Chapter 13 - Kennedy #2
The sun beaming in a prelude to the summer nearing made her visor a hand above her eyes before she squinted, surveying her surroundings in the busy shopping plaza.
A small smile graced her face after she spotted Rocco’s burly stature lumbering out of his truck.
She’d been skeptical of whether him and Lue, another security guard she’d hired, would stick it out, but they had proven her wrong.
Rocco was secretly her favorite because he kept quiet, did his job, and brought them lunch most times he was scheduled to cover their shops.
“Looks like we don’t have to order food today,” she said, watching him dip in his truck to reappear with bags in his hands like she assumed.
“I know. He asked when I saw him earlier today what we wanted. I almost blurted his ass, but since I’m keeping it cute, I told him fried fish platters. I made sure to tell him double hush puppies and no slaw for you.”
“Oh, don’t try to gloss over the wanting him for lunch part! I’m convinced what you really want is for Los to kill you, Nu. Why are you trying to play so close to home?”
“I wasn’t trying to play nowhere near here! It ain’t my fault Relic brought that fine ass nigga right to my doorstep like rush delivery. Hell, in my opinion, Los should be mad at his folks.”
“I can’t take you serious. He is easy on the eyes, and I like, he doesn’t wear his age like Drish. Lue is older than both of them, but Rocco looks it.”
“Wait a minute ‘cause I thought he was grown. How old is he?” Nubia whispered, inspecting Rocco for signs of being younger than she had assumed.
His holding something heavy between his legs gait, stocky frame, and thick beard surrounding full lips that he licked while heading toward them gave her no indication of him being a baby.
“He’s not as young as Drish, but he’s younger than you. Twenty-five.”
“Damn, he pulled a Tekken on me. I just knew he was about Relic’s age.”
“Drish is the one that recruited him, so I could’ve told you, he’s not that old. I don’t know much else about him, to be honest. He doesn’t say much.”
“And that’s fine. I’ll get all the information I need out of his ass. Hey, Rocco!” Nubia cooed, waving as he neared them. Kennedy stifled a laugh. “You pulled up just in time ‘cause my stomach is in my back. We appreciate you.”
“No problem.” He handed her a plastic bag and then Kennedy, who frowned.
“You didn’t get yourself anything?”
“Yea, it’s in the car.”
“Don’t eat that in your truck! It’ll smell fishy for days. You can eat in the suite with me,” Nubia offered, putting on her best smile.
“Then, you’ll have your suite smelling like seafood.”
“These bitches smell like fish when they get here. We ain’t hurting nothing.”
Rocco chuckled and then rubbed the back of his neck in contemplation before nodding. “Aight. Let me grab my food. I’ll be in there.”
“Wrong answer, buddy,” Kennedy muttered as soon as he jogged off, and Nubia squealed a laugh.
“Don’t do that, Kenn!”
“Look, I’m just trying to warn the man, but let me go. When Los finds out, I didn’t know shit, ain’t seen shit, and haven’t heard shit. Bye!”
Kennedy flung open her salon door, and her friend’s animated laughter faded out while idle chatter replaced it as she stepped inside.
She could tell from the finger snaps, chide pointing, and chair twirls that the salon had shifted into gossip mode while she was gone.
Ryell closing a book before she reached beneath her pressed hair, switching on her hearing devices, alerted Kennedy that her assumption was on point.
“Hey, Ms. Kennedy. Your two o’clock called to cancel her appointment, so you’re free for the rest of the day. She said, she tried to call your phone first, but you didn’t pick up.”
“Girl, she’s lying. My phone is right here in my purse. Did she reschedule?”
“Nope, and when I told her I have to charge her card for the late cancellation notice, she started going off. I told her, I’d have you get back to her about it.”
“I’m not getting back to her ‘bout shit. Don’t charge it, but she won’t get approved for another appointment. I tell you that. This is her second time doing that shit, but when I was late, she made sure to ask for her ten percent off.”
“I don’t understand why you even made that a rule,” her stylist, Tammy, gave her unsolicited opinion, as usual. “A bitch can’t even get lunch ‘cause I’m so worried one of my clients gon’ try to use that shit against me.”
“If you leave a block in your schedule for lunch, then that wouldn’t be a problem, would it?”
“I don’t like to eat at the same time every day. Maybe, I want variety.”
“So maybe you want to lose out on money,” Kennedy quipped. She strode to her booth and sat, wasting no time unknotting her food bag before she paused and looked up. “It’s fish. Does anyone mind?”
