“You ready?” Frequency questioned.
“More than ready.” I marched toward him.
Before I could enter the hallway, his strong hand grasped my arm. He stood so close grilling me that I could smell the toothpaste on his breath. His cologne was subtle, not at all smothering. It put me on a high when I inhaled, and got me wondering if it had some kind of supernatural powers to it because the flutters that increased in my stomach alarmed me.
“Let’s make a few things clear here, Harbor. This is still my show. You’re a guest star, and you’re also valuable. I can turn you into something you never even thought you could be. It’s up to you how this plays out.” I couldn’t tell if he was giving me a pep talk or a warning.
I didn’t feel scared. I felt empowered. Nobody ever had that kind of blind faith in me before. And even though I was brought here under other conditions, I didn’t feel unsafe. I was trapped and confined, but that had been my entire life.
“Any other warnings? As far as I can see, we kind of need one another, Frequency. So you aid me, and I’ll do the same. I gain nothing from exposing you. My family already thinks I’m a fuckup, the black sheep. At this point, getting a bag is the only thing that I’m concerned about. Money tends to make everyone treat you differently.”
His crazy eyes raked me over from head to toe. He was having a great debate within himself. I could tell that much from the perplexity that masked his face. He was dressed down, but his outfit was still expensive, down to the St. Laurents on his feet.
“Let’s go,” he ordered, stepping aside so that I could pass him into the hallway.
We walked through the halls, and there was tension in the air like no other. I could’ve just been paranoid, but I swear I felt his eyes all over me up until we reached the foyer of the home. Ivy, his daughter, waited with Celine at the front door.
“Are you ladies ready for a shopping spree?” Celine asked, excitement in her voice.
“Yeah, sure.” Ivy shrugged and held her phone up while she scrolled along her social media.
She had her AirPods in her ear, and I would bet that she planned on listening to her playlist all the way to the shopping district.
“We might be out a while. Dinner sounds about a reasonable time,” Frequency told Celine before he put a kiss to her cheek.
I picked up early on that the two were very close. Celine was a gem. She was sweet, and homegirl could cook. As warm as she was, I often wondered how she got mixed up with a man likeFrequency to begin with. I imagined it was quite the story, and that there was more to Celine than met the eye.
“OK, have fun!” Celine called after us.
Surprisingly, Frequency opened the front passenger door for me. I slipped inside, and he closed it before opening the door so that his daughter could get into the back seat. The leather seats were like butter against my ass, and the direct sun on my face was enough to get me high. I threw my head back in the seat and took a deep breath in as he rounded the car and got into his driver’s seat. Ivy sat in the middle of the back seat with her phone in hand so that she could entertain herself. Frequency started the car and shifted into drive off of his property. I noticed that there was another car tailing right behind us. He didn’t seem bothered by it, so I assumed that he knew they were there.
We cruised through the streets and familiarity crept into me. The street signs and different landmarks all reminded me of something. I was on the outside looking in though because it didn’t even seem like my life anymore. We arrived at the shopping district that all of my old friends would kill to have the money to spend in. My sister and I weren’t spoiled like that either. We had credit cards and knew how to get a hustle up, which was how we afforded the finer shit in life. Our father would give us some big speech otherwise about hard work and all that other bullshit. Harmonie and I had different styles, yet they were both expensive.
Frequency parked his Audi truck, and his security detail parallel parked right in the space behind us. He shut off his car and checked his rearview mirror. Our eyes clashed, then locked on one another. I got the feeling he was keeping more of a watchful eye on me than his own daughter. I was the flight risk. At least that was what he thought. As bad as I wanted to get away before, things had changed drastically.
“We ready?” he asked.
“You keep asking that like I’m going to admit to some grand escape,” I said through gritted teeth.
Ivy was a very observant girl. She pretended to be uninterested, but her curiosity was evident in how she studied me and her father together. The tension that resided in me could be seen from a mile away. Her little ass was riding around with earbuds in, more than likely blocking us out. She couldn’t unsee whatever she saw, whether she could hear it or not. Body language sometimes spoke much more than what a person said from their lips. Frequency had an aura that seeped into me when he was around. It was powerful, damn near consuming. Everything between him and I felt personal.
“Ready! Can I just get some cash or a card and go do my own thing?” Ivy questioned.
“No,” Frequency answered calmly. “Let’s go.”
Annoyed by his response, she rolled her eyes and reluctantly followed him toward the first store. We walked into the Chanel spot and began looking around. Frequency had his head down in his phone, and I noticed a big, beefy-looking ass dude come in not too far behind us and park himself at the entrance. He must’ve been the calvary the way his eyes continued to canvass me at Frequency’s side. Something in his phone held Frequency’s attention, and I watched his face ball up into a grimace.
“Look around. Get what you want. And try that shit on. I ain’t got time to be coming back making exchanges,” he told both me and Ivy.
Like two little kids, we looked at each other, and a subtle smile hit both of our lips. She went one way toward the junior’s section, and I wandered into the women’s area to try and find something. I searched rack after rack, grabbing item after item to try on. I carried jeans, a few shirts, and some casual dresses back with me to the dressing room.
It had been so damn long since I had gone shopping that I was taking full advantage of the situation. Who knew when I would get the chance again? Once inside the little dressing room, I slipped out of my clothes, remaining in my bra and panties, so that I could try everything on. My ass had grown, so I was up a size in jeans, but the weight actually didn’t look bad on me. I turned in the mirror, catching it sitting up at every angle in the new distressed denims. After taking them off, I decided to try on the casual dresses. They all fit perfectly.
Something caught my attention outside of the dressing room. Frequency’s cologne assaulted my nostrils. Damn him for smelling and looking so good. It was hard to loathe a mothafucka that was easy on the eyes. But I didn’t know him, and I trusted him even less.
“Try this on,” I heard his voice from the other side, strong and demanding.
His arm came over the top of the dressing room door, revealing the ink he had engraved into his skin. A beaded, black mermaid type gown dangled from his hand. Reaching up, I grabbed it from him, and our hands brushed against one another very gently when I did so. A shock of static prickled my fingertips. My hand jerked away from his like it had fire blazing the tips.
