24. Drix
DRIX
“Bam!” Dashawn yelled as he slammed the domino in his hand on the table. “Yeah! You see it?” He nodded and chuckled as he adjusted his other dominoes.
“Yeah, yeah. That’s a’ight but uh…” I hopped up and slammed my domino. “You know who run this shit!” I clapped my hands as I collapsed back in my seat. “I knew you didn’t think I was handing my money over?” I chuckled. “Nah. You gon’ have to fight for this win.”
Rome and I had popped out to a domino game one of Dashawn’s friends was throwing. They were trying to raise money for a trip or some shit and cutting the pot a dollar a round. So we figured the least we could do was show up.
I’d handed him a card with two grand in it when I’d showed up too—a thousand from me and a thousand from Rome.
Despite cashing out on clothes for Radiant Reverie’s tour, I was doing good financially. I’d announced I was doing features—six slots at half a mill a piece if I didn’t produce it and a little more if I did—and the slots filled up quickly.
Five hundred thousand dollars was a lot of money but I got it all up front.
I didn’t have a clause to collect a percentage of royalties or anything on the backend.
What I was paid was my total for the entire verse.
There were artists who liked that because if they hit big, they’d get all the cash outright and other artists hated it because nothing was guaranteed.
Either way, I had to cover my interests first and I was a mill and a half richer and scheduled to be back in the studio in a few days.
The six features I’d picked out were going to get me where I needed to be in terms of getting new shit out with none of the risks. I wouldn’t put anything else out until it was my album.
Shit.
My album.
I’d rapped on a few beats here and there and had them in the vault but I hadn’t recorded with an album in mind in years.
It was crazy to even think about.
Alan and Rome both chuckled and I looked down when my phone vibrated. My eyebrows knitted together when I saw it was Chandler but I plucked it up immediately.
“What’s up, C?”
“Lee hit me,” she blurted.
“What?” I scoffed and shook my head because I’d heard her wrong.
“Lee hit me,” she repeated.
I nodded and took a deep breath so I didn’t flash out. I set my dominoes down.
“Your husband?” I clarified.
“Yeah.” She sniffled.
“You called me instead of pops or Rome so I’m going to assume you want me to kill him,” I said simply. “Y’all at home?”
“No. I’m sitting in my car outside of the club. We got in this stupid argument and—”
I cut her off. “Where’s my nieces?”
“With our parents.”
“Cool. Send me the address. I’m playing dominoes right now but I’ll be through there to kill him in about an hour. Go to a store and get something so you’ve got a time stamped receipt and go home. I’ll call you.”
She sniffled again. “Okay.”
“Alright. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
I held the phone to my ear for another beat then hung up and played my next domino.
When we finished the round, I pushed away from the table and stretched.
“Come on. We have to go kill Lee,” I announced.
Dashawn hopped up and checked his gun without even asking why. Rome chuckled.
“Our brother-in-law?”
“Yeah. He hit Chandler.”
“Lee hit Chandler?” Rome repeated, genuine confusion etched on his face.
“Yeah.”
“Let’s kill him then.”
Rome and Alan hopped up and we dapped the host as a few other men took our spots. Rome hopped into my car. Alan hopped into Dashawn’s. They followed us to the club and I skidded to a top in front of the door and hopped out without cutting the engine.
There were a few cars in the parking lot but nobody was outside except security. He looked at the four of us and moved out of the way before we even made it. I reached back to grab my gun and click the safety off and pushed my way inside.
“Happy birthday!” Screaming surrounded me and I was still partially in shock when Myome’s arms wrapped around my neck.
I hugged her back while I did a quick look around. Lee and Chandler stood off to the side of the door with my parents, Hazel, and Charm while Dashawn, Alan, and Rome were all laughing and already retelling the story of how I’d looked and acted when Chandler called me with her dumb ass lie.
I palmed Myome’s ass and yanked her against me.
“The fuck you doing, Twin?”
“Celebrating your birthday early.” She blinked up at me. “I’ll be on tour for your birthday and you deserve to be celebrated so…” She gestured around.
The space was nicely decorated with a good amount of people in attendance.
One of my songs played and I shook my head and hugged her tighter.
I wasn’t sure of the last time I did something big for my birthday.
