South Row (23 page)

It is Friday night, my usual performance night. What’s different is that tonight is my final performance at the Totem Pole. It
’s an end of an era for me. Totem brought me, not just a means to earn a living, but also great friends. It also brought the love of my life back. There’s no way I can repay Trace for his kindness. I will definitely miss it here.

Lulu has already started blubbering, and of course, so have I. I’ve had to fix my makeup three times. Once, because of her crying ass. Another, because Trace himself was crying – that gutted me. He wasn’t a mess like Lulu was, but I saw the tears as he stood watching me do my makeup and sadly shook his head, walking away. The third time was because I’d poked myself in the eye with my eyeliner. A multi-millionaire and still, apparently, a clutz.

Strangely, I feel nervous. The butterflies are on assault tonight. My only consolation is that the love of my life is sitting out there, waiting to see me perform. He was so supportive of my decision to dance one last time. He actually helped me pick out my outfit. Still, I can’t help the nerves charging through my body, making me on edge and a little bit giggly.

I know this routine. I’d been rehearsing it for a while and was waiting on the perfect time to perform it. I guess tonight is
the
perfect night to do it. I didn’t even realize how apt the song choice is until tonight, after reading that letter from Nana Chaucer.

I fidget with my angel wings and fluff my breasts, as I wait for Lulu to finish her routine. She is really good. I’m sure she will be the headliner after tonight. She does a final spiral down the pole and the crowd erupts in whistles and applause. She collects the money thrown down for her and grabs her robe to cover her nakedness as she exits the stage. The curtains draw and lights dim, signaling my time.

On my way to the stage, Lulu kisses me on the cheek and smacks my ass. “Go get ’em, Sunshine!” she cheers.

I mock glare at her, rubbing my barely stinging ass, then shoot her a coquettish grin before blowing her a kiss and winking at her. Barry, the stage manager, hooks me up to black bungee cords and signals for the controller to lift me so that I am dangling in mid-air. I close my eyes and take deep, steadying breaths as the announcer heralds my performance. I know the club i
s packed – Trace had broadcast and advertised the shit out of this last performance – but it is still overwhelming to hear the cheers ring out…for me.

“Ladies and pervy-men,” he calls out over the microphone. “For the last time at Totem Pole…” Boos ricochet around the room. “We give you…our very own ray of Sunshine.”

The intro to
Angel
starts as a dull throb in the background and the curtains slowly part. I am swayed gently from side to side when the curtains open wider and the crowd gasps, applause and whistles breaking out around the room. As I gently sway, a hush washes over the room, everyone waiting patiently to see what I will do next.

As the intro gets louder, I am placed on my feet where I start into a sexy floor routine the minute the singer’s voice becomes audible. I twist and bend my body sexily, caressing my legs, my sides and my breasts. I spin and fall into a perfect split before straightening and standing once more. The audience watches me with enraptured gazes, but I only have eyes for one man and he only has eyes for me.

Collin watches me like a predator and the heat from his gaze is enough to burn me alive. I wish he would march up here, throw me down on the floor and ravage me as he has been doing all week. Alas, he only watches me, like a lion watches his mate; calculating, silently plotting his attack, before pouncing unawares. The thought sends a thrill through my veins, preparing me for the next part of the routine.

The music increases in intensity and so do I. The controllers pull on the bungee cord and I go flying high. The crowd gasps, holding their breaths, as they watch my performance unfold. Reaching the pole, I grab onto it with my legs and one hand, the momentum making me fall fast. I love the adrenaline rush this is giving me. Clamping my
thighs together, I come to a halt inches before my butt would have otherwise crashed to the floor. Patrons leap out of their seats in surprise and I smile because I am keeping them on the edge of their seats.

When I stand again, I prepare myself, but my breath still whooshes out of me when I am dragged through the air at lightning speed once more. Grabbing the bungee cord, I execute a perfect backflip before being hoisted in the air again. I am maneuvered like a marionette – a sexy, angel marionette – around the stage until I am reunited with the pole. Unhooking the cords, I climb up to the top of the pole where I flip upside down and slide slowly down.

I have the audience hypnotized, I think. Everyone is either out of their seats or leaning forward in rapt amazement. I will miss this – the attention, the love – but, from now on, I will only dance for Collin.

I run through the rest of the routine like I’m on Cloud Nine. I perform with all the vim, vigor and sexuality I can muster – undulating my hips in hypnotic ways, grinding my pelvis suggestively, running my hands all over my body provocatively. I can see men literally salivating. I blossom under their salacious stares, but only one sets my body ablaze. Only one sets my heart into overdrive. Only one sends my libido into full-on sensual overload. I dance for him tonight as much as I dance for this club.

