The Dark Side of Chocolate

"Wow LaCienega, you really know your stuff."

She was shocked when Lala enveloped her in a hug.

"I am so glad you like it!"

Lala pulled back from her to give her a serious look.

"Audrey, I know you don't like me, but I really admire you. You always seem so poised and sophisticated. I know I laugh at you but...sometimes I want that."

Audrey raised an eyebrow. "Lala if I had your smile and sex appeal I would never pay for another thing again."

Lala laughed.

No bitch, I'm serious.

"Look," Audrey said, "I know we got off to a rough start and all but, maybe we could...I dunno get some coffee or som..."

Lala crushed her against her, "Yes! Yes! I love it Audrey!"

"Lala will you please stop sounding like you're having sex all the time! My neighbors are

Baptist!" Audrey snapped.

"Oh sorry."

Audrey shook her head. New start or not, Lala was still going to be a handful.

"Now, what color nail polish do you want?"

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"Tell me where he'll be."

"I dunno man, I swear—Argh! Sweet Jes—"

Another bone cracking grunt sounded in the darkness, and a splatter of wetness fell to the ground. He looked at the man who he had just stabbed and pulled the knife out of him.

Emotionlessly, he pointed it to his throat.

"You're probably going to die from that stomach wound," he said a matter-of-factly. "Tell me where he'll be, or you most definitely will."

The sniveling man in front of him trembled with fear and pain, his hand pressing his neck into the concrete wall. His patience wore thin.

"Three..."

"Wait man, you don't understand. He'll...the boss will—"

"Two..."

"Alright-alright-alright! I'll tell you! Please!"

"One."

"BLACK BLADE!"

The man gasped when he stabbed him in the heart. His wide eyes stared into the darkness at the man he could not see, would never see again, as his life was claimed by his merciless hand.

"You said..."

"You did not die from a stomach wound."

He pulled back and let the man drop and adjusted his black gloves. He walked a block before pocketing them in a zip lock baggie and pulling out his phone. He dialed and heard the person pick up.

"I have it. It's the club. Meet me there."

He hung up the phone and walked to his car.

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Lala donned a light red dress that was tight, backless, and likely to cause a car crash if she bent over. Audrey had painted Lala's fingers and toes red for her as a testament of their new try at friendship, and did her long brown hair in a French braid. Truth be told they both looked pretty good.

When Stephon and Marco pulled up in Steph's silver Nissan, they both gave them a long whistle.

"Wow Audrey you really clean up like a diva! And Lala, looking good girl!"

Stephon chuckled at his boyfriend. "You both look nice girls."

Stephon was prettier than most women, his long blonde hair flowing out over light wispy eyelashes and pink lips. He was also a cross dresser. She watched as his green eyes greedily took in her dress.

"Audrey I will give you 250 dollars in cash for that dress."

"You are not having sex in my dress Steph!" She glared at him as she climbed into the backseat.

"Plus, it'll never fit you right. You're taller and flatter than me."

"Nothing a pair a drapes and a cushion can't fix."

"Marco, take me to the damn club."

They drove quickly, Steph eager to head to their swanky dinner in the village. Audrey did a last minute check through her thin little black purse. Cellphone, notepad and pens, and wallet, she was good to go.

They heard the place before they got there. Limousines lined up letting people out the VIP line while flashily dressed people watched in envy, waiting behind a long winding red rope.

"Oh my gosh Audrey, I'm nervous."

Audrey turned to the outspoken LaCienega and raised an eyebrow.

"Just act like you're too good for the place. It usually makes people want to please you because they think you're somebody. Or that you think you're somebody and will go bankrupt to prove it."

"Bring out the fierceness," Marco purred.

"That too. Bye babies."

With that, Audrey bid her boys bye and cracked open the door. She slinked out, her black dress curtaining behind her. She flicked her hair to the side as she offered a hand to Lala. It was a masculine move, but Lala took her hand, emerging from the car like its sleek panther. She closed the door behind them and walked up the carpet, her eyes aimed at the bouncer.

"Sorry maam, you'll have to..."

"I don't have to anything."

She pulled her VIP press pass out her purse and showed it to him narrowing her piercing eyes. She noticed he was studying her and not the ticket. Without giving it a glance, he opened the rope.

"Thank you."

"You know you get free drinks if you flirt with

the bouncer, right?"

