I sat in the back corner of Zorba’s and drank my third tiny cup of their Greek coffee. My head was no clearer, and I wondered if I should switch to retsina. I poked my lunch with my fork and sighed.
“You look like someone stole your teddy bear.”
I looked up into the smiling face of a woman with bright blue eyes, a wide, warm smile and thick black hair gathered into a heavy braid. She was about my height, but with an athletic build and she looked terribly familiar though I could not place her name to save my life.
She grinned wider. “Don’t know me with my clothes on, Dazzle? I’m Steph.”
I felt my throat and then my face grow warm as I blushed. I hoped she didn’t notice. “I guess not.” I waved at the chair facing me. “You’re welcome to join me.”
Steph sat down smiling. “That looks great, I love their pastichio.”
I shoved the plate across to her, “You eat it… I’m drinking.”
She looked at my coffee and my water and laughed. “Woo hoo! Heavy drinker here boy oh boy!”
Her smile was infectious and I laughed. Then I remembered Race and Anna and the tangled sweaty sheets I’d fled and I began to shake.
She same around the table and took the chair beside me. She held my hand and patted it a minute. “Take a deep breath, Baby-girl. Close your eyes, then take another.”
Obediently I did as she said. I could feel the shaking ease a bit. When I opened my eyes again, she had a forkful of food poised at my mouth. I laughed and took the bite.
“That’s my good Baby-girl,” she told me approvingly. “You going to tell me what happened to send you into a tailspin?” Her eyes were kind, and she was still holding my hand.
I intended to tell her thanks and let it go, but my mouth had other ideas. “You remember the bachelor party?”
She smiles, a slow, lazy grin that started in her eyes and filled them, spilling into her face, until I could almost feel heat coming off her like a stove. “I sure do, baby girl,” she told me. “My boss is still trying to get you to come in and dance for him regularly. He’d give me five hundred dollars cash if I brought you in to take a set.”
“He’s out of his mind.” The enormity of what she said distracted me.
She fed me another bite of my lunch. “He’s had requests... insistent ones.” She kissed my cheek softly. “So what about the bachelor party?”
I took a deep breath. “Race and Anna seduced me last night, and they want me back again.” The words just spilled out of my mouth.
Steph sat back in her chair and stared at me. “They did what?”
I felt relieved as I told her, the wine, the bed, the chains, and the sex. I blushed the whole time, but it was a huge weight off my chest to tell someone else. Through it all, Steph made me eat, she curled my hand around the fork and nudged it to my mouth whenever I started shaking.
God bless her, Steph hugged me when I was done. “No wonder you’re upset.” She pulled a ten out of her purse and laid it on the table. “Hey, Jason, ten cover Dazzle’s lunch?” she called to the man at the register.
“Ya, that does it,” he told her, smiling.
She dropped the ten on the table and got up, dragging me after her. “C’mon, baby girl. Let’s go someplace we can talk.”
Steph had a large second floor apartment with a lovely view of the train yards. She had a big airy kitchen, a huge living room. The bedroom was nearly as large as the living room. The bathroom was the same size as the kitchen and tiled in lemon yellow and glossy black. Her costumes littered the living room, along with a sewing machine and a huge pile of assorted trim; sequins, beads and ribbons of all kinds. She made us tea, ands settled on the couch. I took the other end of the couch and picked up a card of ribbon, rewinding it just so I didn’t sit there idle.
Steph picked up a bright green bra and began sewing sequins in place. She flashed me a big grin. “So Dazzle, did you like it?”
I choked on my tea. “What the heck kind of question is that?”
She laughed and kept sewing. “The only question that matters really. If you found it …pleasurable…and you really liked what you all did together… that’s where you start.”
I put my mug on the coffee table and stared at her. There was nothing in her eyes but simple kindness and a lot of laughter. I closed my eyes. In seconds the feelings flooded back, Race’s hands on my hips, fingers gripping hard, his thick shaft driving into me. I shivered, heat and pleasure rippling though me. My eyes snapped open.
Steph watched me, her mouth hanging open in awe. “Good heavens… did you just…”
I could feel the blush rise up my neck, and prayed to every god I knew that she wasn’t the kind who could tell when a black person blushed. My panties were decidedly wet and I got up and fled for the bathroom to dry and clean myself.
Steph was waiting when I left the bathroom. She pushed me back onto the couch and sat beside me. “Baby girl, if you could do that onstage, French would pay you any money you asked.”
I wanted the earth to open at my feet and swallow me alive. I could not remember ever being so embarrassed in my entire life. The thought of being on the runway flicked in my memory, merged with the feel of Race’s fingers filling my mouth, his teeth on my breast and Anna’s tongue flickering between my legs. I whimpered.
Steph pulled me closer until I lay half-sprawled on the couch, my head pillowed on her chest, her arms secure around me. “Baby-girl, you have got to get a grip,” she told me firmly. “How long have you known these people?”
