Tempest laughed, pushing her out of the way so she could wash her hands. The rest of the vanity area had women adjusting everything from lipstick to bra straps in the mirror. One sistah was trying to fit a pair of 44DDDs into a 36A. Maybe she thinks four breastesses are better than two, Tempest thought.
“I wasn’t even flirting, Janessa,” Tempest said, halfway convinced the statement was true. “He just told me his name.”
“Geren.”
Tempest diverted her eyes to Janessa’s reflection in the mirror, wondering how she could have known that. Janessa had hit the dance floor with a quickness so there was no way Geren could have tried to talk to her before Tempest met him at the bar. “How’d you know that? Do you know him from someplace?” she asked brazenly.
“Nope, never met him.” Janessa giggled. “The dude I’ve been dancing with for the past ten songs is his best friend. Dvontè told me Geren’s name.”
“Dvontè, huh?”
Janessa started grinning from ear to ear, and Tempest knew it meant trouble. She sensed the beginnings of a one-night stand developing. “You really like him, don’t you?”
“He’s aiight,” Janessa replied. “He asked me for the digits, but I’m making him sweat it out.”
“So that means you’re going to give them to him?”
“Damn skippy! Did you see how fine that man is?”
They started out the door to make room for the next group of hoochie mommas. “Not really,” Tempest lied so Janessa wouldn’t know she’d thoroughly checked him out. “It’s too dark to see clearly up in here, and you were all the way on the dance floor.”
“Well, I’ll have to introduce you two, then.” Janessa knew Tempest was frontin’. She knew the heifer had bionic vision when it came to checking out the brothas.
Once they got back to the bar, introductions were made all around. Tempest was not even impressed. Dvontè was beside Geren, sitting on her stool and her $9.99 jacket. She wanted to pimp-slap his ass.
Dvontè didn’t particularly care for Tempest either. He figured she was one of those celibate sistahs, sitting on her pussy like she’s collecting dividends on the shit. Then again, she might be one of those undercover freakazoids, he thought.
After they’d exchanged pleasantries, Geren reminded Tempest that she owed him a dance. No sooner had she taken his hand so he could lead the way when the DJ switched up on them and put on a slow jam, “Beauty” by Dru Hill.
That threw Tempest for a loop. For some reason, whenever she finally got ready to make a spectacle of herself on the dance floor because she still did all the old dances like the Bus Stop and the Robot, the DJ would put on a slow I-wanna-smoke-your-boots-off song.
Tempest decided to go for it anyway. Besides, she wanted to see if Geren really was all that. There was only one way to find out without demanding he drop his drawers. She knew once he started grinding up against her, one of four things was bound to happen. He would either have a pelvic area flatter than hers, she would feel a pencil pricking her skin, she would feel a soft banana that had some potential or he would make her eyes bulge. When a man had an elephantine dick, she couldn’t help but visualize it in her mind. They hit the dance floor, and if Tempest hadn’t immediately closed her eyelids, her eyes would have popped slap out of her head.
CHAPTER 4
to date or not to date
janessa and Tempest stayed at the club until it closed at 3:00 A.M., which was a first. Normally, Tempest would give Janessa two hours max to get her groove on before she started motioning toward the exit.
Not that night though. Tempest danced the night away with Geren and even drank a couple of hurricanes. When the two of them weren’t freaking all over each other on the dance floor, they were off somewhere lingering in a dark corner.
The entire ride home, Janessa tried to get the lowdown from her. Tempest just kept belting out, “I don’t see nothing wrong with a little bump and grind,” the chorus from that old R. Kelly slow jam. A far cry from “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here,” which was sooooooo indicative of her feelings on the way to the club.
Tempest practically skipped up the sidewalk to her building, taking the steps two at a time up to her third-floor condo, but she finally cut the singing once they got inside. Not a second too soon for Janessa—she loved Tempest, but wished she would leave singing da hell alone.
“I’m about to hop in the shower,” Tempest blurted out, a faraway, glassy look in her eyes. She seemed distracted as she spoke, her mind obviously still on Geren. “I can’t stand smelling like cigarette smoke, so I’m going to wash my hair right quick.”
“Damn, Tempest! How many times a week do you wash your freakin’ hair?” For all the years Janessa had known her, Tempest had had this mad obsession about her hair.
“I only wash it a couple of times a week,” Tempest replied, smacking her lips. “I just like to smell fresh, is all. If it weren’t for you dragging my ass to that nicotine-infested club, I wouldn’t feel so dirty in the first place.”
“Hmph, well from the looks of it, you didn’t make out too bad tonight, homie.” Janessa plopped down on the sofa and flicked on the tube. She could finally watch some TV without Fred’s skank ass sitting across from her. What’s Happening Now was on. Janessa used to love her some Rog, ReRun, and Dwayne when she was a kid. She thought Dee was the bomb and used to lick her lips fantasizing about what one of Shirley’s cheeseburgers would taste like. “So spill it, Tempest. Are you and Geren going to hook up again, or what?”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Tempest smirked. “He seems trustworthy enough. Then again, they all do in the beginning. I agreed to take his number, but I need to think long and hard before I call him. I’m sick and tired of putting my heart and soul into a relationship only to end up being hurt.”
Tempest took off the blazer of her suit and went to get some fresh towels and sheets, along with a blanket and pillow, for Janessa from the linen closet. After she came back in the living room and placed them down beside her, Janessa decided to sweat the issue. “So, are you gonna call?”
“I don’t know, geesh,” Tempest hissed, giving her a flustered glance. “Like I said, I need to give this whole thing some serious consideration.”