Page 42 of When You Dance
She hugged me tightly, then turned to Jungle. “Thank you. I know you did this because of Mel, but it benefitted me. I appreciate it.”
She extended her hand, and he pulled her in for a hug. “You family now, girl. I can’t wait for you to meet my loud ass sister, Fawn. She would love to learn this shit,” he said as he rolled his eyes.
“I would love to teach her.”
When Tip came over, I pulled Sandrene closer to me in a protective stance. She glanced up at me with a slight frown then turned her attention back to Tip. “I’m so proud of you. Hopefully this won’t be my last time seeing you.”
Sandrene smiled and hugged her. The more I thought about the situation, I realized Tip really wouldn’t have a motive to harm her. She was her moneymaker. I relaxed somewhat and chastised myself a bit for thinking the worst about everybody. That was a bad habit I had. The only person I hadn’t done that with was my mama, DJ, and Sandrene. If that wasn’t proof that she was for me, I didn’t know what was.
Once they were done talking, I grabbed her hand to lead her to the car. Jungle followed behind us, and Amiko and her husband were in front of us. My phone vibrated in my pocket again. I swore if this was Yolanda, I was gonna go the fuck off. That would have been proof that I needed to stay my black ass at home this weekend.
After dapping my nigga up and promising to holla at him soon, I opened the door for Sandrene. As soon as I got in the car, she said, “Please don’t start keeping shit from me. What’s up?”
“I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t want to say anything in front of everyone, but Jungle brought up a valid point. He said if Jeremiah has the same last name as you, why didn’t Tip ask you about him. I mean, we know why she couldn’t mention your name, but she surely could have mentioned his to you.”
Her lips parted slightly, and she turned away from me, looking straight ahead, seemingly in deep thought. “That’s a good question.”
“As I stood there, I dismissed it though, because why would she want harm to come to you if you were her moneymaker? You were her premier dancer, the one that brought in the patrons. Hurting you would be hurting her pockets, right?”
“Yeah, it would, but I think it’s something worth exploring. It’s bad enough that she didn’t do a background check on him, and then I find out that he’s a sex offender. She could be as much of a suspect as Desire.”
I grabbed her hand as my phone vibrated again.Fucking Yolanda!“You can just talk to the detective and ask them to explore it.”
“Your phone is going crazy. You gon’ check it?”
“Yeah, but I was talking to you. Ain’t nothing more important than you.”
I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked it to see two messages from Yolanda and one from my mama. I slightly rolled my eyes and opened it to see what she had to say.When did y’all meet?
Her second message read,I’m sorry. I don’t mean to overstep. I just miss you.
If this heifer didn’t get the hell on. I turned to Sandrene to see her staring at me. I swallowed hard, debating whether I should reveal this part of my past with her before it blew up in my face. “Umm… my mama’s best friend invited us to her son’s graduation party.”
“Then why you look irritated?”
“I don’t know.”
“Jamel, keep it a buck with me. Don’t start lying, because I’ll pull out this shit faster than a nigga without a condom on.”
The frown on her beautiful face was sexy as hell. “You so sexy when you mad.”
“Quit fucking with me, Jamel Artaze Dent.”
Damn. My whole name.I hadn’t heard my whole name said like that since I was a teenager. Felt like I was in trouble and about to catch a whupping. I dragged my hand down my face and finally pulled out of the parking lot since Amiko was waiting for us. “I fucked her. Nobody knows that but me, her, God, DJ, Arrow, and now you. My mama would be hurt, and I can’t have her finding out. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to be uncomfortable around her if she’s at my mama’s house whenever we visit.”
“Why would you fuck your mama’s friend? That’s crazy as hell.”
“We were drunk. I mean, I always thought she was attractive. She’s about ten years younger than my mama and about thirteen or fourteen years older than me. We were partying when her son came to town, and honestly, I don’t even know how we ended up fucking.”
“So let me guess. You gave her the dick since then, and now she wants it again.”
I wanted to close my eyes, but I was fucking driving. While I knew this was the right thing to do so she wouldn’t be surprised if she ever had to find out, I just wanted the conversation about Yolanda to be over with. “Yeah. I told her I had a lady.”
“When was the last time?”
“Before I met you… met Sandrene.”
She was quiet after that and that made me nervous for a minute. I remained quiet as well. The rest of the drive, I stayed in my head, trying to figure out what she was thinking. The minute I hit the interstate, she turned to me and asked, “Did she ask for more of you before or after you said you had a lady?”
