Xander gently held onto Sage's hand as they drove in the car to their last destination. They had stayed at their on the water date until their wasn't any light in the sky besides the light of the moon. Everything was going perfectly and that was a big leap for Sage to even be thinking that. She had been on plenty of dates before but not one where she was genuinely having fun the entire time. Besides the times she was being sarcastic with Xander, she seemed to have a smile on her face the entire time. She wasn't too happy about the thought of them going to a club but Xander assured her that if they were going to get shot at again she could shot him anywhere besides his face and his dick. Those were his most valuable assets, he couldn't let them just get blown off, he explained.
Sage just laughed and agreed that she would try not to aim for those two places.
"So how'd you find out about this place," she asked as she looked outside at the busy streets.
"Well, when I was setting up our dinner I asked Nathan some good spots and he said a lot of his clients mention this place," Xander said.
"And I guess these clients are super rich and usually involved in criminal activity," Sage said as she chuckled. It seemed like those were the only types, besides a tourist maybe that would be able to afford the stuff that her and Xander had done today.
"I never asked the guy but I assume it's gotta be good," Xander said pulling up to a large and loud building. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow to the look of the outside, it almost looked like the owner of the club had decided to go big or go home and when I say big I mean Big. The first thing Sage noticed was the fact that there were hundred of people in bathing suits swimming in a large pool that took up most of the front and went around the corner leading to somewhere unknown, besides the walkway. Outside of the club was built like an arabian palace and had palm trees lines against the building where instead of windows there it was all opened and Sage could see the people sitting at their chairs or dancing on the large, illuminated dance floor with a large screen showing different colored pictures and images.
Sage blinked and looked back at Xander who had a huge smile on his face as he looked down at Sage.
"X, you just love the bigger things in life don't you," she said as they pulled up to the valet and Xander got out the car and went over the Sage's side and gave the valet a little 'shoo' when he tried to open the door for Sage. Xander opened the door for her and held his hand out to which Sage expected and looked more around the place. She was pretty sure she saw a girl get dragged out by security after she threw up in the pool. She tried not to make a face as she felt Xander give her a gentle tug to move her forward. "Yeap, always taking us to where the most action is".
"Hey, a bunch of spoiled rotten rich people, how bad can it be," Xander said letting go of Sage's hand and putting it on her hip and bringing them closer together. Sage rolled her eyes and smirked.
"As long as the music and the liqueur is good, I guess we can hang," she said.
"So I finally get to see some dance moves, I was a little jealous that Solomon pulled me away so quickly that I didn't get to see you dance on stage," he said.
"Well, if it were under different circumstances I would tell you to stop letting him pull you away so much but daddy's gotta work," she said. They stopped in front of two large guards wearing the typical place attire and black shades, they signaled for both of them to raise their hands and spread them. Sage looked over at Xander and shrugged but raised her arms up and let one of the men behind her to pat her down. As Sage was getting patted down Xander looked over with a weary eye as he watched the man doing it take a long and hard look at Sage's ass. HIs eyes narrowed as he watched the man start to bend down to check each of her legs and reach up to touch that ass that he was just staring at.
"If you want to keep that hand, I suggest you watch where you put em," Xander said, making both of the guards stand up straight and look over at Xander.
"We're just doing our job sir," the guy who had been checking Sage said as he walked closer to Xander, to the point that they were chest to chest. He was about a foot taller than Xander but that certainly didn't matter to him, just mean the ground was gonna shake when he knocked him down.
"I don't think it's part of your job to be checking out my wife's ass like it's some piece of meat, even if it is good enough to take a bite out of," Xander said, stepping closer to the guy now and almost nose to nose with him. Sage's mouth hung open as she watched what was happening before her. Good enough to take a bite out off? Really X? She wasn't sure if she should be complemented or insulted by the fact that she was just called a piece of meat. It would have to be something she would have to worry about later, right now she was too worried that Xander would take on both of these guards by himself.
"You got a problem with it man," the guard asked. The other guard put his hand on his partners shoulder and tried to tell him to calm down but the guard just shook his hand off his shoulder and looked back down at Xander. "No man if this dude wants to act all high and mighty over his bitch let's see if-".
The guard didn't even get to finish his sentence before Xander with lightning speed, raised his fist and let it connect with his jaw with a sickening crack. Sage held her hand up to her mouth and gasped as the other guard quickly started calling back up on his walking talking and three more guys coming out of nowhere and coming towards Xander. Xander smiled and cracked his neck and raised his fist, ready for them.
"Whoa whoa, hold on I think there's been a misunderstanding," a voice said to the side of them. Sage turned her head and looked and saw that it was none other than Solomon, wearing a black button up shirt that had three of his top buttons unbuttoned and a pair of black slacks.
