1. Staff Meetings ♔

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| King of Hearts |

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By: Janae Destiny

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Sunday, May 30th

Ethereal Miami Club

"Why you got me outta bed before noon?" Kiara asked the second she walked into her office, where her club manager was already waiting on her. "You know I didn't get home until after six this morning."

Because Kiara was running on only about four hours of sleep, she didn't even bother spending time making herself look presentable that morning. She had a scarf tied around her hair because her lace was not cooperating, and was wearing a pair of sweatpants, a hoodie, and some Yeezy slides.

"Good morning Kiara," Chantal, the club manager, completely ignored her question.

"Good morning Chantal," she pulled out her desk chair and sat down. "What did you call and wake me up for?"

"Because we have our monthly staff meeting... that you forgot about, didn't you?"

"I didn't forget," Kiara opened up her MacBook to open up the doc she had created for the meeting. "I just thought it was tomorrow. It's always the last Monday of the month."

Why is it always on Mondays? Because that's the first day they all have off during the week since the club is only open from Thursday to Sunday.

"I sent out an email last week."

"I must've missed it. You shoulda told me one of the days I was here. You shoulda reminded me last night."

"I did," Chantal crossed her arms over her chest. "Multiple times."

"I'm sorry," Kiara rubbed her temples. She drank last night, perhaps a little bit too much, and was still feeling the effects of her hangover. "Where is everyone?"

"Some of them are already in the break room. We still waiting on a few more people though," Chantal got up from the chair she was sitting in. "And we also have those open auditions for new dancers today too."

"God," Kira rolled her eyes. That's probably the one thing she hates doing the most. Even though the dancers are what attracts the most people to her club, she doesn't mess with them because a lot of them are always on some bullshit when it comes to her. "I have to be here for that?"

"I guess you technically don't."

"Good, then you and Luna can handle all of that."

"You don't wanna be part of the weeding process? You don't want a say in what new girls we hire?"

"Not particularly," Kiara pushed away from her desk and picked up her MacBook.

The pair left Kiara's office and walked to the break room where everyone was waiting on her and the managers to start the meeting. There were still a few people missing, but Kiara didn't have the time to wait on them.

"Good morning everyone," Kiara sat her open MacBook on one of the tables in the break room.

"Morning," everyone in the room half mumbled, probably still half asleep because Saturdays are their longest nights.

"Does anyone have anything they want to say before we get started with this meeting?"

One girl, their newest dancer, raised her hand.

"You don't have to raise your hand to speak. Just go ahead."

"Sorry," she put her hand back down in her lap. "But uh, my question is about our house fees."

"Okay..." Kiara urged her to keep going. "What about it?"

"Why is it that we pay a higher house fee for coming in later if we work fewer hours? My house fees were almost $400 last night and I didn't come in until after midnight."

"You agreed to these rules before you started, did you not?"

"Well... yeah? It just doesn't make sense though. Why are you taking more money for less hours of work?"

"Why don't you come in earlier to avoid that then?"

"Because I have class and homework. I can't be here that early."

"Then maybe you should find another club to work at," Kiara didn't mean to sound so harsh, but that's just how it goes sometimes. The DJ, bouncers, chefs, security, house moms, etc., all have to be paid out of that fee. She doesn't charge them a house fee to be mean, she charges them so that everyone who works in the club can get paid fairly. And compared to how much the dancers make in a night, that house fee is nothing for them.

"Anyone else have any questions or comments?"

No one said anything, so she just moved on.

"Okay. So, the first thing I want to address is my alcohol cost. You know I don't care about you guys getting free drinks, but if y'all keep abusing it, that's gonna be cut off. And bartenders," she looked over at the group of them all sitting at the same table because they always stick close to each other. "Why are we still over-pouring drinks? How many times do we have to have this same conversation? An ounce is exactly that, an ounce. Not one and a half, not two... one. So start measuring and stop eyeballing because those over pours start to add up at the end of the night. Are y'all hearing me?"

"We're hearing you," the lead bartender, who also trains all of the newbies, verbally answered for the small group of them.

"I'm really talking to y'all," she looked at the rest of them who were still sitting there silently. "Are y'all hearing me?"

