Page 9 of A Little Kissing Between Friends

Chuckling, Hitta did as instructed. As he headed to the center of the room and the microphone he’d abandoned, I shifted the bag of trash to my left hand and hugged Poppa from behind with my right, pressing a kiss to her temple.

“Thanks for taking a break to eat. I’mma head out.”

Nodding, Poppa swiveled around in her chair to face me.

“I’mma see you later, right?”

I busted out laughing and pulled open the door. “’Bye, girl!”

Ignoring the call of my name, I walked out and pulled the door shut behind me. There was a ding that indicated I’d received a text message before I even exited the building, and it didn’t take a genius for me to guess that Poppa had sent it. She didn’t need me to respond; of course I was going to go by her house. Her TV was bigger than mine, and reality shows undeniably looked fantastic in 4K.

Chapter Three

Cyn

Very Important Person

If I’d had any doubt that WundaGirl Ray’s sultry voice paired with the bass-heavy track I’d laid out was a winning combination, the Saturday night crowd at Sanity cleared that up within the first fifteen seconds of the song. “The Rest of You” opened with Ray humming a melody in C-minor just before the beat came in, and I heard a few whispers inquiring about the song near the back of the room where I sat while the stage that held everyone’s attention was still darkened. Forty-five seconds in, and folks were on their feet, rocking from side to side as Jucee squatted in front of the pole center stage, her back to the crowd as she isolated her ass cheeks to the rhythm. Two minutes in and folks had handfuls of cash in the air as they rubbed their hands down their bodies and whined to the song about friends becoming lovers and the desire for mind-blowing sex. Three minutes and twenty seconds into the song, the temperature in the room had ratcheted up to the eighties as the scene on the stage had everyone captivated.

Jucee had climbed to the top of the pole, which was at least two stories high. Using only her arms, she twisted her hands and spun her body while sticking her legs out at a forty-five-degree angle as she mimed walking around the pole in exaggerated steps. After making a complete turn, she brought her body flush with the pole and spread her legs into a wide split in the air. She held the pose for a full ten seconds, letting the final crescendo build along with the anticipation as everyone became silent, all eyes riveted to her—magnetized. And when the piano and horn came in, along with Ray’s harmonizing, the beat dropping at the perfect moment, so did Jucee, sliding down the pole effortlessly, as if she had no grip on the chrome at all. It was amazing to witness.

And when she reached the bottom, Jucee wrapped both hands around the pole, tightening her grip, slowing at a nerve-wracking pace just before reaching the ground, where she spread her legs and landed in a full split. The moment she touched the floor of the stage, the entire building erupted into a cacophony of cheers that drowned out the end of the song, but I didn’t care. Showers of bills flew into the air, raining down on the stage like confetti from a piñata. Cody and I probably tossed out a cool five thousand between us, and we were small potatoes next to the rappers and athletes who took up residence near the stage.

This was why Jucee made sure to dance one weekend out of each month. She earned a year’s worth of expenses in just four total hours over two nights. It made the money she earned by dancing during the week look like pennies, although two to three thousand for a collective twenty hours of work was nothing to sneeze at.

Turning to my younger brother, I cracked up at the awe on his face. He’d come with me to Sanity several times over the past couple of years, but it never failed to amaze him when Jucee took the stage. Everybody knew he had a little crush on her, but as long as he didn’t act on it, I was cool with it. Cody wasn’t allowed to fuck with my friends, and that had been a rule since we were teenagers and he transitioned from simply liking girls to wanting to hump them like a puppy. I learned the hard way that some of those same girls would shamelessly go through me to get to either of my brothers. Caleb had always been a hard nut to crack, but Cody’s extra-horny self never turned down no pussy—and I mean...I couldn’t really blame him since I was the same way—though once I put him up on game, he became more discerning when chicks would get to smiling in his face after he saw them hanging around me first.

As Jucee finished her set and exited the stage, four women wearing uniforms of shiny, pink hot pants and cropped purple t-shirts came out with large canvas bags and began to collect the money that covered the floor like a carpet. Each of them wore black latex gloves and black masks over their mouths. Two used push brooms to gather the money in the center of the stage while the other two stuffed the bills in the bags. DJ High-Fee turned up the music and jumped on the mic, addressing the crowd as additional servers flooded the room, the two working in tandem to keep the cleaning of the stage from crushing the vibe. The crew at Sanity was a well-oiled machine, and the process took less than five minutes before the lights were dimming again and two women were on the stage circling the pole and each other.

After about ten minutes, Jucee sauntered over to us wearing a different outfit than she’d had on stage, her hips swaying to a rhythm all their own with each step she took in those sky-high-ass platform booties. Even in the darkened room, I could see how folks stopped talking midsentence as their attention gravitated toward her as if they were magnetized. And I completely understood.

Jucee was a sight to behold. Five feet and seven inches of pure confidence and sex appeal. Her aura commanded the attention of every room she stepped in, and that was before you stepped back to admire the body she was blessed with. And what a body it was. With the kind of curves that required a caution sign and a smile that could make you lose your train of thought.

She reached us and I stared up at her, momentarily lost in the way she beamed, skin shiny and glittery in the afterglow of another successful set. Bending at the waist, she kissed my cheek, and the contact snatched me out of my thoughts.

“Hey, Poppa.”

She turned to give Cody the same treatment, patting his cheek afterward before she turned back to me. Cody’s ass was cheesing hard, and those stars in his eyes flashed brighter. Chuckling, I shook my head and regarded Jucee.

“Whassup, baby girl. You killed it, as usual.”

“Thank you, baby,” she responded in a demure tone that would’ve sounded shockingly genuine to anyone who didn’t know her the way that I did.

Her humility never failed to blow me away, even after three years of knowing her. Although she was the baddest and best dancer at Sanity, she never let it go to her head. Her ego stayed in check and it just made her that much more loveable.

“That song had the whole place in a state of euphoria, Poppa!” she gushed, sliding onto my lap and draping an arm over my shoulder. “I thought an orgy was about to break out, the way everyone’s eyes were glazed over.”

Laughing, I lightly squeezed her waist out of reflex and then moved my hand back to the arm of my chair. It didn’t matter how well we knew each other, the policy at Sanity was that patrons kept their hands to themselves at all times. I might’ve missed the fuck out of her these past few weeks and felt like I needed to touch her, but I respected the rule and I respected Jucee, and because of that respect, I kept it cute.

“Nah, girl,” I deflected, not sure why I suddenly was having trouble adhering to a rule that I’d followed for longer than I’d known my friend. “That look was all you. Everyone was mesmerized by what Jucee was doing up there.”

She grinned and shook her head. In the low light I watched her roll her eyes, her thick lashes fluttering playfully.

“Whatever” was all she said, easing off of me. She knew better than to argue with me about her talent. Of course, I’d seen the crowd appreciate the song, but that euphoria she’d mentioned was absolutely because of her. The song helped, sure, but watching my girl kill it up on that stage was the culprit.

Standing to her feet and towering over both me and my brother in her six-inch heels, Jucee shot me a wink as she turned to head off. I knew the deal; if she wasn’t making money, there was no reason for her to sit still. Before she could walk off, Cody grabbed her hand. I shot him a questioning look but he ignored me, staring up at Jucee pleadingly.

“What’s up, baby boy?” she asked him, amusement clear on her heavily made-up features.