Chapter 5 #4
We’d stayed at the restaurant way past closing, so we were the last to leave.
Glow had shown me her social media accounts, and when I saw how much of a big deal she was, I ordered more food.
When it all came out, she convinced me to put my chair beside hers while she recorded us both trying the food.
I’d eaten more than she had. I didn’t know if she was one of those girls who hated to eat in front of niggas, but she took a bite of everything—just enough for the camera.
As soon as she cut the scene, she was done with that particular dish and ready to move on to the next one.
We left so much food on the table that it was ridiculous.
Some foods she hadn’t even gotten to try.
Still, to be able to sit by her pretty ass all night was good enough for me.
I even interacted with her audience when she cut the camera and went live.
They were on a nigga bad, causing her ass to end it.
She had over ten thousand people watching, and that shit was wild to me.
I was glad she’d ended it because having so many people watching me gave police vibes like a motherfucker.
Glow was a big-ass deal in the food reviewing world.
The people loved the fuck out of her and had been sending all types of monetary gifts the whole time we were on live.
I nearly got on someone’s ass for putting a fucking rainbow over my head until Glow explained that it was money.
The longer she was on live, the more people joined and the more money she earned.
People were real-life giving strangers their money just for talking to the camera.
However, I couldn’t even blame them; she was worth watching and tricking on.
Fine ass.
“You didn’t valet?” She looked at the valent tenant, who was leaning against the podium, scrolling his phone.
“Nah. Come on.”
Without another word, I scooped her up in my arms, and a yelp squealed from her throat.
She placed her hand on her ass so her panties wouldn’t show since she was wearing a dress as I carried her further into the parking lot.
She was heavier than she looked, and I liked that shit.
I benched more than Glow, so I was able to cradle her in my arms with ease.
Her free arm went around my neck, and her perfume danced up my nostrils as I carried her to my car.
When we got to my whip, I bent down and opened the door to place her inside, not wanting her pretty ass feet to hit the ground.
The door cracked open, and even though my car fit the description of who she thought I was—the store runner—she didn’t act too good to be in the passenger seat in an old-ass car.
She’d taken an Uber to dinner, and I knew it was because she’d had plans to go home with Shio.
From the amount of martini glasses left on the table that were all full, Glow was no drinker, so the Uber was a tell-tale.
I jogged around my side of the car and peeled out of the parking lot.
She hadn’t given me her address, and I didn’t have a home of my own to take her to, so we just rode the city with no destination in mind.
“Tunan… You’ve been listening to me do boring food reviews all night. Tell me something about you.” Her head was leaning against the peeling leather of the seat, and yet, she was as comfortable as ever. She’d kicked her heels off and had her legs folded as she watched my side profile.
“Seeing you in your element wasn’t boring. Interesting, yeah. But boring? Nah. Your profession is different, but I fucks with it.”
She blinked her wispy lashes, but took a beat before responding.
You could make money in all types of ways these days. It was money in anything, you just had to find your lane and capitalize, and then scale that shit up. I’d never wanted to do anything but get money out on the streets, so I applauded folks like Glow.
“I appreciate that, Tunan. The girls are going to go crazy when they see you on my vlog. They already did the most on live.” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I can’t believe you don’t have any social media.”
She’d made a big-ass deal when people in the comments were asking me about my social handles, and I replied that I didn’t have any. It was as if that was unheard of, but it just showed that Glow and her followers were green as hell.
“I have an Instagram that I haven’t been on in damn near a year. But I don’t have a TikTok. I thought that shit was for kids and dancin’.”
Glow showed me her TikTok profile once she ended the live, and I was in awe. It felt like I'd missed so much in a year because I swore that was a dancing app.
“It’s come a long way from that.”
“Shit, I see.” I licked my lips as I looked over at her.
Fine-ass Glow.
“Okay, tell me something…”
“I mean, it ain’t much to tell. Old enough, and I got a slew of fucking brothers and one sister.”
“Where are you from?”
I grinned. “Atlanta.”
“Lie. You sound like Glorilla a lil’ bit when you talk.”
“Damn! You sayin’ I sound like a female?”
