Being a male stripper to pay for college sends me to a lot of strange places and crazy situations. Chocolate Delight has been my handle for three years now, but in fifteen days I’ll be Xavier, college graduate. Tonight, my manager booked a private party gig on a boat. I was smelling nice from the shower, looking good fresh from the barber shop, and had moisturized my skin until it looked like polished wood. Dressed in a button down shirt and slacks, I checked the mirror one last time and left.
The evening was deepening into night when I arrived at the marina. Security let me through the marina’s gate and I headed towards a yacht in the slip number on my phone. A deck hand met me at the gang plank and showed me to a state room. I expected the usual bachelor or sorority party full of screaming, giggling young women but instead, there was an older guy with salt and pepper hair sitting on a couch beside a much younger blonde girl. Ms. Bernadette Larouche, my gig booker and former burlesque dancer with a heart shaped face, copper colored skin and shiny black hair, sat curled up on his other side, holding a snifter cognac in her hand. She rose from the couch and came over to greet me with a tender kiss to my cheek.