“No! I was professional,” Aku said, then paused. “But I may have bent over a lil slower, when I was taping Zaire’s pants hoping he was somewhere in the cut watching me.”
Noodle hollered.
“And we’re talking about black pro golfer, Zaire?” Ahvi asked for clarification. Having casual conversations about professional athletes was something she still hadn’t wrapped her head around.
“Girl yes… but we ain’t talking about him.” Aku continued lusting over Malik. “He was on a four wheeler looking too fine. Then he had that Cali accent.” She stared off with images of Malik replaying. “Whoo!”
Ahvi needed more clarification. “So,pro golfer, Zaire was buying weed?”
“Mm hmm,” Aku nodded. “But it wasn’t like some janky shit. The young nigga got an app or some shit for the neighborhood.”
“Plugged In?” Noodle blurted out, familiar with it. She’d heard one of Bu’s workers saying something about the app a while ago.
“Yea! How you know?”
“Girl, I be knowing,” Noodle snickered.
Ahvi kissed her teeth. “Jacory, please.”
“So anyway, it’s some neighborhood shit and clearly the only way to get in is to be put on. Malik… that’s his name,” she added. “He downloaded the app on my phone. Now, I’m a part of the community.”
“Okay…” Ahvi was waiting for more. “Like have you tried talking to him?”
Aku hadn’t been back on the app over the last few days since she’d been busy working. Now, while she chopped it up with her girls, she swiped around her phone clicking in the app once she found it.
Her inbox lit up.
One new message.
Her mouth parted slightly as she tapped it open, heart doing a lil two-step.
Key: You ain’t in Kansas no more, Dorothy.
“Oh shit…” she whispered, lowering her phone just enough for her girls to hear the shift in her voice.
“What?” Ahvi and Noodle said in unison.
Aku stared at the screen and grinned. “Y’all… he messaged me.”
“What he say?” Ahvi asked, like her life depended on the answer.
Noodle piped in. “He say he miss you already or he tryna drop off a sample?”
Aku smirked, dragging her finger across the screen as she reread the message.
You ain’t in Kansas no more, Dorothy.
She shook her head, lips curled up like the start of trouble. “He said… ‘you ain’t in Kansas no more, Dorothy.’”
“Oop,” Noodle sang. “He tryna drop game in parables.”
Ahvi laughed. “So what you finna say? Don’t say nothin’ corny.”
“I’m not corny, hoe. I’m cultured,” Aku shot back, typing her reply.
StylistBae: I peeped. But I ain’t scared of flying monkeys, neither.App solid, though. Didn’t think the weed man had code in his fingers.
She hit send, then turned the phone screen down on her lap.
