“She aw’ight,” he said, in so many words, yet again.
CHAPTER SIX
“Rasheda?Rasheda Richardson?Is that you?”
Ricki had parked her Mustang two blocks from the salon and had made it to the front of her place of work when the two ladies stopped her. At first she wasn’t certain who they were. And then she recognized one of them. They went to high school together back in Connecticut. “Barb?”
“Girl, it’s been years,” Barbara Kocklin said as they embraced. “I haven’t seen you in ages. Let me look at you.” She pulled her back. Whereas Barbara was decked down in Prada head to toe and her hair and makeup professionally done, Ricki was the exact opposite. And it showed on Barbara’s face. “Well. You’ve changed.”
Ricki didn’t see how. “You think so?”
“Yes! Are you serious?” Barbara spoke as if it was self-evident. She even glanced at the friend beside her, who didn’t know Ricki at all, as if she could see it too. “Back in Milton, you used to out-dress me. You were one of the best dressed girls in the whole school. What happened?”
It was the same question Byron had asked her three months ago. She didn’t answer Byron, and she sure as hell wasn’t answering Barbara.But she and Barb were more frenemies than friends anyway. Everything was a competition for Barb when Ricki was just being Ricki. “Nothing happened,” she said instead.
“Uh-hun.” It was obvious that Barbara didn’t believe her.
“So how have you been, Barb? You live in Brooklyn too?”
Barb smiled. Her friend laughed. “Me? Live inBrooklyn? Of course not silly! Oh, by the way, this is my colleague Gweneth. She and I are attorneys at the same law firm. Gweneth, this is Rasheda.”
“Everybody calls me Ricki,” said Ricki, attempting to be pleasant although the interaction was anything but.
“Nice to meet you.”
“We’re attorneys,” Barbara was quick to point out, although she’d already pointed it out.
“That’s nice,” said Ricki.
“But I’ll bet you surpassed me by leaps and bounds,” said Barbara and Gweneth tried her best not to smile, although a grin broke free. “She was voted most likely to succeed in our high school class. Weren’t you, Rasheda?”
“Yes, I was.”
“So tell me. I’m just a little old lawyer. What are you? And what are you doing in this godforsaken place?”
Ricki hated snobs, which she could tell Barbara had become. “Godforsaken?”
“You know what I mean,” Barbara said with a smile. “I’m here because we’re meeting with a very unsavory client. Most disagreeable. But one that will be a very lucrative client if we win our lawsuit. What about you? What are you doing here?”
“I work here.”
“Truly?” She looked around at the working-class area. “Doing what?”
“Hair. I’m a beautician. I work right here.” Ricki showed her the storefront salon withGeraldine’swritten in a semi-circle across the window.
It was as if she’d just told Barbara she robbed banks for a living. “Wow. Okay. But you own the salon surely?”
“No I don’t own it, Barb. I just work there.”
“With your own booth making your own money?”
“No. I get a salary. Any more questions?”
Barbara took offense. “It’s not my fault you failed. You don’t have to be all snippy about it.”
“And you don’t have to be an asshole about it,” Ricki said. “Bye bitch,” she added with bite in her voice as she headed across the sidewalk to the salon entrance.
“Isn’t she awful?” Barbara said as she and her friend began leaving.
