3. Lavani
“I can’t believe you’re flaking on us to go to Antigua with that man,” Hailey pretended to cry while I chuckled.
“You would do the same thing.”
“And would!”
“Oh, so you paying for my nails?” Hailey joked.
“Sure am.” I was serious. My words made Hailey dance in her seat. We met up to get our nails done since it had been almost a month since we’d seen one another.
Hailey and I had been friends since middle school. Her mother had health issues, and she didn’t want to leave home, so she was attending community college and still living at home with her mother.
“I know that’s right. Thank you, bookie butt.”
“Girl, you already know how Darius does.” A female sitting across from us in the pedicure chair was talking unnecessarily loud because she wanted to be heard.
“It only took two weeks for the bullshit to start,” I chuckled.
Darius didn’t have a lot of extra time for dates, but he did what he could.
A few days before, we’d gone to breakfast before my appointments started for the day.
Other than that, he would pick me up in the afternoons, and I’d ride around with him.
More than a few people had seen us together, and I knew streets were talking.
“And as soon as he’s done tricking and playing, he’ll be right back sniffing up under your ass. Like he didn’t pay for those titties you got sitting nice and pretty.”
“Oh, this bitch is really trying to be funny,” Hailey looked over at me as my phone vibrated.
“Look who’s calling,” I smirked. “The trick.” Using my free hand, I swiped to answer the call. “Hello?” I had my air pods already in.
“What’s up, mama? You busy?”
“No. Just in the nail shop listening to one of your hoe’s friends try to be funny. She talking all loud and shit about you getting her friends titties done and saying you’ll be back when you’re done tricking and playing.”
“Word?” Darius didn’t sound fazed. “What nail shop you at?”
“Kim’s Nail Bar over by the mall.”
“Bet. I’m ‘bout to pull up.”
I sat there stuck on stupid as three beeps sounded off in my ear. When Hailey noticed that I was no longer on the phone, she looked over at me.
“What did he say?”
“That he’s about to come up here,” I whispered, and she laughed. Loud.
“I hope he comes up here and causes a scene.”
“I don’t. That’s embarrassing.” My heart raced, and I found myself wishing I’d never told him.
The chick on the phone was telling her friend that Darius would be back around. That obviously meant he hadn’t entertained her in a while. I should have just left it alone, but I let her get underneath my skin.
“Why you look scared, friend?” Hailey laughed.
“Because I am. I don’t think he’s the type to act all loud and crazy. He seems too calm and laid back for that.” I attempted to talk myself down. “Maybe he just wants to see who’s running their mouth.”
“Bitches don’t want it.” Ole girl was still on the phone throwing shade. “Let them enjoy their fifteen minutes with your leftovers.”
“Bruh,” Hailey chortled angrily while her leg bounced up and down anxiously. “I can’t sit here and keep listening to her run her mouth.”
“Girl, that bitch is talking to her friend. Hell, she could be talking to herself, but she damn sure isn’t talking to me.
It’s not respected if it’s not directed.
The fuck.” I was getting angry, and that was what I didn’t want.
Diamond Cove’s latest gossip session wasn’t going to be about me beating ass in a nail salon.
People would swear I was fighting over a man.
The nail tech began to polish my nails, and I hoped she would be done before Darius got there.
Obviously, the Universe didn’t give a damn about my hopes because when I heard the bass of music outside the nail shop, I peered through the large window holding my breath and sure enough, he was parking the white Charger he’d been renting for the past dew days.
“That’s him,” I informed Hailey through clenched teeth.
She looked over and when she peeped Darius getting out of the car, she let out a low squeal. “That’s what the fuck I’m talking about.”
Aside from me, Hailey, and loud mouth, there were two other black women in the nail shop.
There was also a black man getting a pedicure and two older white women.
My heart beat like an African drum as Darius approached the door.
He looked serious as hell and sexy as fuck.
I forgot all about dummy until I heard her ghetto ass try to whisper into the phone.
“Girl, not he just pulled up.”
All eyes were on Darius as he opened the door.
His eyes did a quick scan of the shop, and it didn’t take him long to notice me.
