Club Vegas was full. Tunde had driven straight down from the office with Chike, and even at that early hour it was already filling up. It was just a little past 10 p.m now and the place was jam-packed. It was to be expected of a new club that opened only the weekend before.
Business was booming, until when the regulars get tired and moved on to other watering holes. That is the natural life of the night-crawlers. Very nomadic and almost as erratic as that of the ants.
When the rest of the brotherhood crew had assembled, they had all moved on to a semi-private corner, where Tunde had been given a serious talking to. It was obvious the rest of the guys were not happy with him. Baker had sounded harsher than Tunde himself expected.
He apologized and started buying the drinks of appeasement. All that had been about an hour ago. The discussion had moved around everything from football, to economics to politics; and finally as is often the case with them on nights out to women.
Tunde was in the middle of a long-winded explanation of why there seem to be a perceived disconnect between girls and guys, when Chike interrupted him.
“Check out that one,” Chike indicated a slim, tall girl at the end of the bar. She was clad in a black free-flowing chiffon gown. It was shimmering in the dim kaleidoscope of lighting the club offered.
None of the others had noticed her before, Tunde’s heart skipped when she turned and faced their general area.
“Wow!” All six of them seemed to have chorused under their breath.
“Yeah. Wow…you can say that again a hundred times,” quipped Baker. A half smile formed at the corners of his mouth.
Tunde tried very hard to keep his heart from falling out of his mouth. She had a beautifully sculpted face. It was the kind of face for TV commercials or billboard advertising.
“I hope she is a model,” quipped Phillip as if reading Tunde’s mind.
” If she is not I am turning her into one tonight,” added Chike, his drink suspended in mid-air as he regarded the young woman. Obviously, he was picturing her already in one of his ads or more accurately his bed.
From where he was seated he couldn’t see much of her, other than her back. The low cut of the gown afforded him the sight of a back that suggested no bra beneath the gown. However, the face was all that he needed to see to know she was perfect. Even in the dimmness of the lighting, the beauty was unmistable. Her face was smooth and the eyes full and very clear, like two beacons in a stormy sea. He hadn’t seen much, but he must have seen enough for his mind to build the rest…
“She is going to make a great wife,” Tunde found himself offering almost inaudibly.
” What!” Baker sniggered. ” My friend, don’t go there. Fuck and Leave. That is what you do with a girl like that. You mess around too long, you are going to be in trouble. Either from too much competition or from too much jealousy at a non-existent competition.”
“Well, I agree with you Baker. Especially, seeing as she is at a club alone. That can’t be a good sign of a good wife material,” chipped in Lamu. “Tunero seem to be enmeshed in some silly thoughts these days. I wonder why….”
Tunde put down the glass of Amarula he was drinking carefully and with utmost reluctance, tore his eyes away from the girl seated at the bar.
“Guys, chill now. I just offered an opinion. Anyways, you guys know the deal. Chike noticed and mentioned her first. So, he gets the first shot. I will like to see how he does it this time. It has been a while.”
Chike grinned. He put down his glass and walked casually to the bar. He spoke briefly to the young lady and she smiled back at him.
The rest of the brotherhood looked on as Chike spoke with the girl and in a few minutes they were both laughing comfortably.
“Shit, now he would make her have eyes for only him before bringing her to the table.” Wole said.
“Don’t tell me you have your eyes on that game too?” Tunde mocked him.
“Like we don’t all,” Wole retorted. “I better go get that one over there before any of you guys have ideas.” He added as he got up and walked over to the other end of the bar, where he struck a conversation with another girl.
“I bet Wole is right. I envy Chyke for spotting her first. But, he did. I am going hunting. So, you guys back here in thirty minutes or less.” Tunde got up from the table and left the other guys. He first made for the gents, where he had to pass by Chike and the girl in black.
As he walked past them, he caught the whiff of a sweet-smelling fragrance that only her could produce.
He also caught a bit of the conversation.
“…you don’t say? But, who is that one in green? He looks very cool.”
Tunde almost collided with a guy walking in the other direction.
Guy in green? He was in green. Can she be asking about him?
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When Tunde returned to the table, he was alone and found that the lady in black had joined the table with Chike. The rest of the crew looked at him quizzically, and he only sshrugged back.
Wole had with him a petite little thing wearing a tight jeans and a black tank top, complete with hoop earrings the size of a circus ring. The contrast in their sizes was staggering and Tunde could not help but wonder, with a comical chuckle, if the girl wasn’t afraid for her safety with him.
Baker had a beautiful young thing cuddled up against him. She was almost as beautiful as the girl in black. She was also almost as identically dressed. Only that her own gown was white and short. Very short.
Lamu was lapping a girl with short-cropped hair dyed brown. She seemed already in the mood for some action as she was all over him, playing with his ears, neck and once or twice dropping her hands to his lap and beyond sight.
Phillip was talking to a slightly thick chic. She giggled at almost everything he said. She told Tunde later onn that her name was Biodun. But, for most of the rest of the evening Tunde had one eye on Chike’s hunt for the evening.
The girl in black had been the first to offer her hand when Tunde got back to the table.
“Pleased to meet you.”
Tunde had felt the softness of the palms, resting comfortably and assuredly in his palms. Finally, he let go and sat down alone looking over at the group. He is going to have to hunt two the next time.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t have gotten a girl from the bar. He however had not found any to match her. If he had ran into Baker’s hunt first, maybe….
“Guys, we dey go.” Baker got up moments later. That gesture signaled the end of the night’s session. There were other things to be done. More important things….
“Tunde, we go talk abi?” It was a coded message and Tunde understood.
Two kills next time out.
He nodded and waved Baker bye.
When Baker and his girl had left, the rest of the guys stayed back a while and chatted. It was during the period that Tunde found out that the girl in black was named Tinu, she also told him the name of the perfume she was wearing – Sarah Jessica Parker. They were chatting so comfortably after a few minutes even Chike was beginning to throw angry glances towards him.
“You Know what? I better start heading out too,” Tunde announced. “Can’t drive home tonight so I am going to THE NEST on Joel Ogunnaike. Na dia dis bird wan perch and roost tonight.”
“Hey, I am heading out there too. Maybe we should move the party down there even?” Lamu suggested.
The rest of the group readily agreed, Tinu particularly beaming at Tunde as the suggestion was carried.
Tunde smiled back. Unknown to him, he was being ensnared into the worst nightmare of his life.
The smile, from the girl in black, was nothing but the smile of death.
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