Chapter 23
GET MONEY… FUCK NIGGAS: TWO WEEKS LATER…
“Here’s your thousand, and here is mine. I can't believe how much these girls spend on hair.” She passed Storm her cut of the money.
“Girl, I have two more girls coming later today to purchase, and they want it installed. I’m giving one of the girls to you, because I’ve seen your skills with the lace.
We’re going to go past our quota today, and you know these niggas are about to line up for cuts since it’s Friday.
” Storm stuffed her money into her metallic fanny pack.
“I'm going to be so beat tonight, shit!” Pretti rolled her eyes, but she was pleased with the income.
“Me too, but I have a hot date tonight, so I'm going to down three macchiatos and a Red Bull so I can be up all day.” Storm gently bit her bottom lip, thinking about her date.
“I wonder who that is!”
At that moment, Dexz and Burner walked into the shop. Pretti already knew they were coming because they were always her first male customers every other Friday.
“Good morning, ladies. How y'all doin’ on this fine morning?” Burner asked as he walked up to Storm.
He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in for a kiss before she could even answer.
Pretti and Dexz stood back, watching and admiring their intimacy.
They knew Storm and Burner had been messing around, but they didn't know they were exclusive until that moment.
“Umm, yeah, good morning, Burner. I guess I’ll cut you first, Dexz, since he’s all tied up,” Pretti stated, because she knew Burner always wanted to go before Dexz, being anxious to look fly before him.
Dexz sat in her chair, and she began to prep him for a wash. She always washed his hair before she cut it. After an hour, she had the men looking like new niggas.
“Aye, can I talk to you in the back before I go? It’s urgent.” Dexz slid her a couple hundred for his cut.
“Yeah, let’s walk to my office.”
When they walked into her office, he slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her close.
“I didn’t want shit. I just haven’t touched your fine ass in weeks. I missed you.” He kissed all over her neck.
He had seen her since their vacation, but all he had gotten was haircuts from her. He knew he had to keep his distance so he could focus on the streets and his friendship with Lunden, because he needed to get to the bag with no negativity.
They had a ten-million-dollar goal, and they were getting close, but he couldn’t go another day without being alone with his soulmate. He finally had some free time before leaving her shop this time, so he took advantage of it.
“I missed you too, but I try not to think about us. It’s like Lunden can read my mind. He has been on my ass since I came back. He thinks we’re fucking because I keep dissing him.”
“I know. He told me, but this is our moment. Fuck everybody else.” He slid her on top of her desk, pulled down her leggings, slid off her thong, and dove into her nectar.
“Mmmm, yessss, baby!” she moaned as she pushed his face deeper. She loved his head.
As he was giving her the business with his tongue, her office phone started to ring. She answered it only because it threw her out of her sexual trance.
“Pretti’s Barbershop and Hair Bar, how may I help you?” she answered, trying to act normal. She tried to push Dexz away, but he was being a savage on her clit.
“Uhhh, yeah, is this Pretti?” the woman asked.
“Yes, this is me. Do you need an appointment?” she asked pleasantly.
“No… this is Kayla. I got your shop number from your social media page. I’m looking for Dexten.”
Pretti pulled Dexz from between her legs.
“Kayla? Uhhhh, yeah. He’s here now, actually.”
Dexz looked at her and frowned. He was horny, but hearing Kayla’s name made his dick go soft. She passed him the phone, then pulled herself together and listened in on their conversation.
“Yo, what’s up, Kayla? Didn’t you leave a nigga in the dirt when I got locked up? What the fuck do you want?”
“I had to track you down. I’m in your city at a motel. We have to talk because we have a son, and I need your help with him now that you’re out.”
“A son? How do you know it's mine?”
“When you see him, you will know he’s yours. I'm at the Skyview Motel.” She hung up, leaving Dexz with a blank look on his face and the phone still in his hand.
“Is everything alright?” Pretti asked, concerned.
“Nah, this bitch talkin’ about she had a kid by me, and she’s here in Harlem at some dusty ass motel. I need you to ride with me real quick to see what this bitch is talkin’ about.”
“Wow… okay. I can get Storm to go look over the shop. Let's go.”
They stepped out of her office and found Burner and Storm standing outside smoking a blunt before her next client showed up.
“Can you watch the shop for two hours while I make this run with Dexz? It's super important,” she urgently glared at Storm.
