Chapter 10
UNO
Bri watched me get dressed with her bottom lip poked out. I could feel her eyes on me, but I continued getting dressed without acknowledging her.
“I want some more,” she finally huffed and placed her arms across her chest making me laugh.
“Bro, you have the sex drive of a nigga fresh out of prison, and I have things to do.”
Bri rolled her eyes upwards. “I know. I have things to do too, but you could have at least broke me off with a quickie. You coming back tonight?”
I stared at Bri with my brow cocked. I had spent two nights in a row with shorty.
I wasn’t sure if she was getting attached or what, but that wasn’t the message I was trying to send her.
I wasn’t opposed to settling down but when I did, there would be no cheating involved on my end, so I had to be sure about the person that I chose.
I hadn’t spoken to Apricot in weeks, but I still thought of her on a regular basis.
Until I had that out of my system, I wouldn’t even try to be serious with anyone else.
I wasn’t going into a situation on some rebound shit.
Apricot could be a spoiled ass brat, and I wanted to be confident in saying fuck her.
But for whatever reason, she still crept into my thoughts way too often for my liking.
“Tonight, probably not. I’ll hit you up though.
” Bri’s bottom lip pushed out even further, and I shook my head before placing a kiss on her forehead and grabbing my keys.
Ken was on his way back in town, and I was glad.
Taking over for Mr. Jennings had me running around like a chicken with its’ head cut off, and I was more than ready to go back to my boring schedule.
I had never been a scared nigga, and I was always careful, but the amount of money that I was handling was scary.
If I got caught with it, it would be more than enough to get me a conspiracy charge.
And a charge for something that wasn’t even mine was crazy work.
Mr. Jennings had already told me once he was out of dope, he wouldn’t be buying more. And when he was done, so was I.
I had a few runs to make before pulling up at Mr. Jennings massive estate. The moment his mother opened the door for me, I could see the exhaustion on her face. “Hey, Ms. Jennings. How are you?”
“Tired,” she replied in a low tone and released a sigh. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m about to turn in for the night, and the sun hasn’t even set. The night nurse should be here in about an hour and a half.”
I nodded as I stepped over the threshold of the house.
Mr. Jennings had been out of the hospital for less than a week when he suffered a stroke and had to go right back.
The doctors couldn’t really be for certain, but they were confident that the stroke was a result of the shooting.
It was kind of like a delayed reaction. It was a mild stroke, and he only stayed in the hospital for six days.
He had been home for two days, and the only people that even knew he had a stroke were me, Ken, and Mr. Jennings’ immediate family.
To my knowledge, he hadn’t even told his wife or Apricot.
He had been home for two days, and we were having a time.
His mother was in good shape and good health for her age, but it was too much for her to do alone, so they hired a nurse to come in from 8pm to 8am.
Mr. Jennings’ left side was weak, so he needed help with certain things like getting dressed.
When it came to bathing, he was prideful and wanted to do it on his own.
His mother told me that he almost fell in the shower one day.
Mr. Jennings was tough. I knew that to be a fact, but seeing him so vulnerable made me feel kind of sad for him.
No matter how much money or power a person yielded, no one was invincible.
His circumstances were weighing on him and to me, it seemed like he was giving up.
He didn’t have a lot to say. He just stared into space, and he was grumpy as hell.
I stopped by because I genuinely respected him, and I wanted him to know that I wasn’t the kind of person to just be around when he was up.
When I entered the living room, Mr. Jennings was in his recliner.
A tray sat on the coffee table and on the tray was a plate of food.
Lamb chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, and asparagus.
The food looked delicious and untouched.
“What’s going on?” I asked him, and he stared straight ahead at the television.
Sitting down on the couch, I pulled a blunt from behind my ear. “Can I smoke in here? You want to hit it?” Mr. Jennings cut his eye at me, but he didn’t look in my direction.
I wanted him to say something. To act like the OG that I knew him to be. At that point, I was trying to say anything I could think of.
“You want me to call Apricot?”
That got his attention. Slowly, Mr. Jennings turned his head in my direction. “No, I don’t want you to call her. Apricot doesn’t give a damn about me.”
“That’s not true, and I think you know it. She’s upset. There’s a difference.”
“I can respect her because at least she’s been who she always was.
My wife though,” Mr. Jennings scoffed. “We’ve been together for thirty-one years.
Thirty-one years, and she left me for dead after I got shot?
Since she’s left me, she’s taken damn near $200,000 from my bank account. It’s cool though.”
He was feeling sorry for himself, and I decided to let him.
I was going to let him feel sorry for himself.
Mrs. Jennings wasn’t the bad guy for leaving him after she found out he’d been hiding an illegitimate child.
Had he taken a blood test for Apricot and found out she wasn’t his, I doubt he would have stuck around.
He couldn’t expect her to take what he wouldn’t.
I had never been shot, and I’d never suffered a stroke.
There was also never a period of time when Ace wouldn’t speak to me.
So, I didn’t know how Mr. Jennings felt, and I couldn’t tell him how to feel.
“You need me to do anything for you before your nurse gets here?”
