I walked back around to TaShay’s side of the car to climb in.

She said, “You wanna sit up front, so you can stretch your legs out?”

I thought about Tan. “Are you sure your friend wants me sitting next to her?”

Tan said, “You can sit up front. I won’t bite you.”

She said she won’t bite, huh? I thought about it…and left it alone. “Okay, I’ll sit up front then,” I commented, staying on the safe side.

TaShay climbed into the backseat and let me take the front.

“Bitch, you could have just gotten out of the car instead of kicking me,” Tan cursed her. I couldn’t believe that girl. She really needed it bad, a long, stiff one to calm her down.

TaShay didn’t even respond to her.

Before I climbed into the passenger seat up front, I looked back to my Latina sisters. “I’ll see you guys around,” I told them.

“Okay,” the ringleader spoke up again. “You have a good time tonight.”

“Oh, I will,” I told her, and I climbed into the Honda Civic.

Tan looked at me and said, “You’re an all-out ladies’ man, huh?”

“Who told you that?”

She smiled and grunted, “Hmmph,” before she looked away from me and drove off.

I felt a bit old hanging out with two college-aged girls. Not that I didn’t date young women, but most of the younger women I dated acted older than their age. I figured TaShay could hang with an older crowd, too, but definitely not while she had Tan around. I wondered what TaShay’s aunt and mother thought of the girl.

Before I knew it, we were flying up Interstate 10 for West Hollywood.

“So, where are we going?” I turned and asked TaShay in the back.

“There’s this new club called The Palace off Santa Monica that I wanted to go to.”

“What do you have, a fake ID?” I asked her.

“Of course she does,” Tan answered me.

“Is that the only place you want to go?”

“Not if it’s boring,” Tan answered again.

If I bothered her in the beginning, she was definitely giving me payback. It seemed as if TaShay was allowing her to irritate me on purpose, just to see how much of it I could stand.

I leaned back and relaxed without another word, and listened to their selection of music to stay out of trouble. The rapper 50 Cent was the new popular choice of music in town.

“You think he looks good?” TaShay asked Tan.

“I mean, who really cares?” Tan commented. “If he gets money like that now, then that’s all the girls will care about.”

I couldn’t help it. I asked, “What about you?”

Tan smiled and said, “I like the money, too.”

I nodded. “So, if a guy has the right amount of cash, he’s good-looking regardless?”

“No, I didn’t say that. I said nobody’s gonna care what he looks like.”

“Okay, but would you have kids with him?” TaShay butted in.