"Yes Kiara," the other five bartenders responded.

"Great. Next thing," Kiara glanced down at her laptop. "Bouncers. If I hear that you let one more person in here without an ID, you're done. I do not care how well-known or famous the person is. No ID, no entrance into my club, understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

"And to my dancers," she clasped her hands together and brought them up to her lips. "To my wonderful, beautiful, talented dancers. For the millionth time, this is not a fully nude club. If I hear that y'all are showing pussy in one of my private rooms again, y'all are all done. I will literally fire every single one of you that same night and have an entirely new crew by the next morning. So y'all keep playing with me if you want to."

Kiara carried on the meeting, hitting all of the important issues she wanted to address before giving the floor to Chantal, her lead manager, and Luna, the manager directly under her.

"Where are you going?" Chantal stopped Kiara on her way out of the club after the meeting ended and everyone had started to disburse.

"Home. I'm gonna take my ass back to sleep cause I'm tired as hell."

"You coming back tonight?" Chantal asked her.

"Of course I am. Ain't no way in hell I'm missing Babi Bandz's birthday event. He's one of the hottest male rappers out right now. Do you know how much promo we're about to get from this?"

"As if we need any more promo. Do you know how many people the bouncers turn away every night because we're always at capacity?"

"I told you I'm already in the process of looking into opening up another location. Just give me some time to work all the kinks out first."

"And who's gonna run this new location? I can barely keep this place afloat because Luna barely be doing shit."

"Luna isn't that bad-"

"Don't do that Kiara. Don't lie. I don't care that she's your little sister, she's fucking terrible at her job, and you know it."

"I told you I have some people coming in for interviews next week. Just stick it out until then Chantal. You know I got you, always."

"Huh," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "I think Luna still needs to be fired."

"Fine, then you fire her. You are the boss after all. You're the hiring and firing manager."

"You're so annoying," she rolled her eyes in response to that.

Chantal won't ever fire Luna. Not because she doesn't want to, but because she feels like it's not her place to.

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Earlier That Same Morning

Marriott Hotel, Miami

"Good morning baby," Monique woke her daughter, Ava, up with a light kiss on the cheek. She ran her hands along the girl's long black curls that should have been tucked away in a bonnet if they didn't both pass out the second they got there.

"Good morning mommy," Ava's dark brown eyes slowly fluttered open to meet her mother's matching ones.

Of all the features Ava got from her father, being nearly a spitting image of the man, she definitely got her innocent, doe-looking eyes from her mother.

"How'd you sleep?"

"Good," the little girl sat up and rubbed at her eyes. "But I'm hungry."

"Yeah, me too," Monique admitted.

They'd gotten off of the plane late the previous night and were too tired to find anything to eat that they came straight to the hotel and fell asleep.

"Marco," Monique called over to her fifteen-year-old brother who was still fast asleep on the bed next to theirs.

"Maybe say it louder?" Ava offered.

"Marco!" Monique threw a pillow at her little brother's head. "Come on, get up."

"Bruh, what?" He grumbled, clearly not ready to wake up just yet. "The fuck is yo problem Monie?"

"Get up," she just repeated again. "You know I got shit to do today, and Ava is hungry. So come on, get your ass up."

"What you having shit to do gotta do with me?" He brought the pillow over his head in a poor attempt to drown out his sister's voice.

"I need you to watch Ava while I go get some stuff handled. And the hotel stops serving breakfast at 10, so if you wanna eat, put on some clothes and let's go."

Monique got up out of the bed herself and quickly threw on a pair of sweats and slides before putting shoes on Ava. They were only going down to the hotel lobby, so there wasn't any need to do much more than that.

"I'ma pee and brush my teeth first," Marco finally rolled out of the bed. "I'll meet y'all down there."

"Okay, don't take too long," Monique said before grabbing both her phone and the room key card.

"You think they have waffles?" Ava asked as they made their way to the elevators.

"Probably. I doubt it will be the Belgian ones you like though."

"That's fine. I'm so hungry I could eat anything right now."

"I'm sure you could," Monique laughed because, for an average-sized five-year-old, Ava eats like there's two of her.