“No, you’re fine, but I do want to know more about this rule because I’ve never heard of it,” one of the clients said.
Kennedy stuffed a fry in her mouth to hide her smile as every stylist groaned, knowing she was about to blow up their spot. Said rule was on the salon site’s home page, but most clients went through their regular stylist’s site, so they tended to miss it.
“It’s a rule here that if we’re five minutes late, you get five percent off the price. Ten minutes is ten percent, and the same for fifteen.”
The room went into an uproar before a chick with her hair folded into foil for a dye job spun in her chair to glare at her stylist, Porsha.
“You were thirty minutes late for my appointment, so do I get thirty percent off?”
“Hell, to the nah! And why you telling my business? We discussed this well before you got here, and you were fine with it.”
Kennedy paused mid-bite of her fish and glowered at Porsha like she’d bumped her fucking head, but her stylist was suddenly too occupied to notice.
The guideline was in place to dissuade her stylists from trying what Porsha had pulled because a negative review for them was equivalent to one for her salon.
Even she’d abided by it and given her clients a gratis hairstyle the time she cancelled when Relic had taken her on his boat without her knowledge.
As soon as Porsha was done, she’d inform her in private that it was her first strike.
“This must’ve been while I was getting waxed ‘cause I know damn well, she wasn’t that late. I don’t condone or tolerate it. Even Tammy’s unprofessional butt is on time from what I’ve seen.”
Tammy sucked her teeth. “I can breathe too hard, and you’ll say I’m unprofessional, Kennedy.”
“No, I say it because you gossiping with every person that walks in here, is. You might mess around and say the wrong thing to the right person and find that out the hard way. I’m trying to prevent you from getting your ass beat and losing your job in the same day.
I’ve been in salons for a while and seen being too friendly at the lips backfire. ”
Ronnie’s ass was a prime example, but she held that in and continued eating her food. Mya getting her ass beat crossed her mind next, and she wondered if the bitch was still in the area. She made a mental note to investigate her whereabouts for reasons of her own.
“And you telling me that someone is going to beat my ass is professional? The hypocrisy is crazy.” Tammy flung her pixie cut head to whip imaginary hair over a shoulder, and Kennedy snickered.
“Anywho, are you going to your nephew’s performance next weekend?
I didn’t get a ticket ‘cause they went on sale a few days after the police found Aura, so they sold out fast as hell. You think he can get me in?”
Jennifer, a stylist Kennedy liked, raised her hand. “Me too! Whoever planned the event should’ve chosen a larger venue. That one is too small, which is why it sold out.”
“Exactly! Playa P could’ve sold that out himself, so to have the whole team performing, they knew it’d bring the city out. A few of my cousins are driving here from out of town to stay with me since they snagged tickets. So did I,” Porsha bragged, and Tammy rolled her eyes.
“Oh, now I’m extra pissed off. They better do another concert this summer.”
Kennedy covered her mouth with a hand and replied between chewing, “They are. This is a spur of the moment show to keep their buzz. Once they’re done with it, they’ll start promoting the real concert. Since y’all work for Relic too, I’ll holler at him about employee discounts.”
“See, and that’s why you’re the best boss ever, even though you stay riding our asses worse than somebody’s momma.” Tammy gave a cheesy smile after the slick jab, and Kennedy flicked her off.
“Speaking of riding asses,” the client with foiled hair started, crossing her legs with a pucker of her glossed lips. “Did y’all see Aura riding their fine ass boss in the studio last night?”
Kennedy choked on her fish, patting her chest as all eyes drifted to her. That information had thrown her, but she cleared her throat and kept it player.
“My damn fish had a bone in it,” she fibbed.
“Mhm,” Tammy said, her eyes narrowing skeptically before she dug for more tea. “I follow Aura, and last time I checked, she’s only posted once since being back.”
“The picture in the studio, right? That’s all I’ve seen, too,” Tammy confirmed.
“That’s means y’all didn’t make it to the close friends.
I’m in there, and she stays posting him,” Porsha exposed.
“I guess, she’s more comfortable posting in there since all that show boating on her page got her ass kidnapped and robbed.
She said in one of the videos on close friends, they took her keys and walked right in her house and stole her shit.
Most of her bags, shoes, and jewelry were gone when she got home.
They even found the cash she had saved up in there.
That’s some new age robbery type shit if I’ve ever seen it. ”