Her hand, which was still resting on his shoulder, moved up and gently stroked the fine stubble on his face. She didn’t say anything, but he could feel her eyes on him. He let himself enjoy that silent comfort for a few moments, even though he had no intention of telling her why he needed it. He just closed his eyes and took it all in. Her soft hand on his cheek. Her sweet strawberry scent.
But eventually it was time to come back to reality and he pulled her hand off his face, placing it back on her lap.
She waited…and waited for him to open up and when he didn’t, she sighed. “You’re grouchy again.” Reaching into her knapsack, she took out her cell phone. “Let’s see if we can cheer you up.”
He didn’t want to be cheered up; he wanted to drown in the melancholy. She scrolled through her playlist and then the beat of Chris Brown and Nicki Minaj’sLove Morefilled the laundromat.
“Okay.” She stood up and moved in front of him. “Before I start, I just want you to know that people would pay good money to see a show like this in Vegas, and you’re getting it for free, Son, so you better be grateful.”
He could already feel himself softening. “I’m not sure if I feel privileged or…scared.”
“You should be very scared, ’cause this is gonna come at you at a level of sexy you’ve never experienced before.”
“I can’t wait.”
She started dancing and it was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever seen. Enthusiasm didn’t make up for lack of coordination. She did a booty pop, which was too stiff to actuallypopand it was so wrong on so many levels.
“Is that…is that a twerk?” he asked, genuinely confused. “It looks like it’stryingto be a twerk. Like if Miley Cyrus had to mate with…a zombie, their love-child would twerk like that.”
She swiftly moved into a stilted moonwalk and then ended it with a weird kind of lotus pose. “Did you see that? That was like Michael Jackson meets a Charlie’s Angel.”
Despite his mood, he found himself grinning. “Those two should never meet. Ever.”
It only got worse after that. Some moves were boisterous, others were outrageous and somewhat vulgar.
“I’m taking this party to the floor.”
“Please don’t.”
What ensued was incredibly creative—a one-arm push up stance mixed with a rather grotesque bump and grind into the floor. There may have been an element of breakdancing in there, but he couldn’t be sure.
He placed his hand over his eyes, but was still peeping through his fingers. “It’s like watching a train-wreck. It’s horrifying, but I-I can’t look away.”
“Face it.” She hopped back up. “You don’t wanna look away from this awesomeness.”
She did a few more ungraceful booty pops and he was sort of disappointed when the song came to an end.
“God,” she huffed, sounding breathless as she sat down beside him again. “That must have been such a turn on for you. I can’t believe you didn’t pounce on me.”
“You have no idea how hard it was to restrain myself.”
“I know. I’m impossible to resist. Hashtag: SexOnLegs. Hashtag: ControlYourself.”
He smiled, amused at how she could make fun of herself so easily. It was amazing how she could get so shy at times and yet she was still so out there. Confident in her crazy, yet so insecure in everything else. It was a very intriguing combination. “You do know no one actually says hashtag.”
She smiled back, pretending that the undercurrent of emotion wasn’t there, but she reached over and gave his hand a gentle squeeze to let him know that all that foolishness was just to cheer him up. It was only for a few seconds, then she let go and slipped into normal conversation again as if all of it meant nothing when they both knew it didn’t.
“So…uh…in that song,” she began, “Nicki Minaj says something and I’m a little confused.”
“What did she say?”
“What does…what does…um…dick on H and uh…and uh…p-p…p…pussy on W mean?”
Her discomfort with the word was kinda cute. “Well…H stands for hard and W stands for wet.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened when it clicked. “OH! That’s a bit graphic.”
“Wait. So the fact that she just throws out the words dick and pussy isn’t graphic, but once you know the status of that genitalia…thenit becomes graphic?”