"Can we go to the beach too?" Ava looked up to meet her mother's eyes. She's never been to the beach, and that's all she's been asking about since Monique told her that Miami is near the water.

"Of course, we're gonna go to the beach. But- but maybe not today though. It's our first day here and I have a lot to straighten out."

"Like getting us a house?"

"Yes, like getting us a house," Monique sighed.

Moving to Miami was a very last-minute thing for her. She didn't think about it for more than a week before she found herself buying three one-way tickets to Florida and breaking the lease on her old apartment.

The two finally made it down to the main floor for breakfast and Monique was surprised at the options they had. She wasn't expecting much, so it definitely exceeded what she was imagining. They had freshly baked pastries, an omelet bar, fresh fruit, a coffee and tea station, and they even had the Belgian waffles that Ava loves so much.

"Marco is here," Ava was holding her plate with a single waffle and some strawberries on it because that's all she wanted.

"I see," Monique looked up to see him walking in. He went to grab himself a plate, loading it up with just about every and anything it could hold.

"Fat ass," she mumbled under her breath. One thing about Marco, even though he's tall and very slim, he can eat like you would not believe.

"You said you was gonna teach me how to drive," Marco joined both Monique and Ava at a table off to the back by the windows that looked out to the pool area. "I turn sixteen in a few months you know."

"No offense Marco, but finding somewhere permanent to live is a little more important to me than you learning how to drive. I'm not tryna stay in a hotel forever."

"Why we even come here in the first place? You tore me away from my whole life back in Chicago for what exactly?"

Monie didn't give him, or anyone else, much warning that she was leaving. She told Marco on the last day of school to start packing and just a few days later they were moving halfway across the country from Chicago to Miami.

Why would she do that? It's quite simple actually. To get as far away from her crazy ass baby daddy as possible.

They've had a toxic relationship since high school. They haven't been together since Monique was pregnant with Ava, and have been trying to co-parent the last five years, but it's hard to do that with a man who doesn't want to step up and be the parent his own child deserves. He's in and out of Ava's life whenever he feels like it. He does the absolute bare minimum when it comes to parental responsibilities. And on top of all of that, he's been emotionally and mentally abusive towards Monique since high school. She could deal with all of that though. She was used to it all.

But when he became physically abusive... that's when she knew she was really done. After a year of putting up with it on and off, Monique knew it was time to finally take herself away from that situation. She wasn't about to let her child grow up in that type of environment thinking it's okay for any man, especially her own father, to treat any woman like that.

"Would you have rather stayed in Chicago on your own?" Monique asked her brother, Marco. "Cause then who the hell would be taking care of you?"

"Monie, I just wish you woulda gave me a little bit of notice is all. I literally came home from the last day of school and you telling me to start packing up all our stuff cause we moving to Florida. Then a few days later, here we are."

"Marco," she ran her hand through his short, dark brown curls before resting it on his cheek- the light brown color of the back of her hand a perfect shade match to his skin complexion. "You said you've always wanted to come to Miami."

"I always wanted to visit Miami, never said I wanted to live here. My whole life is back in Chicago. And then to make it worse, I gotta start my sophomore year as the new kid at school."

"Marco," she held her hand out to him.

"What Monie?" He mumbled, but still accepted her waiting hand in his own.

"This is gonna be good for us, okay? I promise," she squeezed his hand in a very reassuring way.

"Can you just tell me why? Why did we really move here? No plan, no house... no nothing."

Monique wanted to tell him why, but she was too ashamed to. She put up with her physically abuse baby daddy for almost a year before she had the strength to finally leave. That year of her life is not exactly something Monique is proud of, which is why no one knows about the abuse. It's not exactly a story she wants to outwardly talk about, especially not to her little brother who solely depends on her to take care of him.

"Well, I like it here," Ava added to the conversation, her mouth full of both syrup-soaked waffles and strawberries.

"Eew, Ava," Marco turned his face up at her.

"Thank you for that positivity baby," Monique wiped the corners of her daughter's mouth. "But maybe let's not talk with our mouth full, okay?"

"Sorry mommy," she tried her best to cover her mouth when she said it.

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