6
“Where your hoe ass friend at?”
“Nah, nigga, I don’t befriend hoes.”
“Yeah, well, one obviously slipped by you. Bitch did me dirty while I was locked up.”
“I thought you cheated on Iva with that tall girl who be following you around,” Kim butted in and said.
Clover turned her head and laughed because her cousin was too green to know what she’d even said.
Kimber was honest to a fault but she repeated what she heard more often than not.
Her cousin was right though and she was surprised that Caprice didn’t magically appear like she usually did.
She was like a bloodhound who tracked Monty’s scent.
“Here, lil country, go get you some juice on the rocks.” Monty reached into his pocket and pulled out a twenty.
“Thanks but I’ll need something stronger than that.” Kim got up and went to the bar where Dot was.
“I’m happy she’s gone cause nigga, you can’t be serious. I usually don’t even get into y’all drama, but you did my girl dirty first. And I’m sorry, bro, but Caprice don’t even match your fly. Everything about y’all looks off.”
Monty was tall just like Hank and his brothers and so was Caprice.
She had a light brown, almost tan colored complexion, a complete opposite of the darker hued women that he preferred.
She wasn’t fat but she probably would have been if she was shorter.
The term big and tall fit her perfectly, and she was nowhere near his type.
Nobody knew how her real hair looked because she always wore different styles of braids.
She wasn’t really much of a dresser but she loved sneakers more than the average man.
“Man, fuck Caprice. I didn’t want that hoe then and I don’t want her now.” Monty frowned at just the thought of her.
“Why are you still with her then?”
That was a question that Clover had always wanted to ask, but she didn’t like to pry in other people’s relationships. Monty was her brother from another mother, but she respected his privacy. Since the opportunity presented itself, she wasted no time asking.
“In the beginning, it was because of the guilt I felt from her losing her job. Once I got over that, it was just embarrassment.”
Clover was the first person that he had ever been completely honest with about his feelings.
He was hoping to get her to understand so that she could possibly explain it to her friend.
He couldn’t deny that he was still in love with Iva but he was hurt too.
He could admit that he was wrong but he didn’t expect her to just say fuck him and move on the way she did.
Then, he had to hear about her dealing with other niggas when he was locked up and his hurt turned into anger.
Still, even though he said he did, he could never bring himself to hate her.
“You didn’t have nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“See, y’all wouldn’t understand the shit because none of y’all ever did time. Everything that a nigga do behind those walls is about survival. Caprice ain’t even my type, but it was business. She was fucking with my boy, DJ.”
“Seriously? The same one who linked you with his brother-in-law about the tattoo certification?”
“Yep. I wasn’t even in the dorm that she ran. The nigga came to rap with me one day and told me that he was on his way to the halfway house and he put me down on her gullible ass. She used to sneak shit in for him all the time, but he was into cell phones and dumb shit like that.
I was trying to be Frank Lucas in that bitch. All I had to do was get transferred to her dorm and it was up from there. I just told her a few lies and I was straight after that. That’s what she was known for, but she never got caught until she started doing the shit for me.
You know how I felt about Iva, sis. You know how I still feel about her dog ass. She wasn’t supposed to find out about that shit though. I just wanted to take care of myself and her without always having to ask my family for help. Coming home to be with Caprice was never a part of the plan.
I heard that your hoe ass friend had a nigga, so I wasn’t trying to be by myself while she was outchea with her new man. Dumbest shit I ever did in my life.”
“Damn.”
Clover really didn’t know what else to say. Iva dealt with a few dudes but she never got serious with any of them. Both her and Monty were listening to a lot of gossip and hearsay, but they never actually talked to each other.
“Hey, bestie. Why you ain’t sitting at the bar?” Iva asked when she walked over to them. She was dressed down in some black leggings and a Dot’s Spot t-shirt.
“Man, get your hoe ass away from this table. This conversation is private.” Monty looked at her and frowned.
“Aww, Big Bird must not be giving you no attention at home. That’s what happens when you cheat on a cheerleader with an NBA player.” Iva blew him a kiss.
“Fuck outta my face with that dumb shit.”
“You must be missing Sheba, huh? Meet me in the storage room so I can reintroduce y’all.” Iva was a known flirt and her sex appeal was something serious.
Monty downed his drink and stood up, ready to get reacquainted with familiar territory. She ain’t say nothing but a word to him. He had been feigning for another taste of her and there was no time like the present.
“Bye Iva, you have work to do,” Clover said as she pulled Monty’s arm to make him sit back down.
“Tell Madea she better be happy that my bestie ain’t with the bullshit no more. She would have been crying a long time ago if she was.” Iva winked before walking away. Monty’s eyes followed her until she disappeared into the back room.
“See, that’s the shit that I be talking about. She know what she be doing with all that flirting shit. Now, she got a nigga rocked the fuck up in here.”
“First of all, eww, that’s gross and, secondly, you might wanna go home and take a cold shower.”
“Come on nah, sis. The fuck is you being loyal to Caprice ole shady ass for.”
“You of all people should know that I don’t give two fucks about Caprice. I know the bitch don’t really care for me and, trust me, the feelings are mutual. I’m only cordial with her because of you. But my friend ain’t going from the main bitch to the side chick. Not on my watch.”