I swallowed hard as he ambled in my direction never taking his eyes off my face.
I felt like I was in trouble, but I was extremely horny too.
He had a fresh cut, and his coal black hair was glistening.
Darius stood behind my chair, leaned down, and whispered in my ear.
“What I tell you about that outside noise?”
I figured the question was rhetorical, so I didn’t answer. I just sat there stiff as a board trying to pretend like his presence and his lips on my ear wasn’t sending my nervous system into overdrive.
“Fuck that bitch. She’s talking shit because she knows what it is, and she wants her friend to feel better. I bought one bitch titties. Shit was seven bands. Here.” He stood tall and removed money from his pocket.
I felt everyone staring at us as he counted out money. This shit was insane. Darius placed a wad of money in my lap before leaning back down to speak in my ear. “That’s three. I’ll have the other four for you tonight. Hold your head back.”
I did as he asked. Darius pecked my lips and just like that, he was walking back toward the door. Loudmouth still had the phone to her ear, but she was talking very low. So low that I could no longer hear her. Hailey laughed so loud, my eyes almost jumped out of my head.
“I know that’s right, sir. That’s how you clear a bitch!”
Looking down at the wad of money that was in my lap, I didn’t know what to think. I was still in shock when my nails were done. I paid for me and Hailey’s nails, plus gave Hailey $500 for her pocket, and tipped the nail tech $25.
“I’ll be glad when we can go in restaurants and order cute drinks. A good steak and a lemon drop would be love right now.”
“I know,” I sighed. “Just a few more months.”
“Bye, friend. I love you. And be safe out here in these streets. You got hoes hating on you.”
“I see.” Shaking my head, I rolled my eyes simultaneously. The way a female would hate another woman over a man was insane. “I love you too.”
In the car, I pulled the seatbelt across my body while trying to decide where I wanted to get food from.
I was starving. I already had a pedicure, and I’d gotten my lashes done earlier.
I’d also gotten a Brazilian wax the day before, and my eyebrows tinted.
All I had to do was go home and exfoliate in the shower, moisturize my skin and have it feeling like butter, then go to Darius’ house and put it on him.
We weren’t in a relationship. There was no need for me to lie and say I wouldn’t feel some kind of way if he dealt with another woman but technically he could.
As long as he remained respectful and continued to treat me well, then I was going to remind myself to date and have fun.
Chicks were mad because they wanted him and if he wasn’t entertaining them, that didn’t have anything to do with me.
If we ever stopped dealing with one another, I’d die before I became a salty, bitter bitch that started shit with the next female he chose to date.
“Focus on the now,” I mumbled to myself. “Worry about later, later, and don’t let these miserable bitches trick you out of your spot.”
Darius usually picked me up when I went to his home, but this time, I drove myself.
I wore the shortest pair of shorts that I owned and a belly shirt.
My spennanight bag was hanging from my shoulder because I was spending the night.
There would be no getting home before the sun came up.
I wanted to wake up in Darius’ home in his bed.
When he opened the door, his face held a serious expression. I was almost certain that he was a little irritated about me even letting ole girl in the nail shop make me feel some type of way. I gave him a sheepish grin.
“Why you look like you mad?”
Darius didn’t respond with words. He simply shook his head at me and closed the door after I stepped inside.
“I wasn’t mad. More like irritated,” I pled my case as I followed him to the couch.
“You’re gonna stay irritated then. Bitches love to talk and keep shit going.
That’s what they do. I don’t give a damn what they say and every time they say something, I don’t want to have to hear about it.
” Darius didn’t raise his voice, and his tone wasn’t mean.
It was firm, however, and I got the point. He wasn’t for the bullshit.
Darius had been in the middle of rolling a blunt when I rang the bell.
He leaned forward and got the weed filled cigar paper off the coffee table and finished rolling up.
That, I was glad about because I needed the weed to mellow me out.
Hopefully, it would mellow him out too. We sat in silence as the movie he was watching played on the television in front of us.
While Darius was lighting the blunt one of his two cell phones vibrated against the coffee table.
He took a quick pull from the blunt and picked it up.
“What up, G?” he hit the blunt one more time and passed it to me.