Rose Royce was on to something.

That old-school song about love not living here anymore. Abandoned by love. Her heart was vacant. This was her anthem. She sang along to it loud while her earbuds played in her ears.

That is how she felt and she was sticking to this sad, love song. Having had no luck with men and relationships in the last seven years, what was a girl to think? She was the world-famous Nitika Foster. Why was it so hard to fall in love and stay in love? It was not her, at least she did not think so. It was men.

If only she were into women, she would have quickly made the switch, maybe found someone who knew how to treat her with some dignity.

Someone snatched the right earbud snatched out of her ear.

"Can you stop with all that howling?"

Having her emotional support music rudely interrupted, she pulled out the other earbud from her ear and made a stank face at her hair stylist, Malaika, who was also one of her closest friends.

"Just tell me why I'm so unlucky in love?" Tika asked her friend.

Malaika was hard at work defrizzing the sometimes dry and unruly curls of her wild mane. She was very adamant about always maintaining her natural hair while keeping it healthy at the same time. Black women could grow their own, natural hair long. And hers, when straightened, touched the curve of her back. She never put any chemicals, colors, or dye in her hair. If she wanted a change, Malaika braided it down and added a cute wig.

Malaika was always on point with her makeup and hair and made sure she looked like the Princess the world would be ready for. She knew she was all that, the makeup only enhanced her beauty.

"Girl! Stop with all that whining!" Malaika popped the top of her head with her rattail comb. "When has Ms. Tika not had a sexy man on her arm at all times?"

"Now!"

Since her latest breakup which was currently going viral right now all over the world. Poor little Tika could never keep a man, that's what they were saying. Never mind the fact that the men were all bums and she dumped them after they broke her heart.

Only twenty-five years old and she should be on top of the world, but somehow she felt like the bottom of her red bottom shoe. Life had been hard.

"Girlfriend, you have it all and we all want to be you. All the little girls dream of your life becoming theirs. All the boys and men...want a chance to take a ride on the Tika Tika train."

She rolled an eye at that. Stupid statements like that were why in the last eight years she had gone through five very bad and public breakups. Would have been higher if her parents allowed her to date before turning seventeen. Although her parents allowed her to date, she was too focused on her career to even be interested in dating.

"Choo Choo, the fucking train ride is over." She examined her face, flawless as ever. She stood from her styling chair ready to go handle business.

"Let's go, baby!" Malaika yelled out.

Decked out in a bright yellow fitted bodycon dress, a red belt around her tiny waist, and red Christian Louboutin on her feet. She looked good, she felt good, and at least to the haters she looked like life was good. Why would she complain? Pretty as hell, body was tea, and rich as hell. Tika was no ordinary girl, she was the Princess of R&B, the hot superstar singer who topped all the charts for nearly a decade.

So tonight was about her. A new album to release and focus on. Back to work and not on some man who would break her, hurt her, and leave her.

As soon as she headed out of the dressing room, her bestie from way back, Orlando greeted her with air kisses to each cheek. There was an entire entourage around waiting for her, including two bodyguards, her personal assistant, her stylist, and her social media manager. Also on her payroll were a manager, a lawyer, an accountant, and her personal trainer, but they could not make the trip to St. Louis, they were back in Los Angeles where she lived most of the year.

"Honey baby child!" Orlando was over the top because he thought all gay men needed to be. From the bright red Caesar haircut with the waves to the matching red pantsuit. He dressed loud and talked loud. "Everyone is waiting for Madame to make her grand entrance."

He did a mock bow to her as he always had because he knew she was the Queen.

"You know I got this!"

Tonight was her listening party back in her hometown of St. Louis. She was rarely back in the city where she was born and raised, but she felt they deserved to have her at her best. The city that made her. It wasn't L.A. or New York, or even Atlanta, but her city deserved some shine. There was good music coming out of St. Louis and she was one of the ones giving it to them.

"And listen, no one will be talking about that asshole Thunder River anyway-"

She stopped her friend with a loud huff. He knew his name was not Thunder River, it was Motunda Riviere and he went by his rap name Tunda. The hottest rapper out right now, in look and how he rocked the mic. And now her ex after nearly two years of dating.

Orlando knew to keep his lips sealed about that man. There were still feelings she needed to work through over that man.

"On to the next!" Malaika was at her side before they took off toward her party about to start. Her entourage was a few steps behind them but was always on alert. "Let's enjoy tonight and get crunk. You know I know nothing about this city and these country bumpkins."

