“And when ishomegon’ settle down and stop making her look crazy out here in these streets?”
“If you was any other nigga questioning me, I swear to God, I’d blow your gahdamn brains out,” I smiled, meaning every single word. “Now, J… now. I ain’t doing all that bullshit no more. It’s only her.”
He removed the crisp bills from the machine before feeding another stack into it. “You saying that, but you better show her, my nigga,” he continued giving his unsolicited advice. “You and Drek been through too much publicly and behind closed doors just to keep going through the same shit. You wanna make wedding plans or funeral plans? Pick one, ‘cause she’ll fuck around and kill yo ass this time if you fuck her over again.”
His words lingered between us just as heavy as the silence. When most street niggas got in my presence, they seemed to lose the bass in their voice, but Jah wasn’t one of those niggas. He called me on my shit and never feared the repercussions because he knew there wouldn’t be any. Jah was my nigga, through and through.
Back in the day, he was a player until Makenna’s waterhead ass swooped in and made him settle down. Shit, me and J used to hit bitches together, but once Ken domesticated him, that was a wrap. Now he was Mr. Husband and liked to be in the house before it got dark outside. Soft ass nigga. I can’t even blame him though because the moment I settled Drek down, I was gon’ be outside a lot less, too.
“Nah, I’m chilling. Almost everybody has been cut off,” I opened the pack of currency straps to help him start banding the money together.
“Almost?” He looked at me like I was crazy as hell. “Yeah, you gon’ be dead by the end of summer. Who you want to handle your arrangements? Metropolitan? Holloman?”
Chuckling, I shook my head at how this nigga was always playing the moral police since he’d been married. “Man, ain’t gon’ be no funerals, only a wedding, mark my words. I’m wrapping shit up with ol’ girl before it gets back to Drek.”
“Aight,” he hummed in that tone that told me he wasn’t convinced, but he was gon’ keep going back and forth with me either.
Gabs: Are you coming over?
Staring at the text for a minute, I decided to ignore it while me and J finished handling business. Thirty minutes later, the money was banded and stacked neatly inside the duffle bag it came in. After separating out his cut from his workers, we did our handshake and left the condo.
I contemplated on returning Gabby’s text, but I knew I needed to dead the shit with me and her, so I chose to just pull up on her. The sooner we had the conversation, the sooner I could put a ring on Drek’s finger without her looking stupid. Blasting Pop Smoke all the way to her crib, I smoked a blunt to even me out. Gabby wasn’t about to take this shit well, and I knew that for a fact.
We’d been fuckin’ around for almost three years, and in her mind, that gave her some type of seniority in my life. In a way, it did because she’d been around a lot longer than any other of the bitches I fucked with. At the end of the day, nobody outranked Drek in my life, not even God. She was always and would forever be number one.
Gabriae was cool. She wasn’t messy, never ran her mouth to bloggers nor did she say shit about me on the Internet. In exchange for her loyalty, I put her up in a nice lil’ condo and kept her bills paid. That was the least I could do for allowingme open access to her body and holding it down in the process. Most bitches I fucked couldn’t wait until I fell asleep to sneak a picture of me and post it to their Instagram to make it more than what it was. Not her though. Her Instagram was flooded with her photography business, never her personal, and I could respect that. Hell, I respectedher,which was why I knew this conversation was about to be difficult as fuck.
Using the key she’d given me to her place, I walked in and the smell of weed and incense greeted me. Reggae music was blasting so loud that I’m sure her entire floor was hearing every single lyric. That was normal for Gabs, and she didn’t give a single fuck either. That was another thing I liked about her. She lived her life the way she wanted, no matter who it bothered or offended.
“Shit!” she yelled, emerging from the hall wearing booty shorts and a baby tee with her nipples poking through the thin fabric. “Nigga, announce yourself!”
I swirled my index finger in the air. “Would you have heard me?”
Giggling, she snatched her phone from the couch and paused the music. “No but still. I almost had a heart attack,” she walked up on me with her thick, glossed up lips and kissed me. “Wassup, baby?”
She smelled good as hell too, like always, and that had my dick pressing against the fabric of my boxers. Gabriae was a beautiful woman that men and women were attracted to. Standing at 5’3”, her skin was the color of a golden sunray, and she was the definition of a brickhouse, naturally. She had them sleepy, seductive eyes, like Tems, that would make the strongest nigga weak in the knees.
For a second, I almost forgot the reason why I came over in the first place. Staring at her lips and then her body, my mind started sliding off track, and she knew it, too. When her handreached for my zipper, that’s what snapped me back to get the conversation over with.
“We need to talk, Gabs.”
“Mm…okay,” her expression went from lustful to concerned. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not, but it’s necessary,” I gestured towards the couch. “Have a seat for me, mama.”
With curious eyes, she backed up and plopped down, keeping her gaze set on me. I could tell she was high, so I hoped that helped ease the blow that I was about to deliver.
“Gabriae, you know I fuck with you the long way. You cool as hell, and you never put our business out there for muthafuckas to see. That goes a long way with me, especially considering how public my life is,” I melted into the armchair across from her. “You been solid and never tried to make this more than what it is.”
“Okay…so what is this? What are you getting at?”
“I appreciate and respect you, dead ass. But I can’t do this with you no more. Ima pay up your rent for the rest of the year, so you don’t have to worry about that. As far as me and you though…”
Her eyebrows raised in slight confusion and disappointment. “Because you’re getting back with Rahdreka?”
Gahdamn, did the whole fuckin’ world know? Stupid question. Of course they did. They knew what I ate for breakfast, so of course they knew who was in my damn bed.
“I am. I don’t wanna drag you along because I can’t have her out here looking stupid, feel me? Ion want that shit for you either, if I’m being honest. I actually do care about you enough to protect you in that way, unlike the rest of these simple-minded bitches.”
