One Night in Portimao

It started with a drink at the bar, a tap on the shoulder, and a question.

"Femi?"

I had come to Portimao for Afronation over the weekend. The biggest Afrobeat's festival in the world happened to be in the same area where my friend Emilio lived. We had met at our university salsa society and being the only Black and African guys doing salsa that year, we bonded over our insistence on playing Afrobeat's and afro house at every event or club we went to. So, when Emilio told me his dad had gotten spare tickets for Afronation over the summer, I was immediately booking a flight to Portugal. Having a place to stay and a friend who spoke the language made things a lot easier. I arrived and within 3 hours of landing I was in the middle of a crowd listening to the son of an icon Femi Kuti perform live. Approximately 3 hours after that I was high and drunk in the middle of a group conversation outside a bar. I had no idea who any of these people were and the conversation kept switching between English, French and Portuguese which left me lost.

Thankfully I didn't have to contribute much as my mouth was otherwise preoccupied with a lovely naija girl from London. Suffice to say I had a great time over the next 3 days. Emilio would occasionally disappear to go and chat to a girl but when everyone's been drinking all day new friends aren't hard to find. Eventually Afronation rolled to a close and the festival goers departed back to wherever they had come from. I had booked a flight home for the end of the week which gave me a few days to recover, and time to actually see some of the sights in the Algarve. One of those days ended at a local bar that happened to be having a Kizomba night. As soon as the music started playing, Emilio immediately left to get coupled up with a lovely lady on the dance floor. Used to this behavior by now I retreated to the bar to get a drink when someone tapped me on the shoulder and called my name. I turned around and to my surprise saw a familiar face smiling back at me.

"Nadia?"

Nadia was a former member of the black people that do salsa society (there were never more than 5 of us in any one year) before she graduated 2 years ago. I hadn't seen her since her birthday party last year where I'm pretty sure one of her aunts tried to get with me. Which is a shame because we always had a great time whenever we went out together. Last I heard she was working in Manchester, and yet here she was standing in front of me with her hair in dreads, red lipstick giving a stark contrast to her dark skin, wearing a deep cleavage Ankara dress, honestly looking amazing.

I turned back to pay for my drink and the two of us stood to one side of the room watching the dancers while we caught up. Apparently, she had left her job in Manchester and was currently using her free time and savings to travel around Portugal. She'd come to Portimao to do Afronation with some of her freinds. Many bad decisions later and she'd managed to get their exhausted asses on a plane home this morning, looking forward to enjoying her last night in Portimao before heading back to Lisbon. So of course, she went looking for the nearest Kizomba spot. As we talked Emilio came up to join us and after brief introductions the three of us sat down at the nearest table for a round of shots and memories of university. I could feel my liver crying in pain as I downed the tequila, but I could always look into black market options to replace it when I wasn't on holiday. At an unheard signal Emilio decided it was time to head back to the dancefloor. He said something to Nadia in Portuguese though it was quite clear from his outstretched hand and gesturing, he was asking her to dance. She smiled, gave an affirmation, and was led to the dancefloor where they were soon in a soft embrace. I watched as they glided across the floor, stepping so effortlessly to the rhythm, her hips making the smallest movements seem so sensual. He was good, but she was obviously better. They danced together until the song ended, after which she walked back towards me while Emilio went to find his next partner. Keeping eye contact she took both my hands in hers and pulled me to stand as the next song started to play.

"You dance kizomba?"

"No, not really. I kind of know the basic step but that's about it." I gave a quick demonstration of the side to side motion that encompassed half of all the moves I knew.

"We can work with that. Come on don't be boring." Not wanting to disappoint I decided to give it a try. I held her close, her breasts gently pressed against my chest, my hand placed just underneath her bra strap. I started stepping to the rhythm really noticing the feel of her body against mine. My moves were basic, and she followed my lead, but it wasn't smooth. Nadia didn't seem to mind though. She wrapped both arms around my neck, and leaned into me even more, enjoying the slow hypnotic beat. My hands were now wrapped around her waist and we continued our slow steps, my thoughts turning sluggish, my dick hardening in my trousers starting to grind against her. In the back of my mind I thought about moving away but the song was soon ending, and it felt good. There we were in our own corner of the dancefloor, definitely not the most impressive couple, but definitely one of the most sensual as I led us around as best I could. Eventually the song drew to a close and for a moment we just stood there, holding each other. Then the moment came to an end and she was soon whisked off to dance with another partner, leaving me to question whether I had imagined the connection we had just shared.

