That Bona Fide Hood Love

by Shvonne Latrice

“I’m gonna order some food. Did you want something or not?”

  “Yes, please.” I wanted to keep being mean, but my stomach was churning.

  And I didn’t feel like being at home alone. Jamal barely paid me any mind. He only stopped by every morning and then sometimes after work for no more than twenty minutes. He treated me like I was his sick mother in a home that only deserved pity visits so he wouldn’t look bad.

  Even though I knew Jamal and I weren’t some Romeo and Juliet of the 21st century, I figured he would be attentive and caring. The Jamal I’d gone out on dates with over the past few months, was prince charming. This new Jamal was more like my owner, and I was his pet that he cooed at here and there, then fed before going on about his way. He claimed to love me and be smitten, yet I couldn’t help but feel like he was marrying me for another reason. Who was I to complain though? It wasn’t like I loved him either.

  Kaseem left the conference room but returned with something that smelled heavenly just half an hour later. I’d noticed the lights in the hallway were dimmer, which usually happened when most went home. Just as I smiled at Kaseem, happy about the food, I spotted Everly cruising by, toting her large Hermés bag, and giving me a look that I couldn’t quite read. She eventually turned away, carrying on until I couldn’t see her anymore.

  “Aight. Just take whatever you want,” Kaseem let me know after removing all the food from the bags. He took off his suit jacket then went to wash his hands at the sink. Everything he did was sexy.

  “What is this? Just looks like chicken and rice,” I inquired once he sat down.

  “It’s Persian food.” He picked up two small containers filled with some green sauce. “And this shit right here is bomb as fuck, but just as hot, so be careful.”

  I nodded, before closing down my laptop and then washing my hands. Paper plates were already on the table, so once I sat down, I prayed then fixed my plate.

  Kaseem’s phone began ringing as he started eating, and I saw Everly’s name on it. To be so put together and seemingly intelligent, she was beyond thirsty.

  “She sure acts like your girlfriend. Why did you lie to me?” I shoved rice into my mouth just as he hit the red ignore button.

  “About?”

  “You told me she wasn’t your girlfriend.”

  “She’s not. You think because she got mad that I said the shit, means she’s my girl?”

  “No. But clearly there is some miscommunication.”

  “No, there isn’t any miscommunication, nosy. Everly is a woman who believes she deserves everything she wants and can force those wants on anybody. When I want a female to be my girl, I’ll do that, but on my own time.”

  His stare was intense, so I looked away and back down at my plate.

  “Well I hope she gets what she wants. She’s persistent.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes.” I rolled my eyes at his cocky ass.

  We ate in silence for a little while before he wiped his hands on a napkin and asked, “So how the fuck did you end up in the escorting business? And as a virgin so to speak.”

  “Not so to speak; I am a virgin.” I lied with pride. “And, it’s a long story; a long boring story.” I shrugged.

  “You got somewhere to be?”

  “No.” I giggled. “I guess I don’t get why you would care. No one cares about stuff like that.”

  “I do, that’s why I asked you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re a pretty ass girl and can get a lot in life just based off that shit. But to add to it, you clearly got some fucking talent, so I just don’t understand how escorting came into play.”

  Him saying I was pretty made me feel warm inside, especially because he was usually so insulting.

  Kaseem

  “When I was 17, well 17 going on 18, my mother committed suicide,” Kasslyn blurted out, surprising the fuck out of me. I expected some shit much simpler.

  “Why?”

  “Over a man. Isn’t everything always because of a man? Anyway, he broke up with her, and she couldn’t take it.” Kasslyn played with her food, moving the fork through it as she watched. “After that, I was on my own, and I met Jane a couple months later in a coffee shop while I was trying to get a job.”

  “So you escort, but you wanna do design.” I sat back, folding my arms as I watched her. I could tell the trip down memory lane had bothered her.

  “Yep, exactly. I promised myself I would use the money I made to fund my career, but working for Jane became too demanding. Next thing I knew, I was twenty-two years old and making no progress professionally.”

  “Well now you have.”

  “Yeah, thanks to Jamal and then you.”