I ascend the pole in an air invert one last time, transitioning into an Allegra position, then quickly into an extended Allegra. With an electric leg switch, I shift into a fallen angel pose, my wings sweeping the floor, to end the routine. A chorus of applause, whistles, cheers and hoots drown out the sound of my pounding heart.

I right myself and take a bow, smiling wide when I see Trace walking on stage with a huge bouquet of sunflowers. He hands it to me and kisses my cheek. I feel the tears brimming and can do nothing when they fall. This is it. The end.

But a new beginning is on the horizon. I feel it and I embrace it. I'm ready.

The lights go out on stage, plunging both Trace and I in darkness, except for the dim lighting of the club. I feel Trace grab me and my heart leaps to my throat at the thought of being abducted again.
Trace wouldn’t do that, you idiot!
Right. He wouldn’t.

I hear movement on the stage and then Trace shifts me. He sits me on a chair and I feel when he is no longer standing next to me. The lights come back on and I look like a deer in headlights as I clutch the sunflowers to my chest.
What is going on?

The music starts up again and I’m confused.
I’m not expected to dance again, am I?

Don’t you want me, baby
by Human League starts pumping through the speakers and Connor, Johann, and Wyatt, followed by Luke and Collin come on stage. All of them shirtless. All of them glistening. All of them sexy as hell. The women in the club go wild, as does Scott.

They dance – well, gyrate their hips – around me and I feel my face heating. I’m smiling so hard, I think I might break a laugh line. Collin shimmies closer to me and thrusts his hips forward, a very pronounced bulge almost poking me in the eye.
Oh, my God!

Next, Luke bends over and looks over his shoulder, winking. Laughing my ass off, I slap his ass hard and I swear I hear Scott’s gasp over the women and the music. I look over to where he is and he is leaning on Lydia who is fanning him as he pretends to faint.

Uh…

No, I think he’s really fainted!

Lydia splashes him with something and he jerks to consciousness, choosing to sit instead of stand. My God, this night is surreal.

Collin comes to face me again, in all his sweaty, sexy, manly glory and the music stops. Connor hands him a microphone and he begins to speak.

“Red,” he breathes, starting another swoonfest throughout the club. He chuckles and I shake my head at him.

“He’s mine, ladies!” I shout out.

“Lucky, cunt!” I know that’s Scott’s voice. Lydia glares at him. “What? The bitch
is
lucky.”

He shrugs his shoulders then turns back to the stage. “Don’t mind me, Kings of Hotness. Do carry on.”

Collin shakes his head, smiling, but continues, “Red, tonight is all about you.” A chorus of
Aww’s
rings out. “We’re all here because we love you in some way or another.”

The guys surround me and Lydia and Scott make their ways on stage. This is such a wonderful send-off. I’m trying my hardest not to cry, but Lydia doesn’t make it easy when she’s already crying. I mouth an
I love you
to both of my best friends and they blow me kisses.

All of my friends form a bond by linking their arms together. Collin relieves me of my bouquet and pulls me to stand, still holding onto my hand.

“Ten years ago, South, circumstances separated us. But now, here we are, together again. We beat the odds, baby,” he says. The tears I’ve been trying to hold at bay silently slip down my cheeks.

“I don’t ever want to lose you again. You and I are forever. There is no one else for me. Even if I wished it, a more perfect person would never exist. You were made for me and I was made for you,” Collin expresses.

He hands the microphone over to Connor and proceeds to pop the button on his jeans. The women go crazy.

“Take it off! Take it off!” they chant. I want to smack him in the face.
What the fuck is he doing?

Collin reaches into his pants and the women start to scream. He grins at me but I am not fucking impressed. I swear to God if he whips his dick out he won’t have use for it for months to
c–…

Collin sinks to one knee, pulling out a black and red velvet box from his crotch. Not the most romantic place to hide a ring, but…

Oh, my God!
It’s a ring!

I start shaking, my legs barely holding me up. I feel a presence behind me and see Lydia on my left, holding me steady. Scott comes up on my right and he threads his fingers through mine, tears shining in his eyes.
Oh, my God!

Connor puts the mic
rophone to Collin’s lips as he opens the box, revealing the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. The thick white-gold band is lined with tiny diamonds. The split shanks lead to the most enchanting Madagascar cerulean blue apatite sat in a cushion cut halo accented with pavé diamonds. The ring is not odious and I am happy about that. So goddamn beautiful, it makes me weep.

Sobs overwhelm me and Collin swims in my vision. This beautiful man wants me…forever. I have never been so happy in my entire life.

“Red…” I still love when he calls me that. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? I know we haven’t had much time together and there is still so much for us to figure…”

“God, Collin, yes!” I cut him off, bawling now. “I c-can’t th-think of any-thing th-that would m-m-make me ha-ha-happier.”

