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“Address me privately and with respect as an adult. You won’t have any problems otherwise. I’m the only black woman in here, and I will take you to court for discriminative behavior. These white people in here fuck around all the time and don’t suffer the same ridicule. Then you will be paying me back the money for my contract, and I’ll have you paying for the most expensive coach I can find. Capeesh?”
“Uh, umm… yes, ma’am.”
I rolled my eyes and walked off. She was fucking with the wrong one. I tried to keep my worlds separate, but she’d brought Keke out front and center. She’d already come out earlier when I picked up Corben from daycare. My younger sister, Sasha, chose the name Corben, because the name she originally picked was for a girl. She was so sure she was having a girl, thanks to our mama and her superstitions. The name she picked out for a daughter was Raven. Corben was the male version of that name.
When I got to my car, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then made my way to my downtown loft. I was so hungry. It was like I could taste that roasted chicken on my tongue. I’d cooked it before I left to get my nephew, but I didn’t have a chance to eat. When Sasha called for me to get Corben, I wanted to curse her out. She was dealing with Jungle Patterson and some type of real estate shit he was trying to get off the ground.
Mama had told her to go talk to him about it. My dad worked for Ice Patterson back in the day, and Ice had promised my mama that he would always look out for us. When Ice got killed, all that shit stopped. Jungle was locked up at the time, but I didn’t think he knew of his dad’s commitment to us. I’d only met Ice once or twice, and I vaguely remembered Jungle. Daddy did his best to keep us out of that shit. He said Ice had told him it was best that way, especially since we were girls.
He mainly had a man named Joshua seeing after us. He was rough as hell. My mama called him Josh one time, and he went off. He told her that he introduced himself as Joshua and that was what the fuck she should be calling him. Even after all that, there was something soft about him. I never figured it out since he was killed by the time I was ten. After that happened was when I met Ice for the first time. Seemed like I’d seen Ice one other time at my graduation party. A couple of years later, he and his son Mega were killed.
Most people didn’t make it out the game without being locked up or killed. That was why I respected the hell out of Jungle. That nigga made it out alive. My mama said he even had a family now. He had to be smart as hell. That was why my mama had my sister fucking with him.
After I got home and had eaten and taken a shower, my phone rang. I was more than sure it was Sasha or my agent. Every now and then, a nigga from my past would call. Sure enough, when I got to it and saw Sasha’s name, I answered. “Hey, girl. What’s up?”
“Hey. What’chu doing?”
“I just finished moisturizing my skin and was about to watch TV. Why?”
“Well, I was invited out to Pilar’s tonight to celebrate. We got plans finalized on the real estate company. Jungle made me a partner! He said my expertise and another chick’s named Whitney, helped him get this done. He offered me fifteen percent. Can you believe that shit?”
“That’s amazing, Sasha! I’m so proud of you! What time should I be ready?”
“In an hour?”
“Shit! You know I like to take my time!” I chuckled. “Okay. I gotta get this body right. You picking me up?”
“Yep. See you in an hour!”
She giggled, and I couldn’t help but laugh too. She was so happy. She and Corben needed this. Corben’s dad was locked up, but he was still a small-time hustler when he got locked up. There was no money saved yet. Mama and I did our best to help her when we could, but things were somewhat tight for me too at times.
I stood from the couch and looked at myself in the mirror, trying to imagine what I wanted to look like tonight, then headed to my room to transform into the runway model people thought I was.
When I realized we were going upstairs to VIP, I leaned over to Sasha’s ear and said, “Oh, we big timing, huh?”
She giggled. “Yeah. The owner, Smoke Gutierrez, was at the meeting.”
I nodded. She was about ten minutes late picking me up, because she’d brought Corben to Mama’s house, and he was whining to come with her here. He was so spoiled. When he wasn’t at daycare, he was with Sasha or me. My schedule was the most flexible. My mama worked at the food stamp office. She hated that shit, but it paid the bills.
Once we reached the landing and walked around to the VIP area, I was in awe. I had been to Pilar’s several times, but I’d never been fortunate enough to get to VIP. I didn’t really make frequenting clubs a habit. Pilar’s was the only club I’d even been to. It was so damn fancy. Crystals and sheers were everywhere, and the floors were marble… a totally different vibe up here.
When we got to where everyone was, a woman scantily dressed smiled at us. I frowned slightly as a man approached us. “Hey, Jungle,” Sasha said.
Oh shit! Jungle was fine as hell. “What it do, baby girl? Come on through. Who you got wit’chu?”
“This is my sister Keondra,” she said as I extended my hand to shake his.
He smiled slightly, and responded, “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
He turned to the woman approaching us and rolled his eyes. “This is my sister, Fawn. Just like Yonkers did y’all, my dad did the same with her until his death almost fourteen years ago.”
Yonkers was my dad’s street name. They called him that because that was where he was originally from. He moved to Houston when he was fifteen and met my mama at school. His name was Yusef, but that shit was a thing of the past to everyone but us. My mama called him Yusef, her east coast nigga. I smiled at the thought.
“Hey, y’all! Anybody ever tell y’all that you look like fucking black Barbie dolls? So beautiful!”
I giggled. I’d heard that a time or two. She seemed like my kind of people. She continued. “And y’all dress fly too! Shiiiid, we finna turn up in this bitch. Let me introduce y’all to my girls, Amiko and Chelsea.”
