Twelve
99 Problems

For the rest of the week, Eloisa turned scenarios over in her head. Without any other evidence, though, all she had were a bunch of half-formed theories. Nacho wasn't around to bounce ideas off of either. She'd seen him once, in passing, to give him money like she did every week, but he'd seemed distracted. Neither of them had said a word about their little detective session. But she definitely thought about. A lot.

It was easy to let it go now, though, as she steered a cart down the soda aisle of the brightly lit grocery store. It was an early Saturday, and the store was quiet except for a few parents with kids and old people. She scanned the shopping list Aubrey had given her, listening as Starr worked herself up over Ben's proposal.

"I think it's sweet," she interjected. "We need... Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Sprite."

"Eloisa. Be serious right now. You're saying you wouldn't rather die than get proposed to on a hike?" Starr asked, grabbing bottles of Coke and Dr. Pepper off the shelves, and putting them in the cart. "Because I would."

"Please," Eloisa snorted as she grabbed three bottles of Sprite. "That sounds romantic as hell compared to when Nate proposed."

It had been during Thanksgiving in front of Eloisa and Nate's families. It had occurred to her earlier in the day that it might have been coming, but nothing could have prepared her for Nate's buzzed speech or the overwhelming pressure she'd felt with eleven pairs of eyes eagerly waiting for her answer. Remembering, even now, brought back all that anxiety.

"Oh my god." Starr visibly cringed. "I totally forgot about that."

"I haven't so I am very much Team Ben on this one." Eloisa marked the items off their list with a pen she pulled from behind her ear and pushed the cart forward. "When you get proposed to, where do you want me to tell your dream man to take you, mi princesa?"

Starr tapped her chin with a perfectly manicured fingernail. "Okay, so, like, we'd be in France. Back at our villa after a day of champagne tasting."

"Setting the scene. Specific. Somewhere totally reasonable. Love it."

"You asked!" Starr whined, smacking her butt. "Don't be an asshole, El!"

Eloisa smothered a laugh. "I'm not! This is your dream! I respect the vision! Keep going. Please?"

"Fine, but if you laugh- oh shit."

Starr stopped forcing Eloisa to do the same.

She looked around, trying to find the source of Starr's alarm. Then she saw him. Nate. She'd forgotten his apartment was so close to Aubrey and Ben's new house. Typical Albuquerque to force them together at the grocery store, of all places, when she hadn't seen or heard from him in days. Looking at him, holding a six-pack and contemplating hot dog options, she couldn't muster up the rage she'd felt in Nacho's van. If she was being honest with herself, she felt a little sorry for him.

He must have sensed them staring because he turned toward them, his confusion morphing somewhere between nervous and friendly.

"Do you want me to hit him with the cart?" Starr murmured as he walked over.

Guilt gnawed at her. Starr didn't know she'd been talking to Nate since they had broken up. That would require a lot more explaining than Eloisa was willing to do.

"No, but I'll let you know if I change my mind."

"Hey, El. Starr," Nate greeted with a friendly nod.

She leaned over to audibly whisper near Eloisa's ear as she plucked the list out of her hand, "I'll be right over there if you need me." She gave Nate a once over. "Nathaniel," she said coolly.

Eloisa watched her walk away with a mix of admiration and amusement.

"That went well, huh?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. "Should I be worried you're going to hit me with that thing?"

She shrugged.

"Ah, hell," he sighed. "I know why you're mad. Angela gave me a head's up-"

"How nice of her."

"I know I fucked up. I lied, and I'm-"

"Sorry?" she asked, keeping her voice low and smiling at a mom and son that passed by them. "I'm pretty sure I've heard this exact same apology before."

"Can we talk – later, maybe? Please?"

In the back of her mind, she heard Nacho's voice saying, guys like that – they don't take a hint.

She took a deep breath. "Not right now, okay? I just – I need some space."

His face fell. That obviously hadn't been the answer he was expecting.

"Sure, yeah, whatever you need."

