UNO
Shiloh shookhis head at me pitifully as I passed him the blunt. “She asked you one question, and you start singing like a canary. You folded faster than a nigga in the interrogation room on the First 48 after they give him a soda and a cigarette.”
“Man, I just don’t like lying. That shit is lame. I’d rather tell the truth and let whatever happens happen.”
Shiloh bobbed his head before pulling from the blunt. “I get it. I mean, I’ve never known you to be a liar but at the same time,” he shook his head. “You had to know that wasn’t going to go over well.”
“Like I said, it is what it is. I won’t front like I don’t like Apricot, ‘cus I do. But I never tried her. She came at me. I tried to stay away from her.”
“You didn’t try hard enough my boy. Honestly, you know females are wishy washy as fuck. She claims she only wanted the dick, and that may have been true. But I can guarantee that if you and her kept fucking around, she’d end up catching feelings. And I don’t know how that would work. She doesn’t fuck with her father, but she’ll fuck with you while you’re sitting on his throne?”
I made it a point not to surround myself with idiots. Shiloh was making sense. Whether I was looking to walk away soon or not for the time being, I was still in the game. If Apricot hated that about her father, she’d eventually hate it about me. We were two adults ignoring red flags like a muhfucka all for the sake of a little bit of chemistry.
“It is what it is,” I repeated the mantra that I lived by. “If you don’t have shit going on tomorrow, I need you to ride to South Carolina with me.”
“I can do that,” Shiloh’s voice was strained due to the weed smoke he was holding in his lungs.
Shiloh had his own trucking company, but he rarely ever drove the trucks. He had three trucks and three drivers. If one of them couldn’t make it, then he took the loads, but he only hired older men with their shit together. It had to be a real ass emergency for one of them to miss work. One of the niggas was even coming to work while his mom was in ICU. His trucking company made damn good money, and like me, Shiloh had most of his days free to do whatever he wanted to do.
His ass was never bored though because he had three different women in three different cities. When he told me the kind of money he was getting, he encouraged me to start my own business and at least get one truck. I was thinking about it, but nothing was set in stone just yet. A while back, he was pissed off complaining that everybody wanted to start a trucking company, and they were coming in fucking up the game by taking dirt cheap loads.
“You going to Bri’s party Saturday night?” Shiloh asked. “You know all the bad bitches gon’ be there.”
Bri was a chick that Shiloh and I had known for years. I had sex with her a few times, and she was cool. I rocked with Bri because she was about her money. She got money from men, but she got her own bread too. She had a nail shop, boutique, andshe baked cakes and did all that sweet ass candied fruit. Shorty had a few hustles, and they all seemed to be working for her. I had just seen her post a Lamborghini truck on social media that she got for her birthday.
“I might swing by there. You know I mostly get Ace on the weekends, but I let him stay with my mom at least once a month. I might spend the day with him and then let him stay with her that night.”
“Aight let me know. Nurse Jackie is officially off the team. I have to find a replacement for her ass.”
“Yo,” I chuckled. “Stop calling that damn girl Nurse Jackie.”
“I will when she stops popping pills every five hours. Fucking fiend,” he frowned. “Shorty busted her ass to pass nursing school, got a good ass job at the hospital, and is risking her shit to pop pills. Dumb ass.”
“Why you cutting her off? She been popping pills, so I know that’s not it.”
“One thing I can say about her is that she’s smart enough not to try and take them from work. She buys them off the street, and niggas are charging her $25 a pill. Shorty has a mean habit, so she’s spending $75 a day easy. Bro that’s like $2,200 a month. She has a Range Rover and high ass rent. Her paychecks are literally gone the same day she gets paid, and she thinks she’s gon’ bleed my pockets dry because she has a habit. Check it,” he hit the last of the blunt.
“Two weeks ago, I gave her $700 for her car insurance, light bill, water bill, and some lil’ gas money or change for her pocket. The very next week, I gave her $400 to buy a wig and get it installed. Two days after that, I took her out to eat and spent like $350. Yesterday, this hoe asked me for $900 for her car payment. I left that bitch on read. She’s not even my girl, bro.”
“Oh yeah, she’s getting OD expensive. And she’s not your girl?”
“Hell nah. Then when my other hoes ask for money, I be ‘bout to curse them out ‘cus got damn.”
“Stop trying to have a whole harem,” I laughed while standing up. “Duty calls. I have some shit to handle. I’ll hit you up and let you know what time we’re leaving tomorrow.”
“Bet.”
I had to go tell Mr. Jennings that Apricot didn’t want shit to do with me. He’d have to find another way to keep tabs on her because I wasn’t begging her to allow me into her space. She had a right to be upset, but I had already apologized. There wasn’t much else I could do, and I was tired of being caught in the crossfire between father and daughter. Devin had gotten word to me that he’d been discharged from the hospital, and he also told me I could stop by the house. He told me to go to the front door because he wouldn’t be in the office. When the cleaning lady let me in the house, I had to push out a low whistle. I knew from the outside that the house was amazing, but I’d never been inside a bigger or more luxurious house. Mr. Jennings was living like straight up royalty. I didn’t expect anything less, but seeing it up close and personal hit different.
I found Mr. Jennings in the living room seated in a recliner. A blanket covered his legs and though his face had been shaved, he still looked tired and weak. Maybe even a little defeated. “Have a seat, Uno.”
I sat down, and Mr. Jennings sighed. “I truly understand the saying when it rains it pours,” he chuckled. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Apricot knows. She knows that I broke into her house, and she doesn’t want me around her. I know you wanted me to look out for her, but I don’t think that’s happening. She was pretty pissed off yesterday.”
“Apricot knows a lot. She knows that I had someone to break in the house, that I almost got her, and Kiwi killed, and that I have an illegitimate son.”
That wasn’t something that I expected to hear, but I wasn’t necessarily shocked. Mr. Jennings was getting hit with blows left and right.
