Free Friends and Lovers by Eric Jerome Dickey

Who had stained whose paisley sheets for nights on end. He walked off while I was talking. I went in the other direction and finished the conversation by my damn self. A new direction was something I should’ve dashed in a long time ago. The first time I saw him.
    I let it go, for the moment, and got on the stomach machines. Worked obliques. Lower abs. I was working hard, crunching and cussing, and cussing and crunching, grunting like a bear, slinging my sweat all across the room. Then I saw Nancy pass by upstairs, heading toward the ladies’ locker room. She had the nerve to stare down on me like I was the Stupid of the Week. Then she stalled, tilted her head and watched me in aweird kind of way. Weird enough to make me stop cussing while I was crunching. I told myself I wasn’t going to say anything to her. Let it ride; let it ride; let it ride. Told myself this issue was between me and Bryce. It wasn’t like she had the remote control to his dick either. I was sure she’d find that out sooner or later when it strayed to another vaginal channel.
    Debra was probably getting antsy because I hadn’t called her back yet, but the phones were inside the locker room. Where Nancy had just gone. The only other phones were upstairs in the lobby of the hotel. I might’ve had my head high, shoulders back, might’ve looked okay and had much attitude, but right below the surface, I was uncomfortable. Very. Made me feel like a rabbit in lioness clothing. I didn’t want to see Nancy face-to-face, mainly because I felt like I had lost whatever I had to lose, so far as Bryce was concerned. These feelings had no point.
    I waited a few minutes, stalled by working on the back machines, waited long enough for my pager to go off again and let me know I was long overdue for lunch, long enough to give Nancy time to get the hell out of
my
gym. I figured I would pack up my stuff, catch the sauna for about ten minutes, shower, dress, throw on my sandals, Levi’s, and white T-shirt, then hook up with Debra and Faith for lunch.
    The locker room was practically empty. No sign of Nancy. Less stress. I stripped down to my chocolate delight, grabbed a towel, grabbed a razor so I could do my legs and underarms, and went to the sauna to center myself and recoup some Zen before I went to my friends.
    Nancy was in the back corner of the sauna on the wooden bench. Naked with her yellow towel under her golden butt. One itty-bitty foot up on the bench. Showing me what she had spread out on my damn mattress. She saw me when I stepped inside into the heat. I wanted to turn around and leave, but I couldn’t let the bitch chase me out of my own gym. Hell, I paid fifteen dollars a month for this crap. Had been paying my dues for the last five years. Always paying my dues. So thisis
my
gym. I wished Debra was with me because then I could be a lot stronger, a lot bitchier. Intimate situations tend to leave a sister exposed.
    Her eyes were on me. Mine on her. Then we both shifted our focuses. Made me glad this didn’t turn into a sauna stare-down. I went to the opposite side of the room. Took my towel off. Put it under my butt. A real butt. Showed her what she couldn’t compete with even if she tried. Showed her what only a
real
black man would appreciate.
    Before five minutes had passed—five minutes of my inhaling the funky aroma of the nameless perfume that had violated my pillowcases—the sauna had me suffocating. Dizzy or not, I’d be damned if I left first. Five more minutes passed. Me and Nancy made eye contact again. More like I raised my head to get a sip of my bottled water and she was watching me. So I watched her back. Then she lowered her head. So did I. She looked comfortable, like she was used to living in this kind of hell. She had that weird gaze again. The one she had when she passed by and stared down on me in the gym.
    She said, “Shelby?”
    I raised my head. Tsked. Gave her the same kind of scowl I’d passed to the brother when I was