“Good.”
“Rhoades says hi. He’s stuck in some boring meeting.” Austin tucked his phone away in his pocket. “Frankie, I see you met his friend Mal.” He rolled his eyes. “Talk about handsy. He’s such a jerk.”
Aaron stiffened next to me. “Why? He give you trouble?” I watched him search the crowd. “Where is he? Point him out to me.”
“Chill out.” I placed a kiss on Aaron’s lips. “James told him off. In fact, it was kinda crazy. I never seen James get so upset. I thought he was gonna take a swing at the guy.”
“According to Rhoades, Mal and James hate each other, but he wouldn’t tell me why.” Austin’s eyes narrowed in thought. “But you’re right, Frankie. I’ve never seen James lose his cool like he’s done with Mal.”
I searched the club, my gaze settling on Malcolm, who’d cozied up to a solitary man he found sitting at the bar. As I watched, they began to kiss. It all seemed kind of sad to me—coming to a club to pick up a stranger and have sex. Even when I was younger, I didn’t do that. I never had sex with anyone I didn’t care about. I rested my head on Aaron’s shoulder.
I caught James staring at them as well, his face tight and angry, before he turned and stalked out of the room.
“I wonder what it’s all about. James really hates the guy.”
“I don’t know,” Austin said thoughtfully. “I’ve always heard that the other side of hate is love.”
“What do you mean?” It was time for me to get back onstage, and I stood and stretched.
“Well, hate and love are two of the strongest emotions. If you don’t care about someone, why does anything they do bother you? You wouldn’t give a shit. Only if you were invested in them, or had real feelings for them, that’s why it would bother you so much.” He sipped his drink. “I’ll bet there’s something going on there they might not even realize themselves.”
That was pretty heavy stuff. “I don’t know.…The only thing it looked like between them was who would throw the first punch. Anyway, I gotta get back to work. I’ll see you in a little while.” I gave Aaron a kiss and walked away.
Curious now, I saw Malcolm and his pickup walking out of the club, kissing and fondling each other. To each their own.
“Frankie.” Cort held out his hand. “Let’s dance.”
I jumped up onstage and wrapped myself around Cort, knowing the customers loved to see us hump each other. Maybe they thought we were into each other; who knows? I didn’t care much because I had my friends, my man, and I got to do what I loved. Nothing could stop me now.
