Tina peered around the corner of the backstage wall and started tiptoeing to the bathroom. She looked to the left and then to the right. So far she had managed to avoid Mercedes for the past two hours. She knew that glint in Mercedes' eyes and knew that had better run quickly away from her before she got her caught up in some wild scheme.
Once Tina closed the door of her bathroom stall, she blew out a sigh of relief. Yes, I made it! She thought. Before the thought had enough time to leave her mind, Tina heard the bathroom door open and the clack, clack, clacking of heels.
"Tina, sweetie! I know you're in here. Come on out so we can talk, sweet cakes." Mercedes' purred out in a devilishly sweet tone. Tina gritted her teeth and shook her head. After a few minutes, she came out with a scared and sour look on her face.
"Tina, what's wrong?" Mercedes looked genuinely confused by Tina's expression, which made Tina even more frightened about the situation.
"Mercedes, I don't want to get caught up in any crazy revenge scenario you got cooked up for Ciara. I don't want to get involved!" Tina pleaded with Mercedes with weary eyes. Mercedes shook her head softly and put an arm around Tina.
"Tina, calm down. Look, don't I look calm?" Tina tilted her head to the side as she side-eyed Mercedes and shrugged her shoulders.
"See. I'm calm. Now, I'm not wrong for being mad at Ciara, am I?" Mercedes' tone of voice was eerily calm and low. "Any woman would be upset about seeing some woman grinding on their man? Especially when we just had words about it the night before, right?" Tina bit her lip and nodded. Mercedes began rocking Tina softly.
"I guess you're right." She said quietly. Mercedes smiled sweetly.
"Ofcourse I am. And I just want to let her know that he little stunt hurt my feelings and maybe she shouldn't do such a thoughtless thing to another woman in the future."
"I guess nothing's wrong with that." Tina contemplated aloud, being lulled to peace by Mercedes' continued rocking.
"Of course not. I just need to let her know that she should be a little more careful about her flirtatious ways, that's all."
"Well I guess that's not bad." Tina replied, shrugging again as she nodded her head.
"Of course not. We are going to just teach her a little lesson." Mercedes answered as she took her arm off of Tina and reached into her purse, taking out her phone and a small notebook. She dialed a number and placed the phone by Tina's ear. Tina held the phone and scrunched her face to Mercedes confused.
"Hello, Torrelli's limousine service." The voice on the other end answered. Mercedes handed Tina the notebook and pointed at the writings on the page. She mouthed "read the script." Tina looked down at the notebook.
"Hi, my name is Cheryl. I am the road manager for Ciara. We are calling to cancel the limousine service for tonight. We will resume the service for the rest of the week though."
"Ok, Cheryl. Sounds good. Thank you." When the phone call ended, Tina looked at Mercedes for an explanation. Mercedes in the meantime was checking something off of a list.
"Great. You did that very nicely Tina. Now we need to just pick up our rental car, so let's go." Mercedes pulled Tina out of the bathroom and they headed towards the door. But Tina was able to get a hold of something and jerked her hand free from Mercedes.
"Mercedes, wait one second! I'm not going anywhere with you until you tell me this so called plan." Tina watched as Mercedes looked around her and pulled her into a secluded corner.
"Ok, ok. This is the plan. And it's really very simple. While Ciara is at dress rehearsal tonight, we are going to get our rental car, break into her hotel room, pack up all of her things there, and ship it on a crate to Jamaica. Then we are going to come back here, when everyone has left, take all of her music and costumes that are in storage here and ship them to Jamaica too. Then she won't be able to perform at tomorrow's event and will have to sit there rotting while all the other performers kill it. Tada!" Mercedes' face was gleaming while Tina's face was now ashen.
"Break into her room? Ship her stuff to Jamaica? Break into storage here? Mercedes, do you hear yourself? You are losing it girl!" Tina prayed she was knocking some sense into Mercedes. But Mercedes narrowed her eyes at Tina and looked at her seriously.
"Tina, we are in this together. I need you to be with me on this." Tina started to tear up and shake her head furiously.
"Mercedes, I don't know. This sounds nuts. Suppose we get caught, suppose we mess up, suppose-." Mercedes grabbed Tina by the shoulder suddenly snapping her out of her ranting.
"Tina, we are not hurting anyone. This is strictly payback. I need you girl! Are you with me or not?" Mercedes pled at Tina, looking at her desperately.
