“Um, Max. I don’t think Crystal plays the harp.”
“Really,” he says, his voice 100 percent sarcasm.
“That’s probably the only criterion she doesn’t meet, though. I mean, how the hell was I going to find a harp-playing philanthropist who was a dead ringer for Sleeping Beauty?” Talk about impossible. “She’s probably super pretty and into social justice or…IDK.”
Max raises his eyebrows. “Let’s go meet her.”
The Compton Walmart is a plain old Walmart, but it does feel a little extra Walmarty. I could pretty much walk out of the place with any young woman there, and she’d be ready for a date. Long nails, tight dresses, good hair. Lots of girls are dressed to go somewhere other than Walmart. Hell, I’min a cocktail dress.
I’m not sure where Crystal works but I figure any girl I hire isn’t stocking shelves or operating a forklift in the back. I scan the registers and find Crystal finishing up at checkout #7. I can see why Kobra compared her to Halle Berry. She’s got a popping figure and a cute pixie cut but, more important for my immediate purposes, she’s the only twentysomething in the place dressed in full-on sweats. She must have something else to wear in her employee locker. I catch a snippet of her conversation with the customer she’s helping. “Girl, she ain’t got no money.
Tell me about it, Crystal.
“Crystal?” I greet her as she turns the light off on #7.
Her customer service tone vanishes in a second. She angles her head and the look she gives me is pureI can’t even with you.
“Crystal…”
She holds her hand up. Whatever I did to her, she has no intention of hurrying for me. “Let me close out this register. I’ll be right with you.”
“Okay. I’ll just wait over there.” Max and I head to the cafeteria area and grab a table while Crystal takes her sweet time doing whatever it is she’s doing.
She walks over, pacing herself like a queen. “Thing is,” she says, “I don’t have anyone to watch Kai tonight.”
“You have kids?” It comes out like,you have herpes?And how could she not have a babysitter yet? This date has been on the books since way before I lost my mind.
“What’s the matter with you? You know Kai.”
“My memory is a little fuzzy,” I say.
“Oh.” I think that’s the first time it hits her that I have a real injury. I think about explaining the whole thing, but what’s the point? We have other things to worry about.
I level with her. “Crystal, do you understand the stakes here?”
“What do you mean?”
“This is a date with a millionaire. He has flown his ass to LA just to see you. He wants to take you to a fancy dinner and get to know you.” I gesture to her surroundings, my implication obvious—she can do better than this. “This is a powerful guy.”
She shrugs. “Whatever. Same bullshit, different restaurant.”
I take a deep breath. “This is a good opportunity. He has money and it doesn’t look like you do.”
“Umm, that’s what you said the last time.”
Kobra.
“Kobra has money,” I say, more to myself than to Crystal.
“He’s a straight-up criminal.”
“Did something happen on that date?”
She nods. “Let me tell you about that fool. He took me to some warehouse by the pier. He has a tricked-out loft inside. It’s sketch as hell and full of drugs. When we showed, he was throwing some party with his homies. Booze, drugs, girls. You get it.”
I nod. Sounds romantic.
“I don’t want anything to do with that. I signed up for this to get out of that lifestyle. Enough motherfuckers likethat around here.”