Mr. Jennings kissed his teeth. “I don’t even need a nurse for twelve hours. She makes $30 an hour to bring me snacks and empty my piss jug.”
“You need some ass. You down for me to take you to a private location to see some strippers?”
The look on his face was priceless. He looked genuinely perplexed. After staring at me for a moment like I lost my mind, he actually chuckled. “I think something is wrong with yo’ ass,” he shook his head at me.
“I know you still like women. What’s so odd about that?”
“I can barely unball my left hand. I have to constantly remind myself to open it so it doesn’t get stuck like that.
I can’t even throw money with this hand.
Strippers would only be on me because they know who I am.
If I was regular looking like this, they wouldn’t give me the time of day.
I don’t want charity affection or pussy. ”
I gave a brief nod. “That’s understandable, but you start physical therapy next week. You’ll be back good in no time. You just have to believe that shit. I know good and well it takes more than some bullets and a weak ass stroke to take you down.”
That got a small smile out of him. “You’re one of a kind kid. If I had to choose a man for my daughter to be with, it would be you.”
That statement caught me by surprise for sure. “Well, she would have some say so in that, and Apricot can’t stand me,” I chuckled.
“She can’t stand you for the bullshit I had you out here doing, and I hate that.”
Waving his comment off, I sparked my blunt. “I’m a grown man, and you didn’t force me to do anything. Breaking in her house was definitely fucked up. I can’t even blame her for being angry about that.”
“Don’t end up like me. I’m telling you. Let this shit go, find someone to settle down with, and stay out the way.”
“That’s the plan, OG.”
The doorbell rang and although it was only 7:45, he assumed it was the nurse and asked me to let her in. I opened the door and found myself standing face to face with the last person that I expected to see. Apricot drew back.
“Uno? What are you doing here?”
“Hello to you too. I’m here visiting your father.”
At the mention of her father, Apricot’s face fell. “My grandmother told me he had a stroke. Is that true? Why didn’t someone call me? You didn’t think to call me?”
It was my turn to look at her like she’d sprouted another head. “Last I checked you didn’t fuck with me. And your father feels like you don’t fuck with him. If he wanted to call you, he would have.”
Apricot kissed her teeth before pushing past me. After closing the door, I pinched the bridge of my nose and walked back into the living room. “I’m going to head out, Mr. Jennings. If you need me call me.”
If looks could kill I would have dropped dead. Apricot was glaring at me like I was the enemy. Mr. Jennings nodded. “Thank you for coming by son. I appreciate you.”
“No problem.”
As I walked to the car, all I could do was chuckle.
With Apricot I was damned one way or the other.
I was trying to be there for her father when he felt like he didn’t have anyone, and she was mad about it.
It would be dope if him and Apricot found some kind of resolve.
As far as me and her, I had a feeling that apart was the best place for us to be.
The next day, I was serving clientele in Diamond Cove.
I had twelve people to serve. I was meeting all of them twenty to thirty minutes apart.
While my car sat idle at a red light, I checked my messages and saw that Bri had sent me a picture of her in the bathroom naked, and I didn’t even respond.
Shorty’s sexual appetite was crazy and if I let her distract me, I would have been chasing pussy rather than money.
I was winding down to my last few weeks in the dope game, and I had to make them count.
I had already decided that I would take Shiloh’s advice and get two trucks.
I also decided to buy a space and have four offices, and a conference room for people that worked for themselves and wanted a space they could rent daily or weekly to meet with clients, have meetings, etc.
There was going to be an area with machines so they could scan, fax, print, copy, etc.
with entrepreneurs being on the rise and a lot of them working from home, I felt like the service would make money.
Not many people wanted to pay monthly rent on a place just to have somewhere to meet clients a few times a month.
I was actually excited about what was to come.
I’d spent a lot of years selling dope, and it was time to do something different.
It would also be nice to be able to tell and show my son what I did for a living versus lying to him.
He thought I made way more money than I did teaching boxing classes.
Before he was born, I wanted to be financially secure, and I didn’t care how I got there.
Even after he was born, my focus was on hustling hard to make as much money as I could.
As he got older, I started to realize that more than having money for him to live a good life, I wanted to be free, so I could help to raise him.
My pops died from complications with diabetes when I was five.
From what I remembered, he was a good father, and I hated that I didn’t have him longer.
As long as I was alive and well, I’d always be there for Ace.
On my way to meet the last person, I responded to a text message from Shiloh.
I glanced down for all of two seconds and by the time I lifted my gaze the light I was going through had turned red.
Of course, I didn’t think it was a big deal until I heard that whoop sound and saw blue flashing lights in the rearview mirror.
My heart fell into my ass. For the briefest moment, I thought about taking them on a high-speed chase.
That would have been a dummy move for sure.
“Fuck!” I roared as I pulled over on the side of the road. My last fucking person. I got pulled over on my way to go serve my last customer of the day. The moment the blonde-haired officer stepped out of his car, I knew that more than likely, he’d ask to search my vehicle.
I had to have the worst luck ever. If he decided to search my car, he’d find out that I had a brick of cocaine underneath the seat. All I could think about was Ace.