They stood awkwardly facing each other, unsure what to say next to bring it back to a lighter playing field.

"So… having a party?" he asked eventually.

"Oh. Yeah. Aubs and Ben… kind of a housewarming-slash-engagement deal."

"Wow. They finally did it."

"Yep."

They were saved from further embarrassment by Starr's return. Eloisa could have kissed her.

"Okay," she said, unceremoniously dumping packaged meats into the cart, "You two have had long enough. We've gotta dip. Goodbye, Nathaniel."

"Bye to you too, Estrella," he replied, half-joking, half-exasperated. "I'll talk to you later, El?"

The hopefulness in his voice did nothing to improve her mood. Eloisa nodded, glad to follow as Starr pulled the cart toward the checkout.

"Sooooo," Starr began when there was a safe enough distance between them, "Do you want to tell me what that was about or…?"

"Nothing. Just Nate being Nate."

"Oh, so hella desperate and hard up?"

"Starr!"

Starr gave her a knowing look. "Am I wrong?"

Eloisa laughed as she began loading items onto the checkout counter belt. "Girl, you're so mean."

"Mean, my ass," Starr retorted as she grabbed things out to hand to Eloisa. "We both know I'm right."

What followed the next week was the most chaotic Saturday night of Eloisa's working life.

To start, it was one of those rare days where the rain started in the afternoon and refused let up. Rain always forced people indoors, they didn't know what to do with it, which meant The Altar was busier than usual.

Almost as soon as her shift started someone complained one of the toilets wouldn't flush. Then, in the middle of a set, the music cut. It took her and the DJ a whole thirty minutes, and a stressful phone call walkthrough with a local electrician, to get it working again. She added both to the list of things around the club that desperately needed Matty's attention. When he came in, he breezed right past her for his office. On her break, she went back to talk to him- only to find that he was gone. Annoyed, but hoping he was still around, she asked Dominic, Angel's counterpart, where he was only to learn he'd left almost as soon as he'd gotten there. Sage called in, making Gia and some of the other dancers even more furious. Then a fight had broken out. Aaron, the bouncer who usually hung by the entrance, had a glass shattered on his head leaving them down two after Quinn offered to drive him to the hospital. Eloisa was glad she hadn't seen it- even thinking about blood made her nauseous.

When they were finally closed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

From Matty's office, Eloisa could hear some of the dancers laughing as they counted money, decompressed, and de-costumed in the lounge. Normally, she would be back there with them but the software she'd picked out for their new inventory system had arrived and she wanted to install it so she could show Quinn how to use it the next time they had a shift together. As far as she was concerned, Matty had put her in charge, and she was going to use that little bit of power to make Quinn work too.

The beads in the doorway rattled, drawing Eloisa's attention away from the computer.

"Hey, Lou, Dominic's locking up," Jenna said, poking her head in. "Did you want to come up front with us and have a drink? I think we're going to hang for a while."

Eloisa looked at the clock in the corner of the screen, debating whether or not she should before she decided she'd earned it.

"Sure, Jen, I'll be there in a sec. I still have to close out anyway."

Jenna's face lit up. Even now, Eloisa rarely stayed late to hang out.

"No one's ready yet, do you mind if I hang in here?"

"Nope."

Jenna settled on the arm of Matty's couch, watching with real interest as Eloisa impatiently watched the download bar slowly tick up in percentages.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Putting some new stuff on the computer so we can do inventory. Like, really do inventory." She picked up the CD case and held it out to Jenna. "This will let me make a spreadsheet and we can just throw all the stuff- oh my god, finally!"

As the new Microsoft office icons populated the screen, she contemplated. Maybe she should offer Jenna training too. Most of the other dancers kept Jenna at arm's length, despite how nice she was to everybody, because of how close she was to Matty and how air-headed she came off. It was true, she was, but she was smarter than everyone gave her credit for.

"You wanna see?" Eloisa asked.

"Yeah!"