"How are we going to get away from Sam and Mike?" Tina asked softly.
"Just send Mike a text explaining that we went shopping. Please Tina." Tina breathed a heavy sigh and threw her hands in the air.
"Come on let's go." She sighed reluctantly. Mercedes hugged Tina, gave her a fist bump and dragged her out of the back door.
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Sam thought for sure he saw Mercedes in the back stage area following the Ciara rehearsal. He wanted to make sure she was alright about what happened. He knew Mercedes had a jealous streak and didn't want her to have any misunderstandings about what took place. He could care less about Ciara, who in his opinion needed a couple of more hamburgers in her life. Her skinny frame did absolutely nothing for him. He was missing his curvaceous lady and wanted to spring a little afternoon delight on her. Sam was in the midst of knocking on Mercedes' dressing room door punch when he saw Mike carrying the baby towards him.
"She's not there. I just tried it two seconds ago." Mike was carrying the baby in a carseat on one hand and looking through his cellphone in the other. "Tina sent me a text a little while ago that she was going to be with her running some errands." Sam couldn't hide his disappointment at not being able to spend some quality time with Mercedes.
"Cheer up man." Mike said sympathetically, noticing Sam's down face. "I am sure that she is shopping for a cute something-something to put on for you later." Sam laughed as he and Mike walked toward the exit.
"I guess you're right. I just miss her like crazy right now." Mike smiled as he shook his head.
"Dude, you're so whipped." Sam lightly shoved Mike on the shoulder as they left the building.
"Never mind, dude. Let's just go grab some dinner." They both noticed Ciara standing by the door. She looked extremely worried, glancing down at her watch.
"Hey, is everything alright?" Mike asked. Ciara looked at the guys frustratedly.
"I guess so. I'm waiting for my driver to come and he's already 30 minutes late." She answered.
"Why don't you call your PA?" Sam asked, surprised that the celebrity was standing outside alone.
"I lost my cellphone. I thought it was in my bag, but I can't find it at all. All of my contacts are on that phone. My PA Cheryl is supposed to meet up with me later." Sam turned to Mike who shrugged his shoulders.
"Well do you want us to give you a ride to the hotel?" Sam offered. Please God, don't let Mercedes see me driving this chick to the hotel. Or she is going to kick my ass. Atleast Mike is here with me, Sam thought to himself.
"You guys that would be great. Do you mind giving the car atleast 15 more minutes, just in case it comes." Ciara begged.
"Sure. Sam and I will just go bring the car around while we wait." Mike gestured for Sam to walk with him to the parking lot. As they walked, Mike leaned over to Sam.
"Don't breathe a word about this to Tina. She is jealous as hell. Thank God I have the baby with me." Mike whispered. Sam laughed to myself as he unlocked the doors.
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Mercedes clicked open the hotel room as she and Tina sneaked in quickly. Tina was dressed in a long blond wig and black trench coat, while Mercedes was sporting a curly burgundy wig with a black trench coat. Both women wore gloves as they dragged a huge suitcase into the room and threw it on the couch.
"Ok, Tina. Just grab anything that looks like it is her personal stuff and throw it into the bag." Mercedes breathed as she ran into the bedroom and opened the closet. She rolled her eyes at the bright sexy outfits that were hanging. She carried a huge pile of clothes into the suitcase, with Tina close behind her with another load. When they were almost done with the closet, they heard someone at the hotel door. Tina's eyes bulged as she looked at Mercedes. Mercedes grabbed her hand and pulled her into the nearby closet. The women hid there as they squatted down.
"Hello, housekeeping? Hello?" A female voice bellowed. Mercedes had to cover Tina's mouth with her hand, when Tina started to whimper. She rubbed her back softly in circle.
"Miss," a different voice yelled, "Can you help me please? It will be only be two seconds." The first voice said something in spanish and then there was a sound of a door closed. Tina motioned for Mercedes to look.
Mercedes stuck her head out and saw a huge wheeled laundry cart by the door. She pulled Tina out of the closet and motioned for her to grab the suitcase that was on the couch. Tina shook her head and ran for the door. Mercedes was grabbed her arm and tried to pull her back when they both heard the door being fumbled with. Panicked, the women jumped into the cart throwing the sheets already in the cart over their heads to cover them.
"Bobby, can you take this cart and dump it in the chute for me? I have to take care of the throw up by the little girl next door." One female voice asked.