“Nooo! Well, I should have said Money Bagg Yo or Yo Gotti. You use the same slang as them. Plus, I've been on 901 TikTok more than I care to admit. You may have lived in Atlanta, but you’re from Memphis.”
Glow was a lot smarter than she looked, but I peeped that back in the restaurant. She was observant as fuck too. I didn’t think I had an accent for the longest time until I moved to the A. Those niggas were forever telling me I was country as hell—like they asses could talk.
“Yeah, I’m from the M—born and raised.”
“Fasho,” she replied, making me laugh hard as hell.
“Naw, mane. So you trying to take my lingo now?”
“Yeah, mayne. I wish I had an accent.”
“You do have an accent, my baby. Take that ‘Y’ up outta mane too. You make a nigga sound like he from the backwoods of Mississippi or some shit.”
“Yeah, but it’s not as cool as yours. I want to sound like a down South rapper!” she whined. “And I thought Memphis was considered Mississippi. They run into each other, don’t they?”
“Nah. Dat shit totally different. We ain’t on no horses or in corn fields and shit.
We the trenches, my baby. Sayin’ Memphis and Mississippi is the same place is the same thing as sayin’ Jagoda Bay and Sparkling City are the same place.
They close to each other, but the culture ain’t the same.
If you wanna accent like mine, spend a year or two in the M. You’ll catch on.”
“All that killing they do out there? I’m not trying to get robbed or worse.
I’ll just study the TikToks.” She chuckled and swept her neatly done braids over her shoulders to rest on her chest. “You got a big family, Tunan. I know that was crowded growing up, but that’s still cool.
I never wanted a lot of siblings, so I can’t even imagine. Tell me something else.”
Crowded was an understatement, but I nodded instead of going into details. We had a two-bedroom home growing up, and were spread out everywhere so that we wouldn’t be on top of one another. One of my brothers even slept in the kitchen. We thought the nigga was going to grow up and be a chef.
“I just got out,” I said, breaking the brief silence.
I wasn’t ashamed of my record. Just like I wasn’t ashamed of my whip. If she was going to fuck with me, she may as well have all the facts at her feet. There was no cap in my rap. My life was just that, and I was a man before anything, so lying to women was not my speed.
“How long did you do?” she asked, unfazed.
“A year. Been out a lil’ over forty days.”
“Was it justified? What you did… the crime… Was it justified?”
Thinking back to how I’d nursed Stella back to life and she fucked a nigga in my bed, I nodded. “Yeah, it was. I just wish I handled shit a lil’ differently lookin’ back.”
“How does it feel to be a free man?”
“Shit feels too good, Glow.”
She smiled, and my heart did that thing it shouldn’t be doing.
I was only a stand-in for Shio tonight, and I didn’t have anything to offer a woman.
Even though I was forgiving and didn’t consider the opposite sex to be hell, I also wasn’t in the right mindset to do anything with a woman other than what I was doing now.
Hell, I was so put off by what Stella had done that I hadn’t even thought about getting my dick wet until I carried my ass into the restaurant and sat across from a certain pretty food vlogger.
“I know it does. Was I your first date?” Glow asked with low eyes, even though she wasn’t drunk. I, on the other hand, had a couple shots of overpriced Cognac, so I was feeling the fuck out of my liquor.
Blinking, I came to a red light that I was inclined to run, but since I was intoxicated and riding with a pistol, I didn’t want the laws to get behind a nigga. I’d have to put them on a high-speed chase and scare the fuck out of little miss saditty if I acted on my impulses.
“You was,” I replied while stealing a glance at her as I waited for the light to change back to green.
“I popped your cherry then.”
She caught me off guard with that shit. My stomach muscles clenched as laughter erupted from my belly. I laughed so hard, I nearly took my foot off the brake. A motherfucker ain’t never popped my cherry. Even when I had sex for the first time, I didn’t get fucked. I did the fucking.
“You wild as hell, my baby.”
“Even though I got stood up, I’m glad it was you, Tunan.” Her sleek eyes were bright with innocence and amusement, almost making her look like an animated character.
Licking my lips, I jutted my chin. “Yeah, Glow. I’m glad it was me too.”