Nylah
“Denise,” I yelled as I tried to gather my things.
“Yeah, what’s wrong?”
“Umm…Rosama just called, and he is locked up. I need to go bail him out.”
“What?” Denise yelled out. “What the fuck happened?”
I shook my head. “I have no clue, but I have to go get him. Mariah is supposed to be in here soon. Tell her I will be a lil’ late.”
“Yeah, I got you. Go get your man.”
I walked out and got in my car while searching the jail on my GPS.
Thinking to myself what the fuck could have happened, when I got a call from Kyron.
“Kyron, right now is not the time,” I said as I was trying to move through traffic and not hit one of the dickhead ass people that acted like they couldn’t see a car comin.
“Man, Nylah, stop it,” he said. “I miss you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Kyron, I told you right now is not the time. I am on the way to help my man real quick.”
“YOUR MAN?!” he yelled into the phone. “When the fuck you get a man?”
“When the nigga applied pressure and paid my bills. Tell me this… Do you have a job yet?”
The line went silent, and he hung up, and I shook my head, grinning to myself.
When I finally made it to Brooklyn Central Booking, I rushed inside, not knowing where or what I needed to do.
“Hello,” I said to the officer at the desk. “I'm here to bail out Rosama Carpenter.”
He nodded and typed on the computer for a few seconds. His eyes scanned back and forth as he read and took a sip of his drink.
“What is your name?” he asked.
“Nylah, Nylah Flint.”
He nodded again. “Go take a seat over there, and we will call you up in a few.”
I took a seat and saw that Denise had already texted the group chat, and I checked in with them, letting them know I was there.
I don’t know how much time passed, but by the time they called my name, my ass was hurting.
I walked ova to a glass window to see some fat man sitting behind a computer.
“Who are you here to bail out?” he asked bluntly, not even looking up from his computer.
“Rosama Carpenter.”
He nodded and started typing, moving the mouse, tabbing ova and typing some more.
“Three thousand.”
My mouth almost dropped to the floor. “His bail is 3K?”
He nodded, finally looking up at me. “Yes ma’am. Are you ready to pay?”
I nodded and pulled my black card out of my wallet and handed it to him.
The fat fuck processed the payment and passed me back my card with the receipt.
“Okay, he will be out soon.”
I walked off, lookin at how much I had spent getting that nigga out, and went outside to pull my car up in front. As I walked around and sat on the hood of my car, waiting on him, I was pissed. I had neva had to do no shit like this before, and here I was doing whatever this nigga said.
I started thinking bout the call that he always ignored and the shit that Dre talked to him about as my girls kept texting, checking on me, asking me what happened. I was in the middle of texting them back when I heard, “MY BAYBEEE!!”
I looked up at Rosama, who was standing at the door with his hands up in the air, smiling at me, showing all his diamonds.
I tried to stay mad, but damn, it was hard to.
He walked up to me. I folded my arms across my chest, and he pushed himself between my legs and kissed me.
“Don’t do that,” he said as he pulled away from me. “I didn’t do shit.”
“Then what happened? You know I didn’t sign up for no shit like this, and ya bail was 3 fuckin’ K.”
Rosama caressed my face. “I was set up, but I’ma take care of it, and you did sign up for this. I’ma street nigga, ma. Jail is always an option.”
Rosama took my arms and pulled me off my car.
“Come on, I need to go to impound.”
He walked me to the passenger side and helped me in the car.
Once he got in the driver’s side, I took a breath and asked him. “Rosama…does this have anything to do with Don’t Answer? Is it a girl?”
He paused for a second and looked at me.
“Don’t Answer is my family. They are cracked out and mad at me that I cut them off.”
It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and I smiled, making him look at me crazy.
“I'm sorry for smilin’, but I was thinkin’ somethin’ else…I'm glad it’s not that. Come on, let’s get your car. My client is probably waitin’ for me.”
Rosama pulled off and got on the phone, yelling at Dre but talking in code about Don’t Answer. When we got to the impound, he got out, walked around, and helped me out while still talkin’ to Dre, and walked me around to the other side.
“I’ma go handle this business, and I’ll see you tonight,” he said as he kissed me.
I nodded and watched him walk inside the office then pulled off.
When I got back to the salon, Ari and Raven was there, but Mariah wasn’t.
“That girl ain’t here?” I asked, irritated, ready to go home.
Denise shook her head. “Nope. Did she call you?”
I shook my head as I sat down. “No, I just want to get this shit ova with.”
“I get that,” Raven said. “But what happened with Pitbull eyes?”
I exhaled. “He said he got set up.”
“You don’t believe him?” Ari asked.
Before I got to answer her, the door opened, and Mariah walked in and stormed ova, standing in front of me.
I looked at Raven and Ari while they had their eyes locked on her.
“Umm…hey Mariah.”
“Hey,” she said with an attitude. “I see you are finally here.”