Admittedly, it took a while for Clover to see that Caprice didn’t really fuck with her.
Diva kept trying to tell her but she always gave her passes.
After a while, the comments started to get a little shady and the looks of envy couldn’t be missed.
It wasn’t until she started noticing the way Caprice would look at her and frown when she thought nobody else was looking that she backed away.
She loved Amina to death but she spoke to Caprice only if she spoke first.
“You for real right now, Clover? You already know what it was and still is with me.”
“I would love for you and Iva to get back together more than anything, but you gotta get out of your situationship first.”
“Yeah, I know, and that’s coming soon. I’m trying to get myself all the way together. These streets don’t love nobody.”
“And neither do these hoes but you and Dash gon’ have to learn the hard way.”
“Girl, you know lil bro love the ground you walk on. That nigga be scaring me sometimes though.”
“I ain’t doing no trippin’, bro. That nigga know I pay UNO reverse very well.”
“Chill, Clo, please. Nigga don’t have time for no more suicide attempts.” Monty laughed, making her laugh with him.
Clover didn’t do a lot of crying but his brother did.
Dash was a different kind of crazy. Every time he and Clover split up, he did some stupid shit, trying to get her attention.
He sent a picture to Fonzo and Monty once with an empty bottle of pills in the background, telling them that he was ending it all.
Both brothers panicked and rushed to his house only to discover that it was Vitamin C that he took and nothing that would actually kill him.
Then, he sent them a picture from the top of the bridge with the driver’s door of his car open, saying that he was about to jump.
By the time they made it to him, the police were there writing his stupid ass a ticket for parking in the emergency lane and not having a real emergency.
The final straw was when he facetimed both his brothers with a gun pointed to his head, swearing that he didn’t want to live without Clover.
Once again, they rushed over to find him holding an unloaded gun and they were over it.
Diva and Hank gave up after he did it to them once and he didn’t blame them.
“A lot of people, including your bitch, got a pass because of Kardi. I have to start leading by example and act like the woman that I want my baby to grow up and be.”
Clover was a muthafucka in her teens and she’d just calmed down when Kardi got old enough to understand things a little better.
Her and Diva were small in stature but forces to be reckoned with.
Clover had knocked one of her own cousins out for talking greasy about her deceased mama, so nobody else stood a chance.
Caprice was never really around his family very much until he got released.
She got to know the changed version of Clover but, if she kept poking the bear, she was gonna get mauled eventually.
“I feel you, sis. Being a parent is supposed to change you. Damn man, your thot ass friend got me needing another drink.”
“I got it, sit your sneaky ass down somewhere.”
Clover saw her girl walking through the door, so she got up to greet her.
Monty sat there and looked around, deep in thought.
He did a double take when he saw two unfamiliar faces sitting in the back of the bar, appearing to be almost hiding.
The area was ducked off and you couldn’t really see anything that was happening.
He saw them clearly though and one of them had his eyes trained on Clover’s every move.
She walked to the front door to greet another woman and they both headed to the bar.
One of the men’s eyes followed her every move.
“What’s up, nigga? I’m surprised you ain’t working.” Dash walked up and took a seat next to his brother.
Monty seemed to be preoccupied and didn’t even acknowledge him. One of the bartenders came over and sat a drink in front of him, but he didn’t touch it.
“Bro!” Dash yelled, hoping to pull him out of his daze. “What’s up? You good? The fuck is them niggas you keep looking at?”
“I don’t know but I’m trying to see why that one nigga keeps staring at Clo,” Monty answered but he never looked at him.
“Who? That nigga must be trying to end on up on a t-shirt.” Dash stood up, ready to go handle some shit.
“Nah, lil bro, sit back and relax. I’m just peepin’ some shit out. That nigga looks kinda familiar, but I can’t place him.”
“Man, Clover better not be playing with me with another nigga. I let the last nigga live but I’m done giving passes.”
Dash lost his shit when Clover started dating the father of one of the kids that went to her nursery.
The nigga fell in love with her, and Dash knew exactly why.
She seemed to be feeling him too, but he wasn’t having it.
He and Monty followed the nigga home from the club one night and almost caught a body.
He was bold as fuck and ready to fight over a woman that would never be his.
The only thing that saved him was his girl.
She turned on the porch light and walked out holding their newborn son.
After that, his daughter never returned to the nursery and he and Clover seemed to have cooled off.
“Chill, Dash. Stop being so hotheaded all the time.”
Usually, Dash and Fonzo would be telling him to relax but he knew how his brother got when it came to Clover.
“The fuck! Look who’s talking. You can’t give me no damn advice about being calm. Same nigga who be riding shotgun with me.”
“And gon’ do the shit every time. Just peep it out before making a move. You’re the brains of our three-man operation. I can’t have you acting reckless.”
Monty always said that Dash was the brains, Fonzo was the negotiator and he was the muscle. He didn’t need them to switch shit up.
Dash hated to do it, but he followed his brother’s advice and took his seat. He and Monty sat there and watched as another nigga watched Clover. He had never seen the other man before but he swore that he would never forget his face after that night.