"Ain't nothing country about the Lou!" Orlando bellowed out. "Don't even do us like that."

"St. Louis ain't never been country, let's not do that," she added.

"Y'all country as hell," Malaika went on. "What do y'all have here? The Arch? Some Clydesdales?"

Tika could snatch the box braids out of her friend's head for saying that. She was lucky her six-foot-tall, well-built friend could drop-kick her in a split second.

"Oh no she didn't!" Orlando shouted.

"Lando, inside voice, sheesh!" She stopped and turned to her girl friend. "Don't let the size of our city fool you. We have lots. Busch Stadium, the best Zoo, Forest Park, great colleges, The Loop, my fave, that's why we're here, and some of the best food, like Imo's pizza, or Ted Drew's custard-"

"We grew up on that shit," Orlando added.

"Or some toasted ravioli, some mostaccioli, some gooey butter cake, and all the good barbecue you want to eat."

"Girl! And how you forget some good Chinese food!"

"How the both of y'all stay skinny eating all that junk? Should be thick like me."

"Tika, we need to get going," her petite, demure, little pixie of an assistant, Sheila, said at her side.

She could already hear the large crowd in the ballroom of the Delmar Hall in The Loop. They arrived a day early to scout the venue that was next door to the famous Pageant concert hall and get it set up the way she liked. She wanted it more listening party, less club feel. She wanted to be the center of attention, all eyes on her as she stood on stage and performed the songs and talked to her people. This was something she had been doing since she was seventeen years old. Singing has been her life ever since she was four years old, but becoming a superstar was her dream starting when she was around twelve.

And look at her now.

"Sheila, I am the boss, remember that. So don't try and sashay your way over the top here." Her assistant was fairly new, with her only five months. She might have gone through several assistants because they thought she was a bitch, or a diva. She was none of those things, she just liked things her way. There was nothing wrong with that.

"And you hired me to keep you on point, so..." Sheila paused and asserted her voice to the point she seemed larger than her five feet zero stature. "...here we are Tika, let's go."

She looked little Sheila up and down, liking the forcefulness. It was what she needed. It's why she hired her. So it was a good idea to hire her little cousin for the position, as a new college graduate. She paid her cousin well and she got to travel all around the world. And most importantly, she wouldn't back down and whimper when she bossed her around.

"I like her!" Malaika stated. "Now let's get this party started."

They were in the backstage area of the small concert hall, but she could hear the crowd and some of her older music playing. Some of the biggest and best from St. Louis and around the area were invited to attend and tickets were given out on several of the radio stations in the area. These were truly her fans here and it felt nice to be at home to enjoy it.

Orlando took the stage to introduce her to the audience.

"Y'all know what you're here for...there are no words to describe the phenom that is Tika. She and I were raised in these mean streets of the Lou and came through it the biggest and the brightest...well, she has, I'm still trying to climb higher."

That made a few in the audience laugh. It was good her friend was loosening the crowd up for her.

"From the little age of sixteen, Nitika Foster has made a name for herself, determined to become signed to a major label, and winning that through hard work, six long weeks of St. Louis' Best Talent Show, and becoming the youngest winner. Now here she is, nine years later, with five albums released, and dropping her sixth album that is sure to top all the rest. And you know our girl does nothing little. Let's bring her to the stage! The one...the only....the fabulous, my best friend since forever, Tika!"

She sauntered onto the stage, doing her famous wave with two hands at everyone. Then she blew out kisses to everyone. She walked right up to the microphone, the audience still going wild with screams and whoops and whistles at her. A few were yelling out her name and "I love you's."

She could feed off this energy and go on and on and on.

"I love you all too. Thanks for being here and I hope you enjoy the new album. Tonight I am going to sing a few songs for you if that's all right."

She looked around at her fans in the crowd, trying to see if she could recognize any faces. Not really, but that was okay. They knew her. They were here to see her.

This was just what she needed to get the bad breakup out of her mind right now. To think she thought she was in love and that he was the man she would finally marry. What a fool she was for that.

Love. What a joke that four-letter word could be. Made you lose brain cells over one person that may or may not feel the same about you. All the hurt and pain that four-letter word caused, she was over it. Never ever wanted to feel that pain anymore. No more men, no more dating for her. Her focus was back on her career, and her daughter.

Love didn't live there anymore.