  “Nah, thanks to yo’ talent. You think I would’ve paid yo’ ass twenty racks for nothing? I mean, you fine as shit, but business is business. I would’ve turned yo’ ass right around had you delivered some bullshit.”

  “I know.” She nodded. “I know. And even though you irk my nerves, this experience has been very encouraging.”

  “I irk you?” I reached under the table to caress her thigh, and she smacked my hand.

  I could see her blushing through her pretty ass dark skin as her full lips twisted up in irritation. I admit I got a kick out of fucking with her. To be in the field she was in, I was surprised by how uptight she was when it came to sexual matters and shit.

  “Yes you do, and stop flirting with me. You have at least two women that I know of, and then I have Jamal.”

  “Told you Everly wasn’t my girl, and Jane is just some pussy.”

  There was no need to mention Rhea because it would only make shit worse. I ain’t really know what my endgame was with Kasslyn, but I liked her ass. She was feisty as fuck, but she had sense, that perfect middle ground.

  “Wow.”

  “How is the engagement? You like it?” I laughed, and then even harder when she sucked her teeth. “I swear to you I’m genuinely asking.”

  “It’s fine. I just don’t think your brother is used to being in a relationship. I’m pretty sure he forgets about me until he comes home, and even then, he doesn’t always remember.”

  “What you mean?” I felt my brows dip.

  Her comments had intrigued a nigga, and I guess it was because for the first time in my life, I wanted something my brother had. I felt like a fucked-up ass individual for even thinking that shit, but it was true. It was some shit I hadn’t quite figured out how to help yet.

  “We don’t talk at all. I mean, he stops by in the morning for a few minutes before he comes here. When I come here, I don’t see him or talk to him. And then when he comes home, he may come see me for twenty minutes. I try visiting his room, but a couple times I came to the main house a little after his usual arrival time, and he wasn’t there.”

  “Jamal? Jamal goes straight home from work. I mean, unless it’s Wednesday because he has Bible class.”

  “No, I know about Bible class, and even on those days, sometimes it’s way later.”

  I was puzzled at the moment because for as long as I’d known Jamal, he was a straight home kind of muthafucka. And because I worked twenty-four hours damn near, whether it be here or in the streets, I guess I hadn’t noticed the little nigga was making pit stops.

  Jamal ain’t even have friends like that, and if it wasn’t about church, his muthafuckin’ ass wasn’t going, so I was confused. And the fact that he’d dated Kasslyn under the radar had me wondering what else this nigga was doing in the dark.

  “You ain’t thinking of leaving, right?”

  Kasslyn looked up from her plate and smirked. “No, no, not yet.” After a moment of silence, she added, “You and Jamal are so different.”

  “I take that as a compliment.”

  Grinning widely, Kasslyn shook her head before getting back to eating her food.

  “Why do you always try to be close?” Kasslyn spoke lowly when she saw me switch to the seat closer to her.

  “’Cause you lo
ok good, and I like to be up close.”

  “Some brother you are.”

  “You said yourself that Jamal ain’t feeling you.” I smirked before licking my lips at the thought of licking her supple mocha complexion.

  “I did not say that.” She smiled.

  As soon as it faded, I pressed my lips against hers, and when she froze up, I gripped her torso to bring her over into my lap. Quickly, she relaxed, straddling me and allowing my hands to rub and grope on whatever the fuck I wanted. As I caressed her, she subtly moved, making sure I could feel her pussy through her tights.

  “If you wasn’t a virgin, I would fuck the shit out of you right on this table.” I started sucking her neck while groping her thighs. My hard dick was pressing against her pussy, telepathically begging me to pull him out.

  “Kaseem, stop. Let me go.” Kasslyn pulled away, and when I saw she was serious, I let go of her so she could climb out of my lap. “I have to get home. Thank you for the food.” She snatched her shit up in a hurry and damn near sprinted out

  I wasn’t even this type of nigga, but if my brother kept neglecting his fiancée, it was not gon’ be a fucking problem at all.

