“Thanks, babe.”
They clinked glasses, and the first hit of the cool drink felt like heaven against her dry throat.
“All I’m saying from my time at the club I think he’d be one helluva man. I bet he’s kinder than what you see on the outside. Like a teddy bear that doesn’t mind a little bite.”
Rhia witnessed a touch of what looked like longing in the other woman’s eyes. “Isn’t it against club policy to be playing handsy with anyone at the club?”
“I haven’t got fired yet. I think it’s more of a guideline than a rule. As long as you are discreet and as long as it’s not while on the clock or on club property, I don’t think management really cares what—or who—you fuck on your own time. They aren’t watching too closely.” Her friend paused. “Don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but if you have the right friends you could make some extra cash.”
“Prostituting?” She leveled a steely look at Maya.
“No. There’s more the body can offer than just what’s between the legs, Penny.”
Rhia tossed a pillow on the floor and joined her friend. “By the way, how long do you have before your work visa expires?”
“Two months, three days.” Maya paused to look at her watch. “And four hours, to be precise, before the world of posh dinners and the uptight world of politics crash down on me and I have to go back to mommy and daddy dearest with an answer. Unless I find a man willing to double his cuffs as a wedding band.” She paused and a distant look filled in her eye. “Which I haven’t yet. So right now, I’m just playing it one day at a time.”
Well, that answered that question.
Rhia felt her face pucker when she licked a little too much salt from her glass. Maya, the queen of playing the field, married? She nearly scoffed but held it back. She didn’t want to insult her friend or hurt her feelings. “You make it sound like your parents are stuck-up prudes.”
“That’s putting it nicely, my dear.”
Sadness seeped into Maya’s tone and had Rhia’s attention. Not sadness, she corrected. She’d seen that look in her mother’s eyes a few times before she abandoned her. She recognized loneliness when she saw it, and Rhia’s heart broke for her friend. Maybe she could see her friend settling down in the future, but she was too independent, in her opinion. Then again. What people said and did were two completely different things in her experience.
Rhia shook her head. “Whatever happened to you, my dear Maya, to make you so young a cynic?”
Maya rolled her eyes, an arm draped back to rest on the couch. “I don’t know how either of my parents actually got along enough to make me, but a good question. It’s so much better if I show you what happened.”
With a flick of her wrist, she downed the rest of her margarita before bounding to her feet from her place on the cool flooring and struck a regal princess pose. Hand out, the other straightening an invisible crown and her back impossibly stiff. Around her, the white of her skirt swayed to brush high along her ankles, and her crop top revealed the beautiful olive skin of her well-maintained midsection that made the most composed of men drool.
Rhia sighed and dashed thoughts of her own slightly less than tight midriff to the side and laughed at her friend's pose.
“My mother is what happened to me.” She cleared her throat and began in a nasally high-pitched squeak that made nails on a chalkboard sound like Mozart. “As Lady DeCarlo, you’re basically royalty, dear. Straighten your shoulders. You must live up to your namesake at all times. You must go to bed slightly hungry to prevent becoming fat. Sit properly, ask how your husband’s day was when he comes home, and for God’s sake, child, tame that hair of yours.” With each sentence, Maya’s British accent grew more regal.
For effect, she flicked her short hair as if tossing long, curly princess hair over her shoulder. Skirt in hand, she dipped into an old-fashioned curtsy, straightening her invisible crown once again as she stood.
Rhia stared, unblinking, for a full ten seconds before she cracked. “Oh my God, that’s horrible. You poor girl. I’m sorry!” Rhia rose to her knees and bowed then held out her arms and offered a hug. “That explains everything now.”
Maya snorted at her own impersonation of her mother. “Can you ever see me as tame?”
She considered that for half a second. “Not in the sense that your mother wants. Never!”
Laughter erupted like a contagious wave starting with Maya. They both held their sides and the waterworks wet their cheeks.
“I know, right? Apparently, a summer away is to teach me the importance of gaining responsibility.”
Now Rhia let out a snort that would have Maya’s mother blessing her three times over.
Maya plopped down on the couch and leaned back into the soft throw pillows Rhia tossed on the world’s most uncomfortable sofa. Honest, rocks would be softer.
Rhia turned a bit to look at her friend. In all the commotion Maya’s skirt rode up high on her thigh to reveal several bruises and what looked like lashes.
“Oh my God, are you okay? What the hell happened?” Rhia peeled back the skirt before Maya caught her hand.
“Nothing I didn’t want.”
Rhia didn’t believe that for a second. “Are you sure? That doesn’t look like it felt good.”