Chapter 4 #3
“You know fuckin well that I’m not thinking about being a daddy.
That shit not even in my deck of cards right now.
I’m getting older. A nigga getting wiser.
I just want clean money coming in. That’s all.
My girl on birth control. Loco, she love the fuck out of me, but I know she not bringing a kid into this world for me, and it’s cool because I don’t want her to.
Nigga, I’m living dirty, and you know that,” I let him know, and he nodded.
“I was once living dirty too. Uzi used to be in my face, talking big shit, telling me that she wouldn’t give me kids. Nigga, she gave me four, and I’m over there putting in work, day and night, trying to get a 5th,” he finished, and I laughed.
“It ain’t happening, man. I even asked Riot what she would do if she got pregnant, and with her chest, she looked me in my eyes and told me that she would get an abortion.
I believe her too. If I even joke at the birth control not doing its job, she gets mad at me.
We young, man. Ain’t nobody worried about kids.
Let me enjoy my lady. I’m so selfish when it comes to her that I’m not even trying to share her with anybody.
Not even kids,” I said, and with a smile on his face, he nodded.
The second we stepped off the elevator, his phone started buzzing in his pocket.
I watched him as he answered it, and being as though he kept the phone in front of him, I knew that it was a facetime call.
Judging by his smile, I knew that it had to be his wife, or one of his children.
They were the main ones that could get this nigga to light up like this.
“I’m telling you that you gotta have a tracker on me. How you knew I was finished with the meeting? You called me literally as I was stepping off the elevator,” Loco said. When I heard the laugh, I knew that it was Uzi on the other side.
“It’s just perfect timing, Papi. You know damn well that I don’t have a tracker on you. How did the meeting go? I miss you,” Uzi said.
Loco had been with his wife over fifteen years, and the love was still there.
The two of them gave me hope. The way I was in love with Riot, I wanted our shit to be like this fifteen years from now.
I didn’t want us to be together all these years, and we turn into one of those couples that hated each other’s guts and only stayed together for the sake of the history that we shared.
“Shit went smooth. Dolo cooking up something real nice. When he gets his shit up, and running, make sure you hire his staff at your hookah lounge. Gotta get Benelli to put him on at her boutique too. Ya’ll better get at him while ya’ll can.
Something tells me that his business not going to be easy to book,” Loco sold me to Uzi, cheesing big, putting the camera on me, so that she could see me.
She was driving. Uzi stayed on the move, always having her hands in something, so it’s no telling where she was coming from, or where she was headed to.
“I’m proud of you, Dolo. I can’t wait for you to get your business up and running. We’re going to need some men over here at my hookah lounge, so when you’re ready for business, just let me know,” you could hear the excitement all in her voice.
“I appreciate that. Thank you for showing love,” I said, after reaching over, and taking the phone out of Loco’s hands.
“Now that I got you on the phone, now is the perfect time to check you about not responding back to the group chat. Why haven’t you been responding to the messages about the trip that’s coming up in two weeks?” she asked me, and I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about.
When it came to a group chat, I promise I was the worst person to ever have in one because I wasn’t going to ever respond to shit. My own mama gets mad at me because she has me, and Diego in a chat, and she likes to send TikTok videos to us, and she’ll get mad at us for not responding back to it.
“I don’t know shit about a trip coming up in two weeks. What trip?” I asked her, and she sucked her teeth.
“That’s because you don’t read the messages in the chat, Dominique.
You know we take a trip every year in the winter, summer, and spring.
We’re going to Turks in two weeks. We’ve been in the group chat talking about it for months.
When we made the list, we included you, so you need to be there. Bring Riot with you,” she said.
“Who all going?” I asked, needing to know.
“Everybody that went on the trip the last time. All my sisters, their men, the kids. My best friend is coming, with her man, and their kids. Everybody, Dominique,” she said it in a way like she was annoyed with me, and it made me laugh because I started thinking about Riot.