“Yeah, baby, sure. Is everything okay?”
Dexz intervened. “My ex talkin’ about she had a baby by me, and she’s here in Harlem. She came from Cali, so I want Pretti to go with me to make sure I don’t make a mistake with this bitch.”
Burner chimed in. He knew all about Kayla and her wrongdoings when she was with Dexz. “Damn, last I saw that bitch, she was pregnant, but I didn't think it was yours, bro. This was five months after you got locked up, and she was strung out. You want me to go with y’all too?”
“Nah, I’ll fill y’all in when we get back,” Dexz assured them.
“Don’t worry about the shop. You want me to tell your clients to make another appointment if they don’t want to wait?”
“Yes, do that.”
They got in Dexz’s car and headed straight to the hotel Kayla was staying at.
It was a low-budget three-star hostel. From the kind of hotel she was staying in, he knew she was broke and ready to get back with him, but he had moved on and made peace with it in his mind.
She dumped him, and he knew why, but there was nothing he could do about it.
He had to help Pretti. He felt like Kayla had her own two legs to stand on because she didn't want for anything.
She could have easily gotten off drugs and bonded with her family, but she chose to be a junky.
They walked into the hostel and found her room. After Dexz knocked, the door flew open. There stood Kayla, thin as ever. She wore a yellow maxi dress and had a short haircut. She looked nothing like the thick, cute-faced Kayla he used to know, and it irritated him just looking at her.
Kayla didn't say a word when she opened the door and laid eyes on Dexz.
Honestly, she missed him over the years and wished she hadn't let her feelings get in the way.
He was her meal ticket for years, and she loved being his ride or die, but the look on his face told her he wasn't feeling her at all.
“What is she doing here?” Kayla asked as soon as the door closed.
“She’s my woman, so she’s here with me. That is all you need to know. Now, where’s this kid you say is mine?” Dexz asked as he scanned the room, looking for the kid.
Completely ignoring Dexz, Kayla smirked as she looked Pretti up and down.
She hated her and envied everything about her when it came to Dexz.
Ever since she was young, she’d hated their relationship.
Now Kayla knew all of her business because she had been stalking everyone around Pretti’s social media.
She knew Dexz wasn’t her boyfriend, and she was ready to pull her card about Dexz saying she was.
“Woman? That's not what I heard. Last I saw, you were with Lunden, his best friend, so you’re a hoe now, Prissy Pretti? You went from a virgin to fucking best friends at the same time? Bitch, you’re trash just like me, little orphan girl.
Tell her, Dexz. Tell her how you told me all her business.
How her mother left her at a police station. Bitch, you are nothing!”
Before Kayla could get another word out, Pretti punched her in the face so hard she fell onto the bed. She didn’t take insults about her parents lightly. It was still a touchy topic.
“Bitch, you don’t know my life!”
“Oh shit,” Dexz said as he watched Pretti step out of her heels and get on top of Kayla to fight her.
She started punching Kayla in the face repeatedly until Kayla pushed her away.
Once Kayla was on her feet, they started boxing.
Dexz let it go on for a minute, seeing Pretti was handling herself.
As they were fighting, he spotted a little boy sleeping on the other.
“Aye, y’all chill. Shorty over here sleep.” Dexz broke them apart.
“Bitch! I owed you that ass whooping. I don’t give a fuck who I’m with, bitch, Dexten is mine. So try me over my dick, hoe! I’ll blow your fuckin’ head off!” Pretti shouted over Dexz’s shoulder. Her lip was bleeding, and her nails were broken as well from punching Kayla in the face.
Dexz pushed her towards the door aggressively so she wouldn’t be close to Kayla.
“Go wait for me in the car. I gotta handle this kid situation,” he said calmly, hoping she would calm down. He handed her the pair of heels she stepped out of.
“That’s right, bitch. I had his first kid, little ugly. You think you so pretty? Somebody lied to you! Remember I had Dexz first. He never wanted your funny-looking ass, crossed-eyed ass!”
Pretti laughed. “Try again, bitch, Dexten always wanted me. He just never wanted to treat me like a rag doll like he did you. You can’t break me by calling me ugly.
I may not be as pretty as my name, but at least my attitude and life ain’t trash like yours.
Have a nice life, Kayla, with your junky, fish-smelling ass! ”
Pretti stormed out of the room and slammed the door. Kayla broke down crying and screaming while Dexz glared at her lying on the floor in fetal position. He looked over at the little boy sleeping peacefully on the bed and was surprised he hadn't woken up from the commotion.
