Page 13 of A Little Kissing Between Friends

The two met six months after Samir and I decided that we were better off as friends, and spent the next six months pretending that they weren’t falling in love with each other. Morgan was a divorced mother of two beautiful little girls, nine-year-old Lillian, who everyone called LeeLee, and Patience, also known as Pooh, who was five just like Amani, but a few months older. I saw with my own eyes how well the kids got along. LeeLee and Pooh treated Amani like he was the little brother they’d always wanted, and that plus the way Morgan loved on my baby and never treated him different than her girls was enough for me to mark them as okay in my mind. And it was nothing to give my blessing when Samir came to me and said he and Morgan wanted to move in together. I trusted him to protect our son, and Morgan hadn’t given me anything to be concerned about.

When it came to describing the co-parenting relationship I shared with Samir, blessed was putting it mildly. Samir was one of my dearest friends, and everything we did together just...worked. We met as teenagers, when we both joined the same dance company in Dallas, and became fast friends.

Okay, so maybe not everything we did together worked. After years of being told we were perfect for one another, we tried the relationship thing. It was cool in the beginning because we already shared so many interests as friends that it seemed like a natural progression for us to become romantic. For a while, it felt effortless. That while lasted a good two years before we realized that we were phoning it in. Our romantic partnership was draining the life out of our friendship, and when we sat down and discussed which relationship we’d rather salvage, friendship was the unanimous decision. That was after I’d moved to Houston with him, and although I was in a new city with almost no one of my own, I didn’t want to leave.

I’d made great friends and loved my job at Sanity, not to mention, I made a ridiculous amount of money for the number of hours I clocked. It wasn’t easy work, but it was satisfying, and it pulled on the years of training that I had. It was what some would call a win-win.

Except, the thing about sex work is that it made it difficult to find meaningful romantic relationships. So while Samir had met and fallen in love with Morgan, I had gone on a string of unsuccessful dates with stupid men who projected their fetishes onto me, and ignorant women who assumed that, because I was fresh out of a loving relationship with a man, I was only into girls as an extended performance. As if I was incapable of separating my job from my personal life. As if I couldn’t in any way be a bisexual woman. Tired of that bullshit, I removed myself from the dating pool and stuck to surface-level hook ups every now and then when my toys weren’t enough.

“Hey,” Morgan whispered, touching my arm and breaking me out of my thoughts. “I’m going to go put Sanai in her crib and I’ll be right back to help wrangle the three musketeers.” Slipping her hands underneath the slumbering baby, she lifted Sanai out of my arms and went into the house.

As soon as the screen door clicked shut, Samir came running over, a giggling Amani tucked under one arm like a sack of potatoes, Pooh hanging limply from his other arm, and LeeLee clinging to his back with her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Stopping in the grass, he shook his body from side to side, causing the kids to shriek with laughter. Pooh and Amani began to twist and kick, trying to free themselves, while LeeLee dropped her hands from Samir’s neck to his torso, digging her fingers into his sides and tickling him mercilessly.

Samir, who was the most ticklish person that I knew, fell to his knees, allowing the two youngest to slip out of his grasp and join in with the tickling. When he started screeching as he twisted and writhed on the grass, I laughed so hard I almost peed myself. I couldn’t even offer him any assistance because I was physically weak with laughter.

“Uncle!” screamed Samir. “Uncle!”

The three giggling terrors ignored his cries of defeat and continued attacking him.

“Hey!”

Everyone froze at the sound of Morgan’s stern voice. I hadn’t even noticed that she’d reentered the backyard, but she stood in front of the sliding door, sans Sanai, hands on her hips as she faced the cluster of tiny ticklers. Her eyes were narrowed as she moved closer to the group.

“I know y’all heard him say Uncle. Come up off of him!”

She lunged, and the kids shrieked and jumped back before taking off into the yard, heading for the sprinklers. Morgan crouched over Samir, taking in his heavy breathing.

“Did you pee on yourself?”

Bending forward, I hollered.

Samir frowned up at her.

“What?! Hell no! Why would you ask me that?”

She gestured at his wet shorts.

He sucked his teeth. “Why you tryna play me, man?”

Morgan cracked up and reached for his hand to help him to his feet. Once he was righted, she turned to reclaim her seat, only to be pulled back when he refused to release her hand. He tugged her toward him, placed a hand at her neck, and kissed her. It was so damn sweet.

“Awww,” I cooed, hugging myself. “Y’all are so cute.”

Morgan’s smile was wide when she finally dropped down into her chair.

“You got here just in time,” Samir informed me, picking up Morgan’s drink and gulping it down. “I’ve been trying to get them in the house for an hour.”

“More like two hours,” Morgan corrected. “Sanai done woke up from her nap, had a bottle, and went right back to sleep in the amount of time you’ve been ‘trying’ to corral them.”

“You’re losing your touch?” I asked, tilting my head back to look up at Samir, who rolled his eyes at my question.

Chuckling, he shook his head. “Nah, man. I really thought I had them this time. I didn’t expect LeeLee to start tickling me though. That threw a wrench in my plans.” He gestured at me. “But now that you’re here, they have no excuses. Bath time for everyone!”

“You’re welcome,” I offered with a gracious dip of my chin.

“Mmhm, go ahead and grab one of those towels.” Samir pointed to the colorful stack of fluffy bath towels in the center of the round table. “You know the drill.”

Laughing, I nodded and did as I was told. I did, indeed, know the drill. Standing to my feet, I stepped off of the stone patio and shook out the towel, grabbing an end in each hand and stretching the towel lengthwise as I spread my arms wide. Morgan and Samir did the same, and we all stood in a line while Samir whistled to get the kids’ attention. Pooh glanced our way first and immediately began to run our way, followed by Amani and then LeeLee. Pooh launched at Morgan, who immediately wrapped the giggling girl in the towel, sweeping her off of her feet in a dramatic fashion that had peals of laughter bursting out of Pooh’s lips.