Page 14 of Fraudulent Beauty

I didn’t even respond. He was jealous, and I wasn’t feeding into it. He wanted to be single, and that he was. No need to pout and complain now.

“You and Tahli still hanging in there, huh?” he asked.

“Yeah. She’s cool people.”

“Hopefully, you won’t have to arrest her.”

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but I wasn’t going to feed into that either. Maybe he was making a cop joke. Nook didn’t even need rebuttal from me to continue talking. He was in the mood to get some shit off his chest.

“She’s been known to crack a credit card or two.”

“What?” my brows furrowed, and my head whipped in his direction. That statement was one I couldn’t ignore. Knowing I’d taken the bait, Nook chuckled.

“Sheniah isn’t the type to pillow talk and tell her friends’ business, but we were together a long ass time. A few times, she mentioned to me that she was worried about Tahli using stolen credit cards and possibly going to jail.”

Though the information was shocking, I refused to let Nook see that it had any kind of effect on me. “Hopefully not,” I replied in a dry tone. “Just like I’ve never arrested you for smoking weed.”

Nook laughed. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I smoke weed in the comfort of my own home. Not in yours or your vehicle. I know you’re a police officer, and I respect it. I was just putting you up on game because if she gets caught scamming and you’re in deep with her, it may not be a good look for you is all I’m saying.”

“And you didn’t know this a month ago?”

“I didn’t know you two were going to make a love connection. Tahli isn’t dumb though. Maybe if she’s willing to date a cop it’s because she isn’t on bullshit anymore. I can’t say whether she is or not. I know she moved back in with her mom because she was trying to save money. Maybe she’s on the straight and narrow.”

Swallowing down the rest of my beer, I decided to go ahead and leave. Nook had been insufferable lately, and I wasn’t feeling it. Had he given me the info on Tahli a month ago, I maybe would have seen it as him trying to look out for me. With the way he’d been acting lately, it just seemed that his misery wanted company. He was so adamant about ending his relationship that no one could talk him out of it. Now his regrets were coming out in the form of grumpiness and overindulging in alcohol, and I didn’t care to be around it.

“I’ll holla at you later.” Bumping my fist with his, I discarded my beer bottle and left the apartment.

Walking to my car, I chuckled lowly. Nothing about Nook’s announcement gave that he was looking out for me. Being a police officer was my choice, but I was far from the moral police. When people smoked weed or did anything illegal, if I wasn’t in uniform, it didn’t concern me. However, it wouldn’t be a good look for me to be involved with a woman that committed fraud. Honestly, I would have preferred not knowing. In the back of my mind, I was hoping she had stopped.

Whenever I saw her, Tahli always looked amazing. Some of the things she wore were designer, but she wasn’t always dripping from head to toe in labels. She had a few pricy bags, but she lived with her mother and didn’t appear to be too flashy or flamboyant. Using stolen credit cards was hopefully something that was in her past. Scrubbing a hand down my face I pushed out a sigh before pushing the button to start my car engine. If it wasn’t one thing it was another.

The next night, when Tahli opened the door and my gaze landed on the tight red dress she wore, I wouldn’t have been surprised if drool seeped from the corners of my mouth. She looked amazing, and my dick agreed with my brain. She held a black gift bag in one hand and a clutch purse in the other.

“Wow,” I breathed out lowly as she stood there smiling. Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and had loose curls. A few loose curls hung around her face, and the hair looked so natural I almost missed that it was a wig. “I have to get used to the fact that every time I see you, your hair is different.”

Tahli stepped out of the house with a giggle. “I have wigs coming out of my ears. It’s getting to the point when someone asks to send me a wig, I let them know it may be at least a month before I can post the video. I think getting free hair is every woman’s dream but my gosh.”

“What do you do with the wigs once you take them off?”

“My favorite ones I keep, but I legit have about forty wigs in a bin right now. Some of them I’m going to donate to a company that gives cancer patients wigs. I’ve had people comment on my videos and ask to buy wigs that I only wore a few times, but I’m not sure about selling something I got for free. It kind of seems wrong.”

Holding the door open for Tahli, I observed her as she slipped past me. If she was truly a scamming thief, I wouldn’t think she would care about whether or not it was wrong to sell something she got for free. As much as I was trying to forget what Nook told me about her, it kept playing over in my head on a loop.

Inside the car, Tahli placed her clutch in her lap. “I hope your friend doesn’t show up tonight on that good bull.”

My brows furrowed as I looked over at her. “My friend who, Nook?”

“Yes. He called Sheniah asking why he wasn’t invited and if she was taking a date. She hung up on him because answering his questions were a hard pass for her. Today, he sent her flowers, then texted her from a number she didn’t recognize bitching about the fact that she blocked him and saying that after ten years, they could at least still be friends. I think him being an ass and trying to ruin her birthday is a sucker move. Like, leave her alone. Why do you care about her birthday so much? You wanted to be single, right?”

All I could do was shake my head. “Nook isn’t even thirty, but I’m wondering if my homie is going through a mid-life crisis. This is someone that was adamant about being single, but I can tell he regrets it.”

“Too bad so sad. I can agree with him that the arguments were becoming way too frequent and toxic. However, he didn’t suggest counseling or anything to try and make the relationship better. His first thought was I’ve been tied down for ten years, I want to be free? Okay, well now he’s free. I damn sure hope he doesn’t think my girl’s house has a revolving door. Once you leave out that muhfucka don’t come back.”

“Okay, gangsta, I need you to calm down. You over there ready to go ride on homie, and we’re supposed to be celebrating.”

Tahli giggled. “My bad.”

“I’ve never been to a woman’s birthday dinner, so I didn’t bring a gift. I’ll give Sheniah some money. When me and my niggas hang out on birthdays, we just pay for the food or drinks. We don’t show up bearing gifts.”