Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 109178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
He ran his fingers down his closed menu. “I have no intention of saying something to purposefully make you feel bad, Nadia. I’m a straight shooter, but I’d never be cruel to you. Everything is going to be fine. Just relax.” He reached for her hand and ran his touch along it. She looked down at their fingers.
It looked like the entire world was bottled up inside of her. He’d popped the cork by his mere presence, and all the fizz burst loose.
“You’re a beautiful person, Nadia. Still today.”
“I hear that a lot.” She swallowed hard. Their food arrived, and the conversation became soft and less solemn.
“What I wanted to talk to you about is something I should’ve said before you left for Atlanta, but it wasn’t the right time. I didn’t want you to think that I—”
“I’m a stripper,” she said around a mouthful of collard greens, cutting him off. “I’m very good at what I do, too. My stage name is Velvet.”
“Velvet. Like velvet red cake.”
“That’s not why it’s my nickname, but I’ll keep the conversation light.” Her voice was distant, as if she were falling asleep mid-sentence. “So, what do you think of that?”
“Think of what?” He rolled his napkin back and forth.
“Of me being a stripper? People judge me, I’ve lost a lot of friends because of it, but I can’t afford to care.” She grabbed her glass of cola and gulped down some of it.
“You care or you wouldn’t have told me so fast – like you’re trying to get in front of anything I might hear about you.” Her wide-eyed faux virtuousness was merely a smoke screen.
“Maybe I did. I don’t know.” She shrugged.
“Are you good at it?” He questioned while inspecting his silverware.
“I can dance my ass off and make a gay man cum if I put my mind to it.” He smirked at that. “My preacher daddy of course hit the roof when he first found out about my activities.” She laughed mirthlessly. “That mothafucka wasn’t even in the picture, Lennox, for the majority of my life. He was in prison as you might recall for a year or two, too, but had the audacity to pass judgment on me.” Her long nails clicked against the table as she drummed them along the glossy white surface. “Came up there waving his Bible in my face, talking about I was going to hell. He should know since I’m certain his boarding pass has already been printed and his attendance confirmed. He’s dead now. I imagine he’s already settled in. Life is hard, then you die.” She shrugged. “My bills aren’t going to pay themselves. It is what it is.”
“What happened to your classes? You left to go to college, or were you doing both? Dancing and taking classes?”
“Initially I was doing both. I finished undergrad and started law school, but uh, some stuff… some stuff happened. Things got complicated,” she said in a tone that discouraged further inquiry. “So if there’s anything serious you want to discuss with me after that brief summary of what my life has been like since we last saw each other, just keep it in mind.”
“You come with a warning now?”
“I sure do.” She stabbed her sweet potatoes. “Most guys see strippers as whores, anyway.” She sighed. “I’m in the business of libidos. I peddle lust, as they say.”
“Lust, huh?”
“Yeah. It’s in the ten commandments. My daddy made sure I knew about it.”
“Adultery is actually one of the ten commandments. Lust is part of the seven deadly sins, which was originally eight.”
“I never took you for being religious.” She placed her fork gingerly down, and her hands tensed along the table.
“I wouldn’t say I’m super religious. I believe in God, I pray, and I have faith.”
“Tell me about these seven, well, eight deadly sins.”
“It came about because a monk named Evagrius Ponticus wrote what’s identified as the “eight evil thoughts.” They are, pride, lust, gluttony, greed, spiritual apathy, rage, vanity, and uh… sloth. Nowadays, we give ’em different names, and people mostly talk about the top seven. Leaving the spiritual apathy one behind.”
“You big brained?” She chuckled. “I like that. You were always smart. Not a show-off about it though. I always liked that about you. Smart people like being around other smart people. The confident ones, that is.”
“I agree with that wholeheartedly. You had a good head on your shoulders. Real good with numbers.”
“Yeah, I know how to make money, and make lots of it. It’s easy because men can’t control themselves.” She gave a fretful cough. “Everything centers around control and bustin’ a nut, for y’all. Y’all want a woman to be a prude and a prostitute, all at the same time. You want ’er to be traditional, but carry at least 50% of the load, all while birthin’ y’alls kids, cleaning the house, cooking and smiling in your face when you’re dead wrong, so that we don’t bruise y’all little fragile ass egos. Remember, all of that is going on while we’re raising those kids of y’alls that we popped out. Meanwhile, you bastards are outside laughing with Joel and Andy, getting white boy wasted on the golf course, or in some club making it rain.”