Dance, Lust And Them

Chapter 3

 “So where are you taking me?” Janelle asked Vance once he arrived downstairs.

 “It’s a surprise,” he responded, holding his arm out for her to take.

 “What a gentleman,” she responded.

 He laughed and led her out of the enormous glass building and into the warm summer night.

 They walked along the street for a while, admiring the fairy lights hanging in miscellaneous apartment windows. Vance told Janelle that his apartment was filled with old paintings he’d inherited from his godfather. He told Janelle that there were a lot of classics mixed in with the paintings, and he even had a very small Picasso hanging in his bedroom.

 Janelle thought it was amazing that he was so involved in the arts. She’d never met a man as cultured as Vance before, especially not one that had the same background as him. Unfortunately, most men that came from areas like Vance went on to either be drug dealers or work in terrible retail jobs before trying their hand at something illegal or underground. Janelle had almost gone that route once when she was offered a job in a strip club. After thinking about it for a few days, she’d politely declined.

 What would her future have looked like if she went straight into stripping? It wasn’t that she frowned upon that kind of dancing, but she knew it would be almost impossible to climb the ladder of success with that fact looming on her resume. As it was, she found it difficult to get jobs in her field that weren’t seedy. Vance was the first man she’d met that didn’t make her feel like she was being used for her body.

 “So when are you going to tell me where we’re going?” she asked.

 “Patience, grasshopper,” he teased. “It’s right around the corner.”

 He led her between avenues to a diner that was filled with paper lanterns.

 “What is this place?” she asked when he held the door open for her.

 “Isn’t it amazing?” he asked. “I’ve been coming here since I was a kid.”

 “Vance Quick, the owner of a hip hop studio, also frequented the library and a 60s style diner when he was a kid. You’re a man that’s full of surprises,” she said.

 He chuckled, holding the door open for her to walk through. The diner was enormous on the inside, and the paper lanterns were just as large. They were an array of rainbow colors with golden character painted on them. Each was lit by a fake candle that flickered on and off.

 The hostess showed them over to a booth in the corner of the restaurant that was in a quieter section. When they sat down, a tanned waitress with thick black hair walked over towards them. She had sparkling blue eyes and wide hips. Her outfit was all black with a small black apron in which she kept her checkbook. She greeted the two of them, making sure to pay special attention to Vance.

 Janelle didn’t consider herself to be a jealous person, but she felt strange the way the waitress was acting around him. She was much prettier than Janelle, which made her feel inadequate in a strange sense. She’d always wanted to be slim and beautiful like the woman in front of her, but she was just naturally curvy and tall. Sometimes she thought things would be different if she were more petite, and mousy. Maybe then people would stop acting like they were so afraid of her.

 “You okay?” Vance asked when the waitress walked away.

 “Of course, I’m fine,” she said.

 He smiled and reached his hand across the table to touch hers.

 “I really like you Janelle,” he said.

 She smiled and responded in kind to his touch. It would be dangerous to tell Vance how she felt so quickly. They’d only just met, and she was working under him. She kept trying to tell this to herself, clenching her fists and reassuring herself that she couldn’t possibly have such strong feelings so quickly.

 Her friend Mads was always falling in love with men too easily. She’d had several boyfriends in the past year, claiming that each one of them was her true love, and that they were meant to be. This would end quickly in heartbreak when they either didn’t call or text her after a few weeks. She’d always wind up calling Janelle crying, and begging for her to allow her to sleep over to eat ice cream and watch romantic comedies. Janelle obliged, simply because she cared about Mads and they’d been friends for years. But sometimes she wished Mads would give her the same kind of attention. It always felt like she had to work very hard to be noticed, emotionally.

 There were times when they would converse about Janelle’s stress and anxiety about the future, but Mads didn’t seem to be listening.

 “Do you know what I mean?” Janelle found herself asking on many occasions.

 “What? Yeah, yeah, sure,” Mads would respond, clicking around on her phone.

 It agitated Janelle to no end. All she wanted to do was text Mads and ask her what she thought of the situation with Vance. She wanted advice on how to date a coworker, and whether or not that was a good idea. She also wanted to know what to do about Curtis, who had been texting her on and off for quite some time. He wanted to know if there was a possibility of him coming over later that night. Janelle texted him back “yes,” though she wouldn’t be free for quite some time. She’d ordered her food, but had yet to receive it.

 “Is your boyfriend texting you?” Vance asked, disturbing the silence.

 “Oh no, it’s just a friend of mine. I don’t have a boyfriend right now,” she said. Janelle raised her eyebrow at him, wondering if he’d asked that question as a way of figuring out her relationship status.

 “And you?” she asked back. “Are you seeing anybody?”

 “Nah, not right now. I’ve been pretty busy with work and it can be hard to date someone unless they understand. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about,” he said.

 Janelle nodded. This was probably one of the reasons that Mads never listened to what she was complaining about because she was so busy with work. Mads probably thought she was neglecting their friendship because of work.

 “I know exactly what you mean,” Janelle said after a while. “I have a best friend whom I’ve been having problems with lately. I think she’s annoyed with me because I work so much. She might not think I’m there for her enough, but God, sometimes it doesn’t feel like she’s there for me, either.”

 “Oh? Have you ever tried talking to her about this? Maybe she’s just as stressed out as you are, and she’s got some problems of her own.”

 “You got it. She’s definitely got some romantic problems going on.”

 Vance laughed. “I’ve never had a problem with romance.”

 “Really now? Is it because girls just fawn all over you, which makes everything easier?”

 “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “The mere fact that I have so many girls fawning over me is what makes everything more difficult.”

 Janelle grinned. He was good at teasing her, which made everything that much more interesting.

 “So what about you, Miss Richard? How goes the fawning?”

 “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “I’m not fawning over anyone.”

 “I can see you’re lying from the redness in your cheeks. Wouldn’t you rather admit the truth than continue playing this game?”

 “What are you talking about, playing the game is the only thing we have. Or do you want me to start lying just like everyone else?”