16. Isaac
16
Isaac
First thing I did when I got home was take all my frustration out on my dick. It’s not like I expected Azalea to let me fuck her right there in the office, but I also didn’t expect to get so fucking turned on by just a kiss.
Shorty had me fooled.
All that happy happy joy joy bullshit had me thinking she might be a little innocent, but nah. She reminded me of my favorite Sunday painting. Red. Orange. Passion.
The blue, though…I had my suspicions, which I’d voiced to her, but time would tell about that.
After my shower, I ordered some groceries before flushing all my weed down the toilet. I wouldn’t say I was quitting necessarily, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to chill for a minute. I’m not above learning a well-taught lesson.
She’d probably deny it until her dying day, but that’s what it was. A lesson.
I wasn’t even mad at her, though. Well, I was, but getting the truth out of her had helped tamp down some of my residual anger. There was still punishment to be meted out, but I’d get to that eventually.
I had just gotten dressed when I heard my front door swing open.
Vic stopped short when he saw me walk down the hall.
“Aye, you out?!?!”
“Uh, yeah. Got out this morning.”
He threw my keys at me, hitting me dead in my chest. “What the fuck, man?”
I rubbed the sore spot. “I was gonna call you.”
“When?”
“Nigga, I’m decompressing. I can’t get a few hours to myself? That shit is traumatic as fuck.”
“Okay, okay. It’s cool.” He eyed me suspiciously. “Why they let you out?”
“Overcrowding.”
“Well, damn. God bless America.”
I walked up to him and grabbed him in a hug. He wrapped his arms around me and held me for a while, and the silence said everything we both intended.
After we parted, he grabbed my keys off the floor and tossed them on my kitchen table.
"Why you ain’t at work?”
“What work? I ain’t got no job.”
“Yeah, you do. T didn’t fire you, but…shit, I don’t know. Yall should talk.”
“I’m good.”
“Man, I swear fo’ God I hate y’all niggas sometimes.”
I chuckled at his frustration. “Like I said, I’m decompressing.”
“Call the man, tell him you’re out, and tell him you’ll be at work tomorrow, bright and early. Easy.”
“Actually, I got something in the works. I probably don’t even need to go back. I hated that shit anyway.”
He shrugged. “I mean, how many people wake up and hop, skip, and jump to go to work?”
“Okay, but do you be at your job ready to put a fucking gun in your mouth?”
“I hope you’re being overdramatic right now, cuz if not—“
“Just talkin’ shit.”
His eyes narrowed into slits as he stared me down. “Yo, you good? Be for real.”
“I’m good. Don’t I look good?”
He studied me like he was actually pondering the answer to the question. “Yo, you look mellowed out. You high?”
“Nah. I actually flushed all my herb.”
“Fuck you, you coulda gave that shit to me.”
“My bad.”
“So, you for real about making a change, huh?” He beamed. “I’m proud of you.”
“Maybe. For now. I don’t know.”
“Okay, what the fuck is this, because if you ain’t high, you must have got some. And since you were locked up…” he trailed off and rubbed his beard. “It’s cool if you goin’ that way now. I love you no matter what.”
“Fuck you. I just came from seeing my PO.”
His face cycled from confusion, to shock, to pride. “You knocked that down fresh outta jail?”
“Nah. Not yet. I just got confirmation that it’s a go. Kissed a little bit. Had to come home and—“
“Aight, aight.” He put his hands out in front of him. “Loud and clear, nigga. But what about all your google searchin’? You gon’ let old girl get fired so you can get your dick wet?”
“That’s up to her. I got the green light, but I’ma go at her pace.”
“Cool. Aye, I still gotta water them raggedy ass plants, or can I go home to my fiancée?”
“Get yo ass on, man. Tell her I said hey. Love you.”
“I love you, too. Glad you’re out.”
After he left, I dialed my mama’s number. No answer, so I called back. Nothing. Third time, still no answer. At the beep, I left a voicemail.
“Mama, I’m home. Call me when you get this.”
I’d wanted to hear her voice when I gave her the news, but oh, well.
Now came the hard part.
I would rather die than go crawling back to Jackson Distributors with my tail between my legs. If it was Vic, okay. I could live with it. But Taurus? Not after everything. There are just certain things a man needs to do, and certain things a man can’t take.
I needed to man up and refuse to take my brother’s shit.
So, the question became how the fuck I was gonna make money.
I threw a frozen pizza in the oven, then placed a call to somebody I knew was hooked into some work.
“Dunk. What’s good?”
“You, man. You need somethin’?”
“Actually, yeah. Remember when you told me about that thing we could do?”
“Yeah.”
“Lemme double back on that.”