“Nice to meet you.” She glanced out the big windows that made up the front of the building and noticed that Shane and Carmen were finishing up their conversation. “Look, I’m sorry about what I said earlier, I didn’t mean to insult your friend, I was just…”

Just that second, Carmen walked in the door, smiling as she took her friends arm.

“Where are we sitting?” A man walked up to Carmen and picked her up, grinning at the little scream she let out.

“Where have you been?” he asked, putting her down gently.

“I’ve been busy.” She replied, trying hard not to let any sadness seep into her voice.

“So I heard. I heard you got married.” He paused, “And not to me!”

Carmen just laughed, “Yeah, well, I have this policy of not marrying gay men.”

 He grinned, “Well, then, it’s a good thing I do. Now come on, you have to say hi to everyone.”  He pulled her off towards the corner booth as a hostess came up and smiled at the people left standing there.

“Hey!” She said cheerfully, “Welcome to West Hollywood’s only Cabaret that isn’t just for gay men!” Everybody except Shane chuckled, trying to rid themselves of the tension by laughing at the bad joke. “Can I help you, or are you just planning on standing in the bar all night?” The woman asked contemptuously, trying to mask the malice with fake cheeriness, and obviously directing the question at Mercedes. Mercedes frowned.

“No, actually, but would you tell Simon, the owner and my brother, that I’m here, and there are a couple employees I’d like to talk to him about?” Her eyes widened.

“Oh! You know I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Mmm-hmm.” Mercedes walked away mumbling something under her breath just loud enough for the woman to hear. She quickly flushed, and turned to the remaining people.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes, we’ve got a reservation under Schecter.” The woman looked through the reservation book and smiled.

“Yep. There you are, Schecter, party of six, 7:30.” She led them to their seats and they all sat down.

Jenny couldn’t help but notice as Shane stole a look at Carmen’s table (they had a very good view of it), and watched the Latina as she laughed with a large group of friends. Jenny couldn’t really describe what her best friend looked like with any word other than pissed. She glanced up to see what the big deal was as the lights dimmed and someone took the stage, singing some song about fame and money, and noticed the cause of Shane’s agitation. Mercedes had her arm around Carmen. Oh, yeah, tonight was going to be very eventful.