A couple days later I stop by the studio to say goodbye to Prince. Grace has signed us up for a striptease class. She thinks I could use it. She's given her boyfriends plenty of lap dances. I'm not looking forward to class. I'm clumsy and not a naturally sexual person. I kiss Prince. He notices my gym bag. "Do you have a date with Jasper?" He teases.

"No, Grace insisted on us going to striptease class," I reply.

Now he looks interested. "Oh? Does that mean you'll have something to show me tonight?"

I laugh. I almost say something self deprecating, but opt for something sexier. With a smile I say"I might, if you're lucky"

He kisses me and says," Goodbye Beautiful" I wink at him on my way out. I've noticed he's gone back to complimenting me. Must be Annette got to him.

Grace is waiting for me outside. We're driving to class together. "What shoes are you bringing?" Grace asks before we leave.

I pull out a pair of four inch heels that I wear to parties and such.

Grace shows me her intimidating stripper heels. "You should've bought a pair of these."

"So I can fall on my ass?" I laugh

Grace turns on my car radio. It's playing Prince's newest single-the sexy love song he wrote about me! It's become a hit and it is causing the album to go up the charts. "You are a very sexy woman, " she says,"You inspired a man to write THAT."

"I don't think of it that way."

"Maybe you should."

We get to class at the gym we go to and who do we see in the locker room? Prince's ex, Gloria! I have no idea why we're both here. "Grace! That's Gloria the stalker! "I whisper.

Grace scoffs,"Yeah, she's skinny but no way she was 'swimming' in Prince's shirt. It probably fit about right. She was just messing with you."

"We should leave."

"Like Hell we will! You're going to go out there, be the sexy bitch Prince sees you as and you're not going to look at her or give her the time of day!"

"I don't know how to be a 'sexy bitch'"

"Remember when I'd practice stripping at our apartment? That's how it's done. Flip your hair around. Make sexy faces.Smile a lot. Work that ass. Imagine Prince is the only one there and you're giving him a private show. "

"I guess I could try."

I 've got on the lowest heels in the class and am wearing my sweatpants and a workout shirt . I feel awkward. Gloria is wearing super short shorts, a skimpy camisole and stripper heels. Grace and her bright ideas.

The class starts. I can see Gloria in the mirror. She's really good at stripping. I try my best but I don't feel like I'm getting the moves right and I feel silly. Wow, Gloria is really going for it. I think she's trying to make me feel like shit. What a whore. I'm not even going to try to upstage her. She's got the body and knows how to move it. It's all I can do not to cry. I notice Jasper looking in the window of the door to this room. He's giving me a big smile and a thumbs up. It makes me feel a little better even though I'm embarrassed he saw me. I try a little harder after he leaves the window. Finally the class ends.

We're in the locker room and Gloriais standing not far from where I'm standing. She's talking to someone-while fully naked. I've got a good view of her. She really wants to piss me off.

"I'll put a stop to this" Grace tells me.

"Grace don't do anything insane." I request.

"Hello."Grace says to her.

"Um, hi" she replies.

Grace raises her voice, uses her disgusted tone and says,"Hey everyone, you know who this whore is? Prince's ex girlfriend. He dumped her sorry ass a long time ago. Found himself a real woman. This harlot has been stalking him since he started the new relationship."

Gloria looks pissed. "Street trash" she hisses at Grace.

Grace continues. She talks loudly to this room of about twenty or so women, telling them what Gloria has done. The women say things in hushed tones such as "I know it's Prince, but still" "That's sad" and "Pathetic"

I'd be so embarrassed if Grace did this to me.

"I suggest," Grace says to the ex,"That you leave Penelope and Prince alone."

"You have no right to speak to me, peasant" Gloria says.

"You have no right to stalk people. You disgusting sleaze"

Gloria has gotten dressed by now. She's making a run for her car.Grace follows her. I follow Grace. Grace stands in front of Gloria's driver's side door. Damn, that's an expensive car. "Get away from my car, bitch!" screams Gloria.

"Have Penelope and Prince heard and seen the last of you?" asks Grace angrily.

"Penelope! Get your vulgar friend away from me!"

I just examine my fingernails and don't acknowledge her. Even though she's starting to cry. Grace walks away laughing. We get in my car and drive off laughing. We pass the other side of the gym. "Penelope isn't that Prince's car?"