Still I did say we always had a great time whenever we went out together and this time was no exception. Kizomba eventually gave way to afro house and reggaeton at the insistence of myself and Emilio, much to the chagrin of the hardcore kizomba lovers. Despite their initial annoyance we lit up the place, dancing and drinking with everyone who joined us. I gave at least two impromptu salsa lessons and received a 10-minute lecture on the many differences between Spain and Portugal. Never ever confuse the two. I danced and grinded, whined and twisted with many girls throughout the night, but always in the back of my mind was Nadia. Emilio apparently picked up on this and possibly making up for the past week of disappearing, quite loudly announced that he was leaving, and Nadia was not to allow me to go till the place closed. He gave us both a huge overly dramatic hug, me a quick wink, and left with a curvaceous older woman on his arm...on second thought he may have just found his better alternative. Regardless Nadia agreed, and we stayed at that bar drinking and dancing till about 2am.

"Do you want to head back to my place?" she asked. The bar had started to empty, and the staff was starting to clean up. Neither of us wanted the night to end and had been discussing another place to go.

"I've still got quite a few drinks leftover at the flat and I need to try and finish them before I leave."

"So, you're not inviting me to your place just because you miss me. I'm disappointed."

"Sorry, but I only need you for your drinking capacity and your weird ability to clean while drunk."

"That was one time and Precious had just thrown up in my living room, and corridor. I was not leaving it for the next morning."

"So, then you can help clean mine, and then maybe I'll give you a reward."

I paused at that, excitement building at the promise of something more happening. "What kind of reward?"

"Hmmm, maybe...my eternal gratitude"

"Nope, not good enough. How about I ask you a question and you have to give an honest answer no matter what." She raised an eyebrow at that.

"It's going to be a sexual question isn't it?"

"Might be, might not. You'll just have to wait and see." She met my eyes and grinned unflinchingly at the challenge.

"Alright then naughty boy, let's go."

Transaction complete we went out into the night, navigating the confusing cobbled streets of Portimao. It was quiet outside, but the loud quiet of a city at sleep. The quiet murmur of doors opening and closing, lights flickering on and off. People's whole lives playing out behind closed doors, dancing and drinking and sleeping and dreaming. Some places show a darker side when the sun goes down, but as I walked down poorly lit alleys and questionable streets, Portimao still felt as bright and warm as when the sun was high in the sky. Though that may have had more to do with the alcohol and the prospect of going to bed with Nadia.

We eventually reached her residence and she let us in giving a brief tour of the place. The evidence of the girl's trip was scattered around the living room in the form of empty wine bottles, dirty dishes and cutlery, pizza boxes and a swimsuit hanging off a chair. It was decently sized, well furnished with a large upstairs balcony that faced the road and row of houses across from us. There was a small table and a large comfortable sofa on the balcony, so I proposed we take our wine and conversation there.

The air on the balcony was warm and thick, wrapping around us both like a lovely blanket. Cars occasionally sounded on the road below and the noise of the city drifted to us as soothing background music. The sky was pitch black, the moon was out in force, the stars were hidden from view by the warm glow of streetlights, though a few still remained visible, punctuating the darkness. For a while we lay there talking about nothing in particular, school, dreams, life in Luanda vs life in Lagos. But eventually I decided to ask my question.

"So, for my big question and you have to answer honestly, have you ever been in love?" She got silent for a moment before starting a slow shake of her while putting on a fake condescending tone.

"I don't believe you've helped clean the flat yet."

I raised the mostly empty wine bottle and shook it in front of her face. "I am helping clean the alcohol from the flat. Now answer the question." She had a lost look in her eyes for a moment and looked ready to give a rebuttal, but then decided otherwise.

