THE HEAT SEEKERS

Sistahs and brothas, in bed and out.

As Tempest goes through her little black book, she can’t help but think about all the sorry mofos she ever had sex with. Damn, will she ever find the fly black man of her dreams? All she wants is a heterosexual, honest brother with a good job and a gigantic “grade-A, prime, FDA-approved dang-a-lang.” Is that too much to ask? No, says best friend Janessa as the two head out to a club to try their luck again. Maybe Janessa’s tight minidress will attract some worthwhile men. More likely, Tempest’s modest suit will turn them off. But Janessa seizes any excuse to escape from her parents’ stifling little apartment in the projects and her lazy, big-butt brother. Sistah-gurls gotta have some fun, even if they ain’t going to get married any time soon. Alas, the club offers the usual dismal prospects: momma’s boys, I-Know-I’m-All-That’s, and homie-sexuals. Enter Geren, a handsome, well-off, elegantly dressed brotha who doesn’t normally frequent clubs, preferring to jerk off than contend with any woman’s untoward interest in his money. But his best friend Dvonte dragged him along, so what he can do? Dvonte is a dumb-as-a-rock playa with a heart of gold. All he wants is hot and juicy punanny, and he doesn’t care if he dies getting it. Inevitably, the foursome hooks up: fastidious Geren likes demure Tempest, and fun-loving Dvonte goes for hoochiesque Janessa. It turns out that Tempest has a social conscience under her extremely healthy libido: she counsels teenaged mothers, a cause she’s drawn to owing to the back-alley abortion that left her unable to bear children. A few more talk-show complications are tossed in, plus a few sistah-gurl snifflefests about how tough life is, but all’s well for Geren & Tempest & Dvonte & Janessa.

Cheerfully lusty contemporary tale with raw energy to spare, though the crude talk and slapdash plot don’t add up to much