"Yeah" I pull into that parking lot. I see Jasper leaving the gym and Prince walking through the parking lot (not even dressed for the gym, by a long shot) and passing Jasper. Prince is giving him the if looks could kill look and Jasper just looks puzzled.

My car window is down and I hear Jasper ask him," I work here, Sir. May I help you?" Jasper sounds confused. Prince ignores him.

"What should I do?" I ask in a panic.

"Nothing. If he's dumb enough to to take a swing at Jasper, he deserves what he gets."

"He'd hire someone to beat Jasper up instead. I guess I shouldn't say anything at home"

"Probably not. Unless you want to end up on the doorstep of my new place. You're welcome of course, though."

We notice Prince finishing wandering around the parking lot. He hasn't said or done anything to Jasper. I watch him get in his car. "At least he didn't see us."

"Let's stop at Evening Wear." Grace says.

"Why? Got a hot date?" I ask.

"No, you need to get a feather boa for the striptease you're doing for Prince tonight."

"I'm not stripping for Prince and I'm not the feather boa type."

"He'll talk you into stripping. And I know the feather boa type when I see one."

We go into Evening Wear and I buy a beautiful boa. A purple one, of course.

"I don't think I can strip for Prince" I say.

"Sure you can. You're a caged tiger. He probably wants to see your wild side"Grace urges.

I start thinking of the hand cuff incident, which Grace doesn't know about."Last time I tried to be wild, it went so bad we don't talk about it."

"So you're just going to never be wild because of one incident? It's just stripping! What can go wrong?" She'd be surprised. This me we're talking about,after all.

Then we go back to Paisley Park so Grace can get her car. I invite her inside for a cup of tea. Grace accepts. I ask her to show me a couple of the moves from class so I could try them again. She delights in showing me. Then we do them together. I seductively (I imagine) look over my shoulder. I see Prince watching us smiling and nodding with approval. Grace and I start laughing again. Prince wants to find out what is so funny. We tell him about Gloria. He looks shocked.

"Grace, did you really do that?" he asks.

"Yeah, no one bothers Penelope without hearing from me. She's like family to me." Grace says.

"Gloria is not going to handle that well. She's not used to being spoken to like that. "

"Why? What makes her so damn special?"

"She's a spoiled rich brat. Her family will pay her way until she realizes her acting career won't happen. Then she'll be given an easy job in the family business, where she'll probably be overpaid."

"That explains alot."

"If I didn't work so hard to get my studio, I probably wouldn't be as happy." I say.

"I recently got a promotion. So I just put a down payment on a home that has two rental spaces in addition to the main living area. One normal sized and the other is smaller. Probably the small one would be good for a college student. Now I have to find tenants. " Grace says.

"That's great. You will be a good landlord." I say.

We go play pool for awhile. "I should go. It is getting late." Grace eventually says.

"Why don't you stay for dinner?" Prince suggests.

Grace and I stare at each other. We're both surprised. "Okay. Thank you" Grace replies.

At the dinner table talk turns to relationships. Prince admits he had a big fight with Gloria and it ended with him leaving her house and not coming back.

Grace says,"I used to date some guy named Morris I met at First Avenue. I broke a perfectly good paddle over that boy's ass " I burry my face in my hands. Only Grace would talk about paddling at dinner.

"He used to go around bragging about the 'kinky redhead' he was seeing." Prince says. "He offered to introduce me to her roommate who he said would probably be desperate enough to date me. " I look at him. I had no idea. Hell, our paths could have crossed sooner! " If I had known he was talking about you, I'd have been right over." He continues.

"I recall a Friday night I got home from cleaning. I just wanted to sleep but Morris was in Grace's room, screaming 'I'm an imbecile! I'm an imbecile!' I could hear Grace slapping him. I couldn't handle it so I yelled at them" I say. Prince starts laughing.

"I remember the night I called it quits." Grace admits. "Morris and I got into an argument, he was in his drawers. I was fully clothed. I threw his clothes out the window and he had to go get them."

"Yeah the neighbors talked about that for a couple days." I say. "Funny when we first moved in, they thought we were lesbians."

"Wait a minute." Prince says," Why?"

"Well, we were getting the place fit for company, so there were no guys around for a month or so. And we're close. As I said, like family. We hug. And that's a stupid neighborhood. I can laugh about it now." Grace says.

