I wanted to meet Riot’s boyfriend. My daughter has never had a boyfriend in her life, so I needed him to come over to the house, so that I could look him in his eyes, get a feel for him, andsee if he was a good catch for her. I had to act like I was Grim today, feel Dolo out, and be hard on him like I knew Riot’s daddy would have done.
I don’t even want to imagine how Grim would have handled Riot dating. That man didn’t play about his daughter. Riot was so rotten growing up. Anywhere her daddy went, she was right there, following behind him. She didn’t let that man breathe without her. Best believe if he was around, she would be somewhere in his lap, with those big green eyes scanning the room, daring anyone to try to come over and say something to her daddy. I hated that their bond had to be broken so early. I truly believed that if he was still here, that Riot would have still been tough, rough around the edges the way she’s always been, but I don’t think that she would have been so mean, and hard to get through like she is now. My daughter runs off a lot of anger, and I know that anger stimmed from her losing her father at an early age, and then her brother.
She was cold, didn’t let a lot of people in, so when I heard that she was going to Mexico with Dolo, I knew that it was something more than a work trip, which was the story that she’d told me. It was proven to me in Mexico when I got her on the phone, and I had a brief conversation with both of them. Hell, it was also proven to me once their pictures had gotten leaked, and all the young clients that were my daughters age came in here telling me about it. My daughter appeared to be happy with him, and Lord knows that that was the only thing that I wanted.
“Ya’ll go wrong trying to book me at the last minute. You cannot book me at the last minute. When my books open at the beginning of the month, that’s when you should be trying to get on my calendar. What color are you trying to go with? Don’t be mad at me when I cut most of your hair off. I can see how badly you need a trim from here,” I replied, running my hands trough her thick hair, taking notice of her damaged ends.
“Oh, I already know. I was going to tell you to cut it into a bob anyways. I’m not worried about you cutting it. I know that you have growing hands, so my hair should be back down my back in a few months. I want to go with burgundy. I feel like I’ll eat down with that color. What you think?” she asked me, glaring at me through the mirror that was in front of us.
Ariel was such a pretty girl. Brown skin complexion, and she had such a pretty smile. So many tattoos filled her body, but she still held that innocence about her. As innocent as she looked, I knew not to be fooled because her ass has been to jail multiple times, stressing her mama out the same way that my daughter stresses me out.
“I think it’ll look nice on you. The bob is going to be nice with that color. Let me go to the back, so that I can grab everything that I need for the color change,” I told her, and she nodded, letting me know that that was fine.
I scurried off to the back room, that was used for storage. With my two hands, I tried to grab as many items as possible because I didn’t want to make multiple trips back here. I had everything, and I took the items back up front.
The shop was busy this afternoon. All the stylist that worked for me had someone in their seat, and there were other clients that were sitting in front, where the lobby area was waiting to be serviced.
I sat the items down at my station, went ahead, and put my cape on, so that I didn’t get any of the hair dye on my clothes. My gloves were on, and I was able to start mixing from there, putting the color in the bowl. That didn’t take too long, and before I knew it, I was able to sit in my stool, get behind Ariel, and start tending to her.
I promise you that the second I started working on her, my phone begin to vibrate in my back pocket. I grabbed the phone, seeing that it was Riot calling me. She was calling meon facetime. I answered for her, putting the phone in my lap. I glanced down at her face, just to get a glimpse of where she was, and once it looked like she was in the car, and safe, that’s when I was able to tend to Ariel’s hair.
“Ma?” was all she said.
She didn’t follow that with anything else. I swear, I would get so triggered when Riot called me because she could be calm like this, but she’ll follow it with the worst news. You just never knew what you were going to get with her when she called.
“Bean, I’m working. What’s going on?” I asked, looking down at her again, trying to see if I could read her before she explained to me what was going on.
“I’m with Ari. We’re about to go to the grocery store to get some stuff for the dinner tonight. You need something?” she asked me.
“I do. Ima text you over a list,” I said, and I heard her groan.
“Send pictures too. You’ll text me the stuff you need, and I won’t know what the hell it is. What you cooking? My pop- pop coming. I just got off the phone with him, so whatever you cook, don’t make it spicy. You know he don’t like spicy food,” this girl told me, always trying to check me when it came to my own daddy.
Riot loved her pop- pop. Like, literally wouldn’t play about that man. He was the one person in her life that she didn’t like to disappoint, so when she went to jail the last time, her ass made me promise her that I wouldn’t tell him. She wanted me to tell him that she moved for a little while, and that she would be back. I kept that lie going for probably one damn week before my daddy knew that I was full of shit and lying to him. I had to give in, and tell him where Riot was, and although he didn’t show it, I know that it broke his heart. When Riot came home from jail, we had a get together at my parents’ house, and both my parents had a long talk with her.
“Girl, you don’t think I know what my daddy don’t like? Gone on. I’m only going to send you a list. I’m doing hair, and don’t have time to be attaching images, sending it to you. Tell Ari to find the stuff, or ask somebody in the store for it,” I said, pausing from what I was doing, so that I could look down at her again. This was my first time paying attention to her bottom lip. It looked fuller than usual. Damn near swollen.
“Alright,” she let me know.
“What happened to your lip? I saw you yesterday morning, and your lip didn’t look like that,” I pointed out. When I asked that, I could hear Ari laugh in the background, so from that reaction, I knew that it had to have been some kind of inside joke.
“Nothing ma. I’ll be at your house by 5. Is Major going to be there?” she asked, bringing up my boyfriend.
I’m convinced Riot didn’t like him just because she had free will, and she didn’t want to like him. He’s never done anything to her that would make her not want to fuck with him. Even when me and her had our issues in the past, he’s never got in the middle of it. He always stayed out of the mix when it came to my relationship with my daughter. He knew that Riot wasn’t too fond of him, so he never did anything that would make her hate him even more.
“No. My man is out of town on business. If he wasn’t, he would have been at the house too. You gotta cut that out at one point. You’ve never given me a valid reason as to why you don’t like him,” I got on her.
“I never told you that I didn’t like him,” she said.
“You don’t have to. Your actions show it,” I responded, ready to hang up the phone on her because I could tell that she was getting ready to work my damn nerves.
“How else you expect me to act around that nigga? That ain’t my daddy!” she snapped, just like she always would whenever a conversation was brought up about Major.
“I know that’s not your fuckin daddy! I was there when they put yours down in the ground!” I snapped right back at her.
When it came to Riot, I really did try to watch the way that I would come at her. My daughter was short tempered as hell, and I was the same way, so if she said the wrong thing to me, I would be ready to put my foot in her ass. Then, Riot could hold a grudge for so long, and she tended to push people out of her life. I didn’t want that for us. She was the only child that I had left. My only daughter, and I hated having to beef with her, but God, that girl would take me there.
“Yeah okay,” she replied.