Jenna bounded off her perch and stood behind Eloisa, resting her chin on the other woman's shoulder. She still wasn't used to the way everyone here seemed so casual about personal space, but she let it be.

After several long seconds of loading, Excel finally opened. She didn't want to go through the whole setup tonight, but she gave Jenna a rough idea of how it would look and briefly went over how they could format it to be easiest to use for what they needed.

"Can I help you with it?" Jenna's voice was almost shy.

"What? Setting it up?"

"If you, like, don't want me to I totally get it, but yeah. It sounds kinda… fun?"

Eloisa tore her eyes away from the screen to look at her. "Of course you ca-"

A loud scream from the front cut through the rest of her sentence. Both women turned around quickly toward the doorway. Muffled voices, both male and female, could be heard, but they couldn't make out what was being said.

"That sounded like Maya," Jenna whispered.

"Maybe Dom's fucking with them?" Eloisa suggested, but she didn't believe it.

Jenna tilted her head, and Eloisa imagined her trying to strain her ears to hear more. "It sounds like more than one guy."

She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to make a quick assessment before she moved slowly, silently forward.

"Lou! What are you doing?" Jenna hissed, frantically motioning for her to come back.

Eloisa waved her away and brought a finger to her lips to signal Jenna to be quiet. Jenna threw her hands up in the air in defeat. Continuing to sneak forward, Eloisa pushed the beads to the side to give herself enough room to maneuver through before carefully placing them back. Clinging to the wall, heart pounding in her chest, she inched forward, the voices becoming clearer as did the fact that they were being robbed.

Cautiously, she peeked around the wall. Dominic was nowhere to be seen. Two figures, one tall and one a few inches shorter, dressed in all black with ski masks were standing in front of the bar, guns out. One aimed at Maya, and another dancer, Natalie, who were sitting on barstools with their hands splayed on the counter. The second, taller one, had his gun pointed at Gia who was behind the counter, opening the register.

"You're sure there's no one else in here?" the one directing Gia barked.

"Yes," Natalie sobbed loudly. "Everyone else is gone."

They were dumb enough to take her word for it. But Eloisa's relief that they weren't coming for her was short-lived. Where the hell was Dominic? Had they done something to him? She needed to let someone know this was happening- Matty?

"Come on!" the second guy urged. Gia struggled to get the money out and put it in the tip jar he picked up and was holding out to her. "Hurry up!"

Eloisa ducked back and pressed her against the wall. She slipped a shaky hand into her pocket to grab her phone. She hurriedly scrolled through and found Matty's number only to be sent to voicemail.

"Fuck," she whispered.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump, though she managed to keep her phone from hitting the floor. Jenna. Eloisa glared at her and motioned, again, for her to be quiet. She mimed guns and money causing Jenna's eyes to widen.

"Here! That's all of it!" Gia exclaimed, her voice cracking just a little at the end to betray her panic.

"What about the drugs?" one of them prompted.

"Oh shit. Yeah, now give us the drugs," the other demanded.

She wondered if they had planned this before coming in or if it had been a spur of the moment decision. Clearly, they were not professionals. That scared her more than if they had been. She dialed Matty's number a second time. Voicemail again. Why the fuck would his phone be off right now? Eloisa peeked around the corner and watched Gia hand over baggies with a shaking hand.

There was something wrong with the scene.

She stared at the men, then at the gun the one in front was holding. It looked funny. She squinted, trying to figure out what was bothering her.

Eloisa had been around guns her whole life- had even used them a few times at the range and one miserable hunting trip her dad had guilted her into- despite not ever being fully comfortable around them, and she knew what they were supposed to look like. They were not supposed to have orange tips.

Still pointing at the group of women, the men walked backward until they hit the doors then turned and ran into the night. Knowing if she hesitated, she would talk herself out of what she was about to do, Eloisa tossed her phone to Jenna who almost dropped it but fumbled it into a catch.

"Call Nacho!" Eloisa instructed.

"Lou! Stop! Where are you going?" Jenna shouted at her retreating back.