"Sure, Rosie. I'll dump it right now." A new male voice answered. The women felt the cart move and they both grasped each other's hands. After a few minutes, the cart stopped and they felt the cart being tipped. The women then found themselves sliding down a long narrow path and then landing with a thump to an area surrounded by white linen. Mercedes was the first to lift her head and shook Tina who was lying next to her.
"Tina, Tina are you alright?" She asked frantically as she shook Tina's arm. Tina lifted her head slightly.
"Are we dead?" Tina asked faintly. Mercedes grabbed her and hugged her tightly.
"Oh Thank God! Ok, Tina come on let's go." Mercedes took Tina by the hand and pulled her out of the mound of sheets. The laundry was at the basement of the hotel, so the women were able to sneak up a flight of stairs and exit out of a door back of the hotel. They ran quickly to their rented vehicle. Mercedes jumped in the driver's seat and zoomed the car out of the lot, into the streets. Tina wiped the sweat that was pouring off of her forehead and she stuck her head out of the window to breathe.
"I can't believe we got out of that." She answered relieved that the whole ordeal was over. Mercedes laughed as she continued driving.
"That was crazy, right! Oh my God, I didn't know what was happen when we were in that cart." She laughed. Tina leaned her head on the headrest.
"I'll be so glad when we get-" Tina sat up quickly and looked around at the street.
"Mercedes, where are we going?" Tina asked hesitantly.
"To the Arena to get Ciara's costumes and things." Mercedes stated matter-of-factly.
"What!" Tina exclaimed.
"Of course!" Mercedes screamed back. "We didn't get to ship any of her personal clothes so we have to get her clothes for the performance."
"Cedes!" Tina cried as she slumped into her chair.
"It will be fine, T. I got the key for the back lot door from Sam's pocket earlier today and I know exactly where they put her things. We just slip in and slip out. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy." Mercedes sing-songed. Tina covered her eyes and shook her head from side to side.
After parking at the far end of the lot, still dressed in their costumes, Mercedes and Tina ran quickly through the pitch black lot to the back door. Mercedes was able to open the door quickly. She and Tina sneaked in. The ladies tiptoed in the dark and went straight for the back room by the band instruments. Mercedes opened a gray steel cabinet. She pulled a flashlight out of her pocket, turned it open and read the label on the cabinet "Ciara's wardrobe".
"Bingo." Mercedes whispered as she opened the cabinet and grabbed the four wardrobe gowns. She tried to pull the gowns out of the cabinet, but there was a wired chain linking the garment bags to the cabinet.
"Do you have the key for this?" Tina whispered. Mercedes cursed quietly.
"No. I can't believe this." She whined.
"You can't believe this?" Tina whispered angrily. Mercedes put the garment bags back into the cabinet and close the door.
"I guess we'll just have to think of something else." Mercedes reasoned as they walked back to the back door. Tina rolled her eyes and was preparing to say something when a bright light shone at her face.
"Ne vous déplacez pas!" A loud voice bellowed. Mercedes and Tina grabbed for each other. As the voice approached, the women could see it was a security guard walking toward them.
"Qui est là ?" he asked.
"What?!" Tina cried. Both women lifted their hands over their heads.
"Who are you?" the guard asked again in a thick French accent. Mercedes waved at the man, keeping her hands up.
"I am Mercedes Jones. I am one of the singers. I just came by to get something." She tried to explain.
"Où est votre carte d'identification?" The guard asked. Both women looked at each other confused and then looked at the guard for some assistance.
"I.d. Where your i.d.?" He said in a rough accent. Mercedes and Tina both went "ooh!"
Mercedes motioned to the guard that she was going to look in her pocket. He nodded his head as he watched her closely. She searched her pockets and looked nervously at Tina.
"Tina, I don't have anything. What about you?" Tina shook her head furiously.
"Of course I didn't bring anything!"
"No i.d.?" The guard asked. When both women shook their heads, they watched the guard pull out his cellphone from his pocket.
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Sam was lying on his hotel bed, watching a rerun of the Office. He was sipping on a bottle of Corona when he heard his cellphone ring.
"Hello?" he answered unfamiliar with the number on the screen. "Mercy? Oh Hi Baby, where are you? What? You're where? The police station!"
***Mercedes and Tina are in hot water now! How do you think Sam is going to react? Let me know what you guys think? Trust me, the craziness is just beginning! Tootles xoxo***