Chapter 6 Trials

"He's gay! You sent me to a gay guy!" Ria cried as she returned back to join the group.

They had seen everything play out, from where they were seated, they could see every single angle of the club, from one end to the other. They saw everything that went on in the lounge. They had watched Ria get gently turned down by the young man. They weren't surprised at all, after all, they hadn't expected her to succeed on the first trial. Infact, it would have been more of a surprise if Ria had succeeded at the first go. So, when they saw the young man turn her down, it wasn't much of a shock to them.

"And you're not crying." Keisha said.

"What?" Ria asked in total confusion as she reached the group, wringing up her face.

"I said you are not crying." Keisha repeated.

"So, what if I am not crying?" Ria asked, she still couldn't understand what Keisha was talking about no matter how hard she tried.

"Then, the point was achieved." Keisha shrugged with a silly smirk on her face.

"What's the point exactly? Was I supposed to cry?" Ria asked in frustration. At this point, even the other girls, but Kris, were also agitated.

"The point was for you to get a mild first refusal, so that you don't cry." Keisha said, maintaining the silly smirk which only kept on annoying Ria.

"I said he is gay!" Ria cried again, just in case Keisha hadn't heard her the first time she had said it.

"I know." Keisha said nonchalantly as if it was no big deal and Ria was over reacting.

Ria's eyes widened and her shoulders slouched in absolute shock and surprise. She was stunned at Keisha's nonchalance.

"You knew he was gay and yet you sent me to him?" Ria asked in disbelief.

"She saw him come in with his partner." Kris said. "I noticed his partner walking away when Keisha pointed him out, but I only realized they were together later on when Keisha insisted on him and I understood why. I guess she took a cue from my earlier assumption." Kris smiled. "Look now, his partner is back." She said, nodding in the direction of the man, from where Ria had just returned.

All the girls turned to look in the direction. Another young man had joined the young man where he had been standing alone. They both kissed and then the mysterious man whispered into his partner's ears. The partner looked alarmed for a moment and they both looked in the direction of the girls. Finding that they girls were also looking at them, they quickly looked away in embarrassment. They linked their hands as if to emphasize the mysterious man's claim of being gay, then they turned and walked away into the crowd.

Ria turned away, her embarrassment was reimbursed, she felt like disappearing.

"You knew that he was gay and you still sent me to him?" Ria cried. "Why did you send me to him even though you knew fully well that he was gay?" She asked.

"For the rest of the night, what do you think would be more embarrassing than asking a gay guy for a one night stand?" Keisha asked.

"Nothing! This is the most embarrassing thing I have ever done in my life!" Ria cried. At this point, she was sure that she would burst into tears at any moment soon.

"Well, do you not see my point yet?" Keisha smiled. "This is your first step towards shamelessness." She smirked. "After this, for the rest of the night, no form of embarrassment would make you want to back down for the rest of the night."

Ria squinted thoughtfully.

"So, you sent her into an embarrassing situation so that she would get too embarrassed to be embarrassed for the rest of the night." Helena said. It sounded like a statement, but it was more of a question as she was still trying to understand Keisha's point and reason.

"She set her up for failure. Strategic failure." Kris smiled wickedly. She was so impressed by Keisha's wicked stunt. "Smooth and beautiful!" She said with so much admiration.

"Wicked!" Sonia cried in approval.

"Genius." Camila smirked.

Ria looked around the small group, her eyes blazing with anger and shooting dangers.

"Genius? Smooth? I mustered up so much courage for that move, and it was a total failure. A complete flop and y'all knew all that before hand. You had me waste all my courage! You know how much guts it took me to muster up that much courage? My heart was beating as if it was going to burst, yet I stood my ground and did my best! You know how hard that was for me?" Ria cried.

"Ria, Stop being so dramatic." Sonia said.

"Dramatic? You think I am being too dramatic? You call this being too dramatic? I almost died of embarrassment, and you think I am overreacting?" Ria cried. "I have never done something like this. This is my first time of putting myself out there and it just completely blew up in my face, yet you think that I am being over dramatic? You guys set me up for failure and you didn't expect me to be 'dramatic' about it?" Ria said.

"Calm down now girlie." Keisha said, maintaining her smile as if Ria's outburst was only just amusing to her. "Listen to me. Tell me the truth, did you think that you were gonna be successful on the first trial? Did you think that it would be so easy to just walk up to an uninterested man and grab his attention on the first trial?" She asked Ria.

Ria thought about it for a moment.

"Even if I was gonna fail, you should have let me have an organic failure. There was no need for you to set me up for failure like that. There was really no reason." Ria said.

"Well, you might not see it yet, but trust me Ria, I did it for your own good." Keisha spoke seriously. "You may think I was being too much, but I did it to warm you up. See it as testing the waters. I let you deep your legs into the shallow part of the water so that you can learn to get accustomed to the temperature of the water before you get to swim in the bigger waters." Keisha explained. "Now, look at it from my point of view. I knowingly sent you to a gay man knowing full well that he was and even after I saw him come in here with his partner. Why did you think I did that?" Keisha asked and waited for Ria's reply.

"You think I would be asking you if I knew the reason?" Ria shrugged.

"Well, do you know how hard it is for an average gay man in America to find another gay man who is interested in him? It is very difficult to discern a gay man from a straight one, so very often, they tend to hit on straight men." Keisha said. "Now, and average American gay man has had to deal with so many embarrassing episodes and rejections, so much that they are well accustomed with rejection. They know how to receive it well and how to give it kindly and in a mild way." Keisha explained. "I didn't set you up for failure, I sent you to your first perfect rejection, because believe it or not baby girl, you're about to get more of that tea tonight and I am so here for it." She smirked.

The realization slowly dawned on Ria, yet, she wasn't so pleased with it. The rest of the girls were already expressing their admiration for Keisha's genius move.

"I told you Ria, you know nothing about this game." Keisha said.

"Fine, I want out." Ria said.

"What?" The girls cried.

"Are y'all surprised that I am quitting? This is not a fair bet! I'm not doing this anymore." Ria said.

"Fine. You can quit. You just need to pay up." Keisha said.

"What?" Ria cried in shock.

"I said you'll have to pay up babes. You owe us." Keisha said.

"How? How comes? How do I owe you?" Ria cried in hysteria.

"Well, for beginners, you owe us for agreeing to the bet and suddenly deciding to call it quits. You have to pay for damages." Keisha stated. "That's just the way things work. If you didn't want the bet, you should have declined it from the moment I was proposed."

"Y'all pressurized me." Ria cried.

"Nope, we didn't." Camila said.

"We only suggested." Sonia giggled wickedly.

"We didn't rope you here, did we?" Helena asked.

"You owe us for our time. We could have been doing something else right now, like seeing the rest of Vegas. But then, we are here for you. That's one. Then, there's the actual money it cost us. We paid the entry fee, we got drinks, the mental pressure of selecting a man. Oh!" Keisha cried, putting her hand to her crown as if she was truly under a strain. "You owe us at least a thousand dollars babes." She said, smirking secretly.