"Well, as long as we're talking about crazy relationshipss, I'll share mine." I say to Prince. "I fucked for the first time with a man I went on three dates with. Normally I couldn't get a second date.I was so excited someone had wanted to see me so much. He never called me again. I was too unsure of what to say to call him. That was two years before I met you."

Prince holds my hand, looks at me and says"He didn't know what he had."

After dinner is over Grace says to Prince,"Penelope did pretty good in class today. I hope you two have a nice time tonight."

"We will" he says

Grace and I hug before she goes home.

It's just Prince and me now. I'm sure he's going to want me to strip. I don't want him to hurt himself laughing too hard. But if he can handle my poetry, maybe he can handle my stripping. Jasper didn't laugh so maybe I'm not as bad as I fear. Jasper is the sort of trainer who's face alone tells you if your form is a mess before he starts correcting you.

I fake a yawn and say,"I'm tired. I'm going to bed."

"I'll be there in a minute." Prince says

By the time he comes to bed, I'm sitting on the bed in a sexy strapless dress, heels and my new feather boa. Prince smiles. He knows what is about to happen. He sits down next to me on the bed and whispers to me,"Go for it , Sweetheart".

I smile at him as I get up to turn on some music. I sensually move my body. I feel a little awkward. I don't move like that. As I start removing his pajama top, he says "I thought you were going to get undressed."

"Why should I have all the fun? "I say with a coy smile. Slowly I remove my dress, stripping down to a black lace bra and matching panties. I twirl my boa around, just having fun. Then I put in back on before crawling over to him on the bed. His eyes are locked with mine. I tickle his cheek with the boa before placing it around his neck. I take his face in my hands and give his lips a sexy kiss with tongue.

I've gotten pretty comfortable at this point, partly because he hasn't started laughing. His smile is huge and from the looks of things,I'll be getting some tonight... I get off the bed and slowly strut, yes strut , away from him. Who have I become? I don't strut. I shake my ass a bit. Wait minute,I don't do that either! He can shake his ass better, but he's not complaining.

I turn to face him. Then I take my bra off and let it fall onto the floor. I flip my hair around and run my hands seductively over my own body. He can barely contain himself. He's never seen me put my hands on my own body like that before.

"The best is yet to come." I whisper in his ear. Then I slowly remove my panties.

He finishes undressing and allows my to shove him onto his back. I lay down next to him. It's been a long wait for him, but I think he needs to wait some more. I put my arm around him and kiss his temple. "I love you." I whisper.

"I love you too." He says. We kiss each other passionately. He strokes my thigh. I've learned to enjoy the feel of his hands on me more than I hate the size of the parts he's touching. I never thought that would happen. Either he's got a special power or that's what happens when you love someone. Oh, I guess he's suffered enough. I straddle him. Next I slide myself onto his body. Finally I move my hips just like I was taught in dance class. He responds by moving his hips aggressively. I start screaming. He pulls me down. I balance myself on my hands and he kisses me vigorously while our lower bodies express our most wild desires.

Our bodies desire sleep after a long passionate scene, so we are holding each other.

"Sweetheart, please go back to dance class again." Prince suggests.

"We'll see" I tell him. I'm not sure I could feel comfortable doing that again.

When we wake up the bedroom is a mess. The sheets are falling off the bed and there are purple feathers everywhere. The boa had ended up under us and just couldn't handle it. We laugh about it and clean up the feathers. I never allow anyone on the staff to clean this room because this where we have our fun. I'd rather clean up the evidence myself. I strip the bed and change the sheets.

I fix us breakfast before I go off to my monthly training session with Jasper. Prince has this faraway look in his eyes, as though his mind is somewhere else. I set his plate down and wave my hand in front of his face. "What are you thinking about?" I ask.

"Last night. Your dancing." He answers.

"Yeah, I don't know what got into me. Grace says I'm a like caged tiger" I laugh. He growls at me.

"I wasn't joking last night. More dance classes would be good for you. You were enjoying yourself. Admit it"

"I enjoyed making you happy."

.As I clear the breakfast dishes Prince says,"When you come home, there is something I want to tell you."

"You can't tell me now? You're going to be a tease?"

He smiles and says," Yes. Now don't keep your boyfriend waiting." He starts laughing.

"I'd never keep my boyfriend waiting, but my trainer...that's another story." I kiss him before I leave.