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ns I’ll see you again?” I asked, hoping Mike would take the cue and leave.
Thankfully Mike was in a hurry and didn’t want to come a second time. He tipped me twenty dollars, and we had about five minutes of small talk before he left to go home to his wife and kids. The twenty-dollar tip was OK, about ten percent. But nowadays even waitresses are tipped twenty-five percent or better.
Although it was early, I wasn’t in the mood for no more clients, so I didn’t bother to take out my laptop and run any more online ads. Instead I took a shower, got dressed, and called a cab to take me back home. On my ride home, I called Nico. I was going to call him from my regular phone, but instead I decided to call him from the prepaid phone I used for my escorting.
Nico’s phone rang out to voice mail, but I didn’t leave a message. I figured he probably didn’t answer numbers he didn’t recognize. I decided to just take my chances and shoot him a text message. I knew exactly how to test the waters.
Hey, Nico, this is Jasmine. When you can, give me a call I just wanted to tell you something about my man.
Five minutes after I sent that text, the cab was pulling up to my house, and my cell phone rang. It was Nico.
“Hello,” I said, answering the phone.
“Jasmine, what’s good?”
“Yeah, I just wanted to tell you that I don’t really know what’s going on, but just between me and you, the other night Shabazz came by my house for a quick minute and he was saying how you got him out here still on salary and starving while less loyal niggas is working on a percentage.”
“He was telling you that? Where the fuck that nigga been at?”
“I don’t know, but he was crazy, saying shit like, ‘Hungry dogs ain’t loyal because they’ll eat you alive,’ and it was just weird, like I never seen him like that before, I don’t really know for sure, but you know how you get the feeling that somebody is scheming or something? Well, he ain’t say no names, but I just get the feeling that somebody is plotting on you. I ain’t saying it’s him, but I’m just saying.”
“Yeah, yeah, I feel you. I mean, I been trying to holla at the nigga, but he been ghost, you know what I mean? Shit is real fucked up out on these streets right now, and these cats that you thought was down with you, they be switching up sides,” Nico replied.
“I been tryin’ to tell him that he shouldn’t just be outta reach the way he is, but just like I was tellin’ Mia, I can’t get through to him,” I exaggerated and said.
Nico was quiet for a moment, and so was I.
Nico asked, “You know where he at right now?”
“Nope,” I replied nonchalantly but truthfully. “He been in and outta town, but I don’t really know where to.”
“Yeah, a’ight, but if you see him, hit me up, a’ight?”
“OK, I will, and sorry if I caused you any drama from earlier with my text.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I had accidentally sent Mia the exact same text I had sent you earlier about Shabazz,” I lied. “And when I realized it was her phone, I told her to disregard, but she flipped the fuck out.”
“And she called you?” he asked with a bit of an attitude.
“Yeah, she was buggin’ out, cursing and threatening to come to my crib and all that. I was like, ‘Waaow! Are you serious?’” I chuckled slightly, trying to make Mia seem like she had wilded out in an uncalled for way.
“When the fuck was this?”
“Today, not too long ago.”
“If she went through my phone, I’ll fuck her ass up for that ignorant shit!”
“No, it’s OK. It’s fine. I know you probably already got enough on your mind, so don’t even bring it up. Mia probably just don’t understand, unless she’s a nag like that all the time,” I said, trying my best to sound compassionate and still take a shot at her.
Nico didn’t respond to me, so I continued talking, to keep the conversation flowing.
“I never did get up with you that night,” I reminded him.
“That was on you.”
“That was then, though. What’s up with now?”