Audrey smirked. "You couldn't afford what I drink."

With that, she and Lala strutted past him. Audrey beamed at her proudly.

"Well you didn't mess up so far Lala, and I guess I have to thank you. I severely underestimated this place."

"Oh, we make a great team."

"Let's...not call it a team, we're two people. Two people teams go down in a blaze of gunfire."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's scientifically proven."

The steps of the club winded down and led to an elevator. Once inside, they were ushered into an elevator, an employee inside who pulled a level for each floor. She showed him her pass and he smiled. Quietly he pulled the lever to one.

Lala and Audrey could hear the music, the closer as they rose. Audrey quickly wrote "soundproofed floors" on her notepad. Lala rolled her eyes.

As the door opened they were shocked by the sheer amount of people. People underneath the dazzling flashing lights, people in dark corners, people in...was that a cube?

"Level One. Pleasure Suite," the elevator boy finally said, speaking with an Italian accent.

"How many Levels are there?" Lala asked giving him a smile. "You stick around..." he gave them both a naughty look. "You'll find out." With that he closed the elevator.

Audrey glared at the door. "Well that was fucking ominous!"

"It's called flirting, Audrey."

"It's called, this is a fucking cult."

"Your thong must be riding up."

"Somebody to rough you up...Somebody to make it tough..."

A sexy sensual techno song lulled above them, the beat pumping through their bones.

"Somebody to bait you...Somebody to love. But wait...is it still love you want?

"Damn this place is hot," Lala breathed. Audrey studied her.

She looked like she was already in the throes of pleasure. Audrey had to admit that for once she wasn't far behind. The whole atmosphere reeked of sexuality. Beautiful people undulated with one another, on and over, the over-packed dance floor. They were just nice to look at. The sight of them, hypnotic and erotic, made you tingle.

Audrey coughed, regaining her composure.

"The bar!" she shouted over the music. "Come on!"

It was the first place she always went to. Bars always faced out toward the action and made a great perch for people watching. The only downside was that you also were watched. Audrey could feel eyes crawling over her as she walked to the bar, and hoisted herself onto a stool. She sat on the edge, almost near the pitch black part of the bar. She didn't want a part of whatever shady events happened there. Facing outward she crossed her legs.

"Damn. I've never seen this side of you," Lala whispered as she jumped onto a stool as well.

"It's kind of hot."

"Lala don't hit on me. We just became friends

remember?"

"Uh...Let's be friends with benefits."

"Uh...Let's not."

"I was only joking."

Like Marco and the dress?

"What can I get you ladies?"

Looking over her shoulder Audrey saw the requisite hot bartender cleaning a glass beside her. Lala turned her attention fully towards him, giving him a blinding red lipped smile.

"You to start," she purred.

He laughed good-naturedly, probably having heard that line a hundred times.

"Well I might not do for an appetizer but maybe if you're still hungry later we can talk."

"Oh I'm always ravenous," she cooed pushing up her breasts. "But you can start me off with a sex on the rocks."

Audrey was impressed when he nodded maintaining eye contact, before turning to her, also looking in her eyes.

Lala's overly ambition advances ignored? So this is what winning felt like.

"What's in the orange creamsicle?"

Oh right, they were friends now. Poor Lala.

He smiled at her setting the glass down. "Well it's got orange juice, vanilla and orange sherbet, and two shots of vodka."

"Okay, can I have that without the ice cream and vodka?"

He looked in the air for a moment calculating, then back at her. "You mean just the orange juice?"

"Ooh. Sounds appetizing."

He burst into a loud good natured laughing fit and Lala whined in her ear.

"Audrey...you promised to loosen up"

"I didn't promise to drink. I have a thing, remember? Don't you want to drink? I'm the designated however the hell we're getting home."

"We have a free car service for our VIP members," the bartender added wiping a tear from his eye. "I'm sure I can arrange something for my most interesting customers of the evening."

Lala gave him a smile. "My hero! Well Audrey, aren't you going to jazz it up?"

Audrey smirked. "But of course. Add an orange wedge bartender! Oh and three ice cubes, not two. I'm feeling dangerous."

He cracked up again, walking near the center of the bar. "Coming right up."

Lala sighed. "You're a lost cause. I can't make you listen to me."

Audrey put a hand on her shoulder. "And now my child, you have completed your training. Welcome to reality." She opened up her phone and began to work.

