Chapter 7 #3
“Legally, I can’t sell weed in here. I got some other shit in there that’ll do the same shit to you that weed can.
Ya’ll fuck with edibles? Come inside. I’m closed, but we family, so I can open shop for ya’ll,” Tank replied, removing himself from standing in front of me, so that he could walk over to his business door, and let us in.
I pulled Free by her hair, so that she wouldn’t go inside, but she pushed me off her, while laughing, and her, and Tommie’s goofy ass was right there, walking to the door, as Tank was pulling out the keys that was in his pocket, so that he could open it.
I wasn’t even trying to be a bitch. I swear I wasn’t.
I came out tonight with the intentions of having a girls night with my sisters.
Me, and Tank’s situation was weird because on one hand, I was attracted to him, but on the other hand, something was in me, pulling away from him, saying that it wouldn’t work because he was the opposite of what I usually dated, and because I still didn’t have any real clarity on the situation with him, and the woman he came with to Liberty’s birthday party.
Not only that, but Free just told me that he choked the woman out the other day, and I live with way too much trauma to ever deal with a man that was physically abusive. So yeah, the shit was just complicated.
Tank eventually got the door opened, and the alarm that he had was going off.
Instead of disarming the alarm first, he kept the door open, so that my sisters could walk in, and I stood back, with my arms folded, trying to see if I should walk in.
Because I didn’t know how long they were going to be inside, I decided to just come inside, and when I did, I stood right by the door because I was going to just wait for them right here.
Once I was inside, that’s when Tank disarmed the alarm, and he closed the door. He locked it behind himself, and the lights came on automatically. I looked around the shop in amazement, really impressed by the inside.
Not going to lie, it felt like I was standing inside of a jewelry store, compared to a smoke shop, and I only felt this way because of all the gleam.
The walls were painted in a matte black color, but there were accent walls that were painted in gold, which is what gave the shop that rich feel, and didn’t make it seem so dark.
The glass display cases had gold trims, with soft strip lighting underneath that made the products glow in a way like trophies were being displayed.
I think the part of the shop that really won me over was the bar area.
There wasn’t any alcohol though. It was just set up like a traditional bar would be.
Behind the bar area, there was hookah lined up perfectly that I knew my sisters and I would love.
There was vape cartridges, and even some CBD oils arranged like bottles of liquor.
There were barstools that were sitting right in front of the bar area, which was nice because it gave his customers the ability to sit, and enjoy samples.
My eyes literally danced around this entire shop, and I had to say that I was proud of him.
From our conversation that we had at the lounge that night, I knew that Tank used to be in the streets.
He could have chosen to continue to do that with his life, but he didn’t, and I think that’s the part that made me so proud.
“Tank, this is so nice. I’ve been to plenty of smoke shops, but none of them look like this.
I feel like I’m at a luxury lounge or some shit.
What made you want to branch off, and open a smoke shop?
” Tommie asked Tank, now that her, and Free made their way over to the bar area, and they sat down in one of the barstools.
By this time, Tank was standing behind the bar, and he started pulling stuff out, putting it on the display, so that my sisters could see it.
“Shit, the real answer is that I like to smoke weed. The way I saw it was if I’m going to be out here spending money on weed, I might as well put myself in a position to make money off it too.
You know out west, in places like Vegas, and Cali, you can legally sell that shit out there.
In Miami, you know marijuana isn’t legal yet, so I had to do what I could legally, and that’s why I’m pushing hookah’s, vapes, edibles, and CBD, which are all the things that Florida will legally allow me to sell,” he let Tommie know.
There was a little lounge area, and that’s where I decided to sit down.
It wasn’t too far from where my sisters and Tank were.
He showed them different products, telling him which edibles were his favorite, and what he would recommend them to try.
Once he had them situated, he walked from behind the counter, and he came over to me, standing right in front of me.
“Let your sisters hang out tonight. Come roll with me,” he was bold in the way he said that.
“No,” was all I had for him, and that made him laugh.
“Why not? Ya’ll was about to go eat, right? You can eat with me. That’s what I was getting ready to do anyways,” he was persistent.
I turned my head, so that I could look at my sisters, and they were too busy trying the edibles that Tank had given to them, so they weren’t paying me the least bit of attention.
I turned back around, so that I could look at him, and I just hated that his presence wasn’t making this any better.
He was so damn fine. His eyes looked so innocent, as he was practically begging me to go out to dinner with him tonight.
“My sisters going to get mad. They going to feel like I’m ditching them for a nigga,” I lied, knowing damn well that Free, nor Tommie would give a damn.
I thought that I’d kept my voice down, saying it in a way where only he could hear me, but I guess not because I heard both my sisters laugh from behind me.
“Dionne, please! Don’t put that on us! Nobody going to be mad if you decide to go out with him.
Go! Please go and get fucked too!” of course, that was no one but Tommie’s ignorant ass that had made that outburst. I was used to the kind of outlandish outburst that my sister would make, which is why I didn’t laugh, but Tank did.
I gave in to him, telling him that I would go, shocking my damn self because I just knew that I was going to tell his ass no. My sisters were in the back, clapping their hands, putting on a whole damn show, as if I just accepted this man’s wedding proposal.
From there, Tank asked me if there was anything in the shop that I wanted to try, but I told him that I was fine.
We stayed in the shop for about ten more minutes, and then we finally left out.
My sisters hugged me, told me to enjoy myself, and to text them if I needed them.
Tank had them wait because he kept his word, where he was going to walk them over to the lounge, since he said his friend owned it.
Before he did that though, he unlocked the trunk to his Aston Martin, put the briefcase inside that he was holding, and he opened the passenger door for me, so that I could get inside.
He let me know that he would be right back, and I nodded, telling him that it was fine.
I couldn’t help but to notice how clean his car was.
Not only was it clean, but it smelled good in here as well.
I just assumed that it would smell like weed since I knew he smoked, but it didn’t.
I didn’t want to be nosy, looking around, going through this things, so I just pulled my phone out, and I saw that I had a text message from my mom.
She sent it to the group chat that me, her, and my sisters were all in.
It was a video that she’d taken of Liberty.
She was in my mom’s bed, lying on her stomach, knocked out.
I loved that little girl as if I birthed her, so I texted a bunch of heart emoji’s back, and then I just relaxed in the chair.
Tank made his way to the car about ten minutes later, and when he did, he closed the door behind him, and he slouched back into the chair, while turning his head to look at me. I turned to look at him as well because I had a question for him.
“What do you keep in that briefcase?” I asked.
“Money,” he responded.
“You don’t think that’s a little unsafe to be walking around with a Louis Vuitton suitcase filled with money?” I wanted to know.
“Unsafe for you?” he asked, taking the gun off his hip, and he sat it down in the cupholder.
“I guess,” was all that I said in response to that.
“What you have a taste for? What you want to eat?” he inquired.
“Were you able to get my sisters into the lounge?” I asked him a question before I answered his.
“Yeah. I told you my homie owns that spot. He was there, so he took them to a booth. They in good hands. Back to the question that I just asked you though. What do you have a taste for?” he wanted to know.
“I can eat anything, so wherever you take me is fine,” was my response, which shocked the hell out of me because the old Dionne used to be ready to run a nigga’s pockets dry.
I would purposely choose the most expensive restaurant that I could find, but I wasn’t doing that here.
I hadn’t even asked this man for any money, which wasn’t like me at all because the old Dionne used to beg for a coin in a second!
Could it be that I had calmed my ass down, or did I like him, and that’s why I was moving different?
I had no idea what the hell it was, but whatever I was doing, I knew myself enough to know that I was moving different.