We were meeting with some guys he was considering taking over their business, and today they were going to show us the numbers. I wasn’t sure why he wanted me there other than to take notes for him, but it seemed as though I was attending more and more meetings with him as we grew more comfortable with each other.
“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks for asking,” I said, smiling.
I wasn’t sure what made him ask, but it was still sweet. The only thing that was wrong with me was that my period had started that morning, and because I was rushing to get everything I needed done before leaving the office, I had forgotten to take some Advil. Now, my body felt as though it was being ripped in two, and there was nothing I could do about it until I got back to the office. There was no way I’d tell Sincere that I needed to stop at the store on our way to our next destination for me to handle my cramps.
“Alright,” he said, smiling as he stood from his chair to shake the hands of the men who came into the room.
It was so strange to watch the soft version of him that he’d just been with me leave the room as soon as they entered. He went back into his boss mode, and the soft expression his face once held for me was now blank and scary as hell.
Once the meeting started, I did my best to keep up with the notes. I’d gotten into the habit of recording our meetings on my phone so that I knew for sure I wasn’t missing anything. And thanks to Zaveah, I now took all my notes digitally, so it was a lot easier to share them and pull the information I needed while on the go. It really made my job a lot easier, and I would never go back to paper notes if I could help it.
The meeting, much like our other ones, went off without any problems. Once Sincere made them his final offer, they deliberated for all of five minutes and told him they’d accept the deal. At this point, I’d learned that Sincere was more than justa record label owner with an imperfect past. It seemed like that man owned half of Dallas, and with his most recent deals, he had begun to expand outside of the city and state.
Honestly, it was amazing to watch him build and run his empire. When you came from a background like his, things typically didn’t work out well for you. His success was proof that you didn’t have to be a product of your environment, and you definitely had the power to rewrite the future that the world would have you believe is yours.
“What are we doing here?” I asked, looking out of the window and up at Walgreens.
“We’re here so that you can get the medicine you need,” he said, hopping out of the car and coming around to my side and opening the door for me.
“Medicine? I never said I needed any medicine,” I said, confused.
“Kenedi, your stomach is cramping, right? You’ve been slouched over damn near all morning. Now come on. I don’t know why you didn’t say something earlier, we could’ve stopped on our way to the meeting,” he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me into the store with him.
“I didn’t want us to be late,” I mumbled, realizing there was no need for me to fake it anymore. Clearly, he knew how a woman’s body worked and was able to see that I was on my period. I thought that it was cute that he paid attention like that.
“Late? Shit, don’t start until we walk in,” he said, smiling over his shoulder as we made it to the aisle with the pain relievers.
Once we had what we needed, he stopped and grabbed me an apple juice to take the medicine with, and then we made our way to the checkout line. As the lady scanned everything, I went into my purse to grab my card. Gently smacking my hand away, he tapped his card on the machine and handed me the bag once the clerk put the receipt in it.
“Thank you,” I said, not wasting any time to pop open the box and juice so that I could get some relief sooner rather than later.
“You’re welcome. Now we can—,” he stopped as someone called out his name.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Sincere Hill himself. I thought you were hiding from a nigga. Imagine my surprise when I looked over and saw you standing out here,” a man who looked to be a bit older than Sincere said as he came up to us.
If I didn’t know any better, looking between the two of them, I would’ve thought they were related. But, from Sincere’s demeanor, I didn’t think that was the case with them. As Sincere’s hand wrapped around mine and squeezed, I knew this wasn’t going to be a friendly encounter.
“You know me better than that. I’ve never been the type of man to hide from anybody walking this planet, especially you. However, now isn’t a good time.”
“Is that right? Well, when is a good time?”
“When I get in touch with you, you’ll know. Let’s go, Kenedi,” he said, dismissing him and leading me back to the car.
“Sincere!” The man shouted, but didn’t get a response from Sincere as we continued our walk to the car. Once I was inside, he finally turned around and acknowledged his presence again.
“You think you can just walk away from me, my nigga? We have unfinished business,” he said, pulling out a gun and aiming it at him.
I was so confused and stuck that ducking hadn’t processed in my brain yet. However, the way Sincere calmly walked over to him and pressed the gun into his chest scared the fuck out of me.Was this nigga on a suicide mission? In front of me?!
“We both know you ain’t got that shit in you,” Sincere said, smirking as Dani, Sincere’s driver, stepped behind the man with a gun to his head now.
Sucking his teeth, the guy replied, “Next time.”
“I look forward to it, nigga,” Sincere said, turning around and walking back to the car.
Once he was inside, Dani hopped in, and we pulled off to our next destination. I knew that I should’ve said something, but I had no idea what to say. I had questions, though. However, they were questions that I was sure he wouldn’t answer for me. I wasn’t a dummy, and I knew whatever their beef was, it was something street-related. That was the part that confused me the most because from what I knew, Sincere wasn’t in the streets anymore.Or was he?
“Do you want to ask me something?” Sincere asked, bringing my attention to him and out of my phone.