"OK...Yes. I suppose with Jesse." I nodded having halfway expected the answer. Jesse had been her boyfriend for about 2 years of uni. I'd only met the guys a few times, but he seemed alright. That is until I heard that he'd cheated on her. I never got the full details, just multiple offers to Nadia from Precious to destroy his car and cut off his dick. Still I knew what that kind of betrayal felt like. At this point I was mentally slapping myself for asking such a depressing question.

"Why'd you ask?" I was startled for a moment thinking she had read my mind.

"Well I was going to ask you about the worst sex you'd ever had. But then you assumed I was going to ask you a sexual question and I wanted to prove you wrong."

She laughed at that, lightening the atmosphere. "Well that was back in 1st year, when I still used tinder. So, I had met this guy and we went back to his place after a date, and basically, he went down on me, and it was," she looked away from me giggling to herself before continuing, "he was just terrible at it. I don't even know what he was doing down there, all I know is that it lasted for 1 minute, he made a lot of strange noises and afterwards he looked up at me and asked, 'Have you cum yet?'." I burst out laughing at that almost choking on my drink. Nadia kept talking over my laughter

"I just looked down at him confused and said, 'umm no'. The guy looked so confused. We moved on but the actual sex wasn't that great either, so it was just disappointing." Finally, I got my breath back enough to respond.

"I'm assuming there wasn't another date after that."

"Definitely not, but the funniest part is that I eventually found out that Precious had gotten with the same guy, and he basically did the same thing to her."

"Knowing her she probably said yes and went to sleep immediately afterwards to avoid the actual sex."

"You and Precious were always pretty close. Do you still talk to her?"

"Yeah we're still close. Last time I saw her she came around to my place, and we spent the day getting really high, found out way too much about each other's sex lives. Quite insightful actually, she's a lot more adventurous than I gave her credit for."

"Would you ever get with her?", she asked, her attempt at non-chalance failing miserably. I could tell this was the question she really wanted to ask, and I could've assuaged her fears easily with a flat denial. But...

"Honestly...I don't know. It's funny. Would I ever sleep with her? Never. Would I ever make out with her at a party? Maybe, she is attractive and I'm not an idiot. Anything beyond that though it'd just be weird. Does that make sense?"

She stared at me intently for a few moments, presumably searching my face for some clue or context to my confusing tirade of an answer. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before inexplicably breaking into a genuine small grin and nodding.

"I get it, she's your Kelly."

That was not the response I expected, and I didn't bother to hide my curiosity when I asked, "Who is Kelly?"

The grin grew into a huge smile, her eyes betraying wickedness as she put her drink down on the table before explaining. "Kelly is the guy who introduced me to porn."

'Where is this story going?' I thought but didn't dare to interrupt the unfolding tale. Plus, I was really starting to get distracted by how good she smelled, and how close she was sat next to me.

"We were in the same halls back in first year, and one night we were chilling and talking in my room. I don't remember how exactly, but eventually the topic turned to sex."

I raised an eyebrow at that, to which she giggled.

"I promise I'm normally very boring and never have these conversations, but yeah we started talking about sex and when he found out that I had never watched porn before, he decided tonight I was going to."

This guy sounded like a hero.

"Wait, before university you had never seen any porn at all?" I asked incredulously.

She put her hand over her face in embarrassment, "Yeah, it just, I never felt the need to."

She really did smell good.

"So anyway, after some initial hesitation I agreed, he ran to his room and brought back his laptop. He went on to some website and showed me a couple of videos of what he called 'quality porn', some of which I admit were actually quite hot. As you can imagine, after that we had basically no boundaries with each other and became quite close friends. He would tell me about all the stuff he'd done, and I ...shared a couple of things to."

She giggled again as she said this, and I made it my mission to find out what these things were, and if she wanted to try them with me.

"So, we went out together a lot, but nothing ever happened between us. Until one night something did. But when we kissed it was just...ok. It wasn't weird, but I think we both realized that this wasn't going to be heading back to the bedroom. We laughed about it and have been good friends since. Still incredibly inappropriate with each other."

