Another round of laughter filtered through the shop and East looked up at Poole after turning his clippers on.
“Just tell him since y’all know so much about my life,” Poole shot back at Dawson.
“Don’t be mad at me cause you’re dumb as hell.” He then turned to East. “How about this muthafucker let his girl usehiscar, his brand-newBenzto go pick up her ex dude’s mother to take her baby shopping for this muthafucker’s baby shower.”
“The fuck?” East barely got out because of the laugh that followed. “Hold on, hold on. What am I missing?”
“You didn’t miss shit. You heard me right. His girl is chauffeuring her ex mother-in-law around in his car so she can shop for her grandchild. Mind you, this isn’t Poole’s girl’s baby. It’s her ex’s other chick.”
“The chick he cheated on her with, so I’m good with that. Celebrate that bitch and let them have their happily ever after. As long as my girl isn’t pushing out one of his kids, we straight. I don’t know why y’all are tripping.”
“Bruh!” East, Dawson, and Hawk all yelled at the same time, causing the shop to erupt.
“Did you just seriously justify that shit?” East paused and looked at Poole like he had lost his mind.
“Yes sir, he did. This muthafucker dumb as hell. I told you.”
“Bruh, there is no gotdamn way I would allow that shit to happen and I would curse her out for even bringing it to me.”
“Oh trust, she didn’t ask, she told him,” Hawk added through a laugh.
“You damn right, she’s running shit. We’ve all seen it.”
East chuckled with a memory of Poole's girl rolling up in there, cursing him out, then making him apologize right after. “You’re right. Damn, Poole, that’s just sad. I would feel sorry for you but you need to man the fuck up.”
While the rest of the shop continued going in on Poole, East focused on his client. “Same cut?” he questioned after examining what he was working with. Looked like a simple fade, low on the top.
“Yeah, just clean it up.”
With a slight lift of his chin in acknowledgment, East got to work, hoping the next hours were easy.
“Girl,you will not believe what went down after you left last?—"
Nyelle lifted her face to Joi after sending a text to her mother and her mouth immediately flew open while her eyes doubled in size. “What the hell happened to you?”
Stepping inside of Joi’s tiny apartment, Nyelle moved closer to Joi and began to examine her neck and face. The bruise on her face wasn’t as bad anymore because the swelling had gone down but the marks on her neck looked bad. Joi ended up canceling her client because of it.
“Who the hell did that to you?” Nyelle’s heart sank at the sight of her friend.
“Reg.” Joi hated having to mention his name. Never in a million years would she have imagined things between them would be this insane. He wasn’t the greatest, but he had never been abusive. Joi was positive that a combination of things led up to him being so aggressive, like the fact that he was drunk, high, and pissed about her moving on with her life, but none of those things excused him putting his hands on her.
“Are you fucking kidding me? What the hell?”
Nyelle followed Joi to her tiny living space and the two women got comfy on the sofa. Both women sat cross-legged with their backs against the arms on opposite sides while Joiexplained everything that happened after she left Nyelle’s condo last night. When she was done, Nyelle sat shaking her head, feeling emotional about the entire thing.
“You should have told me that’s where you were going. I would have made you take your ass home like East asked you to. Even if Reg hadn’t been the one to follow you, it could have been anybody. I feel like it’s kinda my fault too.” Nyelle thought about the fact that she normally would have checked on her girl to make sure she made it home safe or even talked to her on the way. Had that been the case she would have insisted Joi went home but she was so caught up in Vega, then Reese popping up, that she never even checked on Joi.
“It is not your fault. I should have gone home but everything in me kept telling me he was lying. It’s hard not to think all kinds of crazy shit when every man you trust lets you down. Hell, I trusted Reg and his ass was definitely cheating. Even if I didn’t know it back then, I found out for sure last night.”
Nyelle shook her head at the thought of Reg following her with another woman with him. That had to be the most insane part of the story in her opinion. He was really on one.
“I can’t believe this muthafucker had a whole ass woman with him and was following you like you didn’t have the right to move on with your life. And this dumb bitch was riding with himandwatched him put his hands on you. Trust, she’s catching a fade as soon as we find that hoe.”
Joi grinned, feeling slightly better. “She got one coming. Believe that. I don’t care how salty she was, her dumb ass was riding with him and let it go down. That’s some fuck shit.” Joi felt anger all over again thinking about it.
“That’s some insecure shit but she got that. She just better be prepared when we find her. That’s my word.”
“I’m not worried about her right now.”