  I’d made all my stops for the night, so at the moment, the homie Warren and I were at the warehouse out in Ontario, counting up the cash. Ontario was far as fuck away from where our pick-up spots were at, but shit was safer out here, and we ain’t have to worry about muthafuckas robbing it or one-time getting suspicious.

  “Wait, it’s been too damn long.” Warren laughed. We’d just finished locking the shit up in the safe, and like always, we were having a beer to chill for a second before we separated.

  “That’s ’cause yo’ ass been pussy whipped for years.”

  “Man, wait until you find the one, and you gon’ understand. But Jamal is getting married? To the little weird church bitch?”

  “Nah, nigga; a fucking escort.” I sipped my beer. “What the fuck! You better be glad that shit didn’t get on me, bruh!” I frowned, looking down at my clothes since Warren had spit his beer out everywhere at the mention of Jamal marrying an escort.

  “My bad.” He roared with laughter, wiping his mouth. “Nerdy ass Jamal who don’t even like females that wear short dresses, is marrying an escort?” Warren drank some more of his beer as I finally relaxed again.

  “Yeah, man, but I been fucking with her a little bit.”

  “You? You already got two fine bitches. Shit, three if you count Alexis.”

  “Yeah me, and I don’t know… She’s different from them. I can’t put my finger on it, but from the first time I saw her ass, I been on her fucking bumper a little bit.”

  “How she look? Gotta be fine for you to do that to Jamal.”

  I shook my head at myself as I took another sip of the beer.

  “Beyond fine. Dark-skinned girl with a nice ass body, pretty brown eyes, and full lips. But I fuck with her personality too.”

  “Well I ain’t surprised that she’s giving in to yo’ advances. That’s what she does.”

  “Nah, muthafucka, she ain’t like that.”

  “Pussy good?”

  “Taste good.” I grinned, and Warren threw his head back in laughter.

  “You ain’t hit?”

  “Not yet, but there’s a reason for that; more than one, actually. I will though.”

  “Damn, old girl sound like she gon’ have you out here like me.” Warren smirked.

  “Nah, never. I don’t give a fuck how good a bitch’s pussy is. I’ll never be wrapped around her fucking finger like Marie got you.”

  “Man, fuck you.”

  “Aye, why the fuck y’all ain’t call me?” This other nigga we worked with named Roderick walked in.

  “Nigga, you know what time we come through and do this shit. Ain’t nobody gotta call yo’ bitch ass.” I rose up, irritated as fuck. Nigga was always ruining the mood. Roderick was cool, but Warren and I grew up together, so we were more like brothers.

  “Exactly. And as usual, if you don’t help the count, a percentage of yo’ shit gets snatched!” Warren got up as well, trashing his beer bottle.

  “Man, fuck both you niggas. Felipe is gon’ promote me anyway.”

  Felipe was the muthafucka who supplied us with the purest cocaine a nigga could ask for. Once he gave us the shit, we distributed out to the little niggas working under us.

  Roderick had it in his head that Felipe was gon’ bring him into some top dog shit, but that was never gon’ happen. I ran everything, with Warren being right under me. And shit, I was fine where I was because I had Opulence, and that was my main shit as well as a few properties. Warren owned a few car washes and fast food spots, so he was solid. Roderick was the only dummy living solely off drug money.

  Foolish ass was riding around in Lamborghinis and Bentleys, with no way to clean his damn money. It wouldn’t be long before muthafuckas caught onto his ass, and he wouldn’t be able to explain his damn income.

  “Promote yo’ ass to what?” I frowned.

  Shrugging, Roderick replied, “Shit, I don’t know. Maybe to one of them niggas he’s always with.”

  “They get paid peanuts, idiot.” Warren shook his head as he and I filed out, scoffing at Roderick’s stupid ass.

  The three of us parted ways after about ten minutes, and the whole drive home, I couldn’t help but to think about Kasslyn’s pretty ass. I wasn’t sure what it was about this girl, but I needed to get over the shit ASAP.

  Jamal

  Meet the Parents…

  I smiled as I stared in the mirror, feeling good about today. Kasslyn was about to meet my parents, and I couldn’t wait to see the looks on their faces once they found out I’d chosen a wife on my own. I was slightly leery of their response, but the most they’d do was give me a talking to; at least I hoped so.

