chapter 4
KAREEM
Two weeks later . . .
Afrown seemed permanently etched to my face. The vacation I had taken was supposed to revive me, according to everyone else. What they hadn’t expected was for me to come back home even grumpier than before. And what they didn’t know was that a woman was behind the shit.
I mugged my best friend of twenty years as he rapped some Kendrick Lamar song beside me while we walked into the lobby of one of my properties. Snax was what everyone called him because the nigga was big and always eating something. He and I were like night and day. While he was always happy-go-lucky, I walked around with a chip on my shoulder. There was no reason for my bad attitude. I just found the negative in every situation.Been like that since birth and niggas knew not to bother me too much about it. Aside from Snax, that was.
Part of me thought that Snax always had such a positive attitude because he knew it pissed me off. Still, I had love for the nigga. He’d been down with me and my sister for as long as I could remember.
“Ah, the sun is shining, the air is fresh, I’m fine as fuck. It’s a good day, ain’t it, Reem?”
“Nigga, we’re in an elevator,” I grumbled as we stepped into the lavish elevator, and I pressed the button for the twelfth floor.
“But we was just outside,” Snax chirped as he rubbed his large stomach. “And we just had McDonald’s breakfast. You know that’s my shit. Nigga need to learn to smile more.”
I looked at Snax, and my frown deepened when I saw his cheesy ass smile. “Corny ass nigga,” I muttered.
Snax waved me off. “You just mad ’cause you actually gotta do some work.”
“Ain’t about doin’ work, Snax. You know all I do is work. It’s about inconsiderate ass people, quitting their jobs and not giving no damn notice, and leaving me to fill in for them like I’m a damn bottom feeder.” I tried to pull some patience for Snax’s goofy ass up out of my ball sack, but I was at my wit’s end.
The manager of this property decided yesterday that she wanted to quit without notice after working for me for three years. Now I had to scramble to take all her meetings and try to hire and train someone for her position. Snax wasn’t even supposed to be riding along with me today, but his bored ass insisted. Unlike my shit, his barbershops had longstanding managers who loved their jobs. Snax didn’t have to do shit but sit back and collect a check.
Admittedly, this was my own fault. I couldn’t be mad at Snax or anyone else, because I was so hands on with my work. If I wanted to, I could hire a general manager and a regionalmanager to look over all my properties so that I could take several steps back and chill, but I didn’t really know what that looked like for me. I didn’t know who I was without getting up every day and working hard.
“Ain’t nothin’ ’bout you screaming bottom feeder, my guy. Besides, you should love gettin’ ya hands dirty like this. Reminds me of when we used to hug the block sunup to sundown wit’ Denise. How big sis doin’ anyway?” Snax asked as we stepped off the elevator.
I took a right and walked down the long hallway to apartment 1203 with Snax right beside me.
“She good. Just opened up another beauty spa over in Ellwood,” I replied as I lifted the master key fob to the pad on the door and waited for the beep to indicate that it had unlocked.
When I pushed the door open, relief swept over me. I could instantly see that the cleaners had been here, and there was a new layer of paint on the unit. This was one of our newly remodeled units, and I wasn’t sure where the old manager had been with this particular move-in process. I was happy as hell to see the unit was ready to go. Now, I just needed to wait for the new tenant to show up so I could give her the keys and be on my way. There were three more move-ins for this property this week. I had to get those organized and start searching for a new manager.
“I need a damn assistant,” I mumbled as I leaned against the counter in the empty kitchen.
“Ain’t that the truth, boy. And you need to learn how to fuckin’ smile. What the hell happened on yo’ vacation that has you in an even pissier mood than normal?”
I watched as Snax opened the stainless steel refrigerator and looked inside. Disappointment filled his eyes as he closed it, and I chuckled. This nigga knew there wasn’t shit in that fridge, but habit told him to check anyway.
“You need help,” I said as I shook my head, a smirk resting on my face.
“What I need is for you to answer my damn question.” Snax leaned his back into the refrigerator and crossed his arms over his large chest.
I ran a hand down my face. Truth be told, I was tired as shit. My family and Snax kept asking me what happened on vacation. It was no secret that I came back in a worse mood, but I didn’t want to share with them the reason. My family had pretty much given up on asking, but I knew Snax would never. We could be ninety years old and sitting on the porch in some rocking chairs and sipping on whiskey, and his ass would still be asking me about the infamous vacation.
Since we had a little bit of time, I decided to go ahead and get this conversation over with.
“I met someone while I was on vacation,” I mumbled.
“Like a butler?”
I chuckled. “Boy, you stupid. No, nigga. A woman.”
Snax shrugged. “Okay . . .”
I huffed out a breath. Sometimes Snax could be really slow. Really, though, I felt frustrated because I didn’t know how to explain that this woman gave me the best pussy I’d ever had and put my ass to sleep like a bitch before she disappeared like a damn thief in the night. I spent the rest of my vacation fiending for her and kicking myself in the ass for not getting her room number or her name, at the very least.
