“That you’re working with Mark. They said that your over the security here,” she let me know.
“Yeah. We doing business,” I was short, keeping my eyes ahead, not even looking at her as I talked to her.
I didn’t need anyone seeing us together and getting the wrong impression. People will see one small conversation, take it, and run with it. She knew that I wasn’t trying to be near her or spark up any kind of conversation because out of the corner of my eyes, I could see her nodding her head.
“For what it’s worth Dolo, I know that you and I didn’t end on the best of terms. I have my anger towards you, but I won’t get into that with you. I know that with you being in a relationship now, you could probably care less about how we ended. I don’t look at you as my enemy though. I say all this to say that I ran into Elijah awhile back. He approached me. He was talking crazy about you. Even with the anger that I had for you, I couldn’t find it in my heart to be messy, and back door you. I could have fedinto it and teamed up with him in an attempt to take you out, but I didn’t. Regardless of how things ended between us, and regardless of how I feel about you, I didn’t want to see anything happen to you,” she went on to tell me.
I laughed at that. Laughed, and turned my head so that I could look at her.
“And you heard about what happened to that nigga, right? You would have teamed up with him and been sent off right along with his ass. This ain’t gotta be that between me, and you. You don’t owe it to me to speak to me when you see me around at the club. We ain’t gotta be enemies, but we ain’t gotta be cordial, either. I used to fuck you. Shit ain’t a good look for me to be talking to you since I’m in a relationship. I’m not looking for no problems back home,” I told her. I heard her suck her teeth, and then she disappeared.
I was glad that she left. Bitch just stood here and basically told me that she could have helped set me up, but she didn’t. I wasn’t trying to hear that shit. I was glad that she left. I was glad that I made it clear to her that she didn’t need to speak to me when she saw me at the club, either.
My girl accused me of cheating one time, and I hated that feeling. I wasn’t trying to revisit that. A nigga was just trying to live a calm, peaceful life. Jazelle needed to stay on her side, while I stayed on mine. The shit we used to do was over, and I needed her to respect that.
Chapter 21
Keyshawn St. James
“Ican’t believe you let me put these layers in your hair, Bean. You look so pretty. Your hair is nice, and healthy,” I cooed to my daughter, as she sat in my salon chair.
I just finished using a thick comb to comb out the big curls that I added. Riot let me cut her hair today in layers, so now that I combed them out, and I was seeing the final result, I couldn’t stop smiling. She used to never let me do styles like this on her. She dreaded wearing her hair straight anyways, so the fact that she sat in my seat and she let me straighten it, layer it, and curl it was a big win for me. Her sandy brown hair with these curls were to die for.
“I’m not going to know how to keep up with it ma,” she said, leaning up in the chair, so that she could get a better look in the mirror.
I had my phone propped up on my tripod because I recorded this entire session. Later on tonight, I was going to edit the video and post it on social media. I knew that it was going to go viral. Every time I did Riot’s hair, the posts always went viral. Plus, people were going to fall in love with this style.
“You have to put the rods in at night. I have some, and I’ll give them to you. You like it?” I asked her, removing the cape from around her.
She giggled at my question, as she stood up from the chair, and she walked closer to the mirror, so that she could fully check it out. Even if she didn’t verbally tell me that she liked her hair, I knew by the way she was looking at herself in the mirror, and smiling, that she was in love with it.
“I do ma. It’s beautiful. Thank you,” she said.
Riot called me at the last minute today. She told me that her, and Dolo were going out on a date tonight, and she wanted to know if I could do her hair. If she was anyone else, I would have told her hell no. Everyone knew that I didn’t do squeeze in appointments. I was always booked up, so it was no way that I could squeeze someone in to get their hair done. For my baby though, I skipped out on taking lunch. I just ate in between doing her hair.
I gave Riot a good wash, a nice treatment because it was time, trimmed her ends just a little bit, and I worked my magic. Seeing the way the layers framed her gorgeous face, had me standing back here in amazement.
It made me think about Grim. That man used to tell everyone in the world that he had the prettiest daughter out. He liked for me to keep Riot’s hair done, and dress her up nicely. I knew that if he was standing here right now, and seeing the beautiful daughter that we had, that he would be boasting, carrying on terribly.
God really showed out when He gave me this girl. So hard, yet so beautiful. Riot was softening up these days though. She was clearing out time in her busy ass schedule for me. These days, she would join me at the nail salon, so that we could get our nails and toes done. She even went to dinner with me and my girls last weekend. I knew she would much rather be home,but she came out. Yeah, she might have left early with Dolo, after growing tired of us, but she still came.
She was working on her relationship with Major, and that was big to me. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to happen. I was proud of this change in her. When she came home from jail, the version of her that I had scared me. That rough version. She was cold. I was glad that she was able to shake out of that shit and turn into this new person that she was.
Riot stopped looking at herself in the mirror, and I watched as she dug into her purse. She had a few stacks of money in there, that were tied together in rubberbands. It made me think of her daddy and her brother. They used to do that same shit. As pretty as her ass was, she’s always had ways about her that were so rough. She couldn’t help it.
I watched her as she peeled back a few hundreds, and she tried to put it in my hands, but I pushed her hand out of the way like I always did. I never charged Riot to do her hair. No money in the world would ever compare to having her here with me and just bonding like this.
“Keep it. You know how I am about that,” I fussed. Like my word meant nothing to her, she reached her hand out and stuffed the money in the front pocket of the cape that I was wearing.
As soon as she finished, I could hear the loud roar of a car pulling into the plaza. The truck parked right in front of the salon. I knew the truck belonged to Dolo. It was his G- wagon out there, making all that noise. Riot turned to look, and the same way that I smile, and get all giddy inside when my man pulls up on me, she did the same thing.
“Hold on, ma. I’m coming right back,” she announced, leaving her purse right there on the seat.
Dolo had already got out of the truck. He was standing in the back of it, as Riot made her way out of the salon. I wanted tosee his reaction to her hair. It’s like all the women in the salon wanted to see his reaction because I swear, damn near everyone stopped what they were doing, as they looked out of the big, floor to ceiling windows that my salon had.
We could only look out and see. We couldn’t hear what they were saying to each other. Dolo started smiling really big, and he had Riot stand right there, so that he could walk around her, and examine her hair.
“I know that’s right!” Keisha, one of the stylist at the salon blurted out, seeing Dolo place his hands behind his back, and like he was in deep thought, and just utterly impressed by how nice Riot’s hair came out, he continued to walk around her, smiling.
