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"And now the two of you get to finally meet," Ladie said happily, taking a quick sip of her champagne.

We sat on the couch at Zanita's crib, a traditional Hispanic decor to her house with a modern twist.

We were on her dark purple couch, Ladie, Zanita, and the really cute stem by my side. Everyone else was chilling around the house and taking advantage of the TV or the game room.

"Ladie, need me to roll you up something?" somebody shouted from the kitchen.

"I'm coming," Ladie gave me a wink, tugging Zanita along with her as they gave us some space.

"So, I'm Nyia," I held out my hand awkwardly, trying to give her a confident smile.

"I'm Cameron," she smiled back. Brown skin like mine, eyes the same color, almost as many scars as Gator, only one tat that I could see (it looked like a man's face on her shoulder), and a fire ass haircut.

"Took me a minute to finally meet you," I chuckled, "my life's been busy." I internally cringed. Ladie had told me not to mention anything other than me and here I go talking about my life. Now I've opened up the doors for her to question me about it. I've fucked up. I won't even get to know her. She'll ask me all the hard questions. Questions an outsider like her, to the life I live, won't comprehend.

"Same," she said gently. "So where you from?"

"Camphor," I answered proudly.

"Houston," she nodded. "Ain't Camphor a little bit from Galveston or something?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

"I've only seen the name on the weather when the news is on," she blushed, "I don't know much about it except it's hot as hell down there."

"Now that," I chuckled, "is not a lie."

"So, what's your sexuality? How'd you figure out you liked girls?" she asked curiously.

Remember, this isn't a date. Just your friends setting you up with a nice girl you can flirt with and possibly do a little bit more with. I relaxed my shoulders, leaning one elbow at the top of the couch so that I could stare into her eyes. "I'm a lesbian. I've known that I was a stud all my life, just unofficially, I guess. I was always tomboyish and into the stereotypical boy shit growing up. I was always rough and hella aggressive. That's just me. But I also have a sweet side and I'm not afraid to embrace my more-so feminine traits and my softer parts."

"Your softer parts?" Cameron smirked, laughing a little.

"Yeah," I agreed, dropping my gaze, and blushing a little.

"I always knew I liked girls, really it was just a matter of coming out to my folks but they were pretty accepting," I shrugged.

"Yeah. Not everybody gets that," Cameron stated, and I agreed. "Well, I'm a stem. It was honestly an uphill battle figuring out my sexuality and my label," she laughed. "I was conflicted because growing up everyone made it seem like you were either a masculine lesbian or a feminine lesbian. No label's and stem's were damn near unheard of. The lesbian community in my opinion was very influenced by heterosexual couples in a bad way as far as the so-called roles that each person plays in a relationship. It was a hard time growing up as a stem, but when I realized that both feminine and masculine styles of clothing was my thing, I knew that it was me. That that's the type of lesbian I was."

"Must've been hard," I commented, looking back into her eyes.

"It was," she said softly, "But what's important is that I know who I am now. And our community has people younger and younger than us figuring out who they are too. A lot of people aren't gonna grow up so conflicted anymore. They'll feel safe and cared for and able to enjoy their lives to the fullest. A lot of them won't have to wait until they're adults to see life in its brightest colors. They'll be living in the present, not always hoping for a hard-to-reach future."

"I agree. There are a lot of amazing things happening within our community," I nodded.

"What do you like to do when you're bored?"

"When I'm bored? Wow, nobody's asked me what I like to do when I'm bored before," I rose an eyebrow, "Damn. That's something to think about. Got me on my toes now with these questions."

"I like to think," she smiled.

"I don't have much downtime," I admitted, "I know that's the last thing another person would wanna hear if they're trying to get to know them but I really don't." Since that was already out there, I might as well add everything else. "I have a daughter, and she's my main priority nowadays. I'm trying to be the best mother that I can be."

"That's understandable," she nodded, "I have a niece that I love to spoil. She's like my daughter."

"Are you in Houston a lot? Do you travel?"

"I make a lot of trips to Dallas on...business. Chicago too," she shrugged. "Otherwise, I'm really here in the H."

"I stay in Camphor a lot too. The furthest I'll venture is usually to here," I admitted.

"Get homesick?" she asked gently, scooting a little closer to me.

"Yeah."

"What do you do for a living?"

"Um..."

She rose an eyebrow.

"It's complicated," I sighed, "but I have a job, if that's what you're asking. It pays well."

"Okayyy..."

"What do you do?"

"Um...business work. Management," she shrugged.

"Same," I nodded.

Ladie suddenly appeared, fixing her lash with one hand and giving us giant smiles, "Mack's here. He brought pizza."

"Mack's here," I smiled, getting up. "I didn't know his ass was coming."

"You know Mack too?" Cameron asked, following us to the front door.

Zanita held the door open as Mack walked in, pizzas stacked up in his arms. He was tall as hell and a favorite among the ladies all over our city.

"I didn't expect for her to know Mack. Her being an outsider and all," I nudged Ladie, watching as Cameron and Mack chopped it up in the kitchen.

"Oh, well-

"I'm gonna go join the conversation," I gave Ladie a little hug, "Thanks for this man."

"Your welcome. It's nice to see things moving along between the two of you," Ladie said with some relief.

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