Collin hangs his head and I see him exhale like a weight has been taken off of his shoulders. When he raises his head, tears are glistening in his honey-green eyes. The tears slip down his face and my heart swells with so much emotion that it damn near rips open.

I. Love. This. Man.

Quickly, he slips the ring on my finger and I’m shocked at how cold and heavy it feels. He stands and crushes me to him, kissing me with fervor.

The club explodes in cheers and applause around us. Our friends congratulate us when we finally pull apart and Trace breaks out the champagne.

This man, when my life was torn apart ten years ago, comforted me. Now, he will make it complete. I thought my past would follow me like a rain cloud for the rest of my life, but it turns out that not everything from my past was bad. I have a second chance at life now, an uncanny group of people to call family, and a man who loves me and will slay my dragons while he protects me in his Ivory Tower.

No longer is my path set on death row. I’ve been set free from my past and sentenced to life. A happy on
e.

December 28

Mom and Dad are fighting again. Or, at least I think they are.
Right now, Daddy sounds like an angry bull down at the rodeo and Mommy is telling Daddy some things that I can’t repeat.

It’s always the same: Mommy wanting Daddy to give her something
, and give it to her hard. I don’t know what Daddy took from her, but he needs to give it to her already. I don’t know how much more me and Seth Aaron can take.

Seth thinks they’
re playing touch football, but he’s only nine years old, almost ten. A year older than I am, so what does he know? Auntie Corrine says they’re just having Mommy-Daddy tickle time, and she’s twenty, so she must know a lot. But, I’m still not so sure.

We’re in Blue Ridge for Christmas and everyone is at Grand Nana Chaucer’s estate. It’s Mommy and Daddy’s home now, but we only come here for the holidays and for Mommy and Daddy’s an
-ni-ver-sa-ry which is on New Year’s Day. This will be their tenth wedding an-ni-ver-sa-ry (Mommy taught me how to break words into syl-la-bles today) and they plan to renew their vowels.

**********

“You’re so stupid. It’s
vows
, not
vowels
!” Seth Aaron teases, grabbing my diary away from me.

“Hey, give it back!” I scream, rushing over to the big head. Ugh, he makes me so mad!

“Sylvie’s gonna cry,” he sing-songs and I feel the tears coming, but I don’t let them out.

Mommy says I’m a big girl and that big girls don’t cry. They get even. Following what Mommy said, I stomp on my big brother’s toes and punch him in the ’nads. Daddy taught me that word. I smile big just thinking of how proud he will be that I used it. He likes to brag to his lawyer friends that I
’m a tough cookie – cute as a button, but tough as nails, he says.

Seth howls in pain, clutching his crotch and drops my Barbie Princess diary on the floor. I go to snatch it up, but the bugger grabs my hair and pulls. He knows I hate having my hair pulled.
Stupid red hair
. I don’t know why Mom gave me all this hair. I wish I had soft, brown hair like my Dad and my idiot brother.

I scream louder, my mind catching up with my body.
That really hurts!

“Let me go, you bully!” I demand, swinging my fists the way Mommy taught me. I connect with something hard and Seth staggers back releasing my hair.

“You little shit!” He charges for me and I run screaming my head off.

“Seth Aaron and Sylvia Anna-Lynn Danes!” We both stop in our tracks when we hear Mommy’s voice.

We start pushing each other forward, trying to get behind the other. Mommy can be a little scary sometimes.

A red-faced Mom, followed by a pleased-looking Daddy enters the big room. Located on the second floor, the big room is like the living room of a penthouse suite, or so Uncle Connor says. His daughter, my cousin, Mia-Lynn
, and I are always up here playing; while Seth Aaron and Uncle Connor’s demon boys, Connor Jr. and Cole spend most of their time in the gaming room on the third floor. I don’t know why he didn’t stay up there tonight and continue to rot his brain with Zombie Slayer 2.0.

“What the f…heck is going on here?” Mom demands.

I take a good look at her and notice that her hair is a mess and that she looks flushed and not really angry. Her hair is a mess and there are red marks on her neck. She is trying hard to cover herself in one of her short robes, but her big, ole belly is making it difficult and I see a flash of her naked breasts, also with red marks on it, like she’s been bitten by mosquitos. Daddy looks very happy as he stares at Mommy. He doesn’t have a shirt on and he is leaning against the door with his ankles crossed. Whatever the fight was about, I’m guessing Daddy won.

“Mom, she started it!” Seth accuses.

“Did not!” I huff, stomping my foot.

“Did too,” he continues, making me madder.

“Did not, butt licker!”

“Mo-om, she called me a butt licker!” Seth announces. It wasn’t like I was trying to be quiet about it.

“I know, I heard, and it must have been for a reason. Seth, what did you do?” Mom asks.

“Me? I didn’t do anything. Why are you taking her side?” he cries, eyes wide like flying saucers.

