10. Drew
TWO DAYS LATER
The music was loud, the drinks were poured out, and booty was everywhere. I made my way through the crowd, walking past the first bar and by the pool.
Someone dove in, and water splashed out, wetting my leg and my gym shoes. I scowled, and the nigga waved a hand. “My bad, big homie.”
I shook my head and kept walking. After all, I was at a party that happened to have a pool as part of the celebration.
“Hey, do you want a private party or a lap dance?” a stripper with long red hair hanging past her ass asked me.
She batted long eyelashes that reminded me of butterfly wings.
They were colorful with blue, purple, and gold hues to them.
Her face sparkled with a sheen of glitter, and she wore a metallic purple thong to match her high-heeled stripper shoes and nothing else.
“I’m good, beautiful.”
“You sure?” she asked.
“Yeah.” I pulled out my wallet and removed a Benjamin. I stuck it in her thong; she winked and blew a kiss at me before she sashayed off.
I believed in tipping the establishment when I was at a strip club whether or not I got a lap dance. Although this was a private party, the strippers were hired for entertainment, so I would keep up that same energy.
RJ Washington, a black violinist, was playing the instrumental version of Mac D’s song “Deuce Lovin’,” and Mac D was rapping it.
Celebrities were all over the place, and plenty of married men were cuddled up with women who weren’t their wives.
That wasn’t unusual. I was used to that shit.
It wasn’t like any of them would ever bring their wives to these types of parties, but for the first time, I felt like I was looking at it through the eyes of a stranger or through binoculars, and I wasn’t part of it.
Some supermodels were booed up with athletes and rappers, a couple of women were grinding on men, and the women happened to be career women, doctors from a certain reality show filmed right here in Cherokee Springs. I knew they were married, too, but their husbands were nowhere in sight.
I found a seat away from the pool to watch the action.
“Hey, gorgeous. You want to find a room to boo up in?”
I turned and took in the light-skinned woman sitting at the table across from me.
She was cute with light brown hair, freckles, hazel eyes, and perfectly pouty lips that looked good for fucking.
I paused at her lips too long because she blew me a kiss and then wiggled her tongue.
It was odd. Maybe I had been away too long, but that shit turned me off. She suddenly looked like a snake to me.
“Nah, I’m good, baby girl.”
She stood up and walked away. I took a long hard swig of cognac from my glass before I set it down on the table. I watched my friends Jordyn Briant and Kenny Stokes walk up to me.
“Boy, where your mind at?” Jordyn asked, glancing at me. He was the shooting guard for the Cherokee Pumas basketball team.
It was his birthday celebration, and every player on his team was here, along with several NFL players, rap stars, singers, models, and influencers. There were strippers in abundance, and those that weren’t shaking that ass was giving up the ass.
I turned the glass of cognac up and emptied it before I turned my attention to him. “I’m here. Wassup?”
“Nigga, you’ve been here physically, but for the last half hour, your mind has been somewhere else,” Kenny, another NFL player, declared.
“I don’t know what you talking about,” I replied.
“You’ve turned down one fine bitch after another for the last half hour. Bitches who were naturally attracted to you, and then the last two we sent your way to test you out. They were ready to suck your dick and set you straight, and you turned both of them hos down,” Kenny stated, laughing.
Jordyn sipped his liquor and bobbed his head. “He ain’t lying.”
I looked from Kenny to Jordyn and asked, “Y’all niggas on dick patrol or something?”
“It’s free pussy all around this bitch, and you looking like your dog died, and somebody kicked ya cat,” Kenny stated.
I shook my head and chuckled. “Y’all boys wild. Why can’t I just be chilling? Something wrong with that?” I asked.
“Yeah. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were swinging the other way. But the way you ran through pussy while you were in the league, I know that’s impossible. I’ve been to some of the same parties you were at, and I’ve seen you in action, my nigga,” Kenny stated.
“Nigga, you watching my dick?” I asked, turning to stare at him with a raised eyebrow.
Jordyn’s expression mimicked mine.
“Nah, nigga. But some of them parties got wild, and you were definitely in on the action with multiple hot women at once,” Kenny explained.
“I’m just chilling tonight is all. I’m not missing out on shit. Chill, niggas. Go enjoy yourselves and stop worrying about where my dick is being stuck tonight. I know how to get my shit wet when I’m ready to.”
I didn’t say anything, but all I was thinking about was getting it wet with a certain someone. For some reason, I was surrounded by beautiful women tonight, and all I could think about was when I would get to see Pretty again.
I had fun at the concert and going out to dinner with her the other night.
Unfortunately, the last couple of days, she had been MIA.
I had gone by her house during the daytime, and her car wasn’t there.
I assumed she was out running errands. By the time I would see her car back at night, it was too late to pop up.
I couldn’t help but wonder if she was avoiding my ass.
She was clear that she only wanted us to be friends, and I was clear that I wanted us to be so much more.
I should have left it alone, but I couldn’t help it.
I was determined to win, determined to take that woman out on a date, or a series of them, because I wanted her to be mine.
That was how I could walk through a bunch of bad-ass beauties tonight and not want to run up in them.
I hung around the party for another hour, but I eventually left.
I was certain that my presence wouldn’t be missed.
I would go home and see if I could see Pretty.
If not, I would wait for a couple of days and pop up to return her screwdriver.
I was sure that would get me back in her presence.
It was pitiful that I’d sunk to this, but I felt like a damn simp—and I didn’t mind being one for her.