Wifey (17 page)

“Because, I ain’t hear it ring.”

“How long you gon’ be at the shop?”

“Why?”

“’Cause, I need you to do something for me.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll be by there later. So be ready.”

“What is later?”

“I don’t know. Just be ready.”

“What if I’m in the middle of doing a client’s hair?”

“Well, I’ll call you when I’m getting on the road.”

“A’ight,” I said nonchalantly and hung up the phone.

By the time I came out of my office, Rhonda was giving her client some money so she could run an errand for her.

“What you getting ready to do?” I asked.

“I’m sending Paulette over to Alice Mae’s to pick up my order.”

“What you order?”

“I’m getting the barbecue chicken with potato salad and collard greens,” Rhonda replied.

“Do you wanna get something too?” Paulette asked me.

“Nah. I’m alright.”

“You sure? ‘Cause, I ain’t gon’ be in the sharing mood when my food get here,” Rhonda continued.

I smiled and said, “Rhonda, I ain’t thinking ‘bout you or your food.”

“Good! ‘Cause I’m real hungry!” she commented.

After Paulette left to pick up the food, it was only me and Rhonda moving around like chickens with our heads cut off. Rhonda threw me a question out of left field. “Who was that guy that came in here yesterday?”

“Who? Russ?”

“Is that his name?”

“Yeah.”

“So, what’s up wit’ him?”

“What you mean?” I said in a dumbfounded manner.

“Don’t play stupid! I saw how he was looking at you yesterday.”

“Girl, you was seeing things, ‘cause, it ain’t even like that wit’ me and him.”

“How ya’ll know each other?”

“He’s one of Ricky’s friends.”

“Well, Ricky better look out ‘cause if he don’t watch it, that Russ gon’ snatch you right on up.”

I sucked my teeth and said, “Me and Russ are only friends. That’s it!”

“Well, it must be nice to have friends to come by and shell out hundreds of dollars for a conditioner treatment.”

“Damn! You saw all that?”

“Girl, I try not to miss shit ‘round here.”

I laughed and said, “I see.”

Rhonda was about to crack another one of her jokes about Russ, but her attention drifted to the front door. I looked too and saw this short guy coming through the front door, carrying a huge brown paper bag. “Can I help you?” I asked him.

“I’ve got a delivery for Kira.”

“That’s me,” I told him and that’s when he started walking toward me.

“What’s in the bag?”

“Some very hot food,” he replied and smiled.

“Where is it from?” I asked as he handed me the bag.

“From the Light House.”

“You mean to tell me ya’ll deliver food from way down on the oceanfront, to here?”

“I don’t work there,” the guy explained. “My man Russ ordered the food and told me to go pick it up and bring it to you.”

I smiled. “Tell him I said thanks.”

“A’ight,” the guy replied and left.

I knew once the guy closed the door behind him, Rhonda was going to start poking at me for some answers. I turned my back to her and started opening the bag.

“Oh don’t try to turn your back now!” she laughed. “I knew I wasn’t crazy!”

“What you talking about?” I asked, trying to sound dumbfounded.

But Rhonda wasn’t buying it. She knew something was going on with me and Russ and she was going to make it her business to find out. “Come on, now, Kira,” Rhonda pleaded as she walked up behind me trying to see what was in the paper bag.

“Stop holding out on me. I know you got some skeletons in your closet. Shit, we all do, if you want to know the truth.”

I turned toward Rhonda and watched her take a seat in the salon chair right next to me.

“Well, I’m waiting!”

“You promise you ain’t gon’ say nothing?”

“Girl, spill it! You know I ain’t gon’ say nothing!”

“Damn, I don’t even know where to start.” I sat the bag down on the plastic container that stored my hair products.

“Just start from when you first met him.”

Before I started giving Rhonda all the details about Russ and me, I took a seat in the other salon chair. “Well,” I began, then sighed. “I met him about a week ago when he came by my house to talk to Ricky.”

“Okay! And?”

“And when we saw each other and talked while Ricky was upstairs, I guess we just kinda clicked.”

“Do you like him?”

“I think so.”

“Is he loaded?”

“I think so.”

“What kind of car does he have?”

“I don’t know.”

“What you mean, ‘you don’t know?’”