“Kayla, I know you mad, but you brought me here for a reason. If that’s my son, we need to make sure, so I need a test.”
“He’s deaf, and he has Trisomy 21. I did drugs my whole pregnancy, and he is going to be delayed for life.
I can’t take care of him. I don’t have the money.
His medical bills are through the roof, and the state wants to take him again, so I fled here.
You have to get him. I can’t do this anymore!
” Kayla cried out at his feet. She was giving him an earful, and he didn’t know where to start.
“Why the fuck did you do drugs while you were pregnant, Kayla? Didn’t I tell you to stop doing that shit when we were together?” Dexz looked down at her in disgust.
“Shit got fucked up when you went to jail, and I should’ve never broken up with you. I was stressing, so I smoked up all the money and dope you left at my house. Ever since then, I’ve been addicted.”
“You were addicted before I was locked up, Kayla. You need help, but I can’t take him until I know he’s mine.” Dexz started heading for the door.
“Wait, I have a test already. All I need is your saliva.”
Kayla stood and got the test. After Kayla opened it, she woke up the baby boy.
When he woke up and Dexz got a good look at him, he saw so many features of himself in the boy, but he could tell something was wrong.
He was angry at Kayla for doing drugs with his child.
He knew if he had been out of jail, he could have maybe prevented his child from being born with disabilities.
Dexz started feeling bad. The pit of his stomach turned because he didn’t understand what the kid was going through.
“Don’t look at him like that. He’s normal like any other kid, and he looks like you.”
Dexz sighed, agitated. “He’s going through some shit I don’t understand, Kayla. What the fuck do you want me to do?”
“Love him once you find out he’s yours and learn to understand him. He is such a sweet baby and deserves a better life. Do you want him to end up in the system like you did?”
“What’s his name?” he finally asked because he was at a loss for words.
“I named him Ethan Dexten Kingsley. I know you hate your real name, so I put your middle name first and your first name second, like you wanted your name to be.”
Dexz shook his head. “Why would you give him my name, knowing I hate it then? He better be mine, or you’re going to change his fuckin’ name, you hear me? You did some stupid ass shit, but I'm not going to chastise you. If he’s mine, I'm taking him, but I never want to see you again.”
“We got a fucking deal. Now get the fuck out of my room. I’ll be here until the results come back.”
Dexz left her room, full of thoughts. Just looking at Ethan, he knew he was his baby. His only concern was caring for a child with special needs. Money was no issue, but he knew he was going to need a support system and probably take some parenting classes because he knew nothing about children.
When he got to his car, Pretti was in his driver’s seat on the phone. He got in the passenger seat, and she dismissed her call.
“You fucked that bitch up, babe. When you learn how to fight?” he asked, trying to lighten the mood. Truthfully, he thought his new situation was depressing.
“Storm takes me to the gym, and we box, but she had us fucked up. You’re my best friend. I’ll knock a bitch out over you,” she expressed boldly.
“Well, lil’ dude might be mine. He’s deaf, and he has something else I don’t even understand, because this bitch did drugs while she was pregnant.
She told me he’s going to be delayed for life.
If he’s mine, I’m going to need your help raising him.
I don’t know anything about his condition,” he admitted.
“Wow, she’s fucking evil for that. Don’t worry, I got you. I don’t know anything either, but we can educate ourselves if he is yours. So what’s the plan for now?”
“I just took a DNA test. We have to go mail it. I didn’t leave it with her dope head ass to tamper with it. I did a rapid test, so it will be back in three days. For now, we just wait. She wants me to take him instead of becoming a better mom, so I want this to go by fast before shit gets ugly.”
“Well, he’s not going to need her. If he is your son, you have a lot of family to help you. Don’t even sweat it, Dexz. It isn’t like we’re in California anymore. You’re back home. He’s going to be loved… trust.”
“Thank you, ma. I appreciate you, for real.”
“No problem. Let’s get back to my shop, though. Nobody wanted to cancel; they are all there waiting.” She shook her head and hit the push-to-start button.
“You a star out here, baby, and you good at what you do. Of course nobody canceled.” Dexz laughed.
Pretti drove back to her shop and got back to business. She was going to help her best friend no matter what. Even if she had to beat the brakes off Kayla again...