Angie was the bartender at the club when Cameron owned it. We clicked so well, we became friends outside of work. As much as I would’ve loved for my girl to come back to bartending or assist me with running my club, she ventured off into her career of tattooing. She had her own private suite where she took clients. She was the one who gave me my tattoo of Ahk’s name and followed up with Ahk’s tattoo of my face and Saphir’s. She was cold as fuck with her tattoo gun.
Zylynn, I met through Ahkeem. She was Javi’s girlfriend, and such a sweet girl. How she ended up with a nigga whose picture was right next to the definition of lunatic in the dictionary was beyond me. She was a celebrity makeup artist who was very well known. She was always traveling to her clients, so catching her while she was in the city was hard as fuck. I didn’t know how she and Javi did it. I literally needed to be in Ahkeem’s skin in order to get a good night's sleep, and he was the same.
“I hope y’all didn’t get started without us.” Angie side eyed us jokingly.
“Never, babe, but we do need to hurry up and order something because I’m hungry. Fucking with Cinco, I almost missed my flight this morning.” Taylor shook her head.
Angie waved her off. “You probably jumped that man’s bones before your flight and trying to blame him.”
She bit down on her finger. I was sure her head was filled with flashbacks of the dick she got before her flight. “And did! I don’t regret it either.”
“You’re so freaked out,” I said, prompting us all to laugh.
We got our drinks, and we seemed to be on theme for lemon drops. Then we ordered our food.
“So, what the hell has been going on? Last time we were all together was the wedding,” Zylynn pointed out.
“Girl,” I sighed dramatically. “Absolute fucking mayhem. You know bullets went flying at Nymir’s funeral.”
All of them gasped. Zylynn was out of town on business, and Javi assured her she didn’t have to attend the funeral. He rarely included her in the craziness he had going on, so I wasn’t surprised that she was hearing all of this from me first.
“What?! That’s crazy! These niggas are getting out of hand.”
“Exactly. Had to cover Blue and everything. My baby was so damn scared, he slept in my and Ahk’s bed.”
“No one got hit, right?” Angie raised a brow.
“Fortunately. But now I gotta roll with that giant over there,” I pointed to Cyro, who was in the cut with his eyes glued on our table.
The table filled with laughter as they all waved at Cyro. He shot us a polite nod, not once cracking a smile.
“I wouldn’t mind rolling with him.” Angie smirked while downing the rest of her drink.
“I swear that nigga has a family we don’t know about, but if I’m wrong, I wouldn’t mind you becoming Lady Cyro.” I shrugged. ”What’s been going on with you?”
“Trying to open this shop. As soon as I find the confidence to expand, that’s when everything wants to go wrong.” Angie sighed deeply. She was looking to leave her private suite and open her own tattoo shop.
“It’ll work out, I swear. Stop being so hard on yourself.” I set my hand over hers while giving her some much-needed encouragement.
“It better or I’m going back to bartending.”
“Now you know I would love to have you back, but we all know we need you out here tatting people up.”
We all agreed, uplifting her on her journey of opening her shop. We then shifted our attention to Zylynn. She was our quiet friend who didn’t tell us what was going on in her life until she had to.
“Me and Javi cool. We’re just growing apart a little bit. He wants me to stop taking clients for a year, but I can’t. I prayed for times like this, and I’m not about to let him stop my motion.”
“I hear you, friend. Niggas like Javi feel like because they can provide a life where you won’t have to lift a finger, you can’t chase your dreams,” Taylor piped in. “They confuse giving us a soft life with keeping us locked in the house catering to them all damn day.”
Zylynn nodded her head, agreeing with Taylor before turning to me. “How do you balance the clubs, the boutique, and Ahk?”
“I have no balance, to be honest. There are weeks where I’m available to my husband, and then there’s weeks where I’m coming home right before the sun comes up. I always told Ahk my money and goals will always be a priority, and surprisingly, he just gets it.” I didn’t realize how lucky I had it until my homegirls were telling me about their men. Ahkeem was as reasonable as they came and never made me feel like I was wrong for chasing my dreams. Sure, he wanted a baby; however, he knew that a life where I wasn’t doing anything was never gonna happen.
Zylynn groaned. “Well, tell his ass to talk some damn sense into Javi, please.”
Ahk stayed the fuck out of people’s business, so I knew even if I did tell him, he wouldn’t even think about having a conversation with his boy about it.
We shifted our attention to Taylor, and she smirked. She loved telling us each and every detail of what she had going on in Miami. “I gave Cinco a threesome.”