"Sir, go on about your business, this doesn't concern you," the guard said as he put a hand on Solomon's chest to back him away from him. Solomon scoffed as he looked down at his chest where the hand was and smiled as he looked back up. Suddenly the other guards that were around eyes widened and they tried to get the other guards attention by shaking their heads but he had already made his mistake. Solomon then reached behind him and took out a 9mm and pressed it against the guards cheek until Sage could see the meat of his cheek press against his teeth.
"You must want to lose your fucking life because only a dead man would act like he didn't know who the fuck I am," Solomon said darkly. People were now stopping to see was happening, some paused for a moment and then walked away, trying to mind their own business. "Now my friend here saw your buddy over there checking out his wifes as and he was so don't lie about it, now you're going to let them come in and have a good fucking time and you can start by bringing making sure that little fuck you call your manager comes over and apologizes to my friends, got it"?
The guard quickly nodded his head as he looked at the gun on his face. "Fucker I didn't hear you, I asked if you got it," Solomon yelled in the guards ear.
"I do, I got it," the man whimpered. Solomon pressed his gun even more into his cheek before pushing his head away. Xander pushed through the guards and took Sage's hand as Solomon gave her a side hug.
"You alright babe," he asked as he looked over her, like she was the one who had gotten into a fight. Sage gave him a peck on the lips before she could even think before slapping him on the arm.
"You're asking if I'm ok, I'm not the one who almost took on four dudes by myself," she said with a big smile on her face. She turned to Solomon and gave him a small peck on the cheek.
"Thanks Solomon, I thought this lug over here was going to get us into an old school brawl," Sage said. Solomon smiled down at her and patted Xander's arm.
"Hey I saw how that dude was looking at you, I swear it's like the standards of this place get lower and lower all the time, come on me and Aja have a table over here," he said.
"What are you going here though man," Xander asked as people seemed to move to the side as they made their way through the crowd and to Solomon's table.
"This place opened up a while ago and Aja said she wanted to check it out, I didn't think I'd see you guys here though," Solomon said. Sage looked forward and immediately saw Aja perk up in the middle of a group of their guards when she saw Sage and started hysterically waving. Sage smiled and raised her hand to wave back at her.
"Well someone suggested this place so we thought we'd come and check it out," Xander said looking back at Sage as if to double check if she was ok. "If I had known that security were gonna be such assholes though I would've been more prepared". They made it to Solomon's table which was full with the regular guards and Solomon's closets friends with Aja in the middle of them. Tonight she was wearing a shirt purple dress with high pink heels. She jumped right up and slammed herself in a hug with Sage and started to squeeze.
"Oh my gosh Sage, it's like a miracle that you're here," she said rubbing her cheek against Sage's Sage genuinely laughed and let go of Xander's hand to hug the blonde.
"Been drinking already," Sage asked. Aja scoffed and giggled as she flipped her hair back from her face.
"Well it's kind of hard not to when I'm surrounded by such boring guys," Aja said lowly so that only Sage could hear her. Suddenly a man with dark skin who obviously had enjoyed food a little too much came with a young light skinned women. They were both tripping over themselves to get to the table and seemed very nervous when they finally got their.
"Mr. Williams my name is Antonio, I received some information that one of my guards were rude to you," he said, his eyes jetting back and forth over the large group of males who probably had weapons on them.
"Not only was he rude to me but he was rude to my friend and his wife, was checking out her ass and everything while they were checking the both of them," Solomon said as he pointed over to Sage and Xander. Antonio looked at the woman next to him and opened and closed his mouth as if he was a fish gasping for air. Finally the woman next to him waved her hand over and two girls came out holding a large tub like bucket full of ice and five different liquor bottles and sparklers attached to them. Aja started clapping with a huge smile on her face as they placed the bucket on the table in front of them.
"Also you can get anything on our menu tonight free of charge, right Antonio," the light skinned woman asked. She nudged him with her elbow bringing him out of the daze he was in and making him jump a little.
"Y-yes of course, we have our top chef in tonight and he'll make you anything you want….does this all please you," he asked nervously.
"Well I don't know, Sage, Xander does this all please you," Solomon asked looking back at Sage and Xander. They both looked at each other before looking back at all the stuff and pretending to think.
"Yea we can dig it," Xander said putting his arm around Sage and reach down for a bottle of Captain Morgan. Solomon clapped his hands and smiled as he looked back at the owner and his assistant who were almost jumping out there pants in joy.
"Well you heard them, why don't you go make sure that your chef will be ready for our orders because we're pretty hungry," Solomon said.
"O-o-of course Mr. Williams right away, we apologizes yet again for any-".
"Dude I don't want to hear you talk anymore, be gone," Solomon said with a few of his men laughing at his comment. Antonio and his assistant gaped for a moment before nodding their heads and speeding away from the group. "Well everyone why don't we drink up this shit, the night is still young". The man around them all cheered and started opening up the bottles and pouring them into glasses.
