The Stripper Equation

Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover

            He shook his head.  He was looking down at the pavement avoiding eye contact with me.  “No.”  We sat silent for a few minutes before he took a sip of the coffee.  He took a few more gulps this time looking at me with his amazing blue eyes over the rim of the cup.  “Why are we here Lennie?”

            “Excuse me?”  I wasn’t exactly sure if I had heard him correctly.  “We are here to find the drugs.”

            He looked at me thoughtfully.  “Yeah I know that’s what you are saying.  I just don’t know if I believe you.”

            “Excuse me?”  I practically shrieked, bringing unwanted attention to us.  Luckily I had picked a spot not directly in front of Mark’s apartment.

            He rubbed his temples, and I could tell he was frustrated.  I didn’t care, though.  If he had come all the way down here just to talk me out of this he is just wasting both of our time.  “I think that this is about getting even with Mark.  I’m not so sure this is about the drugs and the club anymore.”

            I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  “You were the one who wanted me to press charges against him.  You were the one who wanted me to do something.  Now I am doing something and you are giving me grief.”  I was standing now.  If it weren’t for the fact that I was going in that apartment with or without him I would’ve walked off.

            “Calm down Lennie.  We’re just talking.”  He was trying to be soothing but I was just finding him annoying.  “What I wanted you to do was legal.  I wanted you to get justice for what he did.  You right here,” he motioned his hands around us, “this right now.  This is just revenge not justice.  Can we just for a second acknowledge that I am a cop?”

            I sat back down but only because I didn’t want the people around us to hear what we were saying.  At this moment I wanted to be as far away from Noah as possible.  “I thought you would help me.  I thought you would want this to help your case.”  I didn’t look him in the eye.  “I knew I should’ve called Vinnie.  Look just walk away okay.  No hard feelings.  I’ll do this without you.”

             “Your neighbor?  Mark’s lawyer?” He looked confused and hurt.  “Why would you call him?”

            “He was Mark’s lawyer because of me.  He was the one that strongly suggested rehab.”  I didn’t mention that Vinnie was also personally making it his mission to destroy Mark.  I thought maybe I should keep that info to myself.  Especially now seeing how uncooperative Noah was being right now.  “Vinnie and I can go up and check out his apartment.  Make sure that it is clean for when he comes home, it’s a more believable tactic anyway.  I’ll call you later okay.”  I couldn’t look at him right now, I knew that his loyalty to his responsibility was admirable and I would realize it later, but right now I didn’t see it that way.

He stood up and walked a few yards and threw his now empty cup into the garbage can.  At first I thought he was going to keep walking but instead he turned around and walked back over to me.  Noah sighed, “look I just want to make sure that we both understand the consequences of what we are doing.  I am not the bad guy here.”

“I know that.  And I respect your position.”  I stood up and I kissed him.  Mostly because I wanted to but partly because I thought it would help convince him he wanted to help me.  “I just want the drugs out of the club.  I just want everything to go back the way it was before Mark got here.”  Except I know now that may not be the truth.  If the drugs started with Tanner they may have started before Mark got there.  But now was not the time to tell Noah that.  I could see that I practically had him in the door, this might make him change his mind again.