“Girl, that bathroom is so laid back there. I mean, could you imagine living like this every day? Waking up and looking out those big ass windows, and that view.”
“Yeah. I could. Hopefully it happens one day.”
“Shit me too. Maybe it can if I can just find a man who has it like that.”
“That’s the thing, Tania. You don’t have to find a man to get to this level.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do, go to the pole?”
I laughed. “Of course not. Nobody is paying to see your little ass shake.”
We laughed together, loud and quick, the sound bouncing off the high ceilings like we belonged there.
“But for real, you are blessed Tee. When it comes to hair, nobody in D.C. can lay a wig down like you. You know that. Openyour books more and take more clients weekly. Just think about it, friend, five heads a day at two hundred each. That’s $1000 a day. Six days a week, that means it’s six thousand a week.”
She sighed, shoulders sinking.
“Yeah, I know. I get down on myself. I’ll do someone’s hair, and look at it so long that I start hating it. And don’t get me started on these bitches and their attitudes, or people not wanting to pay two hundred when I’m the cheapest person on the East Coast. That took all the fun and want out of doing hair.”
I let her ramble. That was Tania, always finding a reason to doubt herself when good things tried to land in her lap. I would take attitudes and tangled bundles all day before I’d take men grabbing on my body, telling me how to move it, and what ways to bend. She didn’t even realize how good she had it being able to style hair good.
We sat in the quiet for a second, and I grabbed the remote as she let out a long yawn.
“I’m putting something on. Proctor out there smoking his life away. I wish he’d invite me out there. I need to hit the blunt, but I’m low-key getting sleepy.”
She yawned again wide. “Girl, it’s been a long day.”
“Yes, it has.”
I flipped through the channels passing up the showMartin,but thatfelt like too much energy, so I landed onThe Golden Girls,which was the same show me, her, and Ari had fallen asleep to plenty of nights in the past.
The episode wasn’t even on for five minutes before her head started dipping inch by inch as she fought to stay up.
As she got sleepy, I was getting more awake.
That nervous, restless feeling in my chest wouldn’t calm down, and once Tania started snoring, I heard footsteps echoing from the back hallway.
“Y’all up in here watchingThe Golden Girls? What the fuck. I haven’t seen this shit since my grandma died. Damn. Your homegirl passed out, huh?”
“Yeah.” I looked over to Tania, whose head was completely tilted back.
“That liquor got her.”
“Well, we don’t want to wake her up, so you want to come in here?”
“Come where?”
“I have a little room close to my bedroom where I sit when I don’t want to be in this big-ass space.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to be in here? You have the nice windows, the fireplace, the kitchen right there.”
“Yeah, I know, but the other room is small, quiet, and comfortable. It’s more like the living rooms I grew up in as a child. Sometimes this space is too much for me. I be seeing shit.”
I laughed softly, nerves buzzing under my skin.
“Well, I guess I’ll come. I definitely don’t want to sit in here so long that I start seeing shit too.”
He laughed while playing in his beard.