“Because the couple of times I’ve seen him, he was driving this little dust buster.”

“Well, that don’t mean nothing. Niggaz drive shit like that all the time,” Rhonda explained. “It keeps the police off them.”

“Yeah, I remember when Ricky use to play that role.”

“Yeah, me too! But, now you probably can’t catch him in one,” Rhonda said as she laughed.

“You’re probably right,” I replied before I reached for the paper bag.

“So, what did he get you?”

I pulled out and opened the aluminum containers that were packed neatly in the bag.

“Well, I’ve got a whole bunch of fried shrimp with a salad. And he ordered me some big-ass Alaskan crab legs.”

“Damn! They are big too,” Rhonda commented as I pulled them out of the bag.

“I know!”

“Did they put a container of melted butter in your bag?”

“Yeah. They put two of them in here.”

“Are you gon’ be able to eat all that?”

“Nah.”

“Good! ‘Cause I sho’ want some.”

“Well, go in the supply room and get a paper plate.”

As Rhonda got up to go to the supply room, Ricky walked through the front door of the salon. “Where is everybody?” he asked.

“Why?” I asked, sarcastically.

“Because, I ain’t never seen it so empty in here.”

“Well, let me just say change is good.”

“Is that so?” Ricky replied. He took a seat in the chair Rhonda had gotten out of.

“Yeah.” I grabbed one of the shrimp and bit it.

“What you got there?”

“Why?”

“Because it smells good. That’s why!”

“What does it look like?”

“I couldn’t tell from the way you threw it in your mouth.”

“Well, it’s fried shrimps.”

Ricky was getting ready to make another comment but when he saw Rhonda coming out from the back of the shop, he looked in her direction and said, “So, Rhonda, tell me how life’s treating you?”

“Nuttin’. Just trying to maintain,” she replied.

“Well, you sho’ doing a good job of it.”

Rhonda smiled at Ricky’s comment. He looked back at me and said, “Come on. Let’s go in your office.”

I sat my food back on the plastic container and followed Ricky into my office. I gave Rhonda the okay to help herself to the crab legs before I closed the door to my office.

The second after I closed the door, Ricky started blabbing off at the mouth about him getting ready to make a run out-of-town, and that he needed me to make a couple of trips to his aunt’s house to pick up his dough and stick it in the safe deposit box.

“When am I supposed to do this?”

“What is today?”

“It’s Friday.”

“Okay,” Ricky said and sighed. “You gon’ have to make a pick up tomorrow night and Monday evening.”

“How much money I gotta pick up?” I asked as I sat down on the end of my desk.

“Well, it’s supposed to be fifty Gs each time. So, make sure you count it before you stash it.”

“So, how long you gon’ be gone?”

“Until Tuesday night.”

“Where you going?”

“Me and Brian taking a trip down to North Carolina.”

“For what?”

“For business. And that’s all you need to know.”

“You sho’ you ain’t going to see one of your hoes down there?”

Ricky got up from the chair and said, “Look, I ain’t trying to hear all that.”

“You never do,” I snapped back.

Ricky reached for the doorknob.

“If you need some emergency money while I’m gone, take it from the dough you picking up from my aunt.”

“Yeah. Whatever,” I said with a sigh.

I followed Ricky out of my office and outside to his car. He attempted to say goodbye to Rhonda but she was in the middle of a conversation with her client, so she didn’t hear him.

Outside at Ricky’s car, I just stood there and watched him put the key in the ignition. He made no other comment to me, besides telling me he was going to call me once he checked in a hotel. He and I both knew he wasn’t going to do jack! He knew he never called me. But I guess he keeps telling me that because it sounded good.

After he pulled off, I went back into the shop. “Girl, them damn crab legs are good as hell!” Rhonda commented the minute I closed the front door behind me.

“Well, did you save me some?”

“Yeah. But I ain’t want to,” she laughed.

I sat back down on the chair in my station and started eating my food. While I was tearing my crab legs apart, I couldn’t help but think about Russ. I mean, the bottom line was that I was starting to like him a lot. What ate at me was not knowing whether or not he liked me back. For all I knew, Ricky could have been using Russ to set me up. Then again, I could be wrong. Since my heart said yes, I was going to jump on the bandwagon to see where it was going to take me.

