After a year of fast money, false friendship and broken hearts, Tender was walking away from the stripping game. Though she never did get the money to open her own beauty parlor, she was working and saving money up for it. Only now she was going to start her business with clean honest money. She had reason to be optimistic. She was alive, and the future looked bright.

AFTERWORD

AFTERWORD

THE IDEA FOR THIS NOVEL came to me while I was incarcerated. I heard so much about strippers and strip clubs from the other inmates. Each busload of men brought more stories of strippers. They sparked my curiosity. At the time, I had never been to or had no desire to go to a strip club. But I promised myself, when I was released, I would make it there.

My first few times in a club, I would lay in the cut and just observe, getting a feel for this foreign atmosphere. I turned down so many lap dances and other services, it wasn’t funny. I wanted them to respect me. And I knew from my years in the drug game, once money exchanges hands, I would be considered a trick. And every time I entered that particular club, I would be treated like one. I would be rushed like I was a fiend who came to cop. So if I gave a stripper some money, it was for nothing. Like here you go Ma, that’s for your pocket. To this day, I never got a lap dance. I’m not into being teased anyway.

I always thought that these clubs were for only a certain type of guys—desperate or perverted ones. Boy, was I in for a surprise. I saw regular dudes, just like me. The sight of this sort of relaxed me and made me feel less out of place. I have to admit, there were some drop-dead gorgeous women in the clubs, women with flawless bodies. Then you see others that make you say, “What the hell is she doing in here? She got some nerve!”

Strippers are some strange creatures. They automatically turn distrustful whenever conversation with them gets personal. Some of them are so damn fake it’s a shame.

The one question that gnawed at my brain was what would make a female do this? How could a female put a price on something so priceless? I was amazed how they pranced around half-naked, damn near naked and sometimes completely naked, in front of complete strangers without a bit of shame. That was one thing I couldn’t get over.

I’ve been incarcerated for numerous years, in different states, in many state facilities, and while incarcerated I was subject to endless strip searches. And each and every time I was ordered to strip, I felt some kinda way about it.

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