Page 21 of When You Dance
“What’s the time frame on that? It’s not like I’m dating anyone right now, but I’m just curious as to how much time you think that will take.”
She had a look of amusement on her face, and I knew I was probably fucking up. I needed to calm down and just let shit happen the way it was supposed to happen. I was anxious for her to be mine, so I was willing to take her any way I could get her. I took a deep breath and rolled to my back, staring at the ceiling for a moment. “I’m sorry, Sandrene. Forget all that. Let’s just go with the flow… without stipulations. I’ve never really had a girlfriend, and I’m excited that I actually want one.”
She slid her hand over my chest then scooted closer to me. “You’ve never had a girlfriend? How old are you again?”
“Thirty. I never wanted a girlfriend. Had a couple of sack chasers that ruined that for me when I first started the job I’m on. Ever since, I just been out here living life. When all my siblings started getting married, it made me look at things differently. They all seemed to get married back-to-back like they were subconsciously waiting for someone to go first.”
“So is this your biological brother getting married in two weeks?”
“Yeah. Although he’s only a few years older than me, he was like my father growing up.”
“Where was your dad?”
That was definitely a conversation for another day. Just like she didn’t want to talk about whatever it was that she dreamed about, I wasn’t ready to talk about Dexter Dent. She didn’t need to see me be that sensitive. When I remained quiet, she said, “Sorry. I know some things are tough to talk about. I’ll listen whenever you’re ready to talk about him.”
“That goes for you too,” I said immediately, referring to her dream or rather nightmare.
She gave me a soft smile then yawned, causing me to do the same. I pulled her in my arms, and she laid her head on my shoulder. After softly kissing her lips, I said, “Get some sleep.”
“You too.”
Within minutes, she was asleep again, and I was staring at the ceiling wondering how I would even continue to pursue something with her knowing how I felt about her stripping. If she was doing that while she worked her full-time position, then she probably had no intentions of ever quitting. That would be something we would definitely have to talk about before we could cross into a relationship. I just didn’t know how I would say it without offending her. I supposed I had time to figure it out.
* * *
“I spentSaturday night and part of today with her.”
Ali’s eyebrows rose as he, Seneca, Arrow, and I sat at the bar in Sweet Lips Cigar Lounge. “How the fuck you pull that off?” Arrow asked.
“I showed up at Onyx Saturday, and she pulled me to a private room. She revealed who she was, and I told her that I had already figured it out. We went back to her place.”
“Ain’t that some shit! Well, congratulations. You got what you wanted,” Seneca said.
Ali was only staring at me. That nigga did that a lot. He was good as hell at reading people, and I knew that was what the fuck he was doing right now. He was with me after Sandrene had nutted all over me. He saw that I was really feeling her, so he knew it was deeper than just diving in her guts.
“Aww shit. You done fell for her,” Seneca said. “Can you handle dating a stripper?”
“That’s what I don’t know. We decided to just go with the flow, but that shit has my brain working overtime. I know I won’t be able to handle niggas looking at her and making their smart ass comments. It’s bad enough y’all saw her.”
“You ain’t gotta worry about us. We’re your boys. That’s a no-issue concern. What you need to figure out, though, is how serious she is about dancing. Most strippers like her are dancers at heart. Did she want to do other types of dancing? If so, I can get her in the industry, whether she wants to be a video vixen or ballerina or whatever. Jungle’s sister is an A&R exec for a record label in Atlanta, and her best friend owns two dance studios, one in Houston and another in Laredo. So she has options,” Ali said.
I nodded repeatedly as I thought about what he said. Sandrene was model material for sure, but I didn’t know what her dreams and aspirations were. I could see her making it in whatever it was she chose to do. She just needed to get a foot in the door. She’d told me she started stripping to help her mom pay bills. Her dad had died in a plane crash, and they’d been struggling financially. I was shocked that they weren’t well off because of that.
We hadn’t really discussed her dad in detail or their financials, but I knew she felt like it was something she could do to make money. So it wasn’t like she set out to be a stripper. Shit, I didn’t know anyone who did. Breaking away from my thoughts, I looked up at Ali and said, “Can you get me their info? What’s their names?”
“Fawn Gutierrez is Jungle’s sister, and Amiko Gutierrez is her friend. They married brothers.”
Seneca nodded in agreement as if he knew exactly who they were. If they were into the same things Jungle was into, then he probably knew them for sure. Ali continued. “I’ll look up their contact information and more details about the record label and the dance studios.”
I slapped his hand. “I appreciate that, bruh.”
“What the fuck we boys for?”
“Since we boys, I have something to say to you,” Seneca said as he turned to Arrow.
Oh fuck.I knew this nigga wasn’t about to tell him he was fucking Kaysyn. Arrow frowned and held his hand up. “I don’t wanna hear that shit. I saw y’all leaving the movies, and I don’t wanna know. She’s married.”
“She’s separated, lonely, and depressed. I’m really feeling her. I have been for a while.”