“What you over there thinking about?” Rhonda asked.

“Nothing really,” I replied with a smile.

“Wait! Hold up! I know that look,” Rhonda said as she walked back over to where I was sitting.

“What look?” I tried to camouflage my expression.

“You know what I’m talking about.”

I smiled some more “No, I don’t!”

Rhonda sat back down in the seat beside me and looked me directly in my face. “I know you thinking about the guy that sent you this food.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Kira, I ain’t stupid. And anyway, you done all ready told me you like him.”

“No, I didn’t!” I said, getting excited. “Now, what I said was that, I think I like him.”

“What’s the difference?”

“There’s a lot of difference.”

“Well, have you called and thanked him for the food?”

“Nah. Not yet. But, I will,” I assured Rhonda.

***

It seemed like time was flying when I looked down at my watch and noticed it was two o’clock already. Luckily, I only had one client left and she was under the dryer. With thirty minutes left to burn, I decided to go ahead and call Russ. And before he answered, I cleared my throat so I could put my sexy voice into overdrive.

“Hello,” he answered.

“Thanks for the food.”

“How was it?”

“It was real good.”

“Did you save me some?”

“Yeah, if you want some crab legs.”

“Nah. I’m straight.”

Then it got really quiet. I blurted out, “Are you going down south wit’ Ricky?”

“Nah. He ain’t said nothing to me about it.”

“Have you met Brian yet?”

“Nah. Why?”

“It’s nothing, really. I mean, that’s who he said he was going outta town with.”

“Well, he didn’t say anything to me about it,” he repeated.

“Are you going back home this weekend?”

“No. Why?”

“I was just asking.”

“So, what you gon’ be doing while Ricky’s gone?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, can I take you out to dinner or a movie this weekend?”

Right before I answered Russ’s question, I stopped to think about what would happen if I accepted his invitation. Not to mention, how Ricky would feel if he found out. Then I realized he ain’t never thought about how I felt when he took all his women out. So, I agreed to going out with Russ tomorrow night.

“So, where you wanna go?” he asked me.

“I really don’t know. But, wherever we do decide to go, it’s gon’ have to be somewhere far, like Williamsburg or Lightfoot.”

“A’ight! That’s cool!”

“It better be. ‘Cause I can’t be having none of Ricky’s boys seeing me with you. Shit would get real ugly!”

I let out a long sigh. “Okay! If that’s the way you wanna do it, I’m witcha!”

“Alright. So, I guess it’s a date, huh?”

“I guess so. Well, let me get back to my client since I’ve got a three o’clock appointment today.”

“A’ight. So, can I call you later?”

“Yeah. You can do that.”

“A’ight. Talk to you later.”

“A’ight.”

On my way out of the shop I told Rhonda to tell anybody that came to see me, that I was gone for the rest of the day. I also gave her permission to feel free to render service to any of my clients who were desperately in need of getting their hair done. She gave me the okay that she would handle it.

Mr. Shapiro was on his way out of his office building when I drove up. After I parked my car and got out of it, I hopped right into his car.

“Are you ready?” he asked me without hesitation.

I took a deep breath and sighed. “I think so.”

“Well, just remember that I will be by your side the entire time. So there will be no need for you to get nervous.”

“Okay. If you say so.”

It didn’t take no time for me and Mr. Shapiro to get to the federal building. After we were let in through the back entrance, three U.S. Marshals escorted us to a conference room on the fifth floor. There were two white men and a black woman sitting down and talking when we opened the door. I automatically assumed that these were the people I was coming to talk to.

Mr. Shapiro pulled out a chair for me to sit in. He sat in the chair next to mine. “Are you comfortable?” he asked me.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” I replied.

The black lady introduced herself to me first, saying her name was Mrs. Blake. Then she went into a spiel about her being the U.S. Attorney working to bring indictments to any and everybody involved with Ricky.

“So, I’m gathering you’ve already talked to my cousin.”

“Yes, we have. As a matter of fact, she was just escorted back over to the jail about an hour ago. And…if you’re ready to get down to it, you’ll be able to get out of here, too.” she said.

“Well, I’m ready,” I told her.