“Came to see Mir about some shit and decided to check in with y’all while I was here.” He took a pull and inhaled deeply.
“Preacher man here?” I looked toward the entrance of the section but didn’t see anybody coming up.
Yacouba laughed and shook his head like I should’ve known better. “You know he not about to let his wife out his sight. He hovering his worrying ass over Ny but she put his ass in the pool house. She has some ladies’ thing going on with the women who work at the church and he was trying to do too much.”
“Her pregnancy good?” Trav was asking because we were still supposed to stop in and speak and didn’t want to interrupt if they had things going on.
“Yeah, but Mir’s people weren’t ever good parents. I know he wants to show Ny that he’ll be there for her how it matters no matter if it’s big or small. I keep telling him his doubting her knowing he’s a good man is what’s pissing her off but he don’t see it.”
I reclined back on the leather sofa and chuckled cause he was acting like he hadn’t just gone through this himself. “And you would know all about that.”
“Listen, Jazzy baby tried to take a skillet to my head because I smiled at her one day and showed my teeth.”
Travis was laughing but I was completely confused. “I’m lost. She hates your teeth while pregnant?”
“Nah, that’s the wildest thing. She was mad that I ain’t have a grill or some shit in. Talkin’ bout ‘niggas will snatch you up out your own party, marry you and knock you up just to switch up on you’. I was lost and started laughing cause I just knew she wasn’t being serious. Wrong move, my nigga. She dumped the sausage on the table and took a swing at my ass with that hot skillet. After I ducked and calmed down I had to treat her damn hand cause she’d burned that shit. Jazzy ain’t even feel it cause she was too angry. I can’t even blame that shit on her hormones cause Jazzy and her whole family wild as hell. Even her brother and people swear he’s the calm one.”
He was recounting all of this fondly and I was stuck on the fact that she tried to kill him and he was remembering the shit with a smile.
“He not?”
Yacouba chuckled at Travis’ question. “That nigga hangs around Smoke, what you think?”
Travis glanced behind Yacouba toward Smoke who was standing behind him. “Say less.”
Some women with sparklers came walking up to us then and I had to wonder who the fuck was trying to draw attention to us like this. We never did none of this flashy shit, especially not when we were out in a group. Between our boys and Yacouba’s, we had enough folk here to ensure we were straight. But trying to show out wasn’t our style. Especially when we came here to specifically stay under the radar.
“Who the fuck did this?”
Trav was questioning the server because whoever she pointed out was gone feel his fist or his gun before the night was over.
The bottle girl could tell he was offended by the attention by the deep frown on his face and all of us grilling the hell out of her. She looked young as hell wearing a spandex shorts suit and fishnets. “Umm, it’s compliments fr-from the other section.”
She pointed across the way and I saw Judge and Jury both looking with too much interest at our booth.
I sat up glaring at them and watched the smirks form on their faces. “These muthafuckas—”
“You can take this back shawty. We don’t want shit that came from them. And tell your boss if he’s smart he’d do whatever he could to get them out his spot.” Travis was doing his best to stay composed but I could hear that it was slipping.
“Is something wrong?” She looked as though she were going to get fired if she didn’t deliver this bottle. Which had me wondering why the fuck that was.
“They pull some more shit, you ain’t gone have a place to work because this one will be closed for renovations. Do with that information what you will.”
“I don’t know how—”
“Tell your boss thatTriggawants them gone. That should be more than enough. And blow out them damn sparklers, it ain’t the gotdamn forth of July!”
She nodded her head at Travis and quickly blew them out. Instead of saying anything else she backed up and then went to find her boss. Travis wasn’t leaving it to chance and got up and followed behind her to emphasize how quickly the Laws needed to be put out.
“You need us to handle them?”
And that was Yacouba’s way. Not jumping in and flexing because he could. A simple offer because, as a friend, he wanted to assist. And he liked shooting people.
“Where would the fun in that be?”
He met my grin with one of his own before he pulled from his blunt.
“I’m saying you had to hangCityup for a minute. Went legit with the label and shit and making shit shake. You really want to step back into this when you got people who will handle this for fun?” I glanced up at Smoke who I’d met on occasion. I knew the only reason he’d come with Yacouba was because his girl probably made him. Otherwise, he’d be right there hanging around her the same way Yacouba would’ve been with Jasmine.
