I couldn’t believe my eyes. The girl from the diner was standing right in front of me. Well not right in front of me, more like up on the stage about ten feet away from me but she was the reason for the lack of audience for me. She hadn’t seen me yet and I back away from the stage with my arms crossed silently watching as she began to perform. Despite my better judgment, I found myself getting sucked into the spell of her performance. Her music pounded out of the speakers and vibrated in my chest.

Now, of course I won’t lie. I’ve watched other dancers before. When I first started out, watching the other performers was all I did but that was for the experience. This was completely different. Not only was I observing her as she crawled down the catwalk, with her brown curls falling into her face, I was enjoying it. The sensations in my body grew as I watched her on the stage. Every time she moved her body I felt a pang of desire rip through me. I’d never been so aroused at the simple sight of a woman before.

The music changed into a low tribal beat and she slowed as she came close to the poll in the center of the stage. The men were wild screaming and yelling for her to climb. In my mind I silently commanded her to climb, for her to show me exactly what she had. Before, I knew it I was moving through the crowd, trying to get closer to the stage. The brunette began to swing in circles around the pole. She’d originally had a red mini dress on but that had been discarded and now she was clad in a crimson g-string and matching lace bra. I froze, sitting down on the nearest seat feeling my head began to swim with thoughts of taking her home with me. What was wrong? I’d never felt this way about another dancer, much less another woman.

My eyes were glued on Raven as she climbed the pole and just as I thought things were about to wind down, my world exploded. Raven slid down the pole upside down and heat flooded my centre. I closed my eyes and shifted my thighs trying not to attract too much attention to myself. There were times in class before, when I’d been bored and I learned exactly how to make the time fly by. Rubbing my thighs together and clenching my muscles, I began to imagine the brunette at home with me in my bed. I had long since moved out of the dorms at USC, once I began making some real money, and I rented a little place not too far from campus. I could see Raven now, waiting for me on my bed her legs open wide and her folds dripping with desire for me as I came closer. Someone bumped into my shoulder and jostled me away from my fantasy.