Despite the attitude, Remedy was sure to sit a kiss on Melo’s cheeks before doing the same for Ava. Then she left. Before pulling out of the driveway, she said a quick prayer, knowing God was the only one who could pull her out of the misery Tone subjected her to. Remedy refused to believe that her life was stuck the way it was. She took way too many losses—from her mother being mentally ill down to losing her father suddenly—and to top everything off, she had a nigga who would beat the fuck out of her if the wind blew in the wrong direction. There was no way in hell God didn’t have a good redemption story for her. She believed that, so she stuck it out and remained patient.
Once she arrived at the shop, she grabbed her bag and stepped out of the car, allowing her Tory Burch sandals to grace the cement. As she walked up to the shop, her eyes widened at the sight of the three main windows being completely shattered. Glass was scattered all over the ground, reflecting the brokenness she felt in her spirit. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.
“Fuck!” she groaned with a stomp of her foot. She was glad that she always made sure to arrive a few hours earlier than the rest of the barbers. This time, the habit would allow her to clean the mess before they got there. As crazy as it would look, Remedy couldn’t afford any of the barbers missing out on their clients, despite the window being busted. They were just going to have to work through it until she figured some shit out.
Dragging her feet, she used her key to unlock the front door to enter the shop. She flipped the switch for the lights and felt a tightness surface in her chest at the sight of a warm body occupying one of the barber chairs that was on the right side of the shop. She clenched her chest to steady her heavy breathing as the person rotated in the chair to reveal themselves. She wasmet with the cold eyes of Kross as he peered into her. An amused smirk graced his tender lips before a smooth chuckle sounded out of him.
She tore her eyes away from him briefly and scanned the rest of the shop. It looked just as she last left it yesterday after she and the rest of the barbers cleaned it up from some young niggas ransacking it the other night. Kross was fucking terrorizing her at this point. She couldn’t even think of what he could possibly do next.
“Come line me up real quick. Niggas ‘round the way say you just as cold as your pops.” He smoothly gestured her over. His baritone voice that meshed perfectly with his down south Miami accent poured through her ears like velvet. As he spoke, she was able to catch glimpses of his gold slugs peeking through.
“Kross, you got some fucking nerve,” she hissed. “You keep having these niggas fuck up my shop like you in the mafia or some shit.”
Today, Kross didn’t want to match Remedy’s energy/, hoping they could eventually come to a compromise. “C’mon, Remedy. I told you what type of timing I’m on. It ain’t nothing personal. It’s business. You pay me, and I keep motherfuckas from fucking up your shop. If you don’t pay me... well, you see where the fuck that gets you.” He nodded at the glass pane windows that were shattered all over the ground.
“I’m not with all that! You can get the fuck out my shop ‘fore I do something I regret, and that’s on my daddy!”
“Man, shut the fuck up with all that hollerin’. It’s way too early for that shit,” he snarled at her with his face contorted in a grimace. “Yo mouth be blocking your blessings. Sometimes, you need to just shut the fuck up and let a nigga get a word out before you start talking crazy.”
“Alright then, nigga. Speak,” she demanded with her arms folded across her chest.
He eyed her momentarily before another smooth chuckle rolled out of him. “Come line me up, man,” he instructed her once more. This time, he went ahead and took his hat off. His head full of waves was on full display, but he was due for a sharp line up. He knew he was playing a dangerous game with allowing Remedy’s crazy ass get within five feet of him with clippers, but he was sure the proposition he had for her would calm her the fuck down.
She debated whether she wanted to give in to what he was demanding of her. The amused look in his eye brewed up so much anger within her. It was clear as day that he took her and her threats as a joke. Full of attitude, she sat her bag down and made her way over to him. He leaned back in his seat, allowing her to wrap a neck strip around him and secure him in the cape.