"...I love this beat! You wanna dance? Wait, what are you doing?"

"Taking notes. Hot staff, dark moody atmosphere

best described as, "living sex," elevator service with a Disney Tower of Terror smile. How's that for cliff notes?"

"Can't you remember these details tomorrow?"

"Will you?"

Lala shrugged, thanking the bartender as he dropped off her drink.

"Probably not. So take some notes on this chica."

Lala leaning her back against the bar and looked out on the floor with an inviting smile. She crossed and uncrossed her legs twice. A moment later a man asked her to dance.

Blowing Audrey a kiss, she disappearing into the swarm of bodies.

Audrey picked up her phone.

At 11:48, LaCienega reverted to her slutty ways.

A few ladies came up after she was alone to ask her where she had gotten her dress. She told them all about Damsel or Dame and refused a kind after party invite. Then she leaned back, sighing as she observed the décor.

Dark round booths with tables in the back, dance floor in the middle, bar on the side. It was a classic set up in terms of clubs, but she did notice that there were glow in the dark couches that changed color inside a glass enclosure. The people inside were all in either black or white. Must be the VIP VIP. As she stared a man wearing all white turned his head to her. He mouthed something, a woman on either side of him.

Hesitantly she waved at him and he smiled.

Well, that was kind of nice. Not everyone in the club was a jerk.

She typed that into her phone as well, until she heard something peculiar to the side of her. It was jumbled, but if she didn't know better, the people beside her were speaking in Korean. Using the reflection of Lala's glass, she saw a broad shouldered guy with dark rumpled hair to the side of her. His back was to her and he wore a black neatly tailored suit. The man across, also in a suit, had a Mohawk, tastefully done with the sides of his head shaved.

Audrey used to study languages, Korean being one of the few she spent the longest on. Then when she realized foreign journalism wasn't for her, she opted out and forgot her lessons.

Turning to the bar she pretended to be interested in the bartender's mixing while she listened in to the hushed conversation. Okay deadline...I want a...she didn't know that word. Tonight...something good...or was that bad?

Either way something was coming. A baby? Was it a baby?

She listened in trying to pinpoint the word baby or pregnant when they suddenly stopped talking. Feeling the presence of eyes, she focused more intently on the bar contents.

Oh, what a lovely bottle of clear zesty fluid right there. It clearly looked...quality. Or something. Audrey didn't drink. When was her orange juice going to arrive again? It took her less than a second to make it at home.

"Enjoying our conversation?"

The man next to her hadn't turned but she knew he was talking, in perfect English, to her.

She was silent, contemplating whether she should pretend she didn't know he was talking to her.

There was a silent stand still which he broke when he turned to face her. Now she couldn't pretend she didn't notice that.

Glancing up she felt her eyes widened. Staring straight at her was the darkest, most concentrated gaze, she had ever seen. The man had long sensual lips, and his silky black bedhead hair, framed his chiseled features. Realizing she was staring, she spared a look at the handsome but less devastating friend and smirked.

"I'm sorry, but I don't speak Mandarin. I just liked the way it sounded."

"It wasn't Mandarin," his friend interrupted a slightly miffed tone to his voice.

"Oh?" she asked raising an eyebrow. "Was it Taiwanese?"

"No."

"Korean?"

"No."

He had lied, so she acted dumb.

"See? I didn't even pick up Japanese," she said shrugging. Looking to her side she saw the bartender heading over with her drink.

"Do we look Japanese?" the man in front of her asked. He had a soft voice, but it was low and sensual, each word was given individual care as it slipped out of his mouth. He was a dangerous one alright. She couldn't read him. He hadn't even tried to peek at her body, and he exuded pure masculinity.

"What do I know? I'm an American," she replied absentmindedly.

She turned in her seat and took her drink with a smile.

"Thanks," she said reaching into her purse. "How much do I..."

"It's on the house," he said shaking his hand.

"It'll be my easiest drink all night, and you'll more than make up for it with all the drinks they bought you two."

"What?"

The bartender came back over with eight drinks on a tray, each a different size and color.

"This is why I took so long. You better call your friend back here."

Audrey simply looked at the tray in horror before getting her phone and rapidly typing in it. Sex appeal equals mountain of substance abuse. Drunk hoe's mecca.

Before she could finish a long fingered hand snatched her phone away from her.