I knew I was annoying the fuck out of Riot when she started calling me by my first name. I think that was just a thing that women did because my mama did the same shit.
“Riot not going to come. I had to damn near pull teeth to get her to go to Mexico, and the only reason why she really came is because the supplier damn near threatened me to bring her. I already told you how she is. She going to say it’s too many people.
Too many people that she doesn’t know. She weird like that,” I said, knowing that if Riot was right here with me, and she heard me call her weird, she would be pissed.
“She knows me, Nyne, and she knows Benelli. Nigga, she knows you. My baby sister going to be there too. Beretta and Riot are damn near the same age. Beretta is just a year older. Beretta is coming with her best friend too, so that’s someone else for Riot to hang around.
Get her out of that shit, Dolo. You can’t be the only friend that she has,” she shot, and I laughed.
“She don’t need no other friends. I’m more than enough,” I let her know, and then she rolled her eyes.
“Seriously Dolo, you two should come. We’re going to have a lot of fun.
You know when we get together that we always have a good time.
Riot is going to be in good hands with us, and you know it,” she went on, and knowing Uzi, I knew that she wasn’t going to drop this shit until I gave her the answer that she was looking for.
“Aight. Ima talk to her when I get home. I’m passing the phone back to your husband.
I’m thinking I’m about to get the phone from him, talk a little shit with you, and this turned into a fuckin drill session,” I talked shit, not even waiting for a response from her because I already gave the phone back to Loco.
He chopped it up for a little bit with his wife, and him and I walked together in the parking lot, heading for our cars.
“I think ya’ll should come to Turks. Shit going to be a nice vibe.
All the stuff you got going on, I’m sure you can use the vacation.
Let your girl know that we cool people. You know she going to be in good hands with us,” Loco stated, reaching his hand out for a pound, since the two of us were getting ready to split, and head our separate ways.
“Ima bring it up to her later. I appreciate you for coming down here with me. I know it’s other shit that you could have been doing,” I let him know, and he waved me off, like it was no big deal.
After that, I hopped in my whip, and Loco hopped in his. I let him pull out first, mainly because there was this piece of me that had this obsession with fly whips, so I wanted to hear the way that shit rumbled when he started it up, and the way he pushed it out of the lot.
I let out a whistling noise, watching the way he took off in it, and after a few seconds, that’s when I pulled out next.
I had about an hour to spare until it was time for me to meet with a realtor.
I was still in the process of trying to find another warehouse location.
The realtor that I was using is the same realtor that I used when I got my first warehouse.
Cool ass nigga, that didn’t give a fuck where the money came from, just as long as I had it.
The way I was living, I had to cut corners like that.
That’s why I was excited to get this security company off the ground, so that I could show legit income, and I didn’t have to go through life always counting corners.
I didn’t have to worry about picking Riot up from her anger managements session because Ari was going to get her, and the two of them had plans to hang.
Every day, I make a promise to myself, saying that I was going to teach her ass how to drive, but then something comes up, and I end up pushing it back.
I’m surprised that Uzi didn’t press that with me while we were on the phone because just about every time that the two of us spoke, she was always getting on me, telling me that I needed to teach Riot how to drive.
Ten minutes into my ride, my pops started calling me. I went ahead, and answered it, allowing the call to play out through the speakers.
“What’s up old man?” I asked him after the call connected.
“Shit. I got some good news for you. You know ever since your girl called Tom out on his shit, that I haven’t heard from him.
Remember I told you not to have Riot make a move because he has his house swamped with cameras.
That wouldn’t have been smart on ya’ll part.
I could feel it in my gut that this nigga was getting ready to take off, and move, even if it’s just for a little bit.
Yesterday, him and his wife left out, but they went in her car.
I used that as my opportunity to put a tracker on his truck.
I know where he has his cameras, so I made sure to move smart, so that I didn’t get caught,” he started, and I was at a red light, fully listening to what he was saying, ready to hear where he was going with this.