Me, You, and Mason

2

It was a quiet afternoon in Mason. The lunch rush had just ended, and as many settled into their sluggish afternoons back on the clock, staffers at The Skyboxx were just clocking in.

Sunlight beamed, only growing hotter by the hour, but beyond the double doors of Mason's most esteemed gentlemen's club lay cool air and neon lit relief. Relief that would soon end for—

"Sage!"

He whipped around, faced with the source of heavy, clunking footsteps.

It was Caramel, stacked on glass platform stilettos. Clad in cropped shorts and a sports bra, she wore a frown and a fiery walk. Fire that would soon become arrowed into his chest.

"Did you wax the floors yesterday?" The question made it over to him before she could.

"Thursday, yeah," he affirmed.

"I busted my ass yesterday, tryna get to the stage to practice! You ain't think to warn nobody?"

"I did, and I put signs up."

"Where?" she finally halted with hands on her hips and a tilt to her head.

Sage scanned the room, finding that his abundant signs were still hanging and intact. "There. Up there. It's in the door before you come in. It's on the walls coming from the dressing room. It's—"

"Okay," her hand flew up to halt his words. "But you still ain't tell nobody!"

"Jamilah, I—"

"Sage!" she hissed, her eyes nearly soaring out of their sockets as she quietly scolded him. "Don't call me that here!"

"My fault."

"Just," she took a moment to close her eyes and take a deep breath, "honor my boundaries, alright?"

"I got'chu," he nodded.

"Like, I don't be all up in your studio sessions callin' you Sage, right? I call you what everybody else calls you," she reiterated.

"Yeah. I get it. My bad."

She stared into his big brown eyes for only a moment, pulling herself from the sadness in them before it'd consume her.

"Um, just give me a heads-up about the floors next time, alright?" She started to turn away.

Sage scoffed, stopping her mid-pivot, "I did though."

She rotated around with the smack of her lips, "When?"

"When I gave you your new mix. Remember?"

Caramel pondered such events, still drawing a blank. "You must got me confused with—"

"I could never have you confused with anybody else. You crazy?" Sage smiled slightly.

His charm was hardly resistable, especially in the eyes of his favorite dancer here at the Skyboxx.

She blushed with a roll of her eyes.

"I wouldn't dare," a hand was stapled to his chest as he leaned closer.

"Boy," she playfully pushed him back with a smile that stretched her full lips thin.

"Remember you begged me to add some extra stuff to what you currently dance to, and I told you I'd have it for you Wednesday?"

She nodded. "Uh-huh."

"And I came up to you after you got off stage, and we stood in the hallway while I Airdropped it to you?"

"Mm-hm."

"And I told you I was heading out, but that I'd be comin' in early tomorrow to wax the floors."