5. Lee
Lee
Later that morning, Anika pulled up with breakfast from some spot called Puddin’s Place.
She brought me a fish and grits plate that was so good I damn near wanted to slap our mama, and while we ate, I told her how my peaceful little morning walk ended with a massive Doberman knocking me flat on my back.
“You fell?” Anika asked, already laughing.
“I ain’t fall. His big ass tackled me.”
That only made her laugh harder.
“It ain’t funny.”
“Yes, it is. What you do?”
“What the hell could I do? I was on the ground fighting for my life while he licked me in the face.”
“Fighting for your life?” She wiped under her eye. “Girl, please.”
“He was huge!”
“Clearly he ain’t kill you.”
“No, because his owner came and got him.”
The way I said it must’ve given me away because Anika stopped laughing long enough to look at me.
“His owner?”
I picked up another forkful of grits. “Yeah.”
“What he look like?”
I kept my eyes on my plate. “Why that matter?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Lee.”
I tried to keep my face straight. “He was fine.”
Anika’s whole face changed. “I knew it.”
I pointed my fork at her. “Would you calm down? All we did was talk.”
“Mhm.” She took another bite of her food, still looking at me. “What’s his name?”
“Van.”
“Okay, Van.”
“Girl, shut up.”
She laughed, and I went back to eating before she could turn a five-minute conversation with the man into something it wasn’t. I told her about walking around the complex and seeing everybody’s porches decorated instead, and how it made me realize just how empty my place still was.
Anika looked around the living room. “Yeah, we gotta do something about this.”
“I know. It’s depressing.”
“It ain’t depressing. It’s just empty as hell.”
“Same difference.”
She laughed. “We can go look at some furniture after you get your nails done. At least start figuring out what you want.”
That sounded good to me. I had been decorating the place in my head all morning anyway, and now I finally had somebody who could help me figure out where the hell to start.
Once we finished eating, we cleaned everything up and headed out. We took the Mercedes, but I let Anika drive. I wasn’t ready to get behind the wheel yet, especially not in a car that cost more than some people’s houses.
Before I could even get my seat belt buckled, she was already touching buttons and messing with the screen.
“Don’t fuck nothing up.”
“This your car. You need to learn how to use it.”
“I will. Just not while we sitting in the driveway.”
A few seconds later, music came blasting through the speakers. Some girl was rapping about money, men, and being that bitch like she meant every word of it.
I looked over at Anika. “Who this is?”
“Girl, where you been?”
I cut my eyes at her.
Her mouth dropped open. “Oh shit. My bad.”
I started laughing. “Bitch.”
“I’m sorry! It came out wrong.”
“Clearly.”
She was laughing too hard to defend herself. “It’s Monaleo.”
I listened for another minute and nodded along with the beat. “I like her.”
“I knew you would.”
Once we pulled out of the complex, I was already feeling myself a little.
“I can’t wait to feel like a bad bitch again.”
Anika looked over at me. “Again? You still one.”
“Girl, please.”
“I’m serious.”
“I got a chipped tooth, lost damn near all my weight, and don’t know what’s in style anymore. Let me work my way back into it.”
She laughed. “That’s why we outside today. Nails, shopping, whatever else we gotta do.”
“Our first stop need to be a phone.”
That was one thing I still couldn’t believe JB hadn’t thought about. The man had a whole apartment waiting on me, bought me a Mercedes, put ten thousand dollars in a Chanel bag, and somehow it never crossed his mind that I might need a damn phone.
Not that I needed him to buy me one. I had money and could handle that myself. But damn a phone felt like one of the first things somebody would’ve thought about.
We stopped at T-Mobile, and the salesman barely got through his little welcome speech before I told him, “I want an iPhone.”
He smiled. “Okay. Are you switching from Android?”
“No. I had an iPhone before I went in.”
He paused. “Went in?”
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
Beside me, Anika suddenly became real interested in a display across the store.
I almost laughed. “What’s the newest one?”
That got him moving again.
I walked out with a new phone, a case, a charger, and more passwords to remember than I had patience for. Anika took the phone out of my hand before we even made it back to the car.
“What you doing?”
“Putting my number in.”
“I know your number.”
“I know you know it. I’m saving it so you ain’t gotta keep dialing it like you calling from prison.”
I looked at her.
Her face changed immediately. “Okay. That came out wrong.”
I laughed. “Very.”
“My bad.”
“Just give me my damn phone.”
It was getting close to noon when we got back in the car, and I had to be at Wren’s for my nail appointment soon.
We were headed across town when I spotted a McDonald’s up ahead.
