hung out with Shasha, who'd also...

"Annie, were you friendly with Shasha?"

She puckered her glossy brown-down red lips in thought, then shrugged. It was an eloquent gesture that involved her entire body, rippling, artless and sensuous. "I gave her advice sometimes when you weren't around. We went out for drinks a time or two. Why?"

"Did she say anything to you about leaving?"

"No. but it happens, chica. You know that. Most girls aren't in this for a career. They're playing, experimenting, enjoying their power over men. They get married, pregnant, fat, lazy and they move on. And we are our own bosses. We don't have to give notice."

That was true. Most dancers were self-employed. Giving notice was a courtesy. But a dancer didn't want to leave a club manager short-handed; odds were good she would run into him at another club sometime in the future.

"But if you were moving on, wouldn't you tell the rest of us? Wouldn't you want to say goodbye?"

"Of course I would."

"Shasha didn't."

Another intricate shrug.

"Neither did Samaira. Or Tasha. They all left within two months, and none of them told anyone. They just left."

Disappeared.

Precap: "A few days ago you thought Tasha might have gotten into some sort of trouble. Now you act as if it's nothing? No big deal?"

Please let me know how the part is

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Love n Wishes

Simran... 😊