I looked at Denise, who was hanging up inventory, and she was just as confused as I was.
“Umm…I'm sorry. I did have to run out and help my man, but Denise said you didn’t come in.”
“Because you didn’t!” Denise yelled out.
“I drove by about to park and didn’t see you through the window, so I left. Then I saw these two and remembered y’all chill more than work.”
Me and my girls were all staring at each otha as I stood up, ‘cause I didn’t know who shorty was feeling like.
“Mariah, are you cool?” I asked her.
She smirked. “I'm good, let’s get this ova with.”
I nodded and walked her ova to the dressing room.
“Yeah, let’s get this ova with ‘cause you trippin’.”
She walked into the dressing room, and I threw the dress in there to her.
“What the fuck is wrong with her?” Ari asked.
“I don’t know, but she better get it together. I don’t mind losing a client today.”
While I waited on her, we talked about Rosama. I let them know about his family members, and they started to come around to him.
“Well, I'm glad it’s nothin’ else with him,” Denise added. “You seem happy with him.”
I was about to respond to her when I got a ding and checked my phone.
“My nigga! My nigga!” I yelled out.
“What?” Raven asked.
“I paid his bail. It was 3K. My man just sent me 8K back and said he always got me.”
“Yeahhhh, that’s a good man, Savannah!” Denise said.
We laughed.
“Keep him, brah. Loves him some Nylah.”
I smiled. “And do, I can’t even lie, I might be loving him too.”
We continued talking bout me and Rosama and how his birthday was coming up and how we talked about a trip. The curtain to the dressing room flew open, and Mariah walked out with the dress all fucked up.
“What the fuck?!” I yelled as I got up, walking ova to her. “What did you do to the dress?”
“What is wrong, Ny?” Denise asked.
“The sides were ripped, the bottom was pulled, the zipper I just put in the other day looks like I never sewed it in.”
Denise came ova and looked at the dress. I was so hurt looking at all my hard work.
“Why the fuck would you stand in the dressing room and fuck up your own dress like that? Is you cool? Still having issues with your husband?” Denise flat-out asked.
Mariah stood in the mirror, and I swear she had a smile on her face.
“Well, I didn’t like the bottom. And the sides, maybe you took the wrong measurements.”
“I didn’t,” I said with my whole chest. “It fit just fine when you were here last time.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you, luv. You are just going to spend all your time fixing it.”
Before I could respond, Denise pulled me aside.
“Do you want to fix it?” she asked. “’Cause I will put her out right now. She fucked that dress up.”
I looked ova at her and the dress, thinking about how much time I was about to spend fixing what she fucked up.
“I’ma fix it, and I’ma run the price up on her.”
Denise smiled. “As you should, but any more issues or if you change your mind, let me know.”
“I’ma fix your dress,” I said, walking back ova to her. “And I’ma charge you more, and if you don’t like that, you can leave with what you have now.”
Mariah smiled. “That’s just fine, and I hope this time you take your time doin’ it and don’t be chasing your man around the city.”
She walked back to the dressing room and closed the curtain like she was really doing something.
“Yo,” Raven said. “Shorty is crazy.”
We all agreed.
A few minutes later, Mariah walked out with the dress in her hand.
“I will text you the changes I want made,” she said as she walked to the door.
“No need. She won't be makin’ any of your changes,” Denise yelled out.
Once the door closed behind Mariah, I flopped down on the couch.
“I’ma have to go home and start fixing this shit now.”
Raven shook her head. “I would have told her to kiss my ass. Pitbull has taken care of you. Send her a text and say never mind.”
“I agree with Raven,” Denise said. “She is not gonna be your last client.”
I nodded. “Yeah, but she is not gonna be my only crazy one either.”
I stood up and got all my things together, then hugged my girls and told them I'd see them when I was done, and I walked outta the store.
On my drive home, I was still thinking bout Mariah and what she did, and was still pissed. So I called Rosama to calm me down.
“Wussup, luv?” he said as soon as he picked up.
“Hey, I had a long day.”
I could hear Dre and the rest of his people in the background getting further and further away.
“What happened, boo?” he asked.
“My client is crazy. She went into the dressing room and fucked up the dress. Now she is texting me a bunch of changes D already told her wasn’t gonna get done.”
“That’s crazy, boo. Is it a lot of work?”
“Yeah, it—who the fuck trashed my porch again!” I yelled.
“Again!” Rosama yelled behind me.
I just sat there in my car, in front of my crib, and started crying.
“I don’t know what the fuck is goin’ on, but—”
“Don’t worry bout none of it,” Rosama said, cutting me off. “I am on the way.”
We hung up, and I continued crying while looking at the door and hearing my text notifications going off.
In one minute, Mariah had sent me twenty messages.
I changed her name in my phone to Crazy Lady.
Then I looked at the rest of my messages and saw I had messages from Kyron telling me I had him fucked up.
Then it clicked.
It was mad ass Kyron trashing my shit.