"So Sage, Aja and my mom told me about what happened at the little lunch you guys went to," Solomon suddenly said with a smile on his face. Sage almost choked on her drink, she had forgotten all about that little incident.
"Yea, listen Solomon no offense but your mom had it coming but I'm sorry if you think I was rude about it," she said. Solomon chuckled and he took a sip of his drink.
"What are you apologizing for, Solomon we're cool and all but your mom was hella (if you live on the west coast like I do and lived in the sf bay area this is a real word) rude to everyone at that table," Xander said leaning forward now in his chair they had sat in.
"No no guys you got it all wrong, trust me I know my mom is a handful and honestly she needed a little back talk," Solomon said. Men around him unconsciously nodded their heads in agreement. Guess she had a reputation even among these guys. "When Aja told me what happened I had to call my dad to see if it was even true because no one and I mean no has ever been able to stand up to my mom".
"Well I hope she wasn't to uptight about it," Sage said, taking a glass of Captain Morgan from one of the guys that handed it to her.
"Oh my God, I don't think I've ever heard her sound so pissed, my dad said she started getting on her about her attitude towards people," Solomon said.
"And she definitely doesn't care about that," Aja mumbled, making Solomon laugh and nudge her in the side with his elbow.
"But what I'm trying to get out is my dad and I thought it would be a great idea as an apology and a mixer to invite you and Sage for dinner at my dad's house," Solomon said. Xander almost jumped in his seat, what the hell do you mean come to your pop's house, he thought to himself. Sage felt him tense beside her and looked over at him with curious eyes that asked if he was ok. He quickly nodded and tried to smile. This couldn't be happening right now.
"Yea, Matias wants to show that he doesn't want any bad blood between us," Aja said.
"And he doesn't want their to be any bad blood between partners because you know X, if you work with me you'll be working with my dad," Solomon said. Fuck my life was all Xander was thinking. He was pretty sure when Gibbons said he didn't want Sage finding out about her father also meant not getting super close to him.
"I think it's a cool idea, what do you think Xander,' Sage asked turning to wondered if something was wrong because even though he seemed to just be sitting there and listening, she could see their was a certain look in his eye. The kind of look people had when they were worried about something and he still hadn't said anything yet. All Xander could think in his head was 'shit I'm fucked, she's going to find out and my ass is going to be serious grass oh no forget that there won't even be a body to make into grass'. Solomon, Sage and Aja were now all looking at Xander as he kept quiet and wondered what was wrong with him. Sage finally cleared her throat and put a hand on Xander's knee.
"Hey X you ok," she asked. Xander returned back to Earth from his thinking and looked at the somewhat worried faces of their "friends" and his "wife". "Hey are you ok, you just blanked out for a minute their".
Xander laughed, trying to get out the awkward moment he put himself in and took a sip of his drink. What was wrong with him, Sage thought to herself. It's like he's not trying to take the opportunity to get closer, the opportunity to get them a step closer to getting home and to their old lives. Was he having second thoughts about all this?
"Yea, yea I'm fine I was just imagining the dinner getting out of hand if Solomon's mom decides to just fuck the entire idea," Xander said. Solomon laughed and nodded his head and leaned back in his seat.
"Yea I figured but don't worry, my dad talked to her and unless she doesn't want those five hundred dollar facials she gets every week, then she'll be behaving so don't you worried about that," Solomon said. It was then that Xander noticed that...Solomon and Sage had the same smile. Not only the same smile but as they both smiled at him right now he noticed they even had the same dimples in the same exact place. Did they ever notice, did Aja? Yea Duchess was definitely not the only thing he had to worry about and that was for sure.
"Yea thats great the, when is this whole dinner thing," Xander asked.
"Tomorrow at Matias's house and make sure to dress semi formal or we probably won't be able to control Duchess's mouth and what she says about how you look," Aja said laughing. Suddenly Sage heard Konshens "Gal Dem Sugar" come over the speakers and took the opportunity to dance to one of her favorite songs and possibly talk to Xander.
"Oh my God I love this song, come on babe let's dance," she said excitedly and took his hand to practically drag him out the booth with him stumbling behind her. Once they got to the dancefloor Xander put his arms around her waist and brought her closer to him as she put hers around his neck and laid her head in the crook of his neck as they swayed to the beat of the music.
"Hey, you ok you seem out of it," Sage asked. She felt Xander hold on tighter to her and bring her in even closer, if that was possible.
"Yea I'm fine….just a lot to process y'know but don't worry I got my eye on the prize," he said taking her hand and spinning her around so he could hold her in his arms from behind. He planted a kiss on her neck that made her smile and soon forget about her worries as they danced more to the music and forgot about all the people around them.