“I’m not taking sides. I…” she sighs and turns to Daddy, begging with her eyes for help.

Daddy pushes off from the door and walks over to Mommy, dropping a kiss to her forehead. That was so cute. And Mommy seems to think so too because a silly, lovey-dovey smile brightens her face. They love each other so much; I don’t know why they fight. I want love like that when I get old like them.

“Angel,” Daddy says, stooping down to meet my eyes. He gives me a warm, loving look and I melt. I love when he calls me his angel. “What did you do to your brother?”

When Dad talks to me like this I can’t help but tell the truth. “I stepped on his toes and punched him in the ’nads,” I answer quietly, twisting my hands together.

“That’s my girl,” Mom and Dad both say together. I beam.

“Hey, what about me?” Seth complains. I stick my tongue out at him. “I pulled her hair.”

Mommy reaches out and high fives him, while Dad bumps fists with him. Seth smiles proudly and sneers at me. I hate his stupid face.

“Now both of you are grounded until we say when,” Dad scolds.

Seth and I groan and fuss at the unfair punishment.

“No videogames, no TV, no outside play,” Mom adds. “The library will be your play time. And while you’re at it, you will keep each other company.”

“That’s not fair! I hate him!” I cry, tears spilling down my cheeks.

“This is bull!” Seth argues.

“Hey, watch it, kid!” Mom warns Seth. “I may be seven months pregnant and the size of the cow that jumped over the moon, but I can still punch you in the face.” Mom has never hit either of us. She just likes to scare us, and does she ever!

“You’re a sexy cow, Red,” Daddy hums. He stares at her
like he wants to have her for dinner, giving her a sideways grin that makes Mommy go as red as a tomato, nibble on her bottom lip, and fidget like she wants to pee.

Daddy stands up and walks over to Mommy, placing a hand on her tummy and rubbing circles on it. “You heard your mother, runts. You guys are going to be best friends for the rest of this trip. We’re tired of you fighting all the time.” They’re one to talk.

Mom comes over to us and she tugs us both together. I start pulling away thinking she is going to make good on her promise of punching one of us in the face, but she simply ruffles Seth’s hair and tucks my unruly one behind my ear. She stares at us for a while, her eyes matching our own. She is so pretty. I guess that’s why daddy loves her. I wish I can look like her when I grow up so a boy can love me like that.

“My babies,” Mommy says softly. “At the end of the day, family is all you have. What do you think will happen when all you do is hate each other and fight?”

Mommy has told us the story about her father and what he did to her. I don’t want to live like that with Seth. I never want Seth to hurt me and I never want to hurt Seth. He may be a pain-in-the-butt big brother, but I know he would protect me no matter what and I would do the same for him.

“I’m sorry, Sylvie,” Seth says, looking down on the floor.

“I’m sorry, too.” I make the first move and hug my big brother. He goes stiff, but eventually hugs me back for a long time.

“I love you, spaz,” he whispers.

“I love you, too, big head.”

Mommy and daddy hug us both and kiss us on the forehead. Sending us to bed, they both take turns tucking us in. They leave my nightlight on and close my door as they leave.

Praying like Nana Danes taught all her grandchildren, I pray that Seth and I will always look out for each other and be best friends. I pray that C.J. and Cole will stop being mean to me and their sister. And I pray to find love like the type Mom and Dad have when the time is right.

After saying
Amen
, my door opens and Seth tiptoes in. He tells me to scoot over and I do, allowing him room to climb in. Seth and I talk and laugh until we both eventually fall asleep.

Boy, Jesus really works fast.

**********

The children
’s Mommy and Daddy stand at the door of their precocious daughter’s bedroom, watching the brother and sister sleep soundly – Mommy pressed against Daddy’s front. Daddy slips his arms around Mommy’s waist, placing his palms over his wife’s protruding belly. Even after twenty years, half of that spent apart, they still love each other passionately.

The loving parents did not want to punish their children, but they had to, in order to ensure that if something were to ever happen to them as parents, as siblings they would stick together and not alienate each other. Looking at their two strong-willed, beautiful gifts, they know they have nothing to worry about and that this new baby will have loving siblings. Of course, if this child is anything like the other two, things might get chaotic and a little volatile, b
ut as parents, they know it won’t be anything they can’t handle.

Daddy kisses Mommy on the cheek. “We did good,
Red,” he praises.

Mommy turns in Daddy’s arms, wrapping her arms around his neck, and kisses him deeply. Daddy groans, pressing his thickening arousal into Mommy’s belly. Mommy melts, as she always does when Daddy kisses her. When they pull away, they are both breathing hard.

Mommy brushes some hair from Daddy’s eyes and gazes at him lovingly as she says, “Yeah, we did.”

THE END