Murder To Excellence

4.

“You’re here for…” the doorman waited for the answer of the two young ladies in front of him.

“Rose, Rose Cole,” Hazel answered with a smile. The guy didn’t even look that intimidating in her eyes, so she was quite confident about the way she answered and that he would let her in immediately. Well, she was wrong.

The doorman discussed it with his colleague who stood right by his side. “Does she know you’re coming?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s yeah, ma’am?” the other doorman mimicked her hesitant answer. “It’s either a yes or a no, otherwise we can’t let you in.”

“God, she knows who we are she just doesn’t know that we’re here already. Just let us in!” Denise snapped. She was getting extremely impatient and Denise wasn’t very nice whenever she was impatient.

“Ma’am, calm down please. Wait here, we’ll make a phone call.” They remained in front of the door, glaring at the two in front of them to let them know they weren’t going to move until they got any confirmation about their visitation. One of the two made a call to the front desk in the lobby, to call Rose Cole. He described the two girls in front of him and wanted to know if he could let them in or not.

Indeed the doormen weren’t very intimidating but they were extremely good at their job. Mainly because their boss, Raphael, wasn’t someone you wanted to displease.

“This is it, right?” Hazel asked while looking at the golden number on the door. After standing in front of the building for another five minutes, they were finally allowed to enter. They knew already that this was something chic. The neighborhood, the building, the doormen, the staff, basically almost everything gave that away.

“Yep,” Denise replied and knocked on the door. Within a few seconds a happy Rose opened the door. 

“I’m so happy you’re here. Come in.” She stepped aside to let in her two friends. 

They looked around in awe for a few long minutes. They had expected it to be nice but it was surreal to actually see how nice it was. 

“Wow! Rose, how?”

“This, my friend,” Denise started and put her hand on Hazel’s shoulder, “is what happens when a rich nigga want you.”

“Fuck, let me have one too if this is where he’s going to let me stay.”

“You two are crazy.” Rose shook her head and sat down on the sofa. Her friends mimicked and squeezed themselves on the loveseat. 

“So, we’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting. Tell us. Are you two dating or not?”

“Yes,” she said confidently, recalling the conversation they had the day before about what they would tell other people. 

“And?”

“And nothing. We’re seeing each other and that’s it.”

“Did you lose your virginity, Rose? I swear, you must be offering something good for him to make you stay in something like this. You are staying here for free right?”

She had a feeling this type of interrogation was coming. Raphael had told her the rest was no one else’s business, but knowing her friends, they would ask her and ask her until she had to finally answer. “What do you mean? Don’t you think I have a loving personality or the looks?” she asked, trying to avoid any real answer. It was hard for her to lie to her friends especially when all she wanted was to tell them the truth.

“Oh, shut up! You know what I mean. Answer the question.”

 “He’s just very… generous?”

“Generous, huh? How generous exactly?”

“Ew, no, I’m not talking about that! Can we change the subject? Like, the store?” When Rose had mentioned the store, the topic of Raphael Ambrosios was soon put aside. The store was their number one priority and since Hazel was going to be in Indonesia for a few weeks, they needed to have a solid plan for when she would be gone. They already had a business plan and had ordered a lot of items already. One of the few more things they needed was a location.

After hours of talking, they decided to go out and eat for the last time before Hazel’s departure. Rose had changed within minutes and they took a cab to their favorite Japanese restaurant Tengu. It was a restaurant downtown and it looked rundown. But as soon as you entered, the interior told you otherwise. It was fresh and well-kept. It was neat and the employees extremely nice. Instead of ordering and it being brought to you by a waiter, it was an actual Japanese steakhouse. The food was made right in front of you, at your table, on a hot plate.