“Anika, turn in there.”
She looked over at me. “For what?”
“I want some fries.”
“You just ate.”
“That was breakfast.”
“It ain’t even twelve.”
“I don’t care. I want some damn fries.”
She laughed but got in the turn lane anyway.
I don’t know what came over me once we got to that speaker, but fries turned into a McDouble, ten-piece nuggets, an apple pie, and a caramel frappé too.
Anika looked over at all the food in my lap once we pulled off. “You know you ain’t gon’ eat all that.”
“Wanna bet?”
I tore open the bag and grabbed a handful of fries while they were still hot enough to burn my fingers.
“Oh my God.”
“They McDonald’s fries, Lee.”
“Exactly.”
She laughed and kept driving while I ate. I made it through some of the burger, a few nuggets, most of the fries, and enough of the frappé to give myself brain freeze before admitting she’d been right.
I looked down at all the food I still had left. “Don’t say shit.”
“I ain’t gotta say nothing.” She started laughing again. “Your face saying enough.”
When we pulled up to Wren’s suite, my stomach was full as hell, and I was carrying the rest of my food in the bag because I refused to throw it away.
Wren and I had met in nail school, and after we graduated, she was one of the first girls I brought into Love-Lee. Even back then, she could do the kind of designs that made you mad because you had just spent an hour trying to do the same shit and hers came out better on the first try.
The second I walked through the door, she screamed.
“Look at you!”
I barely had time to put my bag down before she wrapped me in a hug.
“Girl, you acting like you ain’t just seen me yesterday.”
“That don’t count. Everybody was there.” She pulled back and looked me over. “I still can’t believe your ass really home.”
“Me either.”
She hugged me again before pointing toward her chair. “Sit down so I can get these prison nails together.”
“Bitch.”
“What?” She laughed. “I’m finna have you right.”
I sat down and looked around her suite while she started setting up. “This cute.”
Her whole setup had this nineties look to it that fit her. Bright colors, old-school pictures on the wall, music playing low from a speaker in the corner.
“How you like being in a suite?” I asked.
“It’s peaceful.”
“That sound like a but.”
“It is. Peaceful as hell, but boring sometimes. I miss having other girls around.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t go work with Hannah when she opened back up.”
Wren gave me a look before reaching for my hand. “Girl, please. By the time she got that place going, I was already good over here. I had my clients, my own money, and ain’t nobody telling me when to come to work.”
“So you like being your own boss.”
“I love it. Only bitch I’m ever working for again is you.”
I laughed. “Don’t start.”
“I’m serious.”
She started filing my nails, then looked up at me. “Plus, half them girls that went over there with Hannah ain’t even there no more.”
“Why?”
“Because she mean.”
Anika laughed from the chair beside us.
Wren kept going. “Her work still fire, don’t get me wrong, but she can’t keep nobody. She stay booked because she can do nails her damn self, but she gotta stay on that floor working.”
I nodded, but hearing all that felt strange.
Love-Lee had been gone for years, and I knew that. Still, every time somebody talked about Hannah running a shop in that same building, my mind went straight back to what it used to look like when my name was on the front.
I didn’t feel like sitting there getting sad over it, so I changed the subject.
“Aight, who done fell out with who since I been gone?”
Wren’s eyes lit up. “Baby, how much time you got?”
Anika leaned back in her chair. “Now you asking the right questions.”
For the next couple hours, them two caught me up on everything I had missed. Who got married, who got divorced, who got caught cheating, who got their body done and swore up and down it was the gym.
I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.
When Wren finally finished, I had almost forgotten I was supposed to be sitting still.
“What you think?” she asked.
I looked down at my hands and turned them from side to side. She had done a mauve-pink set with black, blush, baby blue, ivory, and pale-yellow swirls across the tips.
“Girl, these hard.”
Wren smiled. “They are called Pucci French.”
“I don’t know what the hell that means, but you snapped.”
“Look at your toes.”
She moved the footrest, and I started laughing when I saw she’d matched them.
“Okay, bitch.”
“You like them?”
“I love them.”
I reached for my purse.
Wren slapped my hand. “Don’t even.”
“How much?”
“Nothing.”
“Wren.”
“I’m not charging you.”
“Why?”
She looked at me like the answer should’ve been obvious. “Because you gave me my first real chance after school. Half the shit I know about working with clients and running my business came from being at Love-Lee.”
“That don’t mean you work for free.”
“It do today.”
“At least let me tip you.”
“No.”
I reached for my purse again. “Wren.”
She pushed my hand away. “Lee.”
I stared at her for a second, already knowing I wasn’t winning.