Lisa – Part 4

Part 1 is here.

The house lights dimmed even further as Lisa took the stage. At first, I wasn’t even sure it was my friend, the same girl who rarely wore make-up and dressed in faded jeans and plain t-shirts when I’d seen her away from work. Her hair had been blown out into a thick curtain of glossy waves and soft curls. She was expertly made up with smoky dark eyes, making her look slightly mysterious, and her skin shimmered with some kind of gold powder.  She was perfectly proportioned and curvaceous, with just enough muscle to give her the feline grace that drew every eye straight to her.

She was a goddess even among the goddesses.

I have no idea what song was playing, but it was something funky and cool, with a thumping beat, and she worked every note, swinging on the pole in ways that would have landed me in the hospital with torn ligaments, using her body to seduce, to entice, to tease. The audience was mesmerized at first, and then the money just started showing up in a green waterfall. Her g-string must have had to be reinforced with kevlar to hold that many bills, and money was piled on the stage, too, just everywhere.

Of course, the table containing our co-workers was particularly noisy. Lisa obligingly made her way to them, offering a sexy smile that never touched her eyes as they tossed bills her way with catcalls and loud whistles, all under the discreetly watching eyes of two enormous bouncers. That’s when it dawned on me. I’d been vaguely wondering all evening why Lisa wanted me there so badly; it was obvious she was amazing at what she did, and was more than capable of skillfully dealing with drunken idiots. I wasn’t sure why a tableful of drunken idiots she happened to see at her day job would have been so different.

But when I saw that smile that wasn’t Lisa’s at all, I knew. Our co-workers weren’t bad people, and they mostly meant well. Or as well as hormonal young men can possibly mean when they’re deep in the throes of Little Head Thinking, fueled by copious amounts of alcohol. However, not one of them really saw Lisa at all. Not one of them was there for her. She was an object, a story, a guess-what-we-did-last-night dish. She was, to them as to the rest of the guests of the club, merely Candy. A stripper.

“She wouldn’t want that from me,” I guessed suddenly, looking at her distant eyes as she finished her number to enthusiastic applause and cheers, “She needed someone here who sees her.” I was mostly talking to myself, but I guess Andy heard me.

“Smart little cookie,” He said softly, as he gave me a look that said I’d impressed him for the second time that night.

It took Lisa a few minutes to freshen up and then she made her way to where I sat with Andy, greeting fans along the way with the same perfectly manufactured seductive smile. As she saw us, though, the smile changed, curving up in genuine pleasure, and suddenly, there was my friend again.

“Oh, Coco! You made it.” She laughed happily, “I know you felt like hell. Thank you for being here.”

“Hey, thank Andy,” I joked, “If it wasn’t for Dr. Feelgood over there, I’d still be at home, hacking up a lung.”

“Told you he’d make you feel better.” Lisa said, kissing Andy on the mouth, “Thank you, handsome.”

“Anything for you, my darling,” he replied, “Actually, Coco has been very intriguing company. I’ve been enjoying myself to no end.”

“He’s a charmer, isn’t he?” Lisa asked me, looking fondly at Andy, “Look, I have a few private dances to do, and then I’ll come back by. Andy, will you keep taking care of my girl?”

“I had no intention of letting her escape me.” Andy winked at me and kissed Lisa’s hands.

“Hey, Coco, listen. You don’t know how much this means to me. You’re the first person in a long time outside of this little world that I gave a damn about who didn’t act all freaked out and stupid about what I do.” Lisa crossed over to me and took my hands, her expression more serious.

“I don’t give a shit about how you earn your living,” I told her, truthfully, “You’re my friend. I care about you.”

“Thanks, baby,” she whispered, pulling me into a hug. Add a full contact embrace by my nude friend to my list of things that might have seemed unusual only hours before.

Also add the kiss immediately following. 

It was just the tender brush of her lips against mine, but it left me feeling wobbly and unsteady like even the Demerol hadn’t done. Then she was gone, working her way through the room like a star. I sat down, exhaling heavily. Andy gave me an amused smile.

“Did that upset you?” he asked me.

“Well, actually, no.” I said, mentally scrambling to assimilate the experience, “I don’t know how I feel, to be honest. But not upset. Are you upset?” I asked curiously.

“Lisa isn’t in love with me any more than I am with her, darling Coco. We have a nice arrangement that works for both of us, and will continue to work for both of us as long as she wants it to.  So no, this doesn’t bother me. To the contrary, I find you adorable.”

“This is the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had,” I informed him, “And that’s saying something, if you’d ever met my family.” I vaguely wondered if I was possibly hallucinating. I mean, I liked to think of myself as worldly, but I wasn’t really, at all. I was comfortably numbed against my usual overthinking hysterics, but this was still unfamiliar territory to me. 

“Listen, you shouldn’t worry so much, sweetheart.” Andy laughed, “You don’t need to do anything right now but have a good time.”

“Right,” I sighed. Another goddess showed up to distract Andy and I made my way to the bathroom. After another long swallow of liquid Yummerol, I felt better.

“Andy’s right,” I told myself, dreamily reapplying lipstick and powdering my nose, “Just relax.”

So I did, assisted in large part by modern chemistry. The rest of the night passed by in a glittery, pleasurable kind of blur. Lisa would stop by to check on us from time to time, and we just laughed and joked like we always did. There was something new in the undercurrents, though, and we both probably knew it.

Lisa ended her shift at 3:00, and why would we go home and waste good drugs? Answer: We wouldn’t. Instead, the three of us ended up at a private club where very pretty, very rich, and very powerful people and possibly celebrities would be, but please don’t ask me to name names, because I didn’t know and didn’t care at that point.

We kissed at least twice more, in that softly lit citadel. It was sweet and longing and something I wasn’t able to describe then.

And I need some time to post the rest. Not too much time, but a few days.

Here’s my disclaimer:

If you don’t want to read here any longer ’cause of what you see here, I understand.

However, if you think for one minute I will allow extremist comments on human sexuality and love to stand, please reconsider posting here at all. FOX is always looking for new people to help them hate everyone.