Free Lady Swagger-The Beginning by TKO Page A

now.” She promptly turned the other cheek and headed for the exit with Jazz following closely on her heels.
    The damper of their evening was brought on by no one other than her two-timing, arrogant, and disrespectful girlfriend, Adreama, who everyone knew as Dream. While Nikki really didn’t like to put a label on herself, Dream liked to be referred to as a hard stud. She cursed the fact that she was born a woman and hated for people to remind her of it. There were many who could testify that she did indeed look and acted more masculine than most of the guys they knew, but it was even more evident that Dream tried too damn hard to be something she was not. She would even boast and hi-side about the things she did for her woman. But little did everyone know, she was thirty-eight and still living at home with her mother, barely able to pull her own weight with that tattoo gig.
    As soon as Nikki and Jazz stepped back into the sea of partygoers, Nikki looked toward the back of the club. A blind woman could have spotted Dream from a mile away. Not because she was the sharpest dressed stud in the building in red and black from her hat right down to her shoes, but because of her arrogant pretty boi persona which Nikki both loved and detested. The groupies Dream attracted mistook it as swag, but Nikki was behind the scenes to witness that Dream’s swag was nothing but a costume.
    As she figured, Dream was still hugged up with that same dizzy hooker from earlier. Nikki almost lost it but somehow managed to hold her composure.
    The duo headed in the opposite direction, parting the crowd of women that stood in one spot blocking their path. R&B music blared from the tall speakers that were situated in every corner of the room, and as the worse birthday luck would have it, Nikki and Dream’s favorite song, “Fool For You” by Cee Lo, wafted through the nightclub. Nikki picked up her pace and didn’t look back as they made a beeline toward the front. They chatted amongst themselves as they headed out of the double glass doors of Lady Swagger―a popular hot spot for lesbians. The club’s owner, Lady, was the mother of her first ‘girlfriend experience’. And every time she saw, Lady, her thoughts raced to Kelli and what they could have been together. However, at a time when a much needed distraction was welcomed, Lady was nowhere in sight.
    On their way back to the car, Nikki reaffirmed that leaving the club was definitely a wise decision because had they stayed in there a second longer, she was going to catch a couple of cases.
    The trapped heat and rising humidity resulting from the 100-degree temperatures Detroit had been experiencing, seemingly caused her soft apple butter skin to flush red and her MAC makeup to melt. It felt like someone had lit a blowtorch to her face.
    “Damn, it’s still hot as hell out here!” Nikki complained, needing at least one more thing to take her frustration out on. Her blood was practically boiling after catching Dream flirting with one of her exes. No class at all , she thought, driving the gold heels of her stilettos into the asphalt deep enough to carve out every letter of the alphabet. “And to think I was going to let her ass move in with me,” she fumed.
    Jazz drew her neck back. “As much as y’all argue and fight?” She was obviously surprised. “I’m sure glad that didn’t take place because I know I wouldn’t have heard the last of it.”
    “That makes two of us glad that I wasn’t stupid enough to do that.”
    “Lord knows you guys already have enough drama as it is.” Jazz opened her purse and fished for the keys to her silver Infinity G35. She hit a button to deactivate the alarm.
    “I need a cig arette.” Nikki extended a hand out to Jazz.
    Jazz twisted her lips and frowned at Nikki as if she had asked for a million bucks. “Wait a minute. I thought you quit.”
    “I did. Blame my relapse on these hookers that can’t seem to keep their fingers to themselves!