She kept her eye on Goldie and Kat as much as she could from afar, mimicking everything they did. Goldie winked every so often, just to let her know she had her eye on her too. Tender thought to herself, Goldie is alright. There was something strange about the girl but she liked her. She seemed desperate for a friend. She also wore a small gold chain, with a crucifix attached, even while she danced. Tender considered this sort of sacrilegious, but she would mind her business and never offer a comment to Goldie.

The hours quickly passed. Soon it would be time for Tender’s grand performance: her time up on stage, in the spotlight. Kat hadn’t even told Tender. Each girl was able to do a solo performance. Tender had noticed that one by one the strippers appeared on the stage to do their thing for the room. She didn’t think she would be doing the same.

Kat rushed to break the news to Tender. “You know it’s almost ya turn to go up on stage?”

“What?” she responded. “I didn’t know I had a turn.”

“Yeah, we all do. I thought I told you that before,” Kat said, knowing she was lying.

Goldie was nearby and hearing what Kat said, thought to herself, Here she goes with the bullshit again. Why can’t she just be straight-up sometimes? She always gotta run game.

“Yo, I don’t think I could do that,” Tender said.

“Don’t think like dat,” Kat assured her. “You can do it. There ain’t nuttin’ to it. Besides ya regulars, dat’s where most of ya dough comes from up in here.”

Tender had watched all night while she worked as each girl did their thing. They shook their asses and even played with their pussies. Some freaked off, doing girl on girl numbers. They brought out the dog in every man in the house, as well as the dollars.

While Tender thought about it, Kat fumed. She took the girl’s indecisiveness as an act of disobedience—something that she didn’t tolerate in her clique. “Tender, you betta go out there and take them suckas’ money,” she said.

Goldie didn’t have a problem with getting up on stage her first time around. She loved being the center of attention. All she had to do to get in the mood was to think about her father. This is what she did to get back at her father who abandoned her for his mistress and their son. When she danced, all she heard were compliments about her body, but all she saw was money, something that could take her farther than love, lust or revenge.