“Yo, what’s going on, man?” I dapped him up.
“Working, can you develop some pictures for me?” He nodded his response as he blew out the smoke he had just inhaled.
“No doubt, I got you. I was already down here anyway. Is this a new case?” He stepped back, letting me inside. I made my way down into his basement where his dark room was.
“Yeah, man, but this one might be over already. The muthafucka fucked up early. I’ve only been on this for a week now.” I chuckled as I passed him the camera from the bag.
“Damn, I love when the cases work like that. Let me see what you got for me.” He went to the back but poked his head out.
“Ay yo, you sticking around for these or coming back?” I glanced down at my watch and noticed it was still lunch hour.
“Shit, I got time. You wanna order from BJ’s or something?” I asked with my hand already moving to place a food order from somewhere while I waited for the pictures.
“Cool with me.” That was all I needed to know to finish our order.
By the time we finished our food and he smoked another blunt, the pictures were dry and ready.
“So, did Art talk to you about him wanting to rent a suite for the game in a couple weeks?” Tino asked while packing up my prints. I snorted as I thought about the money I had just wired my brother for this outlandish outing.
“Yeah. I’m still trying to understand why the arena seats wouldn’t work. We always do regular seats for the games.”
“Ah shit. I should’ve known your cheap ass would raise hell over the price. I told his ass you wouldn’t go for it.”
“I’m not cheap, that ticket is high, but I said yeah. So both of y’all raggedy muthafuckas can stop with this cheap shit talk. I just would rather not waste my money on a box when a general admission seat works just fine with me.”
“Fool, you only talk like that because you hate spending more than twenty dollars a day. I keep telling Art you had to be switched at daycare or some shit because ain’t no way you born into money and move like you barely got two quarters in the bank,” he joked
“Anyway, are you done? I want to get these to my client by the end of the day.”
“Aw, is BK getting sensitive now? Calm down, fool, but ay, we at the rec this weekend?” I dapped him up as he slid a manila folder toward me.
On weekends, we always tried to get together with Art and our other friend Boss to shoot hoops.
“Of course. This weekend just don’t come crying about no busted ass shoulder and shit. We took it easy on yo’ old ass last weekend; it won’t go down again,” I joked as I prepared myself to leave.
“Old? Fool, I know yo’ senior citizen ass ain’t talking. You’re one birthday away from picking out your unit at Golden Age. Matter of fact, we probably need to do that this weekend after Boss and I whoop you and Art’s asses.”
I laughed as I waved him off, making my way out of the door.
“Yo, hold up. I wasn’t going to say shit, but who is the cold piece that you took a couple flicks of? What does she have to do with this case?”
I frowned as my brows dipped in confusion.
Cold piece?
I wasn’t sure what he was talking about because the only pictures he should’ve developed were of the dirty politician. My brows furrowed together trying to understand what he was talking about. My mouth opened when he produced the few pictures ofherI had forgotten I’d snapped.
“Whatever baby girl is accused of, she’s innocent. She was with me,” he joked while I looked over the pictures before I smirked at his stupid ass.
“She’s not part of the case. I just so happened to catch her before I took off. I don’t know why, but I had to snap the pictures. She was too gorgeous not to, ya know.” My fingertips danced across the picture over her face as if I were truly stroking her cheek.
“Well shit, if you keep the pictures yo’ ass is a creep. You should let me get rid of them for you.” Tino’s hand was already reaching back out to grab the stack of loose pictures, but I swatted his hand out of the way, making him laugh uncontrollably.
“Damn, man, be cool. I would hate to see how you act if you actually knew baby girl.”
“Worse, now move, fool.”
Tino tossed his hands up in mock surrender all while laughing at me.
