“Nah, I’m checking on you. I heard about that shit with Argus.”
He shook his head. “Streets gon’ be the streets. Niggas just gotta move a lil’ bit lighter and get off that impulsive shit. First that nigga Pharoah, and now Argus? It ain’t niggas getting at niggas no more. The way I see it is these pigs are infiltrating, because niggas are crabs in the fucking barrel.”
“You know it. Now you just gotta get around that shit and keep yo’ fucking head up.”
He nodded. “You know I am. How is Ommy? Tell her if she needs anything, I got my nephew and that’s on my life.”
“You know he’ll be straight and so will she,” I said that, but would she? The one thing she didn’t want was happening and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. Ssiah was about to be without his father.
Omyia
This morning when I woke up the last thing I wanted to do was go to work, but I needed to. I had things that wouldn’tdo themselves and I had Niema coming in today. I had already gathered in my mind that I was going to hire her. I just had to see what all she needed to be trained on. I guess we’d see that when we got there, but for now I assumed I’d be training her on all of the store operations. It was just the small things like stock and probably register. Working retail wasn’t really hard most days but sometimes those customers would try you, so you definitely had to stand firm and know your store.
By the time I got to the store Niema was there and so was her fine ass brother who I spent the better half of my day talking to. North was handsome to say the least, but I was a little leery of him because at the end of the day he was a man. He claimed that he wanted to get to know me because I intrigued him, but what did that actually mean? I wasn’t really up for wasting my time on men. Nothing against North, but I was raised by men, so I knew for a fact they really weren’t worth the hassle. Even when I was with Argus, I expected the very minimum because my whole life after my mother left all I saw was woman after woman. My father didn’t even try to keep a bitch, instead the old player would just tell me to never be like the females that he kept company with. Then honestly, I thought my brother would be different, but Knoxx’s first love was the streets so no woman could compete with that and anyone who tried was a damn fool. Okay so maybe I was coming off a bit cynical, but I couldn’t help it. My thinking and processing came purely from what I was surrounded by. My environment molded my mind. Of course, I wanted to believe in love, but I had no examples of it in my life. Men never stepped up and women always over romanticized situations in their heads.
“Good morning, Niema and North.” I smiled in their directions before I walked into the store that had already been open for at least three hours before I got here. I was horrible inthe morning, so I always had somebody there for the morning shifts.
North nodded in my direction while Niema gave me the biggest smile.
“Good morning.”
I nodded my head. “You can put your things in the third locker in the back room and meet me right here. Erica, show her the lockers.”
While they both filed to the back I turned around and looked up at North. He looked refreshed after falling asleep on the phone with me last night. That was absolutely a first for me and I couldn’t help but think it was cute.
He put his weight on the counter in front of me before he smirked. “You never told me if you were going to let me change your mind about romance.”
I smiled somewhat recalling our conversation last night where my opinion on romance and all of that came up. He and I had been talking ever since we met at his bar. With him conversation was easy, and he seemed alright. I couldn’t say it for sure because we’d only been talking for a little while.
“I think I did, but you fell asleep.”
He chuckled. “Look at you got my grown ass falling asleep on a fucking phone. You're gonna get me clowned.”
I couldn’t help but join in on his laughter. “If it makes you feel any better, I fell asleep as well.”
He waved me off. “You got plans for tomorrow night?”
“No, I don’t. What did you have in mind?”
“You let me worry about that and just make sure you’re ready.” The smirk on his face couldn’t be missed.
He and I talked for a little while longer before he left, and I pressed on into my day. Turns out Niema had known much more than I thought, which meant she had retained knowledge from her previous job. That was a plus for me. All she had to do wasget acclimated with my price points and system then she’d be okay.
After a while Erica left Niema and I to talk and get to know one another. I already knew some of her story from her brother, but from her point of view it was heartbreaking. What her brother didn’t know was that she did long to one day meet her mother or even have one, but she was grateful for all that he did for her. You could tell when she talked about her brothers that they were everything to her and that made me smile thinking about Knoxx. We had a similar relationship. I also disclosed to her that I grew up without a mother too, so I knew how it felt and even told her that she could call me if she ever needed anything. With children I always seemed to have a bleeding heart, but it was the adults that I had pressure for. By closing time, I had already bonded with the young girl.
After I locked up, we exited the store just as an unknown woman walked up.
“You ready to go, Niema?” she asked with a smile.
Niema rolled her eyes but nodded her head. Whoever this was she damn sure wasn’t feeling.
“I’m sorry, where are my manners? I’m Toy, North’s girlfriend. He sent me to pick her up because he got tangled up at work.”
I nodded politely. “Great.”
“I’ll have Surah send you your schedule, Niema.” I smiled at the teen then dragged myself to my car. I knew that nigga was too good to be true. What type of game was he running? He had his girlfriend come up to my spot like he wasn’t just in my fucking face and text messages this morning. This was exactly what I meant when I said niggas weren’t shit. They could come off so damn genuine but be deceiving yo’ ass the whole time.
By the time I was settled into my car, I noticed that I had missed a call from Argus. What the hell was the reason for him to be calling me when my son was with my father?