  I snapped my watch on and then grabbed my keys before leaving the bedroom. On my way down the stairs, I saw Kaseem in the foyer on the phone.

  As soon as he hung up, I asked, “Aye, you wanna come?”

  “I definitely don’t. What they say when you mentioned being engaged?”

  “They don’t know yet. They don’t even know who they’re meeting. I just said I was coming over.”

  Kaseem frowned, letting his eyes move all around my face for a second. He always did that when he was trying to process something he didn’t like.

  “You about to pop up over there with Kasslyn and expect them to be okay with all this shit you dropping on ’em?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly it. If I mention it beforehand, they’re going to try to talk me out of it. But they won’t if she’s right there.” Kaseem said nothing, so I asked, “What?”

  “Just sounds like some coward shit. This supposed to be ya girl, a female you in love with, and you about to toss her into the fucking fire.”

  “It ain’t no fire. And this is my business. Kasslyn is mine, not yours; remember that.”

  “Noted.” Kaseem nodded, giving me an expression I couldn’t read and didn’t like either.

  Walking away from him, I left the main house and went to the back house to get Kasslyn. Using my key, I entered and went straight to the bedroom to see her looking in the full-length mirror at her outfit.

  Although my love for Kasslyn wasn’t real, I couldn’t deny the fact that she was beautiful as hell. She was in fact the prettiest woman I’d ever been with. Rhea couldn’t compare to Kasslyn physically, even on her worst day, and Catharine just didn’t have the same sex appeal.

  “You look fine, don’t sweat it.” I smirked, finally making my presence known.

  “I’ve just never met anyone’s parents before, so this is pretty scary.”

  “Mine are harmless. But come on; we don’t want to be late, because that’s a bad first impression.”

  “Right.”

  I led Kasslyn to the car, and once she was inside, I joined her and then headed to my parents’ place.

  We got there about twenty minutes later since we had to t
ake the freeway for a hot second.

  As we neared the cozy home that Kaseem and I were raised in, I began to get a little nervous. I wasn’t sure why, but it could’ve been because this was the very first time I’d done something my parents didn’t want me to or didn’t advise me to; well, to their knowledge. It was the fear of the unknown because I didn’t know how they’d react.

  “This is it.” I smiled as I shut the engine off once I was in the driveway behind my mother’s car.

  “Okay, and they know I’m coming over, right?”

  “Come on, Kasslyn. It’s 6:29 p.m., and we said we’d be over at 6:30 p.m.”

  I hurriedly got out of the car and went around to help Kasslyn out. We went to the door hand in hand, and I used my free one to ring the doorbell.

  “Jamal, honey, hi!” My mom rushed out to hug me but jumped back at the sight of Kasslyn.

  When I looked to Kasslyn, she was grinning, but it quickly dissipated at the sight of my mother’s horrified face.

  “Hello, I’m Kasslyn.”

  “Ma, can we come in?” I chuckled nervously.

  Without a word, my mom shook Kasslyn’s extended hand and then turned around to lead us inside.

  “I’m sorry, honey. I just didn’t know that Jamal was bringing company with him. Are you from the church? I’ve never seen you before.” My mother finally spoke as I shut and locked the door, searching the living room for my father.

  “Uh.” Kasslyn turned to look up at me briefly before saying, “No, I’m not from the church. I’m… Jamal’s fiancée.”

  Laughing, my mother asked, “How? I’ve never even heard of you. Is this some kind of prank?” When neither Kasslyn nor I confirmed that this was a joke, my mother’s laugh ceased.

  “Let’s sit down,” I suggested, and the three of us did, just before my father entered.

  “Hey, son, and who do we have here?” My father grinned as he took a seat next to my mother.

  “This is Jamal’s fiancée, Harold.” My mom put her hand out to point at Kasslyn.

  “I’m Kasslyn. Nice to meet you. I’m sorry. I thought Jamal mentioned me and that we would be meeting today.”