“I’ll get your money.”
Wilde walked up on me, and my heart rate increased as he stared down at me. “You can keep your money and give me some pussy.”
I frowned because that was the same thing Mazi used to say, and it made my skin crawl. But Wilde damn sure wasn’t Mazi. “I’m supposed to have sex with you for cough syrup?”
It was Wilde’s turn to frown. “You’ve already had sex with me twice. Idiot.”
Before I could stop myself, I reached out and slapped his arm. Wilde looked at me like I had sprouted another head. “Hoe, is you cool?”
That time, I punched him in the chest. “I can do this all-night, fuck nigga.”
“G, keep your hands off me ‘cus if I hit you back, I’ll be wrong. Come get this shit, so I can go,” he fussed.
Wilde was still uncouth and border line ignorant, but he wasn’t that bad once you got to know him. He was a little rough around the edges. The right woman could more than likely tame him, but I wouldn’t dare try. Drew had depleted me of my energy. Never again could I or would I pour into a toxic man. I wanted the D a few more times, however. And I needed to convince him to at least wipe my prints off that gun if he wasn’t going to get rid of it. I could never be fully at ease knowing he had a murder weapon with my fingerprints all over it.
Wilde got in the car, and I stood beside the car. He passed the bottle through the window. “Thanks.”
“Aye,” he called out as I started to walk off. “Where’s my money?”
“Why would I pay you when I fucked you?” I asked and headed back inside.
When I heard his car pulling off, I smiled. Wilde was something else, and I couldn’t believe I was starting to like his ignorant behind.
Two nights later,I eased into a booth at a popular seafood restaurant. KoKo was already seated. She’d been hired to do make-up for a wedding party an hour and a half away and since she’d been working, I hadn’t bothered her. I was ready, however, to tell her how I felt.
“Hey, boo. I already ordered my drink. I started to get you a strawberry Hennessy, but I didn’t know if you were drinking.”
I hadn’t had any lean in two days. I was proud of myself. The bottle that I got from Wilde was still in my closet. I hadbeen thinking about it, but I hadn’t opened it. I didn’t care how frequently I visited Mazi. There wasn’t any part of me that cared about how he felt about me but for some reason, I didn’t want Wilde thinking I couldn’t control my lean habit. I shouldn’t care what he thought either, but I did. At least when it came to that.
“Yeah, a strawberry henny sounds good.” I looked over the menu, even though I knew what I wanted. The waitress came over, and I ordered my drink, and we added appetizers. When the waitress walked away, I clasped my hands together and looked over at KoKo.
“What’s been up?”
“Working. I was booked last week and this week like crazy but next week, I can come to the shop Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.” KoKo was glad to have a way to make money on the days that she didn’t have makeup jobs, and I was glad for the help at the shop, so it worked out.
“Nothing else been up?” I asked as the waitress set our drinks in front of us.
KoKo watched me as she sipped her drink. “Why you asking me that like you’re waiting for me to tell you something?”
It was my turn to sip my drink. “Nina came by the garage the other day. She asked me if I knew about you and Pierre. Ko, I asked you not to deal with that man. That shit made me so uncomfortable.”
KoKo sighed and shook her head. “For a nigga that swears they aren’t together and he can control his shit, she found out mighty quick. Wonder, I know you met her once and you liked her, but he told me they weren’t together. It was just a lil’ quick one two that’s not supposed to go far. You can be cool with her. That doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
“You know that’s not how that works. But cool, I’m not saying anything else about it. I don’t want to hear about Pierre.”
“You really feel some type of way? You don’t know that hoe, Wonder, but I’ll keep you out of it. I told you it wasn’t even that serious anyway. Pierre has two kids under the age of five, and he has baby mama drama. I’m not taking that shit serious. I’m just having fun. Remember, we were supposed to be finding tricks for the summer?”
“I hear you, KoKo.” I was tired of talking about it. I couldn’t control what she did with Pierre, but I didn’t want to know about it, and I wasn’t condoning it.
I went back to drinking my beverage and when I saw the hostess leading Jamal, Wilde, and Pierre in our direction, I almost choked. Luckily, she seated them at the booth behind us. After ten, the seafood spot had a DJ that played music, so it was damn near like the club in there. It was pretty packed, and it amazed me that out of all the tables and booths, they ended up behind us.
My eyes almost jumped out of my skin when I felt a pair of lips on my neck as Wilde’s scent infiltrated my nostrils. “What up, G?” he asked, and my panties were instantly ruined.
I looked over my shoulder in an attempt to appear perturbed, but the moment I stared into his lustful gaze, all bets were off. My stomach quaked, and I had to clench my thighs together to keep from being aroused. “You love touching people without their permission.” My tone was far from intimidating and had absolutely no bite to it.
“You love pretending like you don’t like it.” The stare down was intense. My body temperature rose, and I had to look away before I begged him to fuck me.
“Damn, get a hotel room,” Jamal laughed. “Y’all staring at each other like you ready to rip each other’s clothes off.”