"Hey!" she protested turning back at the dark eyed man. "Give it back!"

He read her notes in silence, while Audrey resisted the urge to climb over him and take her phone back. And maybe stay on him, just for like, a minute or two.

"You're a reporter? Or is this what you do at bars?"

She snatched her phone back glaring at him, looking away from his long fingers and broad hands. Mm...the things he probably could—No! Audrey Rose was not a drooling, crazed idiot. She was not going to let some guy run her just

because he was pushing all her buttons.

"No I am not a reporter and yes this is what I do. Not that it's any of your business."

Mm...buttons. The G-button.

"So you take notes for leisure?" he asked in a flat, disbelieving tone.

What do you do for leisure?

"We live in a world where people collect stamps."

"You aren't collecting stamps. You're collecting secrets."

She saw the bartender raise an eyebrow, obviously the eyes and ears of his section.

"I am not!"

Immediately, she crouched forward. "Are you trying to get me thrown out?" she hissed. "I'm like a reporter okay? So keep it zipped before I get unrealistic special treatment, and end up with a shitty, inaccurate article!"

"Fair enough." He leaned back, seeming to relax. His friend did as well.

"So, what part of our conversation did you find interesting?"

She felt a strand of tension in his question, though he appeared completely relaxed. So he knew she had lied about the Korean thing. She considered walking away, but his eyes pinned her to the stool.

"Well I only understood the part about the baby coming, but I wasn't sure if you were happy or sad."

The mohawk man leaned forward. "Is that all you understood?"

"Hey. It's been a while."

The man in front looked at her for a moment

longer, before the man behind him dissolved into laughter.

"Your Korean is awful!" he roared.

"It's...it's not that bad."

"Yes it is!"

"Was I close?"

"Oh God. I'm gonna pee!"

Lala reappeared looking disheveled, like she had been pulled at and squeezed.

"Hey, looks like you're having fun. Who are they?"

Her gaze lingered a little on the first guy but her gaze stayed on the second one.

"Oh yes, how rude of me," Audrey declared.

"Lala, allow me to introduce you to Stranger 1 and Stranger 2."

"You didn't even ask their names?" Lala gushed with Oscar winning panic.

"They didn't ask for mine."

"Audrey! How could you?"

Lala always did this when hot guys were around.

Forty points of her IQ, poof, just gone.

Audrey took a large gulp of orange juice, biting back her vicious comments.

We're friends now. We're friends now. We're—

"Well, I'm Lala and she's..."

"Ruth."

Lala paused, but covered her hesitation with a smile.

"Yes, Ruth. And you are?"

"You can't pronounce our names," the man behind the other said with a grin. He was definitely feeling Lala.

"But my American name is Stanley."

Audrey looked at the one next to her and noticed his eyes had never left her. He looked to the right slowly then said, "Thomas."

"Tom and Stan," Audrey repeated. "Well now, that's a believable conversion."

Stan laughed in response. Lala noticed the drinks and was now grinning from ear to ear. She took her original drink down in one pass before fingering some limey concoction.

Audrey watched as Stan got out of his seat and raised a hand out to Lala.

"Would you care to dance?"

She puckered her lips, putting a hand to her chest like a movie star, before giving it to him bashfully, allowing him to sweep her daintily onto the dance floor. Before Stan disappearing, he shouted a flurry of Korean at Tom.

You. No. Blanket. Pillow. Kimichi.

Okay, maybe she did need to work on her Korean.

It was suddenly awkward when their companions left. Were they now obligated to talk? They faced out towards the floor like two undesirable friends, that had been set up on a pity riddled blind date.

"I don't dance," she said suddenly. It was a lie, but she didn't want to move.

"That makes you a great authority on club reporting."

She glared at him, his gaze forward.

He then gave her an amused side glance. "Trying to kill me with that look?"

Audrey smirked. "I could if I wanted to."

"Really? Then go ahead."

"Eh. You're not worth the jail time. "

Tom let her get in the last word, instead intent on study her. She felt warm under his gaze.

"Want a drink?" she asked pointing to the platter. He leaned over her, studying each individually. She felt a rush when his jacket brushed against her bare shoulder.

"No."

"No?"

"They are all crap."

"What? Even the red one?"

She looked at the colorful appealing drinks and wanted very much to test that theory. To bad she didn't drink.