I typically just did stuff with my family but this was nice and I appreciated that Myome had planned something to honor me while prepping for a tour that started in less than two weeks.
“Thank you, Yo.”
“You’re welcome, daddy.”
I kissed her and smiled against her mouth before I wrapped my arm around her and walked over to my family. I hugged my parents then Chandler and dapped Hazel, Charm, then Lee.
“Don’t let Chandler get you fucked up out here,” I warned.
He laughed. “You know I’d never put my hands on my wife.”
“You wouldn’t want to,” I said seriously.
“Berlin, stop.” Chandler pushed me lightly and I grinned but reached over and pushed Rome.
“You fucked up for going along with that shit,” I said.
“Man, look. It was the women’s idea.” He shrugged.
“Yeah, alright.” I looked around the packed building again and whistled. “How’d you get this done?”
“Me and Chandler make one hell of a team,” she offered and I smiled.
I loved knowing my woman and family got along well enough for them to speak about shit not having to do with the business.
“Thank you again,” I said.
“You’re welcome. You deserve this and so much more.” She looked up at me and exhaled. “Which is why I got you a little gift.”
“A little gift?” I repeated.
“Mhm.” She nodded and dug into her jacket pocket.
She pulled out two boxes, stacked one on top of the other, and offered them to me.
“You want me to open them now?”
“Only if you want to.”
“A’ight.” I handed her the smaller box, popped the big one open, and whistled. “Damn, Yo.” I looked at the new chain she’d gotten me with a series of nice ass rings lined up beneath it. I whistled. “This how you coming?”
“The one in the middle is an upgrade to your wedding ring.” She bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. “Do you like it?”
“I love it.” I nodded and grinned as I slid my wedding ring off. I slid it into the box and maneuvered the new one on.
It wasn’t flashy which was cool because I wasn’t that type of nigga.
It was a nice gold though and matched the band on Myome’s finger.
I liked it. Even though I liked my little gas station band because it was low pressure and I could get work done with it on, I liked that she wanted to upgrade me. I appreciated that shit.
“Are you just saying you love it or you really love it?”
“I really love it.” I slid each of the rings she’d gotten me onto a finger, threw the chain on, and tossed the box at Rome, hitting him in the shoulder before I collected the second box from her.
When I opened that one, I did a double take and whistled when the nice ass watch she wore glistened on her wrist.
“You trying to say I need to step my jewelry game up, Twin?” I joked as she reached into the box and unclasped the watch to put it on my wrist.
“No. I’m trying to say you spend money on everything but yourself even though you deserve to treat yourself and have other people treat you too.” She held her hand out for mine and I shoved my current watch off my wrist and into my pocket then let her clasp the one she’d gotten me in its place.
“Thank you.” I grabbed her face in both hands and kissed her mouth then her nose and forehead. “Thank you.”
“Do you feel appreciated?” She blinked up at me.
I licked my lips as I looked down at her. “Yeah. I feel appreciated.”
“Good.” She clapped her hands. “Do you want to do cake now or later?”
“We can do it now.”
“Okay.” She kissed my cheek then rushed into the crowd.
Her excitement was contagious. It was cute how happy she was to be doing this shit for me.
Although gifts weren’t about the money when it came to me, mostly because I made more than a lot of people in my circle, it was sweet that she’d dug deep into her pockets to get me some shit she thought I deserved.
Myome got a microphone and had everyone sing happy birthday before revealing the huge cake she’d gotten me.
I dabbed a little bit of the icing off and tapped it onto Myome’s nose.
She grinned while she collected a little bit of icing from the rim of the cake plate, leaned in, and dabbed it right on my throat.
Then she leaned in and kissed the same place softly before licking it up.
My dick immediately got hard.
I willed it down and decided to grab a drink.
Myome had planned this night and I intended to stay in this bitch till we got kicked out or I was too drunk to stand on my own. I got two shots and a beer and knocked them back before joining my people.
Dashawn had let his boys know about the party and they’d shown up to celebrate with me.
Myome hadn’t met most of them so I made it my mission to show her off, introducing her to the dudes from my old block while I drank and rapped to the songs playing.
One of the guys brought me a bag of weed and I immediately had Rome roll me one to smoke while I chilled.