He wasn’t sitting in her booth, so she had to walk across the shop to grab her clippers and other tools. As she was making sure her clippers were fully charged and disinfected, Kross took a moment to gaze at her. Aside from her nasty-ass attitude, she was real easy on the eyes. She had changed her hair, and he couldn’t help but to notice immediately. Her ash blonde tresses cascaded all the way down to the small of her back and were styled with loose curls. The color of her hair brought out the richness of her golden amber skin tone.
She kept her outfit simple with a white ribbed tank top that gripped her C-cup breasts perfectly. They sat up without any assistance of a bra, allowing Kross to see her nipple piercings that created indentions in her top. She spent a good part of her morning jumping into a pair of low-rise jeans that conformed to each dip and curve she possessed in her hips and ass. Her jeans and shirt didn’t offer much coverage to her midriff area, so the colorful tattoo that began from the side of her left breast and wrapped around her body until it reached her thigh could be seen.
As she began making her way back over to him, Kross tore his gaze off her. She wanted to get this cut over with quickly so she could get to cleaning up the shop before her barbers came in. Kross felt the chair lower to allow her to get to work, but as soon as he heard her clippers start buzzing, he looked over his shoulder at her.
“Don’t fuck me up, Remedy,” he warned her.
With a roll of her eyes, she positioned his head straight so they could get started. Through the mirror, he was able to clock her every move and assess if she really had the talent Deno possessed so naturally. With ease, Remedy faded out the sides of his cut, making sure not to go too low by the temple area and the top. In her reflection, he could see in her eyes that she was locked in and focused.
“My condolences for Deno. I ain’t know,” he throated out, finally breaking the silence they were enveloped in.
At the mention of her father, Remedy looked up and pulled her clippers away from his head. She eyed him through the mirror and could see the sincerity that webbed his eyes. It wasn’t clear to her whether Kross and her father were close. The most she knew about him was the monthly transactions of $5k her father made to him, which were recorded in a file tucked away in his office drawer.
“It’s cool. Life ain’t forever, right?”
“Fa’sho,” he agreed.
She resumed cutting his hair, working the clippers with great precision. Whenever she was cutting hair, she got lost in her actions. At this time, cutting was her only escape from her reality. Just for a few minutes, she could forget about her financial situation, her mother, her father and the most painful thorn in her side, Tone. After she got him faded out perfectly, she traded her clippers for a straight razor and positioned herself in front of him.
While standing before him, she could feel his deep umber eyes piercing into her like he was scoping out her soul. She gulped down a bit, shaking off the urge to ask him what the fuck he was looking at. Kross wasn’t admiring her body like she thought he was. What actually caught his attention was the small bruise that blemished her chest. It wasn’t too noticeable to the eye, but because she was so close, he picked up on it.
“You still letting that nigga beat your ass?” Kross throated out crudely, not realizing how insensitive and harsh he came off.
A rage flickered in Remedy’s eyes as she took the straight razor and pressed it firmly against his jugular. He could feel the pressure of the blade and knew if she pushed it any deeper, she would pierce his throat.
“You don’t fucking know me,” she gritted, her eyes sparkling with tears she refused to let fall. “Whatever you think you know is fucking wrong.”
Despite being at a disadvantage as she towered over him with a blade to his throat, Kross remained stoic as his eyes peered into hers. He could see pain within them, pain that stretched for miles. It reminded him of what he saw whenever he looked into the mirror.
“I don’t gotta know you to know that you fighting a demon that’ll eventually take you out if you don’t conquer it,” he stated, his eyes never parting from hers.
Her hand remained firm against his neck while the pressure she had on the blade stayed steady. She deliberated on how she wanted to take what he just said. As angry as she was due to him constantly bring the abuse she was facing to the forefront of each conversation they had, she had to admit what he said resonated with her. As she pondered how to respond to him, Kross’ hand swiftly clenched her wrist and pushed it away from his throat. His actions were so sudden and unexpected that they caused her to drop the straight razor on the floor.
