“Welcome to BrightLine Dental. We’re only doing appointments today,” the receptionist asked without looking up from her screen.
“It’s a good thing I got one then,” I responded.
“Perfect. Name please.”
“Courtland.”
She moved her mouse around, typing on the computer before looking back at me. “Last–”
“Hannah. The phones,” another receptionist interrupted.
“You’re Rayzor, the boxer, aren’t you?” She gleamed.
I nodded.
“I’m Gia.”
“Boxer?” Hannah repeated, confused.
“Is Eris…” I started to say.
“Girl, yes,” Gia cut me off. “He’s the hottest thang out right now and damn, he’s fine. TV does him no justice.”
“I don’t watch sports, but he was just giving me his information for his appointment.”
“Eris here? I only wanna deal with her.”
“Eris who?” Gia retorted, insulted. The amusement in her voice faded and the irritation was showing. She was a jealous mothafucka.
I wasn’t fucking with the back-and-forth shit, so I let myself in the back. The office wasn’t larger than a shoebox. I found Eris in the back finishing up a patient.
“And we’ve already made your next six-month visit…” She paused, noticing me. I saw her trying to hide her annoyance. “Here’s your bag, Mr. Johnson,” she explained.
The old mothafucka got out of her chair, showing all twenty teeth he had.
“You always take good care of me, Eris,” he flirted.
“Don’t get them other ones knocked out, ole’ nigga,” I said, scaring his old ass. His eyes were wide as he shuffled past me with his goody bag.
“Have a good day, Mr. Johnson.” Eris led him away. I watched that ass switch in her scrubs.
“Sir, you can’t just come back here. You must wait for your appointment time.” Hannah chased me down.
“It’s alright, Hannah. I got it.” She pulled me to the side. “Courtland, what’re you doing here? This is my job.”
I looked around. “Yeah. I know.” I took a seat where the old man had just got up from.
“That nigga needs to wash his ass. I want brand new everything. Can’t be going inside my shit with nothing he touched.”
“First off,” she said distractingly as she went through her calendar on the TV screen mounted in front of the room. “I need to see if you have an appointment… Wow, you do. Okay, so if you would’ve stayed up front then you’d have fresh everything because that’s part of prep. Now, if you don’t mind… Hannah!” she called out. And like fire was to her ass, Hannah’s lil’ white ass appeared out of thin air.
“Escort Mr. Kirkland up front for me while I prepare for his appointment,” Eris said.
I wasn’t going to give her a hard time, so I let it go.
All it took was four damn steps, and I was back outside. At least that’s what it felt like in that fucking toy box. I went out to the lot instead.
Gia came outside.