"What I'm hearing from this story is that you are a supposedly quiet person, with good friends, and a dirty mind. I knew there was a reason I liked you."

She laughed at that and had a sip of her drink before leaning in and placing her hand on my thigh.

"So, you like me, do you?" she asked with a playful lilt to her voice.

I tilted my head and acted like I was giving her a full look over. "Well I like your voice, you have lovely curves, a dirty mind and I've spent the last 5 minutes wondering if you're lips taste as sweet as they look."

She palmed her face and shook her head, but I wasn't worried as the smile never left her face and her hand was still on my thigh. Was she blushing?

"No...no...that was way too corny a line."

"I know it was. All true though."

"Well thank you, and for the record I don't have a dirty mind, I just have friends that do."

My hand had joined hers on my thigh, and my thumb started gently stroking the back of it. It's amazing how something so simple and small could carry so much tension and intimacy.

"Mmhmm I absolutely believe you. But for real, the friends that you can have absolutely no boundaries with are the friends you know will be with you for a long ass time. Precious is one of those for me. Though we've never watched porn together, so you've got me beat there."

"Till this day I still have no idea how that happened, and I've never watched it since."

This time a naughty smile spread across my face. "Oh, you know we have to change that."

"No."

"No?"

"No, honestly I just prefer my imagination or the real thing."

"Well then how about this. Tell me about one of the things you've never done, bedroom wise, but always fantasized about."

She paused for a moment in hesitance, but by this point we were both feeling warm and very drunk which is the perfect recipe for weird honest conversations. Also, my thumb stroking had progressed to full on interlocked hand holding and the desire to kiss this gorgeous woman was growing with each passing second. The look in her eyes suggested she would not be entirely opposed to it. We had unconsciously started to lean closer together as we continued to talk. Normally I would've already shut up and kissed her already. But this time I held back, this time I was nervous. I think I liked this girl. Like liked her. God that sounded cringey but that's what I felt. I was drawn to her lips and eyes, curves and smile like a magnet. Yet at the same time I would be happy spending all night chilling on this warm balcony, talking about weird and kinky things till the sun came up. It'd been a while since I felt this. This wasn't some random girl I met at a bar, this was a girl I knew, a girl whose family I'd met, a girl who might actually hurt me. But at the same time, I couldn't pull back either. We were openly caressing each other's arms and thighs now, but neither of us seemed ready yet to cross the line and take things further. She was leaning against me now, our faces inches away, and we talked in a voice reserved only for each other.

"...outside. I've always fantasized about doing stuff outside, somewhere warm, where I can hear people, where people might see, but I just don't care, we just don't care."

Her soft voice and sensual words caused my dick to stiffen, and as she stroked my thigh, she felt it. She tilted her head to look up at me. My doubts were vanishing by the second and we were pulled together by a force neither of us could stop, but neither of us wanted to. Our faces crossed the few inches left between us until our lips met and my mind melted. I cupped her face in both hands and kissed her with everything I had, all my desire let loose. We kissed, and sucked and licked, and bit. I pulled her on top of me trying to never loose contact between our lips, not stopping for even a breath.

Soon we were lying across the sofa, the satisfying weight of her body pressed into me. My knee was wedged in between her thighs which had caused the hem of her dress to rise up exposing her panty clad ass to the air. At the sudden breeze, her hands instinctively moved to pull the dress back down. But I grabbed them and held them at her side. Finally pulling our mouths apart, we both drew in ragged breaths, and as I looked up at her face, I began a slow shake of my head. At first, she just stared at me, her eyes glazed over, but eventually she gave a small nod and I released her hands. Her dress stayed raised up and she made no move to adjust it. My hands decided now was the time to explore and slowly slid up from the back of her thighs to the curve her ass and then began to push the dress up further till I was caressing her back and her sides.

Loud music suddenly blasted from the street below as a car drove past causing us both to freeze, reminding us that we were outside. I checked her face for nervousness, but all I saw was an excited twinkle in her eye, a look that asked, "How far are you going to take this?".