Pleasurable Expectations

n i n e

Adrienne managed to pull me out of my apartment and to a club on a Wednesday night. It could be because, despite my protests, she would not stop listing reasons why clubbing on a Wednesday night could be good for me.

When I argued I had work in the morning, she countered that I always had something with work that prevented me from going out. She claimed it would be a good opportunity for me to loosen up. When offered that going out wouldn't bring me any closer to that promotion I had been chasing, she said that stepping back for one night would allow me to have a clearer view of the situation the next morning.

Every single pitch I threw, she was right there with a bat ready to swing.

That's why, instead of looking over a proposal to one of my coworker's publicity nightmares, I was under my pressurized shower head, washing up for what Adrienne would consider "the best night of our lives."

Once showered, I found myself in my room, Adrienne standing at the foot of my bed in nothing but a pair of underwear. "Cute bow," I commented with a smirk in regards to the frilly white bow on the band of her yellow satin underwear.

"Mock all you want." She turned on her heel and picked up the army green jumpsuit she had laid across the foot of my bed. She stripped off her sole item of clothing as she opened up the neck of the jumpsuit, ready to stick her leg through it. "You're just jealous because you know you will pale in comparison to what I'm wearing tonight."

The jumpsuit she had chosen was fitted, the olive color bringing out the natural glow of her honey-toned skin. The bow sat just above her hips was tied neatly, accentuating the small curve from her hips to her torso.

"That was, what? Maybe thirty from Charlotte Russe?" I cocked an eyebrow as I rummaged through my drawers, looking for anything that was club appropriate.

She stuck her chin in the air arrogantly. "Forty-five, actually."

I pulled a white ribbed bodysuit from my closet and tossed it onto my bed, a velvet pair of high-waisted flare pants following after.

"The bodysuit could definitely be from Charlotte Russe, but those pants?" Adrienne pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, her false eyelashes reaching up to tickle her brow bone. "I don't even know what to call the color, so that's beyond me."

I grabbed my lotion from my bedside table as I answered, a few pumps squirting into my palm. "Jewel-toned turquoise."

"Jewel-toned turquoise? What kind of bougie..." She muttered something under her breath in Spanish, too quiet for me to translate.

"Excuse you, I got these on sale!" I grabbed my bodysuit and slipped one foot in after the other, momentarily losing my balance. I caught myself on my headboard. "You know me, I never buy anything on sale."

"Esa frase habla por sí mismo."

I sucked my teeth and waved a hand at her as I grabbed my pants and slipped them on.

"Kiki, you can't tell me you didn't hear what just came from your mouth!" She fashioned her hands on her hips as she prepared herself to mock me. "'I never buy anything on sale.' What is that?"

"Not important, that's what." I grabbed a bristle brush and some gel. I walked over to the full body mirror stuck up to the door, holding a section of my hair and readying it to be pulled back into a ponytail.

By the time my hair and makeup was finished, my other friends had arrived at my apartment. Another argument Adrienne had used to get me out of my work grind was that our friend group hadn't gone out together in ages. In reality, it had only been two months, but that was an eternity in Adrienne's mind.