Chapter 4
KAREEM
Two weeks later . . .
Afrown seemed permanently etched to my face. The vacation I had taken was supposed to revive me, according to everyone else. What they hadn’t expected was for me to come back home even grumpier than before. And what they didn’t know was that a woman was behind the shit.
I mugged my best friend of twenty years as he rapped some Kendrick Lamar song beside me while we walked into the lobby of one of my properties.
Snax was what everyone called him because the nigga was big and always eating something.
He and I were like night and day. While he was always happy-go-lucky, I walked around with a chip on my shoulder.
There was no reason for my bad attitude.
I just found the negative in every situation.
Been like that since birth and niggas knew not to bother me too much about it. Aside from Snax, that was.
Part of me thought that Snax always had such a positive attitude because he knew it pissed me off. Still, I had love for the nigga. He’d been down with me and my sister for as long as I could remember.
“Ah, the sun is shining, the air is fresh, I’m fine as fuck. It’s a good day, ain’t it, Reem?”
“Nigga, we’re in an elevator,” I grumbled as we stepped into the lavish elevator, and I pressed the button for the twelfth floor.
“But we was just outside,” Snax chirped as he rubbed his large stomach. “And we just had McDonald’s breakfast. You know that’s my shit. Nigga need to learn to smile more.”
I looked at Snax, and my frown deepened when I saw his cheesy ass smile. “Corny ass nigga,” I muttered.
Snax waved me off. “You just mad ’cause you actually gotta do some work.”
“Ain’t about doin’ work, Snax. You know all I do is work.
It’s about inconsiderate ass people, quitting their jobs and not giving no damn notice, and leaving me to fill in for them like I’m a damn bottom feeder.
” I tried to pull some patience for Snax’s goofy ass up out of my ball sack, but I was at my wit’s end.
The manager of this property decided yesterday that she wanted to quit without notice after working for me for three years.
Now I had to scramble to take all her meetings and try to hire and train someone for her position.
Snax wasn’t even supposed to be riding along with me today, but his bored ass insisted.
Unlike my shit, his barbershops had longstanding managers who loved their jobs.
Snax didn’t have to do shit but sit back and collect a check.
Admittedly, this was my own fault. I couldn’t be mad at Snax or anyone else, because I was so hands on with my work.
If I wanted to, I could hire a general manager and a regional manager to look over all my properties so that I could take several steps back and chill, but I didn’t really know what that looked like for me.
I didn’t know who I was without getting up every day and working hard.
“Ain’t nothin’ ’bout you screaming bottom feeder, my guy. Besides, you should love gettin’ ya hands dirty like this. Reminds me of when we used to hug the block sunup to sundown wit’ Denise. How big sis doin’ anyway?” Snax asked as we stepped off the elevator.
I took a right and walked down the long hallway to apartment 1203 with Snax right beside me.
“She good. Just opened up another beauty spa over in Ellwood,” I replied as I lifted the master key fob to the pad on the door and waited for the beep to indicate that it had unlocked.
When I pushed the door open, relief swept over me.
I could instantly see that the cleaners had been here, and there was a new layer of paint on the unit.
This was one of our newly remodeled units, and I wasn’t sure where the old manager had been with this particular move-in process.
I was happy as hell to see the unit was ready to go.
Now, I just needed to wait for the new tenant to show up so I could give her the keys and be on my way.
There were three more move-ins for this property this week.
I had to get those organized and start searching for a new manager.
“I need a damn assistant,” I mumbled as I leaned against the counter in the empty kitchen.
“Ain’t that the truth, boy. And you need to learn how to fuckin’ smile. What the hell happened on yo’ vacation that has you in an even pissier mood than normal?”
I watched as Snax opened the stainless steel refrigerator and looked inside. Disappointment filled his eyes as he closed it, and I chuckled. This nigga knew there wasn’t shit in that fridge, but habit told him to check anyway.
“You need help,” I said as I shook my head, a smirk resting on my face.
“What I need is for you to answer my damn question.” Snax leaned his back into the refrigerator and crossed his arms over his large chest.
I ran a hand down my face. Truth be told, I was tired as shit.
My family and Snax kept asking me what happened on vacation.
It was no secret that I came back in a worse mood, but I didn’t want to share with them the reason.
My family had pretty much given up on asking, but I knew Snax would never.
We could be ninety years old and sitting on the porch in some rocking chairs and sipping on whiskey, and his ass would still be asking me about the infamous vacation.
Since we had a little bit of time, I decided to go ahead and get this conversation over with.
“I met someone while I was on vacation,” I mumbled.
“Like a butler?”
I chuckled. “Boy, you stupid. No, nigga. A woman.”
Snax shrugged. “Okay . . .”
I huffed out a breath. Sometimes Snax could be really slow.
Really, though, I felt frustrated because I didn’t know how to explain that this woman gave me the best pussy I’d ever had and put my ass to sleep like a bitch before she disappeared like a damn thief in the night.
I spent the rest of my vacation fiending for her and kicking myself in the ass for not getting her room number or her name, at the very least.
“She was cool, that’s all.” I shrugged as I completely downplayed how that woman made me feel.
Truthfully, I’d never experienced anything like it before.
I felt like I could breathe her in every day for the rest of my life.
She fit into my arms perfectly, like our bodies were designed for each other.
Her smile took my breath away. For the few short hours we spent together, I didn’t feel the need to be a menace or carry around a dark cloud above me.
The weight of the world didn’t sit on my shoulders while she was with me.
I craved her pretty ass and didn’t even know her damn name.
Snax peered at me curiously for a minute before his face split into a wide smile. “You done got some good ass pussy, and now you sad ’cause she don’t live in Desmore, huh?”
I grunted. “I don’t know where she lives. Don’t even know shorty’s name.”
Snax slapped his knee. “Boy, you done caught the love bug and fucked up ’bout it ’cause shorty is in the wind now.”
His howling laughter pissed me off. This was what I got for opening up to Snax. I shook my head and grabbed the keys off the counter before exiting the unit. Snax followed me, still laughing his ass off.
When we got into the elevator, he calmed down enough to say, “I never thought I’d see the day. Look, don’t worry. You lucky you got a friend in me, my nigga. I’ll figure out who she is.”
“And how you gonna do that?” I asked, my attitude on full blast by this point. I couldn’t wait to move this tenant in and drop Snax’s ass off.
“I’m gonna call the resort and figure it out. Money talks, my guy. I got this.” Snax was so confident as he swaggered off the elevator, pulling up his oversized shorts with one hand and waving at one of my young female tenants as she walked by.
My jaw clenched as I watched him mosey through life.
I had to be honest with myself. I wasn’t even irritated with Snax.
What irritated me was that how he acted was how I felt when I was with my mermaid for those few hours, and no matter what I tried over the past two weeks, I couldn’t get that shit back.
We walked into the manager’s office, and I took a seat behind the desk.
While I logged onto the computer, Snax asked me questions about the mystery woman.
I answered to the best of my ability. I knew he was only trying to help, but if he thought for one second I hadn’t already called the resort and tried to get her information up out of them, then he was a fool.
That plan had failed, and my misery prevailed.
I clicked into the move-in file for today and found my new tenant’s name.
Arielle Nichols.
Arielle. I scoffed. Wasn’t that the mermaid bitch’s name in that Disney movie?
Every fucking thing reminded me of her. The shit pissed me off. With my anger rising, I checked to make sure she had already signed the lease. When I confirmed she had, I looked at some of the emails between her and my old leasing manager, confirming that she should be here in just a few minutes.
Snax still blabbered on about my mystery girl, but I completely zoned out. I focused on the computer, but my mind stayed on my mermaid. It got so bad that I realized I could still smell her.
“Good morning,” a shy voice sang.
Damn. I could hear her ass too. She had to have some voodoo in her pussy. This shit was unreal.
I looked up to tell Snax that I needed to take my ass to the psych ward or some shit, but I froze.
The most beautiful sight stood before me with a smile. Gone was the dress and sandals. Today, she wore a baggy T-shirt and some sweats with a baseball cap taming her unruly curls. When her eyes landed on me, her smile faltered. Shock that had to match my own registered on her face.
“Kareem.” She breathed the word out like a whisper.
My dick immediately responded. I adjusted myself discreetly before I stood, towering over her and the two women that came into the office behind her.
“Mermaid,” I muttered. It was like a magnet drew me to her. I stopped short of pulling her into my arms and inhaling her. Instead, I played it cool and peered down at her intensely. “How are you here?”
“I-I’m moving in today. I’m here to pick up my keys.”
Automatically, I asked, “Arielle?”
She nodded, and if her beautiful skin wasn’t the prettiest shade of ebony, I knew I would see a bright red blush flush across her features.
For the first time in two weeks, I laughed. I laughed straight from my belly. Her fuckin’ name was Arielle, and I just so happened to call her Mermaid.
I couldn’t stop myself. I reached up and pushed a loose curl that framed her face behind her ear. With glee lacing my voice in an unfamiliar tone that surprised me, I said, “My little mermaid.”
The irony, indeed.